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FMCG major ITC has introduced customised notebooks under its ‘Classmate’ brand.
Under the initiative, a person can customise the front cover of the notebooks.
According to Shailendra Tyagi, Chief Executive, Education and Stationery Products Business, ITC, the company has got over 150 orders since the initiative’s launch in October. Orders are spread across the country, including the top six cities and many tier II and III cities.
The target as of now is college-goers and parents. But if the initiative is successful on a long-term basis, ITC may look at introducing similar offerings under ‘Paperkraft’, its office stationery brand.
“We have to create each notebook individually in order to bring in the element of personalisation. So we have to first make the initiative sustainable in order to take it to the next level and introduce it for Paperkraft,” Tyagi told BusinessLine .
ITC has already introduced premium notebooks under Paperkraft. The company claims the paper used in the select premium offerings have a 100-year archival value.
The consumer spends of the Indian notebook market is pegged at ₹7,000 crore.
Amongst the organised players, ITC and Navneet — which has a strong presence in the West Indian market (Maharashtra and Gujarat) — are the major names.
But the market continues to be predominantly unorganised. Unorganised players’ products are in some cases priced 30 per cent lower than the offerings from organised ones.
GST benefitsAccording to Tyagi, the GST rollout should help organised players.
Increased compliance under the new tax regime is expected to push up the costs for unorganised players. This, along with a uniform tax structure, should help organised players such as ITC.
In fact, sources say paper mills have also stopped supplying to players who do not have a GST number.
“Costs for unorganised players are on the rise. And the difference in prices is going down too,” he said.
Customisation orders for the Classmate books have to be placed on the website www.classmateshop.com. The customisation option allows a user to chose the size of a notebook, between spiral and centre-staple option, to decide on the number of pages, and the type (ruled or plain) of pages. A pack of six notebooks is the minimum that has to be ordered, with prices starting ₹375 (including shipping charges).
Digital ads, around personalised notebooks, will also start soon.
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