CLASSMATE STATIONERY

1) INTRODUCTION:

ITC was incorporated on August 24, 1910 under the name Imperial Tobacco
Company of India Limited. The name of the Company was changed from Imperial
Tobacco Company of India Limited to India Tobacco Company Limited in 1970 and
then to I.T.C. Limited in 1974.

CLASSMATE:

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.
2) 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.

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.

3) RODUCTS:

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.

4) Marketing Mix Of Classmate

 Product

 Pencil
 Pens
 Mathematical instruments
 Erasers
 Sharpeners
 Art stationery
 Notebook

 Price

 Pencil – INR 3 to 5 per unit

 Pens – INR 5 to 20 per unit
 Matematical instruments INR 40 to 300 per unit
 Notebook – INR 20 to 200 per unit

 Place

 Classmate product are targeted across rural & urban areas across India
 Rural: Producer > Agent> Wholesaler> Retailer> Consumer
 Other Area : Producer > Wholesaler> Retailer> Consumer

 Promotion

 Promoation are undertaken with tagline “ You are one of a kind”

 TV Advertisements, hoardings, Posters and Banners are used to promote the
product across all the area

5) STRATEGY OF ITC:

Brand equity in the Marketing strategy of ITC –

ITC has been ranked 772 on Forbes magazine list of top 2000 companies globally.
The brand has been valued at $51.5 billion as of June 2018.
ITC also features at 239ranksk in worlds best employers list of Forbes Magazine and
Asia’s 50 biggest performing companies list compiled by Business Week.

Market analysis in the Marketing strategy of ITC -

Under the GST regime with additional cess being charged over the GST of 28% on
cigarettes and tobacco-related products, ITC has estimated an incremental tax
burden of over 20% on the company. Analysts have estimated that the company ’s
sales volumes of cigarettes have taken a hit and has declined by more than 5% in
the last quarter.

On the environment front, ITC has been Water Positive Enterprise (16 years in a
row), Carbon Positive Enterprise (13 years in a row) and Solid waste recycling
Positive (11 years in a row). This is the only enterprise in the world of comparable
dimensions to have achieved and sustained the 3 key global indices of
environmental sustainability.

Customer analysis in the Marketing strategy of ITC

With its varied range of products and services, ITC caters customers to all range of
customers ranging from the age group of 5-60 years and even morewith its products
ranging from Candyman, Mint-o to Aashirvaad etc.

6) Target Market
7) The SWOT analysis of ITC Limited is as follows:

 Strengths:

 Brand image– ITC is the most valuable brand of India with net income of Rs.
10,471 crore in 2017.

 Competence– ITC has a track record of 100 years of presence, quality,

consistency and continuous progress, expansion and diversification.

 Market position– ITC is dominating Indian tobacco market by selling 81% of

the cigarettes and cigar such as Gold Flake, Gold Flake Super Star, Wills
Navy Cut, Premium Lights, Classic (Regular, Verve, Menthol, Menthol Rush,
Citric Twist, Ice Burst, Mild & Ultra Mild) etc.

 Core competency– ITC is India’s largest seller of branded foods with sales of
over Rs. 4600 crore in 2012-13. Its most famous food brands are Aashirwaad,
B Natural, Sunfeast, Yippee! , Bingo! And Candyman.

 Leader of other sectors– ITC has India’s largest hotel chain with over 90
hotels throughout India. ITC is exclusive franchise holder of two brands
owned by Sheraton International Inc.

 Weaknesses:

 Declining industry trend– Legal cigarette business has witnessed a 25%

decline in volumes from 2012-13 which has affected the profits of ITC Limited.

 Tax reforms in India– Under the newly enforced Goods and Services Tax Act,
2017 tax is charged at a higher rate than before GST which is exacerbating
the business especially cigarette business of ITC.

 Multiple brands– ITC Limited has way too many brands and its business is
expanded to various different industries which is causing brand dilution.

 Debt– ITC has total debt of 3.38 billion this is much higher than that of the
sector and significantly higher than that of the Total Debt Industry.

 Dependence on tobacco products– ITC Limited is largely depending upon

tobacco products which may become detrimental to its progress in future.

 Opportunities:
  Growth rate of the economy– Growth rate of Indian economy is expected to
be 7% that means new opportunities will arise in future in different sectors and
industries of the economy.

 Change in customer habits– Living standard of Indians is rising causing the

increase in their purchasing power because of which now customers are
choosing to buy branded products over unbranded cheap products for better
quality, have started to dine out in restaurants and hotels which is opening
doors of new opportunities for ITC.

 Unchanged interest rate– In the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of

the Reserve Bank of India held in October, 2017 RBI left the repo rate
unchanged (6%) consequently, banks will not increase interest rate on the
amount of loan that they will advance to borrowers hence raising debt funds
will not be expensive for further expansion or diversification of the business.

 Growing demand in FMCG sector– Increasing urbanization and a growing

middle class are resulting in an ever-growing demand for processed food in
the FMCG sector consequently a total investment of Rs. 68,000 crore has
been proposed from various global and domestic companies in the World
Food India, 2017 out of which ITC is planning to invest Rs. 10,000 crore in
food processing over the next five to seven years which will ultimately reduce
the over dependence of ITC on tobacco business.

 Threat:

 Competition– ITC Limited is facing and will face in future, intense competition
from domestic and foreign companies in various industries.

 Compliance– GST has imposed stricter and heavier compliance regulation

and filings which will ultimately increase the cost of compliance of ITC.

 Inflation effect– In July, 2017 fuel prices increased to 5.56% consequently

freight and transportation charges will increase.

 Political disturbance– Disruption caused by demonetization has affected

Indian economy adversely in many ways, causing its growth forecast to be
reduced from 7.4% to 7% by the World Bank. It may affect all the sectors and
companies operating within the economy.

8) Competitor of Classmate:

 Navneet

 Satyam

 Cello
  Doms

 Natraz

9) Future plans

Classmate has developed a portfolio of world-class products through sustained

investments in brand building. Going forward, we will leverage our competencies,
expertise, innovations and brand communication strategies to stay ahead in the
market.

10) ITC Performance Track Record

Particular 1995-96 2018-19 23 Yr Cagr 95-96

to 18-19
Net Revenue 2536 44415 13.3%
PBT 452 18444 17.5%
PAT 261 12464 18.3%
Capital Employed 1886 60005 16.2%
Segment ROCE % 33.3 70.3
Market 5571 363714 19.9%
Capitalisation
Total Shareholder 22.3%
Return %
 Suggestion for ITC classmate’s 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.
 Name – Sushil Maurya

Roll – 17

New Project Management Assignment

TY BBA SEM – 5

Narmada College of Science & Commerce