Clique Pens

The Writing Division of U.S. Home

Group :- 6
Mohd Zeeshan
Vartika Jaiswal
Mohit Upadhyay
Pragna Chittaluri
Mukkagalla Rasagna
Tanya Rani
 Introduction

• Founded in 1922 by two Mennonite cousins in Kansas city, Missouri

• Originally made fountain pens
• Adopted to new ball point design in 1960
• Acquired by US Home in 1980
• Elise Ferguson, Logan Chen and Ross Mcmillan are President , Division
VP of marketing and division VP of sales respectively
 5 C’s of marketing
Customer
• Students and offices are the main customers
• Need for few specific known brands
• Specific buyer needs like Businesses which needed custom made pens
• The main demand was in ‘back-to-school’ season
Company
• SWOT Analysis
Strength – Good Brand name, Established Supply Chain
Weakness – Little or no innovative differential factor
Opportunity – Change in technology leading to new innovations
Threat – Entry of New Competitors with big pockets
Collaborations
• Supermarkets (Wal-Mart, Target, Walgreens, CVS, and Kroger)
• Mass retailers
• Drug stores
• Warehouse clubs
• Department stores
• Specialty stores

Competition
• Established players already present in the market
• BIC, Scripto, Pentel, Pilot, Papermate and Sharpie were some of the
major competitors
• Aggressive competition for shelf-space
• No new technology affecting the competition significantly
Context
PESTEL Analysis
Political – No visible threat
Economical – Threat from other major players in the market
Social – Change in taste of Customers
Technological – Competitors coming up with innovative ideas
Environmental – No visible threat
Legal – No visible threat
 Decision problem

Whether to go for Consumer Oriented MDF or Retailer Oriented MDF so

as to stabilize the profit margins.
 Alternatives
Retailer Oriented MDF (Sales controlled)
PROS:
•The company might get a good shelf space
•Consumers might get influenced by point-of-sale displays
CONS:
•Forward-buying & JIT volume discounts were misused
•Variety of promotion methods resulted in serious inconsistencies
• Some transactions were retail made and hence posed problems to the profit margins

Consumer Oriented MDF (Marketing controlled)

PROS:
•Consumers choose familiar brands and advertisements create brand awareness
CONS:
•Would lead to reduction in pricing concession to retailers losing competitive edge
•Brand loyalty is very less
•Customers might not be able to take full advantage of price differentiation
 Recommendations

• Focus more on Retailer Oriented MDF as:

 Customers don’t heed much to the price differentiation on bulk
purchase
 Retailers are much capable to induce sales at POS displays
 Better visibility of brand on shelf creates more brand awareness
and builds brand image

• Focus on Innovation
Thank You…