Category Analysis of Writing Instruments & Research Methodology to define brand personality of uni-ball viz-a-viz competition and suggest target consumer base (demographic as well psychographic profile) for promotion activities.
A Report By: Aditya Zutshi (adizutshi@gmail.com) Jatin Grover (grover.jt@gmail.com) Sampurna Rakshit (sampurna88@gmail.com) Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur
In urban areas about 10.9 lacks of stores are selling pen, in the selling year of 2005- 06 itself recorded a growth of 23% The writing instrument industry in India is likely to be 2,100 Crores by 2010. Branded segment's share will be Rs 1,600 Crores. The number of people buying pens is proportional to the growing rate of literacy, hence a huge market is still open. Mass-market is a highly price sensitive market and Indian consumers are known to punish heavily for drastic changes in an established product experience Increasing penetration in FMCG retail stores boost the phenomenal growth of writing instruments with Ballpoint Pen takes a leading share in India’s pen market The sales peak in February and March owing to exam season There is a consistent month-on-month growth in the writing instruments industry fuelled by competitive pricing and product innovation Pen market previously suffered from lack of organized information on the market size or market shares of various players, as most players were not listed & distribution was mostly limited to stationery stores
Growth Drivers Export Thrust
Global Sourcing
Domestic Market
B2B Corporate Segment
Market Share by Pen Category Ball Point Pen
Gel Pen
28% 72%
Market Share By Company
Promotion 1. The pen market is marked by a fierce bout of competition among brands like Jetter, Reynolds, Cello, Today’s, Add Gel, Rotomac, Flair, Stic and hundreds of small-scale players. 2. As such, expenditure on media, promotions and celebrity endorsements is among the highest in the ad industry. 3. Luxor plans to have an outlay of between 15 per cent to 20 per cent of sales. 4. Linc's ad-spend is about eight per cent of its sales turnover and this year would see a shift in marketing to more above-the-line activity. Distribution: 1. Mass products under the Rs. 10 /- price are sold through the distributors route. These distributors can cater to the requirement of the outlets. 2. Premium products - sold in multibrand high-end lifestyle outlets and also exclusive shops. These outlets also stock watches and accessories and multi-branded outlets typically have a separate corner dedicated to the premium brand. Distributors for premium brands are also sometimes not appointed and the company prefers to directly supply the outlet.
Strategic Alliance: Most of the domestic players have strategic alliances with global players. The alliances can be for strategic reasons like Marketing arrangements (Luxor India – Sanford group –Parker, Waterman), technology transfer (Rotomac India with Mitsubishi Japan) and tapping export markets. Profit Margin: Traditionally, pen industry experts say that mass-based pens have a profit margin between 10 per cent to 15 per cent. But for the high-end pens like Waterman, the margins vary between 30 per cent to 35 per cent. Market Size: Domestic market -1500 crores growing at the rate of slightly above the GDP that is 9 % per annum. Organised sector accounts for more than 60 per cent. Most of the recent growth also has been at the cost of the un-organised sector. Similar trend was seen in the Ink market where the unorganised sector has largely been wiped out and it is now dominated by less than a handful of major players such as Chelpark, Camel and Bril. High-end brands have 1 % market share. Most of the high –end brands have entered India – Mont Blanc, Senator, Cartier, Pierre Cardin.
Key Players Linc
Luxor
Today's Writing Products
ROTOMAC Pens
GM Pens
Montex pens
Schefields
FABER CASTELL
ADD Pens
Future Scenario Outsourcing: A striking feature of the writing instruments segment, which is now becoming the order of the day is outsourcing. For instance Linc, outsources to the extent of 30-40 per cent of its requirements. Consequently, a great deal of attention has to be devoted to vendor development, as quality is of paramount importance in the pen segment. Consolidation: Mergers and acquisitions would come into play in this business in a big way as competition would have become quite fierce. Government Policies: Small-scale industry classification-The Writing Instruments Manufacturers Organisation, reserved for the small-scale industry (SSI), has appealed to the Government to increase the SSI limit for the writing instruments sector from Rs 3 Crores to Rs 5 Crores. If this does happen, it would lead to more investments being infused in plant and machinery and pave the way for further consolidation of the industry. Custom and Excise Duties– Considering the competition in the industry and race towards free trade world, customs duties may reduced in future. This will make it difficult for the players to survive if excise duties are not reduced accordingly.
Research Objective: Define brand personality of uni-ball viz-a-viz competition and suggest target consumer base (demographic as well psychographic profile) for promotion activities. We plan to measure the Brand Personality Dimensions of Uniball using the Brand Personality Scale suggested by Jennifer Aaker.
Concept of Brand Personality Visual
Identity Brand Personality
Market/ Consumers
Behaviour
Roots of Personality
Insights Get Consumer Insights about the Uniball Brand
Communication
Expression of Personality
Intent
Implementation
Impact
Identify the Strategic Intent of the Brand Builder
Effective and efficient implementation of brand personalitybuilding program
The impact should be measured and fed back to the re-designing of the brand personality elements and programs.
4 Step Process To Brand Personality Building of Uniball Pens
Model to Calculate Brand Personality of Uniball & Competitors Brand Personality
T R A I T S
Sincerity
Excitement
Competence
Sophistication
Ruggedness
Down-to-Earth, Honest, Wholesome, Cheerful
Daring, Spirited, Imaginative, UpTo-Date
Reliable, Intelligent, Successful
Upper Class, Charming
Outdoorsy, Tough
•Down-to-earth (Down to earth, Family-oriented, Small-town) •Honest (Honest, Sincere, Real) •Wholesome (Wholesome, Original) •Cheerful (Cheerful, Sentimental, Friendly) •Daring (Daring, Trendy, Exciting) •Spirited (Spirited, Cool,Young) •Imaginative (Imaginative, Unique) •Up to date (Up to date, Independent, Contemporary) •Reliable (Reliable, Hard working, Secure) •Intelligent (Intelligent, Technical, Corporate) •Successful (Successful, Leader, Confident) •Upper class (Upper class, Glamorous, Good looking) •Charming (Charming, Feminine, Smooth) •Outdoorsy (Outdoorsy, Masculine, Western) •Tough (Tough, Rugged)
The Brand Personality Dimensions of Jennifer Aaker (Journal of Marketing Research, 8/97, pp 347-356) is a framework to describe and measure the “personality” of a brand in five core dimensions, each divided into a set of facets. It is a model to describe the profile of a brand by using an analogy with a human being. Each facet is in turn measured by a set of traits. The trait measurements are done using a five point scale (1 = not at all descriptive, 5 = extremely descriptive) rating the extent to which each trait describes the specific brand.
Research Methodology We will decide the methods to define segments and which definitions best fit Uniball’s business model. The segments can be categorized in either of the two categories: Demographics (such as age, gender, education level or household size) and Psychographics (consumers by psychological or emotional traits, based on belief systems or personality types such as risk-taker versus riskaverse, or early adopters versus late-stage buyers)
Segment
1. We will consolidate a list of respondents from whom we plan to get questionnaire filled from. The correspondents would be selected in a way that they best represent the target consumer base (demographic and psychographic). 2. We will consolidate a list of competitor brands of Uniball. 3. Using a likert scale from 1 (not at all descriptive) to 5 (totally descriptive), we will ask the correspondents to rate the extent to which the 42 traits given in the previous slide describe the brands.This exercise will be done by correspondents for all the competitor brands. 4. The correspondents would also have to fill their demographic information.
Data Collection
1. For each trait, we would calculate the mean and standard deviations across brands. 2. We would factor analyze the mean scores of the brands on the personality items. We would estimate factor loadings using Aaker’s procedure. The presented loadings would be normalizedVarimax rotated factor loadings. 3. We will consider only those factors with eigenvalue greater than 1. These factors should account to the major variation in the brand personality.
Calculation
Arrive at the Brand Personality of Uniball viz-a-viz its competing brands.