itc ppt

PROMOTION OF “CLASSMATE” EXERCISE COPIES & ‘IDEAS FOR

INDIA’ CAMPAIGN

A Project by Debojyoti Ghosh

INTRODUCTION

As part of our B.Com( Marketing) curriculum we were required to do a one month internship in an organization.

I along with four of my classmates joined ITC Ltd and there we were required to do our internship under the guidance of Mr Shubhashish Dutta(Assistant Manager ,Education and stationery products business)

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF OUR WORK

I visited various schools in Kolkata and did a survey on what brand of exercise notebooks were the schools using

Whether the schools had dealers to supply them the required stationery or whether they purchased it from the open market

Promotion of ‘Classmate’ notebooks . Promotion of ‘ IDEAS FOR INDIA’ campaign. I also visited various stationery shops and

conducted a survey of ITC Classmate stationery products .

SCHOOLS COVERED

Hartley’s High School St. Xavier’s Collegiate School’Seventh

Day Adventist Dioceasean School for Girls Carmel High School A.K.Ghosh Memorial Kamala Girls High School Navanalanda High School St. Sebastian High School

SCHOOLS COVERED

Lycee Cambridge International Calcutta International School Dolna High School Delhi Public School Cathedral Mission High School Ballygunge Shiksha Sadan Modern Academy

RESEARCH WORK

I visited the schools after fixing an appointment with the principal or the administration officer.

I visited them with a questionnaire which consisted about 20 questions.

It included questions like Strength of the school From where do they purchase stationery items Whether they have dealers to supply the

stationery or not Which stationery brand do they prefer Which quality paper do they prefer

Do they give importance to quality or price What should be the ideal price of notebooks Whether they are aware of Classmate notebooks or

not I also showed them samples of the notebooks, pens

and pencils and asked for their valuable suggestions on the products

I also visited around 50 stationery outlets and enquired about the availability of Classmate products, the demand for the Classmate products , the timely delivery of the products by the dealers and it’s sales with respect to competing brands in the market like Lokenath, Merit, Mikado etc

FEEDBACK FROM SCHOOLS The schools had an average capacity of 2000

and above Most of the schools I had covered already had

appointed dealers to provide them the stationery every year.

The schools want notebooks which are economical as well as superior in quality

The average price of notebooks the schools buy are within the range of rs6-rs10

These notebooks are sold at any price between rs12-rs 20 depending on their quality and customer base

Seventh Day Adventist has a dealer who supplies the notebooks at RS 11 and the school sells it at RS 17.

They use papers of the Andhra mill which is of 65 gsm

Their dealer is BOOKLINK,40 Elliot Road Hartley’s has a dealer in college street and

sells the notebooks for RS 12 to the students.

They do not seem satisfied with their current dealer

So ITC can focus on this school

Cathedral Mission allows its students to purchase stationery from the open market

So this is another school where ITC should focus

A.K.Ghosh Memorial has a dealer called BINAPANI BOOKSTALL opposite to the school who provides the school with all the stationery.

He provides local notebooks to the school but is open to providing the school with classmate copies if he is duly rewarded in terms of commission

MY SUGGESTIONS I feel that since most schools already have

dealers and are satisfied with the quality and their commission, ITC should promote its products extensively in the schools to make the schools more brand conscious and penetrating brand CLASSMATE into their minds.

Promotions can be done in the form of organizing various events in schools, sponsoring gift items on children’s day, participation in the form of heavy advertisements in fests,

I also feel that the amount of commission (RS3)provided to the dealers is not enough as they are earning almost double(RS6) that amount by selling the local quality.

A major finding of this research study is that most schools have shops within the premises or dealers who provide them with all the necessary stationery items and even the text books throughout the year. The advantage of this is that the school authorities do not have to worry about the stati0nery products and the customers deal directly with the dealers

Since Classmate only deals in notebooks and other stationery it should visit these shops and dealers and try to convince them to sell their products and lure them with attractive offers.

It should also be in constant touch with the school authorities so that they build a long term relationship with the schools

FEEDBACK FROM RETAILERS

The retailers reported that the demand for Classmate notebooks were good and customers were well aware of the product

They also reported that only the upper middle class and the upper class of consumers chose to purchase Classmate notebooks as they were higher in price compared to other brand like Merit, Mikado, Lokenath

So the demand for Classmate differed in different regions.

The areas dominated by the high income group saw a rise in demand for the products while other areas reported low and moderate demand.

I also came to know that there is distribution problem in Classmate products in certain areas like Lake Gardens and Kasba.

Retailers were unhappy about the fact that the dealers keep on changing

Retailers also reported that their were phases in between when the distribution had stopped and they had to go to the markets to purchase the product

Demand for the long copies were more as compared to the small ones.

SUCCESS

Success represents those schools which have considered our offer and are eager to go ahead with the deal after consultation with other staff members .

They desire a quotation from the company in a printed format and are willing to discuss the matter with the concerned person and then take a final decision regarding their acceptance of the offer.

FAILURES

Failures include those schools which are not interested in the offer given by the company.

It includes schools where the authorities showed disinterest in the offer or were unwilling to meet me and discuss the issue.

Some of these schools already have dealers supplying them stationary for years others have tuck shops within the school.

To name a few these schools include- St.Xavier’s, Rammohan Mission , St. James, Pratt Memorial, A.K.Ghosh Memorial.

METHODOLOGY USED I used a questionnaire when I

visited the schools and stationery shops.

The questionnaires were different for the schools and the stationery shops.

The questionnaire for the schools included questions regarding the number of students, the notebooks commonly used and preferred by them, what the students and teachers look for in buying or suggesting a notebook and many more .

METHODOLOGY-RETAILERS

I asked retailers questions regarding the sale of Classmate notebooks and pens and their demand in the market.

They were also asked to highlight upon the distribution and supply of ITC’s products on which I got a negative feedback.

PROMOTION OF‘IDEAS FOR INDIA’ I visited around twenty schools to

promote this event. Most schools were willing to participate

in this event. The schools liked the concept of the

contest Banners and posters were put up in

every school

CONCLUSION

The survey on Classmate notebooks and promoting ‘Ideas For India’ for a span of time of two months has been very interesting.

I have personally learnt a lot from this internship like how to deal with clients, how to convince customers, how to promote a product

This was only possible because of the contunious guidance of Mr Shubhashish Dutta my project guide in this internship and Mr. Shivaji Banerjee, my professor