REBRANDING ECONO DX BALL PEN

MKT-465

Sec-5

Submitted to: Narmin Tartila Banu

Submitted by

Group-6

Syeda Rahanuma Ferdusy Haque 1310308030

Rifat Nahar Ritu 1310303030

A.H.M Fahim 1311312630

Sarah Masud 1330720030

Syed Zakaria Hossain 1330001630

Touhiduzzaman Abir 1220479030

Letter of Transmittal

20th July, 2016

Ms. Narmin Tartila Banu

Faculty, SBE

North South University

Subject: Submission of the brand audit of ECONO DX pen

Dear Miss,

We are grateful to inform you that we have been able to complete our brand audit which was on

ECONO DX pen.

We tried our level best to prepare and complete this audit with our best knowledge and effort.

This was a great opportunity to increase our knowledge and skills about brand management.

We sincerely hope that we were able to fulfill the requirements. We will always be available and

eager to provide any further details or clarifications if needed.

On behalf of my entire team I am signing the letter of transmittal.

Sincerely,

A.H.M Fahim

Acknowledgement:

With delighted heart we have finally been able to complete the brand audit for ECONO DX Ball

Pen for our Brand Management course. On behalf of every team member we would like to

express our gratitude to our lecturer Ms. Narmin Tartila Banu, who gave us such an amazing

opportunity to work on a project like this which help us have an insight of how to manage a

brand yet alone re-branding a brand which also helped us to learn the common mistakes a brand

can make to fail in the fierce competition. We would also like to thank our faculty for always

helping us for any further clarification that we needed. We will always be grateful to her for

guiding us and helping us pave the journey of our degree to complete our Bachelors in Business

Administration.

This could not have been achieved without the equal contribution of the whole team which

included Syeda Rahanuma Ferdausy Haque, Rifat Ritu, Touhiduzzaman Abir, A.H.M Fahim,

Syed Zakaria Hossain and Sarah Masud.

Last but not the least; we would like to thank our families and friends, everyone who took their

precious time to answer our queries regarding the brand, who have provided us with information

and clues to enrich our audit. Without their help the project would not have been possible to

complete. We give our gratitude to all the people for helping us.

Table of content

Industry Overview…………………………………………………………….1

Competitive Landscape……………………………………………………….1

Why do we want to rebrand? ...........................................................................2

Introduction……………………………………………………………………3

STP Analysis…………………………………………………………………...4

Segmentation…………………………………………………………..5

Targeting………………………………………………………………5

Positioning……………………………………………………………..5

Point of differentiation………………………………………………………..6

Point of parity…………………………………………………………………6

Brand Equity Pyramid……………………………………………………….7

Brand Identity………………………………………………………………...7

Brand Meaning………………………………………………………………7

Brand Response……………………………………………………………...7

Brand Resonance……………………………………………………………8

4 P’s of Marketing…………………………………………………………...9

Product ………………………………………………………………9

Price…………………………………………………………………..9

Place ………………………………………………………………….10

Promotion…………………………………………………………….10

1

Industry Overview

A pen is a mandatory thing in anyone’s life. Not necessarily someone has to be in the working

sector to need a pen. Apart from stationary shop, any shop, be it a super shop or a commodity

shop, they do feature and sell pens.

The pen Industry of Bangladesh is pretty much packed with different type of brands; the

stationary sections are filled with choices of pens from different local and international

companies. Among the local brands, Matador, Merit, and Olympic are the highest demanded

pens, in the international brand Montex, Linc and Nataraj are readily available.

On the other hand, the demand in the market for pen though has been growing upon the growth

of literacy rate, ECONO DX one of the highest demanded pen in between the years 1981-2000 is

currently not available in any of the shops. Upon doing a market research by going to different

shops and asking for it, we realized it has nearly exited the market. While the research the

harmonization of answer of the most highly demanded pen was pretty interestingly ‘Matador.’

The question remains that how did such a popular brand ECONO DX in their time lose its

market share and declined to such a stage that it was compelled to exit the market?

Competitive landscape

We all know that current market place is full of competition but for our brand we think Matador

and Olympic are the most direct competitor of ECONO DX ball point pen. Because they are also

Bangladeshi brands and their pricing strategy is sometime similar with ECONO. There are some

other brands like RFL), Alpha, Janani.

Matador Ball pen is currently in the leading position at market; they have tens of different

product line with different pricing. Matador introduced in 1998 now they are the market leader.

Currently they have the capacity of producing 1.6 million disposable pens per day. The revenue

growth rate of matador was 30% in 2013 in comparison with previous year.

2

Olympic ball pen is also in leading position of market. They have 7 types of ball point pen in

market and different pricing strategy to cover the whole market. Their main target market is also

rural user and the pricing is also similar with ECONO ball pen.

Merit Ball Pen which is a brand of Educare Industries Limited. This is important for ECONO

DX because of its pricing and variation of pens are somewhat similar to ECONO DX also they

are targeting the same customers group

Why do we want to re-launch?

ECONO DX was one of the pioneers in the pen industry of Bangladesh. It was established in

1988 and within that time it became very popular as a reason for its availability and cheap price.

Almost every officers, teachers, students and people from various professions had access to it.

But suddenly in the year 2000 this leading ball pen just became invisible.

The reason behind rebranding:

1. Customers already have a set preference like matador, Olympic, alpha, anchor.,

2. Low demand despite of low price

3. No more visibility While doing our research we couldn’t find any information about

ECONO DX in the website of GQ Group.

4. We visited around 12 stationery shops in Dhanmondi, Banani, Bashundhara, Farmgate

and Nilkhet and asked them two questions:

- “Which brand of pen people mostly prefer?”

Their answer was: Matador

- “Do people ask for ECONO DX?”

Their answer was “NO”.

So from this we analyzed that Matador have captured the market share of the pioneer brand

ECONO DX .This was mainly due to better quality pens offered by Matador, the grip was

smooth better and smoother writing was possible

5. Features : The problem with ECONO DX was in most of the time it leaked out and also it

was not a refilled type pen, on the other hand the grip was not smooth, the ink used to dry

if it was kept open for a moment.

3

Introduction

ECONO DX ball pen was one of the most favorite ball pen in our childhood easily we can

connect our old memories with this particular brand name. Not only was the most favorite ball

pen brand also it was in the leading position in Bangladesh’s ball pen industry. Now this brand is

almost departed. ECONO DX ball pen was launched in 1988 in Bangladesh. The business was

started from 1981 and till 2000 it was the market leader of ball pen industry and the customers

were from both urban and rural areas. But the bad times was started just after 2000. GQ Ball Pen

Industries Limited is the parent company of ECONO ball pen it has a large numbers of products

line like GQ genius, ECONO slim, ECONO trendy, ECONO IT, GQ excel, ECONO gel NT,

ECONO Classmate, ECONO Laser point, ECONO786, GQ supreme, ECONO FX. One of the

most attractiveness of ECONO DX ball pen was its pricing it was only three taka. But people

from almost all ages and from all over the country liked it not only because of its pricing but the

quality of writing was also outstanding and the structure of that ball pen was appropriate for

speedy writing. For most of us our first ball pen brand was ECONO DX. When we just shifted

from pencil to ball pen that time ECONO DX was that first brand. From our point of view

because of some lacking in branding strategy that brand totally lost its appeal in its customers

mind. To make it again one most popular brand we must take some necessary steps we need to

make some changes, we can add some features based on current competitive market and

consumer needs.

4

STP Analysis

Market Segmentation:

Geographic Segmentation :

Division Urban

Rural

Demographic Segmentation :

Age

People aged between 10-25

People aged between 25-45

People aged between 45-55

Marital Status Married

Unmarried

Occupation Businesspeople or service holder (low or mid or senior level)

Lower level employees

Skilled/unskilled labor

Students

Gender Male

Female

Income Monthly income Tk. 6000-20000

Monthly income of Tk.4000- 15000.

No income- dependent

Above

Life-cycle stage

Bachelor stage (unmarried, living with parents)

Newly married couples (young, no children)

Full nest II (youngest child aged 10 or above)

Full nest III (older married couples with married children)

5

Psychographic Segmentation :

Life-style

Aspirers- people who are materialistic

Mainstreamers- people who go for the common things

Personality

Self-confident-customers who chose products wisely and

independently

Sociable-customers who chose brands that suits their

image/personality

Adaptable- customers who explore options and are flexible

Socio economic class

Sec B, Sec C, Sec D and Sec E

Behavioral Segmentation :

Buyer Involvement

People with low involvement (minimum effort)

Usage Rate Heavy users (using daily)

User Status Non user (not using our product)

Potential user (people who might use our product)

Loyalty Status Shifting loyals (change from one brand to another)

Switchers (not loyal to any brand)

Targeting

Though we have tried to narrow down our targeting part yet we want to re-launch ECONO in the

market primarily for the public(government) school, college and university students, rural people

who cant afford pens above 10 Taka and for all the people who are always in need for pen i.e

bus-counter employee, shopkeeper etc

Positioning

The ECONO DX will be positioned as the pioneer pen of Bangladesh. The pen will be launched

and promoted in such a way so that the customers be able to recall that “Yes-ECONO DX was

the first modern ball pen of Bangladesh”.

6

We will also position our brand in such a way that ECONO DX had many success stories

example the current successful people of Bangladesh grown up using ECONO DX for their

school-writing purposes.

Our tagline suggested our positioning well, it had well dictated our strong brand image and

success stories. The tag line ‘lekhbo aibar nijar porichoye’ reflects the strong spirit and power of

the pen.

Point of differentiation:

It would have a special smooth grip that would ensure comfortable writing experience. The pen

would contain tiny marks (centimeter scale) which would give the customer two in one benefit

i.e when a scale is not available the ECONO DX pen could be used as scale.

The ECONO DX pen is retractable and it is the only ECONO DX my retractable pen. ECONO

DX has a special image on the minds of customers for being very reliable as well as cost-

effective pen but now making ECONO DX as retractable pen while keeping the price very

competitive with the market enhanced the brand image-value in the customer mind.

Point of Parity:

Inorder to be part of the pen industry it must be able to write, indeed ECONO DX will provide

very smooth writing experience.Since most competitors made their pen spill proof so ECONO

DX will also ensure that the ink don’t lick. Will not have thick point (like the one ECONO DX

used to have) but now will have slim needle for better quality of writing. It will be available in

all black, blue and red ink.

Brand Equity Pyramid

Salience- Brand Identity

ECONO DX being a well known brand till the early 21st century is still in the memories of the

ones who had their childhood, or a part of their life connected to it, the sentiment is different.

Our focus on creating awareness would basically be to assure people we are coming back with

better quality pen to create more memories

Brand Meaning

Performance

Primary characteristics and features: ECONO DX’s earlier image of having sharp edges,

leaking of inks will all be replaced with very good quality plastic, with rubber grip at the holding

place to make it more comfortable for the writers, the basic features of a pen along with a place

to write the name of the person to whom the pen belongs to

7

Product reliability, durability and serviceability: ECONO DX will be a product to fulfill the

basic needs a pen would fulfill along with the sentiment to connect to the old memory. We will

come back with the promise to not have the same problem which was the reason for our failure

with the limited resources.

Service effectiveness, efficiency and empathy: ECONO DX will have individual product for

every occupation, and will connect to the old memories which was associated with ECONO. The

new feature added, with a place to write the users own name, will help customers feel the

closeness to the product itself. the tagline ‘Likhbo ebar nijer porichoy’ will help customers to be

motivated to do something for to create their own identity

Style and Design: The design is planned to be like the previous design but with rubber grip to

hold on to better, and a place to write their name; with a lot of color variation and options to

choose from including, gel pen and ball pen

Price: The price is planned to be set at the competitor’s level, which is 5tk

Imagery: We want to create the image that ECONO DX will always be beside you, for having

an earlier sentiment attached to ECONO, with the promises of changes to be made; people will

connect to the product as one of their own.

Brand Response

Quality: The promised changes are to be made to make ECONO DX better quality, which will

be strictly maintained.

Credibility: currently our plan is to endorse ECONO DX by linking the success stories of

successful people in Bangladesh and had used ECONO DX as their first choice in their

educational level

Consideration: We are focusing on two things to meet our customers unique needs, first and

foremost, the rubber grip, which is not commonly available in the local brands in the given

selling price, secondly, a place to write the name on the pen.

Superiority: in order to reach a superior position, ECONO DX would have to be consistent on

their quality, because of their leverage of having previous sentiment attached, ECONO DX can

easily pass its competitor by offering better quality products.

Brand Resonance

To reach at the top of the Brand equity Pyramid, our plan is to create campaigns with the slogan

of ‘Bolte na parle likhe pathao’ to reach out to the customers who wants to express their feelings

are not comfortable, so we will come up with campaigns which will help them to express it

through write-ups.

8

Enhancing our tagline ’Likhbo ebar nijer porichoy’ will also help customers feel motivated, and

think ECONO DX will always be beside them to help them create an identity. This will help us

create our own community. These campaigns will be consistent to help retain our customers.

4 Ps of Marketing

Product:

ECONO DX was only famous for its ball point pen. But our rebranding criteria would include by

not only limiting it up to ball point pen but also including additional items like:

Ball point pen with having the opportunity to write the name of the user. The grip will be

smooth. The cap can be tightly placed so that it doesn’t get lost. The ink will be more glossy and

if the pen is kept open without the cap on it the ink will not get dried.

Also we have planned to go for brand extension through:

Gel pen- Usually it is seen that the ink of the gel pen tends to leak out and even when we write

on the paper the ink is seen on the other side of the paper as well. So to reduce these problem

ECONO DX can introduce pens where the ink will be light so that it doesn't spoil the other side

of the paper. The writing will be more glossy, soft, sharp and clear.

Disney pen for kids having caps with Disney characters.

Tictoc pen

Price

As we are According to our market analysis and considering the cost we have came out with the

following pricing:

Product Price

ECONO DX Ball pen Tk.5

ECONO DX Gel pen Tk.15

ECONO DX Tic toc pen Tk.10

ECONO DX Disney TK.10

Place:

As our target customer is whole Bangladesh so we have planned to make our product available at

all most all small retail outlets, super shops, stationery shops and so on.

Promotion:

9

For promotional purpose we have planned to take the following initiatives:

TVC

RDC with a slogan

Bundle offers for exam candidates: During HSC and SSC exam we have planned to sell a

bundle of 10 pens which will cost 45 otherwise each pen cost Tk.5 so overall the price is

Tk. 50 for ten pens but here the customer will have Tk.5 saving.

Guerilla Marketing: The traffic light over the stand will be replaced with the stand which

will be shaped like a ECONO DX pen so passer by can pass and have and observe.

Social Media: The Facebook page and the twitter page will continuously be updated with

our new promotions and offers.

Billboard: We will go over billboards with the message that people could recall their

childhood memories with ECONO DX pen.

Posters: Posters could be placed at different places.

Sponsoring events

Bibliography

ECONO. (n.d.). Retrieved July 19, 2016, from GQ Ball Pen Industries Ltd.(GQBPL): http://www.gq-

bd.com/gq-ball-pen

Matador. (n.d.). Credit Rating Report. Retrieved July 19, 2016, from

file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/Matador%20Ball%20Pen%20Industries%20Rating%20Report%202013

%20Checked.pdf