A few years ago, one in six persons would ask for a notebook by name, now it's one in two.

The case is similar with pens as well. High-decibel advertising has helped the stationery category become more high-involvement than before, according to Mr Chand Das, Chief Executive, Education and Stationery Products Business, ITC. It has also helped the organised sector expand its reach in this market, he said.

ITC's Classmates brand of notebooks has been endorsed by cricketer Yuvraj Singh and actor Soha Ali Khan since last year. In fact, involvement with pens has been “a shade higher” as that segment of the market has been advertising for at least 5-7 years now, with all the major brands being endorsed by cricketers such as Sachin Tendulkar (Reynolds) and M. S. Dhoni (Cello), as well as actors such as Shah Rukh Khan (Linc Pens), Amitabh Bachchan (Luxor) and Anil Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor (Mont Blanc).

This business division of ITC is gearing up to take advantage of the increasing interest in the segment by strengthening its brand.

“Our brand team has more than doubled in strength in the last one year,” Mr Das told Business Line here. It has also undertaken intensive brand promotion on social media and through various tie-ups, with movies, an IPL team (Pune Warriors) and Big Bazaar.

Colour Crew

Less than a year ago, it launched a new brand, Colour Crew, under which it sells crayons, colour pencils and sketch pens for young children.

Now available only in metros and some big cities, it will be available in other cities soon. It has also launched Classmates Composition, a sub-brand of notebooks, for older students aged 16-21.

The stationery sector has seem much activity in the past year with international alliances - Japan's Kokuyo bought a majority stake in Camlin and Mead of the US has a strategic alliance with Ballarpur Industries Ltd to distribute its notebooks. Linc Pens is looking to sell a minority stake to Mitsubishi of Japan which owns the Uniball brand the former sells here.

Notebook market

With its Classmates brand, ITC has a 13 per cent share of the market for notebooks.

Along with writing and scholastic products, the market is estimated at Rs 6,000 crore at manufacturer turnover and Rs 10,000 crore in consumer spend. Navneet Publications, Sundaram and BILT are the other major players in notebooks. In pens and pencils, Cello and Hindustan Pencils (maker of Apsara and Natraj brands) dominate - ITC is a recent entrant in these categories.

Around 80 per cent of the writing instruments market is organised, while in notebooks, 25 per cent is.

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