CLASSMATE STATIONERY

INTRODUCTION:

Classmate is an Indian brand of student stationery products. ITC Limited launched its Classmate brand in 2003 with the notebooks category. Subsequently, Classmate added new products to its portfolio which consists of pens, pencils, mechanical pencils and geometry boxes. Classmate has 900 distributors who make the products available in over 70,000 outlets in India. Classmate brought in earnings of 400 million in 2005-06.

HISTORY:

In 1979, ITC entered the Paperboards business by promoting ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards. ITC's Paperboards business has a manufacturing capacity of over 360,000 tones per year and is a market leader in India across all carton-consuming segments. Greeting, Gifting & Stationery ITC's stationery brands "Paper Kraft" & "Classmate" are widely distributed brands across India. The Paperkraft designer stationery range consists of notepads & multi subject notebooks in hard, soft covers & multiple binding formats including spirals, wires etc. ITC's Greeting & Gifting products include Expressions range of greeting cards and gifting products.

PRODUCTS:
Classmate manufactures notebooks, pens, pencils, mechanical pencils and geometry boxes. Notebooks Classmate notebook brand has a product range of more than 300 variants, and is custom made to take care of varying needs in notebooks, long books, practical books, drawing books and reminder pads segments. ITC focused on the design elements of notebooks: each Classmate notebook has a theme on the cover and related information inside.

Pens ITC forayed into the pen industry with the launch of Classmate pens across markets offering the consumer stylish and attractive designs. Pencils Classmate HB Jet Black Pencils mark the entry of Classmate into the pencils category. Mechanical Pencils Classmate mechanical pencils are intended for sharp, precise writing and drawing, especially used for precise drawings in subjects like math and engineering. Math Instruments Classmate Invento and Classmate Victor are part of the range of geometry boxes. Invento is positioned as a more premium product carrying interesting trivia and other useful information about the subject, while Victor provides tinted plastic instruments that makes it easier for beginners.

INITIATIVES:
Classmate Ideas for India challenge Classmate has launched a program called Classmate Ideas for India challenge. The program would be a part of the company's centenary initiative. The nation-wide program would invite ideas of the youth who have the potential to transform India. Classmate Ideas for India challenge plans to reach out to 2.5 million students across 30 cities, 500 schools and 200 colleges across the country. The CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development, WWF India, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, JANAAGRAHA and the AKSHAYA PATRA Foundation among others are the program partners for the event. The program would encourage the finalists with an internship with relevant program partners, besides cash prizes and other rewards. Additionally, the top five winners would be sent to a one week international study tour. Brand Ambassadors: Yuvraj Singh, Soha Ali Khan Classmate, ITC's education and stationery products brand, has signed Yuvraj Singh and Soha Ali Khan as brand ambassadors for its range of products.

Discussions ITC Classmate hosted a discussion on the subject titled Principal, Parents and Children: Building a Relationship of Mutuality. The panelists agreed on the need for greater student involvement, in the choice of what they are taught, as well as the method of imparting education.

Corporate Social Responsibility Every Classmate notebook carries ITC's Corporate Social Responsibility message on its back. For every four Classmate Notebooks purchased, ITC contributes 2 to its social development initiative that supports, among other projects, primary education.

Classmate Young Authors Contest The Classmate Young Author Contest 2004 (CYAC 2004) was initiated by ITC Limited to provide a platform for budding writers among students to showcase their talent and an opportunity to develop it through interaction with some of the country's leading literary icons.

SALES PROMOTION STRATEGY ADOPTED BY ITC CLASSMATE:

The ITC classmate has given much emphasis on the sales promotion and almost has followed the entire major procedure of adopting the optimum sales by providing the right awareness program among the people by conducting the several events of product and brand promotion with the mass consumers in both rural and urban area. The accentuating participation in sales and advertisement by the ITC classmate is highly appreciated by the marketers and it can be shown by the substantially increase in the sales annual report prepared by the ITC organization.

The marketing communication mix performed by the ITC classmate includes the following steps: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. ADVERTISING SALES PROMOTION EVENTS AND EXPERIENCES PUBLIC RELATION AND PUBLICITY INTERACTIVE MARKETING

A. Advertising task performed by ITC classmate: The ITC classmate usually follows the target market, Includes Students and Youth to attract the youth and student towards their stationery and different product. The company has taken the most tempting step by providing the right advertisement with the perfect matching youth demanding spokesperson like the cricket player Yuvraj Singh and Bollywood actress Soha Ali Khan.

The Indian youth and students are mostly keen of cricket and Bollywood movies, and with accordance of that ITC forwarded the advertisement by these celebrities to enhance the brand image among the students and youngsters. After announcing Yuvraj Singh the brand ambassador of the ITC classmate brand. The company avail the all major advertising procedure to get the more consumer by linking classmate product with the most liking game cricket. And this strategy worked a lot for the brand in collecting more buyers of the product.

B. Sales and promotion steps performed by ITC classmate : The several incentives and encouraging task has been performed by the ITC classmate to get the maximum consumer for their product sales. The real role played by this brand has been done by influencing the school students; the classmate performed the several events in the school like drawing and painting competition among the school student to publicize the product of classmate and providing them the coupon and vouchers to purchase the classmate products in market and by distributing them the classmate products such as note book, pencils, pens and other stationeries. The classmate followed very smart way to persuade their consumer by giving them exciting win quiz events and providing the most effective means to communicate by every purchase of their product .

C. Events and experience steps taken by classmate for marketing: The classmate has shown the precise step in promoting their products by performing several events and experiences among their targeted segment of consumers. There are some events which performed by the ITC classmate are mentioned below: a. b. c. d. Classmate man of the match event Classmate campaign Classmate seat and draw competition Performing rural study program event.

The ITC classmate is quite forward in performing the events to provide the satisfactory awareness to their consumers mostly among the students. The most popular event organized by the classmate was the CLASSMATE MAN OF THE MATCH here the campaign was set to perform the cricket matches among the students and the winners were awarded by

various offers such as classmate products availing and to meet with the brand ambassador of classmate that is YUVRAJ SINGH. For the entire month the campaign were carried out and got the maximum response from their targeted market clients.

The classmate did not only play the prime role in urban areas but also in rural areas. The underprivileged student in rural areas got the opportunities to perform in different educational event performed by the ITC classmate.

D. Public relation and publicity : The ITC classmate has done a mark able job in having public relation the currently Classmate, Indias leading Education & Stationery brand by ITCs Education & Stationery Products Business (ESPB), has set a Guinness World Records by creating the largest pencil mosaic! The activity took place recently at IIM Indore wherein students and staff embarked on an arduous task of creating the worlds largest pencil mosaic made of Classmate Pencils. Through this the classmate is pretty successful in creating the public relation and also in enhancing the public relation. Classmate Ideas for India challenge is also the part of event performed by the classmate which give closer space in public relation.

E. Interactive marketing : The classmate is noticeable in providing the sales promotion by technocrat means, the classmate allows their consumers to buy classmate products through the internet the orders of notebooks and stationery can be placed by the internet. The online selling is very much effective for nowadays as means of selling instantly and taking a huge amount of order. Most of the campaigns information awareness of classmate is mainly carried by the internet. Classmate also created a campaign Microsite that encourages participants to register for the contest on making their first purchase, and thereafter subsequent purchases made by individuals have to be uploaded on the site to perform their campaign participation.

Our suggestion for ITC classmates products sales and promotion:

As far as we studied the entire sales and advertisement data of ITC classmate it has been cleared that the steps followed by the ITC is very much satisfactory and well appreciated by the marketers. And the brand positioning has been confirmed in market for their unique product availability and has been the most leading industry in paper and stationery field. Accordance to us the following steps can be taken to enhance the sales of the ITC classmate products:1. Market expanding in RURAL areas: the rural area contains most of the population of the nation and gives more opportunity to enhance the market. The increasing number of students in the rural areas can help Classmate to extend more. 2. Sponsoring more creative and young student events: the more sponsoring for the student events in public areas can give more chances to publicize the product.

3. Covering more school and colleges: the more school and colleges should be covered to perform the live event and activity. Which can provide the more informative role for product selling

4. Providing more media advertisement in kid channels: the more advertisement should be given on the kid TV channel to gather more consumers in their segment.

5. Tie up with school to sell note books to student: the ITC classmate should have tie up with more school to sell notebooks to their students, during the beginning of new session.

CONCLUSION
Classmate is the lead provider of all student stationery needs. ITC launched its Classmate brand in 2003 with the notebooks category. Subsequently, Classmate added new products to its portfolio which now consists of pens, pencils, mechanical pencils and geometry boxes, erasers and sharpeners. Classmate aspires to partner young minds in discovering, nurturing & believing in ideas that reside inside each one of us. Have fun exploring, creating & believing in your ideas, in classrooms & beyond. Ideas that defy & change beliefs; ideas that allow to lead rather be led ideas that are inside each one of us but only await self recognition & belief. The effort given by the classmate brand of ITC in maintaining the brand position has been highly accentuating among the stationery industries. The strategies of sales and promotion performed by classmate till now is up to the mark and this helped the ITC to gain the maximum market in its own side.

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