ITC CLASSMATE

Brand Tracker
Brand value is much like an onion. It has layers and a core. The core is the user who will stick with you until the very end. Edwin Artzt

Brand Tracker Phase I Brand Image Measurement ITC CLASSMATE (NOTEBOOKS)

A report submitted to Prof. Srinivas Govindrajan

In the partial fulfillment of the requirement of the course Product and Brand Management On 29th August, 2012

By Sabyasachi Sahoo (B11037) Shubhankar Sengupta (B11041) Soumya Sitam Priyadarshini (B11043) Soummyaditya Baral (B11044)

CONTENTS

SL.NO PARTICULARS

PG. NO

i.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

ii.

ITC CLASSMATE THE STORY SO FAR

iii.

QUANTITATIVE REASEARCH MODEL - BRIEF

iv.

FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

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v.

QUALITATIVE REASEARCH MODEL - BRIEF

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vi.

FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

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Executive Summary
ITC which was incorporated under the name of Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited was founded on 24th August, 1910. Later in 1970 the name of the parent company was changed to India Tobacco Company Limited and finally to ITC limited in 1974. The companys business portfolio ranges are:

Cigarettes(

W.

D.

&

H.

O.

Wills, Gold

Flake &

Kings, Gold

Flake

Premium, Navy

Cut, 555, Benson

Hedges, Silk

Cut, Scissors, Capstan, Berkeley, Bristol, Players and Flake.)

Foods (Kitchens of India; Aashirvaad, Sunfeast Pasta brands in Ready to Eat, Staples, Biscuits, Confectionery, Noodles and Snack Foods) Apparel (Wills Lifestyle and John Players) Personal care ( Fiama di Wills; Vivel; Essenza di Wills; Superia; Vivel di Wills brands, of products in perfumes, hair care and skincare) Stationery (Classmate and PaperKraft brands) Safety Matches and Agarbattis ( iKno; Mangaldeep; Aim brands) Hotels

One of the main reasons for ITCs success has been its innovativeness and its ability to cater to the changing needs of the customers. In the Primary phase of the Brand Tracker project we have attempted to determine the current status of the company in terms of the Brand and the brand identity in the minds of the consumers/customers. We used the Brand Asset Valuator or BAV to identify the current brand status while controlled ZMET or Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique was used to determine the identity of the brand. The BAV model is measured along the four-dimensions i.e., Differentiation, Relevance, Knowledge and Esteem, where esteem and knowledge comprise the Brand Stature and Differentiation and Relevance build up the Brand Stature of a Brand. We took a sample of 49, for our BAV using Random Sampling. ITC Classmate scored a staggering 100 percentile in all the four pillars of BAV i.e., Differentiation, Relevance, Knowledge and Esteem. On the power grip of BAV, ITC turned out to be the leader in the notebook segment. The respondents relate ITC Classmate notebooks as a special part of the Class.

The ZMET sample of The ZMET notebooks notebooks

ITC CLASSMATE : The Story so far.

technique was used to find out the Brand Identity of Classmate Copies. A 9 respondents was chosen to execute this Qualitative research technique. technique which is based on one-on-one interview identified ITC classmate as a creative, innovative, and socially responsible with eco-friendly brand of offering superior paper quality.

We dont want satisfied customersWe want delighted customers. It is the new marketing mantra today. The same applies to stationery industry as well. Stationery Industry is a very heterogeneous group of business usually associated with the Schools, Colleges, and Office. It plays a very crucial role in working of organization across the globe. It includes Paper stationery which comprises of a vast collection of products like exercise books, note books, stitch, glued & tape pads, refill pads, flap over pads, subject books, Plastic cover books etc. any

Paper and paper related products are tremendously gaining demand in the market. Out of which paper stationery market over the years has gained immense popularity in the school and office segment throughout the world. Revolution for these products has come to birth from the past few year's majorly in developing nations and it's having immense value in terms of export and
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import. It is expected that Stationery industry has a flourishing future in its coming years in India and over a period is estimated to grow at 10 to 15% p.a. To achieve this objective, one can actually see that how acceptance of Internet technology has opened plethora of opportunities of sourcing the desired supplier in any part of the world. The manufacturers of various countries including India, China, Indonesia etc have started building new product strategies, which helps in reducing their overall cost without compromising on quality thus producing a good quality product at competitive price. Falling under the category of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in majorly most of the countries, this sector has lot to offer in terms of employment, tax revenues, it can be an important source of new innovative products, extensive local knowledge of resources, and can be a major service provider to the larger organizations. However, this sector like other sectors have certain bottlenecks which hinder the growth of this sector like Burdensome regulatory frameworks, Lack of tax incentives and subsidies, Absence of investor-friendly environment, Lack of access to finance, Lack of capacity-building programs and inadequate provision of vocational training etc. With a staggering earnings of Rs. 400 million plus ITC Classmate stands as the biggest paper stationery brand in India with a market share of 12% followed by Navneet and the huge unorganized sector dominated by local players. After seeing the success of its premium stationery brand Paperkraft, ITC decided to launch its standard segment line of stationery CLASSMATE in 2003 offering from notebooks, pens, pencils, mechanical pencils and geometry boxes. 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 you to lead rather be led; ideas that are inside each one
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of us but only await self-recognition & belief. Your belief makes your ideas work for you & become big; allowing you to be all that you can.

Quantitative Research Model Brief

One of the best and probably the most accurate research model to understand the consumer perception of brands present today is the BRAND ASSET VALUATOR (BAV). BAV was created by Brand Asset Consulting, a division of the advertising agency Young And Rubican (Y&R) to help manage various brands worldwide as it serves as a diagnostic tool for understanding the growth pattern of brands over time which in turn helps in developing brand strategies and tactics. The BAV is based on research data from almost 500,000 consumers from 44 countries. BAV measures the asset value of a brand on the basis of four main attributes:

Knowledge Esteem Relevance Differentiation

BAV measures the Brand Vitality Or Brand Strength by using the Relevance and Differentiation figures, which tells about the future value of the brand. It also tells us about how the brand has been in the past by measuring the Brand Stature from the Knowledge and Esteem values. With increasing standards for perfection of research study BAV has also introduced a new attribute the Brand Energy that measures the momentum of a brand. It comes under Brand Vitality Or Brand Strength.

66% Future Growth Value

33% Operating Value

As the BAV is a proprietary tool so the detailed model is not available for use but to obtain a similar result a variant of the BAV can be used for understanding the Brand Value. This is what we have used for understanding the brand value of ITC CLASSMATE. The four pillar- Knowledge, Esteem, Relevance, and Differentiation have been considered and questions have been framed to properly gauge the consumers perception across the four attributes. Each pillar was assigned a 100% weight age and then was split amongst the questions associated to them. Weights were assigned on the basis of how much direct and comprehensive was the information that was obtained from that question. The survey was done on a one on one as well as online basis with a sample size of 49 which was selected through Simple Random Sampling. The calculation was done by adding up the number of responses and totaling them weight age of the question was given to the brand. A particular score was obtained for each brand. All the scores for each question associated to a particular pillar were added up to get the final score for a brand. Then a percentile was assigned to that score. In Q.6 and 10 z-tests were performed to see if the sample represents the population or not. After that an ANOVA was done to figure out which brand was the leader. To measure brand stature, a few open ended questions were given which resulted in the category others, but to plot the brands on the BAV power grid we ignored the others category.
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Questionnaire
1) Which are the top three brands that come to your mind when you think of notebooks? (Brand Knowledge: 30%) 2) Identify the pages of the notebook.( Brand Knowledge: 50%) 3) When it comes to notebooks which of these Brands would you recommend? (Brand Esteem: 30%) a. Classmate b. Navneet c. Pioneer/ Goodboy d. Nandita e. Others 4) Which brands do you associate with Youth and Inspiration? (Brand Differentiation: 50%) a. Classmate b. Navneet c. Pioneer/ Goodboy d. Nandita e. Local Brands 5) Which brand do you associate with the following parameters? (Brand Relevance: 50%) Brand/ Parameter ITC Classmate Navneet Price is not Price is a Price a barrier significant absolute barrier barrier Price is minor barrier a

Pioneer/Good boy Nandita

6) Rate the following Brands in terms of Satisfaction with perceived Quality of the current companys notebook you use. (Brand Relevance: 25%) Brand/Satisfa ctory Level ITC Classmate Navneet Pioneer/Goodb oy Nandita Local Brands 1(Least Satisfie d) 2 3 4 5(Most Satisfie d)

7) What are the factors you consider while buying a notebook? (Brand Relevance: 25%) a. Availability b. Paper Quality
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c. CSR Activity d. Product Variety e. Others please specify.................

8) What factors make a notebook brand unique? (Brand Differentiation: 50%) a. Availability b. Paper Quality c. CSR Activity d. Product Variety e. Others please specify.................

9) How does the word classmate related to you?(Brand Esteem :30%) a. A Friend/Companion
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b. A special friend c. Just a part of the class d. A special part of the class e. Other, please specify............

10) Rate the following brand on a scale of 1 to 5 on the basis of its personality. (Brand Esteem : 40%) Brand/Satisfa ctory Level ITC Classmate Navneet Pioneer/Goodb oy Nandita Local Brands 1 2 3 4 5

11)

Identify the following brands. (Brand Knowledge: 20%)

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Quantitative Research- Findings And Analysis

The percentile score of all the individual brands across the four pillars were calculated and then converted into graphs.

Nandita

Nandita scores the lowest in BAV with all the pillars at 25 percentile which shows that it is the least preffered brand and is declining.

Pioneer

Pioneer scores the average on Knowledge, Esteem, and Relevance but medium in differentiation meaning the brand need serious marketing budget to revive its name.
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Navneet

Navneet has scored low on differentiation meaning it need more creative packaging.

Classmate

Classmate is leading on all pillars hence showing that it is doing well and is a Yes - Yes for investors and future growth. The notebook industry is dominated by unorganised players but ITCs organised range dominates all..
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Brand Asset Valuator- Power Grid High

B R A N D

V I T A L I T Y

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Low

Stature Qualitative Brand Research Model Brief

High

A lot goes into our minds that we are not aware of. Most of what influences what we say and do occurs below the level of awareness. Thats why we need new techniques: to get at hidden knowledge to get at what people dont know they know. - Dr. Gerald Zaltman A true quote by one who patented one of the best qualitative research tools that is used today for market research to understand the perception of the consumer about a brand by exploring ones non- literal or metaphoric expressions.Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique ZMET is usually used when managers require: Detailed knowledge of the consumer and the marketplace Clarity of thought guided buy effective models and theories Creativity and imagination Reasoned judgement and experience ZMET helps in understanding how a consumer consciously and subs consciously interact to: Create Needs Influence the criteria for satisfying them Shape the experience of satisfying needs Spawn judgments about those experiences.
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ZMET uses visual and non- visual images gathered and/ or generated by consumers to elicit and probe the metaphors that represent consumers thought feelings about a topic. Images are important units of analysis for marketing managers for marketing managers. When augmented by consumers explanations during careful probing by an interviewer, the images provide a clear idea of what consumers really think and feel. Almost invariably, these insights are far deeper and clearer than the insights to be gained from verbal discussions alone. Although images can be visual, many images can take other forms as well as such Touch, Smell and Sound. Whatever the form it might be, an image represents a feeling much more distinctly than words. For this reason, usage of images is referred to as a metaphor. During a ZMET interview, we collect verbal descriptions of the thoughts and feelings represented by these images to help us understand their meaning. Strong evidence exists that these verbal descriptions are far more complete and far more useful to managers because they were simulated initially by these images or metaphors. In the ZMET process people are told to select their own images and are requested to send them to the interviewer along with their perception about each picture and brand associated with them. A real ZMET takes time of 7 days for each respondent and does not have a common base for comparison for similar brands as each respondent selects a different picture for a common attribute. Instead using a Controlled ZMET process helps people select pictures from a common set of pictures and describe their individual perception about each picture. Thus participants are able to represent their thoughts and feelings more completely and accurately. STEPS FOLLOWED IN ZMET Step 1: Story Telling about the pictures
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The respondents were asked to select 10 pictures, which they felt best described, their feelings towards ITC classmate. They were then asked to form a story about their feelings about the brand in a 5-6 line story. Step 2: Missing Picture The respondents where then asked if they asked wanted to include any other picture on the 10 selected. If they answered yes then they were asked to explain why.

Step 3: The Triad Task This task tries to identify the concepts and thoughts at a higher level. The respondents were asked to represent 3 pictures selected at random by the interviewer and how 2 of them are similar, but different from the 3 rd picture. The reasons are probed using laddering technique. Step 4: The Metaphor Probe The participants are then asked to elaborate their thoughts and feelings in an elaborate manner which uncovers the actual meaning and validated ideas which have surfaced from the previous steps. For this the respondents are asked to widen the frame of one or more picture by asking what should be added or deleted from the picture that might reinforce the original idea. This step id repeated for 2 or 3 pictures. Step 5: Digital Imaging The respondents are then asked to create a collage of pictures they have selected. They were asked to give one word for the pictures they had selected. This brought out what they thought and their ideas.

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Qualitative Research- Findings And Analysis

Respondent 1 Respondent - 2 Respondent 3

Respondent 4

Respondent 5

Respondent - 6

Respondent 7

Respondent 8

Respondent - 9

Common Perceptions: Innovative Cover Eco Friendly Good Ambassadors Corporate Social Responsibility (Re.1 is donated to rural development initiative) Fine Quality Paper- Royal Feeling Fun 19

Interpretation Of ZMET Analysis:

a creative, innovative, and socially responsible and eco-friendly brand of notebooks offering superior paper quality.

ITC classmate is

"Long-term brand equity and growth depends on our ability to successfully integrate and implement all elements of a comprehensive marketing program." - Timm F Crull, Chairman & CEO of Nestle

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