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Marketing Strategy- Ball Point Pen

Paper Type: Free Essay Subject: Marketing
Wordcount: 2818 words Published: 7th Jun 2017

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In 1879 in Providence, Rhode Island, Alonzo T. Cross invented the stenographic fountain pen, a precursor of the ball-point pen. He engaged in competition with Duncan Mackinnon, the other stenographic pen inventor. In 1880 A. T. Cross separated his business from his father’s and renamed his company the A. T. Cross – Pen and Pencil Manufacturer.

The fountain pen by Lewis Edison Waterman in 1884 was another step forward in the development of writing instruments. The problems of ink, e.g. drying out, remained. They could be overcome by a ballpoint pen. The first to think of it was the German inventor Baum who patented a ball-point pen (Kugelschreiber) in 1910.

However, the first man to actually develop and launch a ball-point pen was the Hungarian Laszlo Josef Biro (1899-1985) from Budapest, who in 1938 invented a ball-point pen with a pressurized ink cartridge. He is considered the inventor of today’s ball-point pen. Working as a journalist, Biro noticed that the ink used in newspaper printing dried quickly, leaving the paper dry and smudge-free. From there he got the idea to use the same type of ink for writing instruments. Since the thicker ink would not flow from a regular pen nib, he fitted his pen with a tiny ball bearing in its tip. Moving along the paper, the ball rotates picking up ink from the ink cartridge and leaving it on the paper. This principle of the ballpoint pen dates back to a never commercially exploited patent of 1888 owned by John J. Loud for a product to mark leather.

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At the very end of 1938, just one day before anti-Jewish laws became active in Hungary, Bíró fled to Paris before emigrating to Argentina. Agustin P. Justo had suggested to him to travel to Argentina. He gave him his signed card which should allow Biro to obtain a hard to get visa for the South American country; only in the consulate Biro found out Justo was no one else than the Argentine President.

In 1943 Biro obtained a new patent in Argentina and became the country’s leading producer of ball-point pens. The British government bought the patent as the pen’s functioning was not affected by high altitude air pressure and would thus be of use to navigators in airplanes. In 1944, a pen under the brand name Biro was produced for the Royal Air Force. Biro died in Argentina in 1985.

In 1945 Ever sharp Co. and Bernhard-Faber acquired the exclusive rights to Biro Pens of Argentina. Their pen company was re-branded the “Ever sharp CA” with CA standing for Capillary Action.

Shortly afterwards in 1945, the Chicago businessman Milton Reynolds brought some of Biro’s pens from Argentina to the US. With the help of William H. he created the Reynolds Ball Point Pen which was put on the US market at the end of 1945 – ignoring the patent acquired by Ever sharp. It became an instant success. However, like Biro’s and Ever sharp’s pens, they were not perfect and often leaked and/or smeared.

By 1951, the fountain pen regained its leading position with consumers. The ballpoint pen seemed to have lost the battle. However, in 1954, Parker Pens introduced its first ballpoint pen called The Jotter which became a success. The same can be said of Patrick J. Farley Jr. who, in 1949, bought from the Los Angeles chemist Fran Speech an improved ink formula. Speech had lost his job when the ballpoint pen company he was working for had gone out of business. He continued to improve the ink formula he had been working for. Farley used it when he launched his Farley Pen Company in 1949. Within one year, he put an improved ballpoint pen on the market, the first pen with a retractable ballpoint tip with no-smear ink. Farley named his pen the “Paper mate”. It became a huge success, selling hundreds of millions of copies within a few years. However, within the ballpoint pen battle, the French Baron Marcel Bach, who had founded the BIC company in 1950, began to dominate the market in Europe and the US in the late 1950s and, by 1960, owned 100% of the Waterman pen company.

The Fisher Space Pen

In September 1945, Julian Levy, Milton Reynolds’ son-in-law, had asked Paul C. Fisher to help improve their pen not yet launched. After two days of testing, Fisher declined the offer because he came to the conclusion that “the basic principle is not sound”. Despite this evaluation by Fisher, Reynolds had made some five million dollars after taxes by January 1946.

In October 1948, Paul C. Fisher founded his own firm, the Fisher Space Pen Company. In the 1950’s, there were dozens of ballpoint models using nearly as many different cartridges. Therefore, in 1953 Fisher invented the “Universal Refill” which could be used in most pens. It was a good seller since store owners could reduce their stock of assorted refills.

Fisher continued to improve his refill and, in 1966, came up with a perfect solution using thyrotrophic ink: It remains semisolid until the shearing action of the rolling ball liquefies it. The ink flows only when needed. The cartridge is pressurized with nitrogen so that it does not rely on gravity to make it work. It writes in freezing cold, desert heat, underwater and upside down (1965: patent # 3,285,228 – the original AG7 Anti-Gravity Pen developed by Paul Fisher).

Since time immemorial human-beings have wanted to tell of their deeds and get across their ideas to others. Not long after the written word had been invented, a flurry of letters, poems and stories sought their target audience. And even today can to read the thoughts of an author written down thousands of years ago, as if they were speaking to us from the past.

When the Sumerians, around 5,000 years ago, created the first script, the primary purpose of the numerical symbols, and later cuneiform, was to record their business dealings. At approximately the same time the emergence in Egypt of hieroglyphics, and the first Chinese characters was seen. Over time, the symbols became simplified, and about 1600 B. C. the Phoenicians developed the first alphabet. Now, each sound was assigned its own letter. A little later on the Greeks, with their improved version, laid the basis for most modern-day languages. Did you know that the early Europeans regarded writing as a holy activity that had the power to ward off evil? The Chinese, too, wrote on bones to ask questions of the gods. The elaborate work of calligraphers was seen as inspiration from above. Writing was a privileged activity and in most cases a religious act. Only when, gradually, more and more people learned to read and write did writing become a universal means of communication and a factor in social change. For us today, writing has numerous facets. whether in the form of a memo, a letter, a report or other document, handwriting is the personal expression of an individual and is as unique as his fingerprints.

From Flint To Fibrotic: The Development Of Writing Implements

“They who write last more than overnight” perhaps that is what the Sumerians were thinking when more than 5000 years ago, they scored their symbols in clay and baked them for permanence. Eternal preservation was also the motive of the Egyptian Pharaohs, in having the adoration of their Gods carved in stone. Less demanding authors, on the other contented themselves with tablets of wood, coated with wax, on which they wrote with shards of bone. The prized writing materials of antiquity also included the Egyptian papyrus and parchment, which lent themselves well to inscription with ink flowing from reed brushes.

It is the Chinese to whom we owe the invention, around A.D.100, of paper, although it was not until about A.D.800 that it reached Europe. Here, in the monasteries, the monks wrote predominantly with reed quills. These were followed in the 19th century by steel nibs and then the first fountain pen. In the 20th century, ball-point, roller ball and fiber tip pens all become triumphant successes. With the advent of these instruments, writing by hand became easy and within everyone’s reach. The development of writing liquids has seen a number of inventors getting their hands dirty. Ink was obtained formerly from soot, water and gum. It was, however, easily scratched off. Not until 1856 was a durable ink developed. The preparation of a good ball pen ink was also difficult – even today its formulation is critical for perfect operation of the ball pens.

1. PARKER

2. CELLO

3. TODAY’S

4. ADD JEL

The parker is the main player in of the ball pen industry in India with capturing the 64% of market share and after that cello with the share of 26% the today’s and add jell is capturing 6%. Other brands capture 4% share of the market.

Budget assign to me is rs. 5cro. The distribution will be following

Electronic media

Cost of tv ad.

Prime time 6-11

Channels: geo, history, aaj tak, ptv.

Cost prime time rs70000/min.

Cost in off peak time: rs 25000-30000/min

Cost of billboard

Size: 2700sq. ft

Hoardings

30*40 quantity 10 cost 4,00,000

Postures

Cost rs. 2,00,000

Print media

News papers 4, 00,000,Magazines 3, 00,000

PRODUCT PROFILE:

I am launching a ball pen with the name of uday’s. It is a new product in existing market. It is a product which can be used by any person.

Ø Product Category, Market Segmentation, Target Marketing and Positioning

Product category

Uday’s ball pen falls under many products of writing.

Market segmentation

Market is divided according to age and profession like

1. Students

2. Business man

3. Teachers

Target Market: UDAY’S is not a highly expensive but an affordable product. That is why the company targets urban and sub urban upper middle and middle class people who are the second highest population of segment of the country. From the segmentation of customer according to SEC they target category A, B and C, because they are assumed to be financially well-off and can afford to buy uday,s.

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Product Positioning: uday’s ball pen obtained a good position in the buyers‘ mind through better product attributes, price and quality, offering the product in a different way than the competitors do. The company offers improved quality of products in the industry at an affordable price with high branding, which ultimately helps to position the product in the buyers‘ mind as the best quality ball pens.

Strengths:

ü Different types of products

ü Reliable and hygienic products

ü Easy availability of products at genuine prices

Weaknesses:

ü Its competitors

Opportunities:

ü New channels of distribution

ü Internet marketing and sales

Threats:

ü Exploration of world market

ü High level competition

We will undoubtedly look to market competitors for indications of how price should be set. For many marketers of consumer products researching competitive pricing is relatively easy, particularly when Internet search tools are used. Price analysis can be somewhat more complicated for products sold to the business market since final price may be affected by a number of factors including if competitors allow customers to negotiate their final price.

Analysis of competition will include pricing by direct competitors, related products and primary products.

· Direct Competitor Pricing – Almost all marketing decisions, including pricing, will include an evaluation of competitors’ offerings. The impact of this information on the actual setting of price will depend on the competitive nature of the market. Marketers must not only research competitive prices but must also pay close attention to how these companies will respond to the marketer’s pricing decisions.

Related Product Pricing – Products that offer new ways for solving customer needs may look to pricing of products that customers are currently using even though these other products may not appear to be direct competitors.

We must be aware of regulations that impact how price is set in the markets in which their products are sold. These regulations are primarily government enacted meaning that there may be legal ramifications if the rules are not followed. Price regulations can come from any level of government and vary widely in their requirements.

Finally, when selling beyond their home market, we must recognize that local regulations may make pricing decisions different for each market. This is particularly a concern when selling to international markets where failure to consider regulations can lead to severe penalties. Consequently marketers must have a clear understanding of regulations in each market they serve.

Product advertising is the promotion of products through a variety of media. Advertising campaigns for products have been criticized for customers and are regulated to ensure they meet defined standards. These rules vary from country to country, with all advertisements directed to consumers banned in some countries.

Campaign intentions:

As with all advertising campaigns the intention is to sell a company’s product. Adverts for different types of products such as health care products, personal care products etc. frequently promote the sale not just of one individual item but an entire range.

Common methods of advertising include:

* Television commercial campaigns

* Hoardings

* Online marketing

* Trade Fairs

Many companies use different methods for advertising their product. We choose two major sources for advertising; one is television because television has been one of the most important media for marketing products and in these people sees television and second is hoardings campaign which gives proper and full information regarding the product.

The goal of supply chain is to link the market place, the distribution network, the manufacturing process and the procurement activity in such a way that customers are serviced at higher levels and yet at a lower total cost.

When we create a logistics strategy it is defining the service levels at which our logistics organization is at its most cost effective. Because supply chains are constantly changing and evolving, we may develop a number of logistics strategies for specific product lines, specific countries or specific customers.

We can start to develop a logistics strategy by looking at four distinct levels of our logistics organization.

· Strategic: By examining the objectives and strategic supply chain decisions, the logistics strategy should review how our logistics organization contributes to those high-level objectives.

· Structural: The logistics strategy should examine the structural issues of the logistics organization, such as the optimum number of warehouses and distribution centres or what products should be produced at a specific manufacturing plant.

· Functional: Any strategy should review how each separate function in the logistics organization is to achieve functional excellence.

Sponsoring Events: The company goes for sponsoring events in order to heighten the company and brand image. Mostly the company goes for financing such kind of events in which its product has got some room to build likeness. The company also goes for sponsoring fashion shows in different cities.

UDay’s goes for indirect channel of distribution. The hierarchy of the distribution channel is as follows.

· Manufacturer

· Distributor

· Retailer

· Consumer

The distribution strategy pursued by the Unilever is intensive. It means that the product distribution is covering wide market. There are regional headquarters of the company in all the big cities of the country. There is a distributor in each big city. In order to reach remote areas, a distributor engages a sub-distributor for a small area. The company is directly linked with the main distributor and the sub-distributor has no such direct contact with the company. The company provides the Life Buoy inventory to the main distributor that is further dispatched to retailers and sub-distributors

The key to developing a successful MARKETING strategy is how it is to be implemented across the organization. The plan for implementation will include development or configuration of an information system, introduction of new policies and procedures and the development of a change management plan.

 

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