RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Type

My research is based on the primary data. Primary data has been used to
understand the scope of stationery business in India and then to make
suggestions useful for the company under study i.e. ITC Classmate.

Data Type

Primary data has been used for the purpose of study of Understanding the
strategy & requirements for ITC Stationery supplies, for penetrating ITC offers
into Institutions'.

Sample Selection

To collect primary data regarding the scope of stationery business of ITC

Classmate, I had to visit educational institutes over a period of one month. The
list of the institutes was given by my mentor. I had a few questions for the
institutions I visited. At the same time, I also enquired about stationery they are
currently using and if they were interested in taking stationery from ITC
Classmate. In the next phase, I visited Stationery Retail stores to observe the
supply chain maintained by the company. I had a set of Questionnaire for the
shops. I even asked the shopkeepers about the supply chain maintained by the
competitors of ITC Classmate. I visited the shops with the TSI (Territory Sales
In-Charge) of the company.

Data Collection Method

In order to collect the primary data, the method used was personal interview of
the person in-charge of the stationery of schools. A questionnaire was prepared
in order to collect the data a sample of which is attached in the report.

Apart from talking to the person in-charge of the stationery of schools, an

interaction with the staff members and the shopkeepers at the Stationery Retail
Store gave an overview of the performance of the company on the individual
level. This helped to look at the retail business from different perspectives and
better suggestion could be given to the company under study to improve upon
the same.

Tools Used for Data Analysis

As no study could be successfully completed without proper tools and

techniques, same was with my project. For the better presentation and right
explanation I used tools of statistics and computer very frequently. And I am
very thankful to all those tools for helping me a lot. Basic tools which I used for
project from statistics are
• Bar Charts
• Pie-Chart
 • Tables
Bar chaits and Pie-Charts proved really useful tools to show the result in a well
clear, ease and simple
way. Because I used bar charts in project for showing data in a systematic way,
so it need not necessary for any observer to read all the theoretical detail, simple
on seeing the charts anybody could know that what is being said.

THE STUDY

PHASE 1: The following study is based on our finding through

various institutions I visited.

Here, I visited various institutions which include schools and colleges in order
to gain information about the stationery they use. Identifying the scope of
Classmate during Summer Camps in Schools, I visited the school regarding that
also. This was done thoroughly in order to understand about scope of ITC
Classmate to generate leads in those Institutions, before this I was given a
thorough overview of different products of ITC Classmate.
SCHOOLS

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT SCHOOLS

o Total No. of Schools visited: 15

o No. of students in those schools ranges from 600 to 3600.
o Academic Session of schools starts from: April
o Tuck Shop:

33

60

No. of Schools having Tuck Shop = 9 No. of Schools which have any Tuck Shop = 5 Did not disclose any
 REMARKS

1. The database of schools is old; they should be maintained as many new

schools are coming up and they might need stationery.
2. Most schools told to contact in the month of August and September when
they decide the place of buying stationery.
 SUMMER CAMPS

SCHOOLS VISITED

NORTH:

• North point day school

• Auxilium Convent
• DCS High School
• Our Lady Queen of Mission
• CA English Medium High School
• Calcutta Public School
• Loretto Day School
• Mother International
• Adamas International
• Apeejay Salt Lake
• Central Modern School
• Aditya academy

SOUTH:

• Heritage School
• The Good Shepard School
• South City International
• Lakshmipat Singhania Academy
• Gokhale Memorial Girls Higher Secondary School
• MP Birla High School
Total number of schools visited:- 18

1st Qtr Total school from South = 6

 SUMMER CAMPS IN SCHOOL

ACTIVITIES DURING SUMMER CAMP

On visit to these schools I found out that different activities happen during
summer camp. Some of
them are:
o Excursion camps
o Drawing competition
o Dance competition
o Essay writing
o Different games like Cricket, Football
o Crafting

OTHER INFORMATION:
o I found out that in most of the schools summer camps take place after 10
of May. The peak period being from 14 may to 21" may

o The Products used in these activities are Pen, Pencils, Rubber, Eraser,
Drawing Books, Scrap Books, Colors.
o On asking whether ITC can put a stall only one school out of 7 agreed
and others did not want to disclose unless they get a hard copy of
proposal from ITC.

REMARKS

o I noticed that most of the schools do organize summer camps but this
time they are not doing so due to hot weather.

o ITC should target schools for summer camp in the month of April
because most of the schools decide their summer camps' period, sponsors
during that period.

o Most of the Schools organize summer camps on a very low scale.

 BUSINESS SCHOOLS AND ENGINEERING COLLEGES

BUSINESS SCHOOLS AND ENGINEERING COLLEGES I

COVERED:

o Pioneer college of Management

o Meredian school of Hotel Management

o School of Management and Information Technology

o Alchemy Leadership School

o Indian Institute of Software Technology

o Razabazar Science College

o Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan of Management science

o Indian Institute of Technology

o Asia Pacific School of Hotel Management

o Army Institute of Management

 REMARKS AND FINDINGS

o I found out that most of the institute don't have tuck shop.
 o Institute generally provided only text books. Notebooks and other
stationery products are on students' own choice.

o The ones which have a tuck shop, already ITC Classmate products were
there along with other brands like Pioneer, Shiea, Lokenath.

o Most of the institute who get their office stationery from local vendor
showed their interest and took price list from us.

o There was some institute which already placed their orders so asked us to
contact coming year in the month of March or April.

o There were some institutes which were kind enough to give us their
suppliers name and same was been intimated to our mentor.

PHASE 2: Working with the TSI

In this phase, I visited Stationery Retail stores and gather information about
stocks and problems faced by stores. My basic objective was to find out if the
distribution can be made better. In this survey I had to visit stationery shops
with the ITC classmate TSI (Territory Sales In charge).
I worked with the following TSI (Territory Sales In-charge):
• Mahadev Naskar,
• Raja Mondal, and
• Dilip Kundu

o No. of TSE I worked with: 3

o I worked over a span of 20 days.

o Covered shops in places like:

• Ballygaunge, Gari ahat, Jadavpur, Tollygaunge, Beliaghata,
Phoolbagan, Park Circus, Beckha gan.

o Total No. of Shops Covered: 62

NEW
 COMPANY PROFILE

COMPANY PROFILE;
ITC is one of India's foremost private sector companies with a market
capitalization of over US $ 30 billion and a turnover of US $ 6 billion. ITC is
rated
among the World's Best Big Companies, Asia's 'Fab 50' and the World's Most
Reputable Companies by Forbes magazine, among India's Most Respected
Companies by Business World and among India's Most Valuable Companies by
Business Today. ITC ranks among India's `10 Most Valuable (Company)
Brands',
in a study conducted by Brand Finance and published by the Economic Times.
ITC
also ranks among Asia's 50 best performing companies compiled by Business
Week.
ITC has a diversified presence in Cigarettes, Hotels, Paperboards & Specialty
Papers, Packaging, Agri-Business, Packaged Foods & Confectionery,
Information
Technology, Branded Apparel, Personal Care, Stationery, Safety Matches and
other FMCG products. While ITC is an outstanding market leader in its
traditional
businesses of Cigarettes, Hotels, Paperboards, Packaging and Agri-Exports, it is
rapidly gaining market share even in its nascent businesses of Packaged Foods
&
Confectionery, Branded Apparel, Personal Care and Stationery.
As one of India's most valuable and respected corporations, ITC is widely
perceived to be dedicatedly nation-oriented. Chairman Y C Deveshwar calls this
source of inspiration "a commitment beyond the market". In his own words:
"ITC
believes that its aspiration to create enduring value for the nation provides the
motive force to sustain growing shareholder value. ITC practices this
philosophy
by not only driving each of its businesses towards international competitiveness

but by also consciously contributing to enhancing the competitiveness of the

larger
value chain of which it is a part."
ITC's diversified status originates from its corporate strategy aimed at creating
multiple drivers of growth anchored on its time-tested core competencies:
unmatched distribution reach, superior brand-building capabilities, effective
supply
chain management and acknowledged service skills in hoteliering. Over time,
the
strategic forays into new businesses are expected to garner a significant share of
these emerging high-growth markets in India.
ITC's Agri-Business is one of India's largest exporters of agricultural products.
ITC
is one of the country's biggest foreign exchange earners (US $ 3.2 billion in the
last
decade). The Company's 'e-Choupal' initiative is enabling Indian agriculture
significantly enhance its competitiveness by empowering Indian farmers
through
the power of the Internet. This transformational strategy, which has already
become the subject matter of a case study at Harvard Business School, is
expected
to progressively create for ITC a huge rural distribution infrastructure,
significantly
enhancing the Company's marketing reach.
ITC's wholly owned Information Technology subsidiary, ITC Infotech India
Ltd,
provides IT services and solutions to leading global customers. ITC Infotech has
carved a niche for itself by addressing customer challenges through innovative
IT
solutions.
ITC's production facilities and hotels have won numerous national and
international awards for quality, productivity, safety and environment
management
systems. ITC was the first company in India to voluntarily seek a corporate
governance rating.
ITC employs over 26,000 people at more than 60 locations across India. The
Company continuously endeavors to enhance its wealth generating capabilities
in a
globalising environment to consistently reward more than 4,09,000
shareholders,
fulfill the aspirations of its stakeholders and meet societal expectations. This
overarching vision of the company is expressively captured in its corporate
positioning
statement: "Enduring Value. For the Nation. For the Shareholder
 THE ITC WAY

ITC is a board-managed professional company, committed to creating enduring

value for the shareholder and for the nation. It has a rich organizational culture
rooted in its core values of respect for people and belief in empowerment. Its
philosophy of all-round value creation is backed by strong corporate governance
policies and systems.
ITC’s corporate strategies are:
Create multiple drivers of growth by developing a portfolio of world class
businesses that best matches organizational capability with opportunities in
domestic and export markets.
Continue to focus on the chosen portfolio of FMCG, Hotels, Paper,
Paperboards & Packaging, Agri Business and Information Technology.
Benchmark the health of each business comprehensively across the criteria
of Market Standing, Profitability and Internal Vitality.
 Ensure that each of its businesses is world class and internationally
competitive.
Enhance the competitive power of the portfolio through synergies derived by
blending the diverse skills and capabilities residing in ITC’s various
businesses.
Create distributed leadership within the organization by nurturing talented
and focused top management teams for each of the business.

Continuously strengthen and refine Corporate Governance processes and

systems to catalyse the entrepreneurial energies of management by striking
the golden balance between executive freedom and the need for effective
control and account.
 CORE VALUES

ITC's Core Values are aimed at developing a customer-focused, high-

performance
organization which creates value for all it’s stakeholder.

Trusteeship
As professional managers, we are conscious that ITC has been given to us in
"trust" by all our stakeholders. We will actualize stakeholder value and interest
on
a long term sustainable basis.

Customer Focus
We are always customer focused and will deliver what the customer needs in
terms
of value, quality and satisfaction.

Respect for People

We are result oriented, setting high performance standards for ourselves as
individuals and teams.
We will simultaneously respect and value people and uphold humanness and
human dignity.
We acknowledge that every individual brings different perspectives and
capabilities to the team and that a strong team is founded on a variety of
perspectives.
We want individuals to dream, value differences, create and experiment in
pursuit
of opportunities and achieve leadership through teamwork.

Excellence
We do what is right, do it well and win. We will strive for excellence in
whatever
we do.
Innovation
We will constantly pursue newer and better processes, products, services and
management practices.

Nation Orientation
We are aware of our responsibility to generate economic value for the Nation.
In
pursuit of our goals, we will make no compromise in complying with applicable
laws and regulations at all levels.
 FINDINGS
FINDINGS

After completing the training the things or the different instances and aspects I
came across are:

The lifestyle or the usage of the consumer are continuously changing due to
which they are switching very easily from one product to another as they see
anything attracting or fascinating.

They were unable to make product available which is mostly in demand like
Fiama shower gel, from the past six months it was unavailable in the market
and the shopkeeper especially cosmetics outlets demands more of a shower
gel.

Mainly margin were the main issue in the market which led the shopkeeper
to switch to sell the other products. For e.g. breeze soap a retailer gets a pack
of 4 in 23rs and on the other hand Superia soap which is ITC’s product a
retailer get in 25-27.22rs and the MRP of both the products are same i.e.
30rs.

There are some products which are for tier III cities or suburbs like Superia
soap/shampoo and the people in those areas mainly attract towards the
displays, schemes, offer. And there were hardly any of these available.

Full variants of the products were not available on shops and not even in
stock like Fiama soap comes in 3 variants mild dew, clear springs and exotic
dream and only one or two variants were available and the same is with the
vivel soap and Superia soap.

They were more focused in selling one product like vivel active fair cream
as it was a new launch and they were not bothered about like Fiama and
vivel shampoo and others.

Shopkeepers were reluctant to buy the products from the distributors

because of the difference in prices, as the wholesaler and distributor offering
the different prices.

Some retailers as well as customers complained that they has never

understood the pricing strategy of ITC for e.g. at the time of launching of
vivel moisturizer and vivel deo spirit soap it cost 15rs and suddenly after few
months it increased to 18rs due to which the margin of retailer decreases and
gradually the selling decreases also.

The visits of a salesperson were irregular and there was a lacuna of

information between company and distributor and between distributors and
retailers about the products and schemes.

Some products like vivel shampoo, Fiama shampoo, and Fiama soap are not
well known in the market as they were not properly advertised or promoted.

Before purchasing any product each and every shopkeeper wants to have a
look at it either in real or in catalogs and salesperson while introducing a
new product to shopkeeper did not carry any of those or the few salesperson
carry but not all, so as a consequence shopkeeper didn’t order the product or
didn’t show interest.

As we all know that the relationship is the most important aspects and on
that basis we can sell the product and stand as a leader in the market so there
are the salesperson who are in the direct contact of shopkeepers and there
were very few salesperson whose relation with the shopkeepers were good.

The supply chain is the backbone of any company and as I came to know
from the shopkeeper and I also found personally that the shopkeeper did not
get the ordered product on time either it is late by a week or when the
demand vanishes of the particular product.

The image of the company was not good in the market because there were
few shopkeepers complained that they didn’t get the reward of the schemes
of loyalty program and they didn’t get the promised amount of the particular
window display.

In each and every market there were couple of shops which were unexplored
because salesperson before placing a product himself made a image in his
mind about that shop that it would be difficult to clear their unique bills from
that shop.

Before placing any product in the market, a salesperson need to have a good
knowledge about that product or they should have felt it and there were very
few salesperson who had the knowledge of the product or they have felt it or
used it before placing in the market.
 Most of the time when the problem arises and the shopkeeper say something
for e.g. about the display not being provided. Distributors save their face
from that situation by saying that we were unable to do because of company
policies.