camlin

A STUDY ON THE MARKETING MIX WITH KOKUYO CAMLIN LTD

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION TO CAMLIN LTD Camlin Ltd is one of India’s leading stationery companies with a wide product range and strong pan-India distribution network. Its wide distribution reach and quality products have made it a household name in school and education stationery products. Camlin’s products have been used by over three generations and enjoy strong brand loyalty. It is a market leader in the art materials product segment like water colours cakes/tubes, poster colours, wax crayons, oil pastels, plastic crayons etc. Its strong distribution network with a presence in 150,000 retail outlets and good relationship with schools have distinguished it from competitors like Faber Castell and Hindustan Pencils Ltd. It has four manufacturing units, three of them in Maharashtra and one in Jammu. Camlin is also present in the office stationery segment and fine art and hobby product segment.
Increasing affordability of Indian masses through higher disposable income has resulted in increased demand for quality school and educational stationery. Over the last 3 years, Camlin has seen strong growth in its business and profitability through increase in capacities, increased in-house production, and focus on high margin products.

BACKGROUND AND CAMLIN TODAY
Camlin began 74 years ago in 1931, as a single product company. Today, the company have achieved vision and have over 2000 innovative products. Camels is a part of Camlin and are the most recognised stationery and art brand in India. It has over 50,000 retailers under them and global presence too. The company started with the famous brand CAMEL inks. From inks, their activities expanded into a range of products, such as pain balms, chalks, rubber stamp pads, gums, adhesives and so on. To take these products across the length and breadth of the country, a distribution network was set up
Camlin Ltd. is an Indian stationery company based in Mumbai, India. Camlin manufactures artmaterials, pens, fountain, inks, pencils, and other stationery products. The company is well known for its “Camel” fountain pen ink and “Camlin” fountain pens in India.
Camlin started operations as “Dandekar & Co.” With “Horse Brand” Ink powders and tablets in 1931, and shortly started producing “Camel ink” for fountain pens. It was incorporated as a private company in 1946, and was converted into a public limited company in 1988.
In May 2011, Japanese stationery major Kokuyo S&T, recently acquired a 50.74 per cent stake in Camlin and the firm is in the process of being renamed as Kokuyo Camlin Ltd.
Kokuyo Camlin Limited manufactures and sells stationery and colour products primarily under the Camel and Camlin brands in India and internationally. It offers school products, such as wax and plastic crayons, oil pastels, poster colours, water colour tubes and cakes, colour pencils, students’ colours, sketch pens, craft colours, art powder colours, drawing material, and brushes; and pencils, pens and refills, pencil pals, adhesives, scissors, mathematical drawing instruments, notebooks, bags, and examination pads. The company also provides artists’ products, including colours, medium, tools, surfaces, and accessories; hobby products, such as acrylic colours, glue, cone liners, glitter, mediums, paper glitter, glass colours and liners, and hobby brushes; and corporate gifts, including roller and fountain pens. In addition, it offers office products comprising markers, correction fluid and pen, carbon papers, adhesives, and rubber stamp pads. The company was formerly known as Camlin Limited and changed its name to Kokuyo Camlin Limited in January 2012. The company was founded in 1931 and is based in Mumbai, India. As of October 13, 2011, Kokuyo Camlin Limited operates as a subsidiary of Kokuyo S&T Co., Ltd.
On 30th May 2011 Camlin Ltd executed Joint Venture Agreement with its promoters and Kokuyo S & T Co Ltd Japan, a wholly owned Subsidiary of Kokuyo Co., Ltd, which is a leading company in Japan with over 100 years of experience in stationery and furniture products, design and construction of Office and store interiors, mail order business, lifestyle retail and distribution having an annual turnover US$ 3200 Million.Through this Joint Venture, Kokuyo S & T Co ltd have acquired a controlling stake in the company by way of acquiring stake from the promoters, preferential allotment and from the open offer made to the public. The company is now a subsidiary company of Kokuyo S & T Co Ltd. Consequent to the company becoming a subsidiary of Kokuyo S & T Company Ltd Japan; the company has sought Shareholders approval and received Registrar of company’s approval for changing the name of the Company from “Camlin Limited” to “Kokuyo Camlin Limited” which has come to effect from 25.01.2012.
The Company’s strength lies in its World Class Quality, giving the consumers “Value for money” offering innovative products and continuous R&D initiatives backed by market research.
Camlin believes in building the business on basic values:
- A focused approach towards manufacturing our products
- Hard work and excellence in all our efforts.
- Teamwork across functions and business units as the pathway to success.
- Confidence in the efficacy of our products.
- Passion about serving our customers.
- Continuous change as a way of life.
- Innovation and quality in processes, products and services.

COMPETITORS:
The main competitors of Camlin are Hindustan Pencils Ltd, Faber Castell, Pidilite and Navneet. They face a tough competition from these players. Navneet, Hindustan Pencils Ltd and Faber Castell are the main competing players in school and education products. Faber Castell again is a tough competitor in Office products. In the Fine art and hobby products Pidilite is giving a tough fight. The company also faces a tough competition from local players too in school and education product but these organised market has been eating market share of these unorganised players, who make cheaper inferior quality products, through better quality products and distribution

Important Events in Camlin’s history are as follows: 1962 –
Entry into the art material market with products such as artists’ and students’ oil and water colours, poster colours, geometry boxes, wax crayons, oil pastels and water colour cakes.
1974 –
Wooden pencils were introduced. A fully integrated factory was started in Tarapur (100 kms from Mumbai) for manufacture of wooden pencils. The Camlin Fine Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Division was born. A new integrated ultra-modern plant was started in the Tarapur factory to drug intermediates and antioxidants for the global market.
1987-
Camlin became a public limited company and was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
1989-
Technical collaboration was established with Pilot Corporation, Japan for manufacture of 0.5 mm high-polymer leads.
1995-
Camlin started a brand new, state of the art manufacturing facility at Taloja M.I.D.C. near Mumbai for synthetic emulsion and adhesives. Marketing collaboration was with world leaders Winsor and Newton (U.K.) in artists’ colours.
1998-
All India Camel Colour Contest (AICCC), the most popular child-art contest for school children that blazed new trails, with a staggering 30 lakh entries received for the contest.
1999-
Glass colours were introduced in the hobby range. The All India Camel Colour Contest featured in the Limca Book of Records, for the highest number of entries received.
2003-
Launch of Camlin Exam brand, the premium quality school stationery brand.
2005-
Saw the introduction of the new, state-of-the-art, plastic body marker range.

2008-
Camlin listed on the NSE
2009-
Introduction of Alphakids
2011
World’s largest Art Competition
2012
Camlin is now Kokuyo Camlin

KEY STRENGTH OF CAMLIN:
1. Market leader in the profitable art colours products.
2. Quality products, wide product range and strong distribution network have resulted in good brand equity.
3. Increase in capacities, increased in-house production and focus on high margin products leading to strong growth in business and profitability.
4. Entered into technological and marketing arrangements with Pilot Corporation, Japanese company for products where it lacks technological and production expertise to leverage its strong distribution network and its popular brand name.
5. Entered into production of markers in a significant way in the office stationery segment.
6. The Jammu unit was set up in 2008. Manufacturing of products attracting high excise duty is being done in the Jammu unit where it enjoys excise exemptions
7. Entered into running of pre-schools to leverage its brand strength in the field of education and associate with its consumer
–the school kid
–at an early age.
8. It imports products from China as accessories to offer a broader product range and complement the existing portfolio.
9. Camlin’s distributors had expanded from 600 to 1200 over the last few years. Camlin plans to take it further to 200

CHAPTER 2 :Analysis 1

1 ) PRODUCT STRATEGY
School range
Developing new skills and enhancing them is what school is all about. Where students can run wild with their imagination and express themselves freely through art and craft.

Colours

Stationery

Artist range
The wide range of products in their artists range

Colours

Mediums

Tools

Surfaces

Accessories

International Brands

Corporate gifts
Everyone loves a quality product they can use. Their products make perfect corporate gifts. So the next time a festival comes around the corner, make your work-associates smile with some attractive stationery from Camlin.

Roller Pens

Fountain Pens

Hobby range
Be it telling a story on glass, creating magic on a piece of pottery, making fun tee shirts for friends or painting a beautiful diya, their extensive hobby range covers everything that can enable us to create some fantastic work as we pursue your passion.

Fabrica Acrylic Colours

Fabrica Glue

Fabrica Coneliners

Fabrica 3D Glitter

Mediums

Sparkle Paper Glitter

Glass Colours and Liners

Hobby Brushes

Office range
Great job, immaculate presentations and all the right stationery to back you up. They have an entire range of office products that enhance our work, presentations and meetings and help us get organised.

Markers

Cover-It Correction Fluid & Pen

Carbon Papers

Adhesives

Rubber Stamp Pads

PRODUCT:
Camlin is primarily present into 3 stationery segments:
School and education stationary-
In the school and education stationery segment, Camlin is a market leader in art colours products like water colours cakes/tubes, poster colours, wax crayons, oil pastels, plastic crayons, sketch pens, colour pencils etc. The plant at Jammu has been set up to manufacture art colour products. Other products in the school & education stationary segment include wooden pencils, scales, erasers, sharpeners, math sets, dissection boxes, notebooks, mechanical pens, hipolymer leads, fountain pen, ink etc. In FY10, about 62% of Camlin’s revenues came from the school and education stationery segment.

Office Stationery– In the office stationery segment, Camlin’s major focuses are markers. Its Vasai plant manufactures a wide range of markers. Its product range in the office stationery segment include white board markers, permanent markers, high lighters, ball pen, gel pen, stamp pads, refills, paint markers, CD markers, carbon papers, glue sticks, etc. In FY10, Camlin derived 25% of its revenues from the office stationery segment.

Fine art & hobby– Camlin’s fine art & hobby segment comprises products like artist oil colours, artist acrylic colours, canvas rolls, canvas boards, easels, artist water colours, oil sketching papers, drawing inks, brushes, painting mediums, glass colours, fabric colours, powder colours, fabric glue, artist poster colours, etc. The Tarapur plant manufactures fine art and hobby products. In FY10, Camlin derived 13% of its revenues from the fine art & hobby segment.

Product Range Camlin’s vast portfolio consists of over 2,000 products in the Consumer Products broadly categorized as:
*Technical & Drawing instruments
* Writing instruments
*Office stationery
* Adhesives
* Notebooks * Fine art
* Hobby art
* Scholastic art
Camlin have a very extensive & efficient customer feedback system which acts as a very useful source of inputs for product development because of which it has been able to maintain its leadership in the market for major product groups. Sales team acts as an interface with the customers for the same, as well as conducts market survey and maintains interactive relationship with various artists through mediums like Art workshops for feedbacks that helps in constant improvement in quality, innovative packaging, competitive pricing and effective distribution. Special attention is given to the packaging of the product as well. For example, bright & vibrant colours like Yellow, Red and Green are used on the covers, banners etc.Designers are coming up with innovatively printed product covers so as to attract young customers like school children.

2 ) PRICE STRATEGY
Camlin ha as fairly prices range of products across the sections. Camlin Exam Range, Back To School, Office Products and Writing Instruments are highly competitive range and there are many competitors in the market so the margins are not that high whereas in the Hobby Range, Krafty Range, Artist Range, Corporate Gifts which are high range product line and also Camlin is the market leader with few players in it, hence high margins for this.
Camlin has huge variety of options with all professional products available which are hardly provided by any other manufacturer.
Pricing Strategies:- The pricing strategies followed by Camlin can be described as follows:- Premium Pricing Policy: - In order to be in line with its goal of providing high quality stationery and also to make customers perceive it as a high quality provider, Camlin sells its products at a premium range in its various product segments. Margins for Retailers: - Camlin provides a margin ranging from 20 to 50percent depending on individual product, which is strategically different from its main competitor Navneet which provides a flat margin of 25 percent on its various products. Manufacturing Costs: - Manufacturing plants of Camlin are strategically located in places like Jammu where various kinds of incentives are provided like tax benefits or other forms of subsidies and also by downward integration, i.e. by acquiring supplier side industry, the overall cost for the products has decreased and this added benefit may be used for leveraging the distributors.

PRICES OF CAMLIN PRODUCT
Product
Prices (Rs)
Technical and drawing instruments
Camel mathematical drawing instruments set
80
Mathematical instrument spares 1
12
Mathematical instrument spares 2
25
Office stationery
Permanent markers
20
White board markers
25
CD/OHP markers
15
Rubber stamp pads
16.5
Rubber stamp ink (25ml)
13
Impress carbon papers
150
Camel adhesive paste (50ml)
9
Adhesives
Krafty glue stick (15gm)
30
Krafty glue with applicator (25ml)
10
Adhelin synthetic glue (30ml)
5
Writing instruments

Regular ink filling mechanisms

Fountain pen 36R
35
Fountain pen 22R
27
Piston mechanisms

Fountain pen sleek
46
Fountain pen 47 P
50
Trinity pen

F pen trinity
70
Brio boxes
200
Fine art

Camel oil colours for artists

Set of 12 assorted colours in 20ml tubes
600
Set of 12 assorted colours in 9ml tubes
275
Camel oil colours for students’

120 ml
155
60 ml
95
Camel artists gesso 500ml
295
Artist water colour (24 shades)
6395
Artist water colour set of 12X5 ml
4600

CHAPTER 3 : Analysis 2

1 ) PLACE STRATEGY:
Camlin is present in all parts if India and touches over 55 million households. The Company has been extending this reach to more consumers every year providing the customers with quality product. Camlin has a strong distribution network as compared to its competitors and its products are today available across over 150,000 retail stores.
Camlin’s distributors had expanded from 600 to 1200 over the last few years. Camlin plans to take it further to 2000.As India grows and this growth travels from larger cities to smaller cities and class C towns, Camlin is extending its reach. Its products are today reaching these smaller towns and connecting with consumers there. This is a whole new market that is waiting to explode. Camlin is also increasing its interaction with schools expecting to touch over 25,000 top schools and soon going forward. The company has its presence in many foreign countries and exports its finished goods to USA, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific. The company has made several sales teams for different region are allotted the region who are in constant touch with the distributor and the retailers. The high end products are available at the select outlets whereas the regular products are available at all the retail stores. It has one of the most extensive distribution networks of Branches, Depots, Distributors, Retail outlets and B2B.
Camlin’s Corporate Office is in Mumbai and it has its Branch Offices in Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Pune and Kolkata. It has 3 manufacturing units located in Vasai, Tarapur, Taloja of Maharashtra region and 1 in Jammu. The main reason for setting up a manufacturing unit in Jammu to gain maximum tax advantage. It has a strong network of its warehouses situated in every part of the country; Zirakpur, Chandigarh, Ambala, Dehradun, New Delhi, Lucknow, Jaipur, Indore, Ahmedabad, Indore, Ranchi, Raipur, Guwahti, Kolkata, Patna, Cuttack, Hyderabad, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Madurai, Cochin.

The finished products from the manufacturing units are then transported to depots and finally to the end consumers. Majority of the products are manufactured at these manufacturing plants and the balance is procured from various small scale units who cater to the company’s requirements under strict supervision and quality control.
According to the management, large growth is expected from the Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities and the rural areas. The surplus income together with Government’s emphasis on education is making the rural community to spend more on education products. Camlin has increased its reach and logistic presence through its distributors and dealers. Wherever the Government schools are getting opened in both urban and rural areas, the company ensures that it has reach and location over there and is planning to grow at much faster pace in the coming years. This is a whole new market that is waiting to explode. Camlin is also increasing its interaction with schools. It expects to touch over 25,000 top schools soon going forward. Capacity expansion well in place and that too in the high margin business Camlin has invested extensively over the last three years to modernise and increase capacity by four times. In FY 2010 the company made an investment of Rs15.06 crore to modernize the manufacturing process, develop new office products and writing instrument as well as create additional manufacturing capacities for fast moving high-margin products

Distribution Channel of Camlin

2 ) PROMOTION STRATEGY
Camlin undertakes all India camel colour competition 1-2 times every year across India. For this purpose it has formed SAT (School Activity Team). This event is aimed at their major target audience which is school children. The students are required to draw and paint a picture using Camlin colours. An entry label available with Camlin colours is to be submitted with each entry. This is done just to ensure that the students are using Camlin colours for painting. This helps them create
1. Increasing awareness of Camlin among students
2. Creating experience of using Camlin colours. A good experience generally leads to students buying the product again and again
3. Word of mouth publicity from one student to another student. Same kind of competition is held for artists (mandatory to use Camlin colours for painting). The selected few paintings from all over India are displayed in art exhibition organised by Camlin. If a painting is bought by someone then the artist of that painting gets money plus additional incentives to do a word of mouth publicity of their products.
Camlin doesn’t believe in giving cash discount to either retailers or consumers.
They offer it in terms of offering free products. For example: They give extra sharpener with a box of pencil. Customer will use the sharpener for a long time. This serves a dual purpose i.e. customer feels he is getting something extra for his money and as long as he has the sharpener, he remembers about Camlin. As far as retailers are concerned, if a particular retailer is able to sell according to the expectations of the company then they offer him with free additional products which he can use for sale. This serves a dual purpose, increase in sales, as retailer would be keen on getting his stock out. Moreover, retailer feels he is earning more as the company has offered him free products which can be used for sale.

Snapshot from Taare zameen par

Retailers use price discounts to attract new tiers of product, brand switchers. Many times Camlin introduces free trails with their existing products to increase their product awareness and hoping that the consumer will like a product and will buy it in future.
Example: Offering of one glossy colour with a box of oil pastels. As a part of promotion Camlin conducts 1-2 day workshop known as art teacher workshop at various art institute which is conducted by Camlin experts to demonstrate their products. A few handpicked artists are sent to euro tour (fully sponsored by Camlin) for visiting museums, art galleries etc. When these artists return they are involved by Camlin for publicity and they form an integral part of further campaigns organised by the company in future. Camlin has ventured into pre-school business to
1. Leverage and capitalize on the brand strength and equity in the field of education.
2. Benefit of emotional disposition of consumers towards the brand due to long association.
3. Associate with major consumer-school kid at an early age.

Painting competition from Taare zameen par

Camlin, Parle G to promote 3D Children 's Movie
Creative Eye has tied up with Camlin and Parle G to promote its ‘3D Plus’ Children’s film ‘Aabra Ka Daabra’, which is set to hit the screens across the country in mid-May. The Rs 7-crore film will be released at a time in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu and the company intends to release a minimum of 150 prints.
The publicity budget for the film has been set at Rs 2.5 crore with Camlin and Parle G contributing Rs 1 crore and Creative Eye the balance. It is adopting different strategies for publicising the film. “Merchandising, campaigns and establishing publicity corners at select multiplexes much ahead of the film’s release are some of the options we are pursuing,” Mr Devendra Das, Director, Creative Eye said.
The firm will bring out 60-odd products (based on characters in the film) in the form of toys. In addition, it will launch a 3D book (in which all characters and writing will be in 3D) with sound. Children could read the book using a glass, which comes as part of the package. “The publicity and campaign for the film will also be carried out in all the outlets including schools, where Camlin and Parle G have tie-ups,” Mr Das said.
Further, it will set up ‘Aabra Ka Daabra’ corners in 30 select multiplexes all over India. “These corners will be created one and half months ahead of the film’s release. Patrons visiting these multiplexes will be given free gifts by Camlin and Parle G as part of the film’s promotion,” Mr Das said.

CHAPTER 4
WAY AHEAD FOR CAMLIN (RECOMMENDATION)
1. PRODUCT:
Camlin is doing a good thing by venturing into stationery market which is very profitable. But it has not launched a wide variety of products in that particular segment to attract consumers. Launching of new products into a particular segment will help them compete with the current competitors in that segment in a better manner. Some of the existing products are not selling well. The company should try and discard these products and utilise the resources in developing new products which can cater to future demands.

2. PRICE: Camlin products are sold at a premium. But the different varieties take care to cater to needs of different segments. The company should maintain this status quo while launching products in different segment. Trying to compete based on price would not be a good idea as it would affect the brand equity.
Pricing for new products should be based on the market leader’s price. It’s major focus should be trying to improve the quality of the product at the same cost so that it can act as one of the entry barriers to the new companies coming into the colour segment-which is since a very long time dominated by Camlin.

3. PLACE:
Camlin has targeted schools of mostly tier 1, tier 2 cities of mostly Maharashtra region. Though it has presence in other regions of the country as well its presence is not as much. It should try to target tier 3 cities and other regions of the country as well. It should use its strong distribution network to cater to the needs of children living in remote areas. They should set up factories in eastern and southern parts of the country so as to minimise cost. Moreover Camlin transports majority of their goods from their factory situated in Mumbai to all over India. This increases their overall cost. Instead if they have warehouse of their own where they could keep their goods it would be a better idea. If they build a warehouse in Nagpur it would prove very beneficial for them as Nagpur is centre of India and goods can be transported from here to all parts easily.

4. PROMOTION:
To prevent new entrants from capturing its market share Camlin can adopt the following measures
1. Stock the retail outlet with Camlin product so that new entrants find very little shelf space.
2. Instead of heavy promoting product through television ads employ more people to do on field marketing and try to search for new unexplored markets for its product (Television ads should be shown on cartoon channels which would help to reach the target audience).
3. Organise contests other than the traditional all India camel colourcompetition such as slogan competition etc to lure more consumers into purchasing their products.
4. Create events for school children such as workshop where kids can comeenjoy and actively participate. This would help them to develop a good rapport with their major consumers.5. They should sponsor various all India events which are viewed by kids.Thiscan also include sponsoring movies made for kids like my friend Ganesha, Hanuman etc

SUMMARY
Camlin Ltd is one of India’s leading stationery companies with a wide product range and strong pan-India distribution network. Its wide distribution reach and quality products have made it a household name in school and education stationery products. Camlin’s products have been used by over three generations and enjoy strong brand loyalty. It is a market leader in the art materials product segment like water colours cakes/tubes, poster colours, wax crayons, oil pastels, plastic crayons etc. Its strong distribution network with a presence in 150,000 retail outlets and good relationship with schools have distinguished it from competitors like Faber Castell and Hindustan Pencils Ltd. It has four manufacturing units, three of them in Maharashtra and one in Jammu. Camlin is also present in the office stationery segment and fine art and hobby product segment.
Increasing affordability of Indian masses through higher disposable income has resulted in increased demand for quality school and educational stationery. Over the last 3 years, Camlin has seen strong growth in its business and profitability through increase in capacities, increased in-house production, and focus on high margin products.
To understand its key strength and strategy that is adopted which led to its success, I have taken this project.

Bibliography www.camlin.com www.microsec.in w238160.company.weiku.com/product en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing mix http://www.authorstream.com

Bibliography: www.camlin.com www.microsec.in w238160.company.weiku.com/product en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing mix http://www.authorstream.com