Linc Pen & Plastics Limited - Upscaling the Brand

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Case

520-0106-1

This case was written by Atanu Adhikari (Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK)) and Seema Lall (JD
Birla Institute). It is intended to be used as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective

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or ineffective handling of a management situation. The case was compiled from field research.

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Linc Pen & Plastics Limited – Upscaling the Brand

It was a hot summer evening in the second week of May 2018. Mr. Deepak Jalan, the
Managing Director of Linc Pen & Plastics Limited (LPPL) was looking quite anxious as
he read the company’s financials of the year 2017-18 and was comparing it with the
financials of the year 2016-17 (See Exhibit 1). Total revenue of LPPL had decreased by
5.3 percent in that financial year. Even worse, the profit before tax had reduced by 50
percent!

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LPPL was a forty-year-old business house known for its Linc brand of writing
instruments in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Under his leadership in the last 38 years,
Jalan had turned a small pen manufacturing company into a highly reputed national
brand. “Stakeholders had been happy so far and Linc had not faced any such situation in
the recent past,” Jalan thought. There were two primary reasons for the decline: Firstly,
there had been a sharp increase of up to 28 percent in the raw material price due to a
spike in the polymer prices. Secondly, there were turbulences in certain international

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markets, which led to a reduction in export revenue down from INR 1.05 billion in the
previous year to INR 800 million in FY17-18. LPPL confronted multidimensional
challenges in their major 5 key export markets in the Middle East and Africa, which led
to a complete halt, due to import restrictions, currency depreciation, rise in protectionism,
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internal strike, war, and serious business sanctions from the USA.1
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Jalan thought LPPL did not have any control of external issues be it national or
international, material price, depreciation of currency, country’s protection or any such
boundaries in this case. At the same time, the brand Linc was positioned as a brand that
portrayed value for money. Hence, this became a deterrent factor where the rising cost of
raw materials could not be transferred across trade and the finished products for
maintaining margins. The competition was intense from both organised and unorganised
sectors making the pen industry commoditised, and there was hardly any differentiation
amongst the product offerings of the players in the market. There had also been
exceptionally low involvement levels exhibited by the consumers in the purchasing
process of pens.

Jalan knew that whatever needed to be done, must be executed soon. LPPL had a
presence in more than 50 countries. LPPL’s products were recognized for being
innovative and customer-centric, which were accepted both in international and national
markets, but its major sales came from the domestic market.

1
Linc Pen & Plastics Limited, Annual Report, 2017-18

This case has been developed by Professor Atanu Adhikari of Indian Institute of Management
Kozhikode and Professor Seema Lall of J.D Birla Institute, Department of Management, Kolkata.
The contents are meant only for class discussion and are not intended to express opinion about
an organization’s decisions and processes. The numbers provided in the case are a reflection of
the situation but are not to be considered to be the actual values.
 520-0106-1

Repositioning the Linc brand as a premium brand and then increasing its price could be
one option, but it had several cons. Another strategy could be developing a new product.
Jalan murmured,

We have been trying to develop products which would help the company insulate
its margins from the polymer price volatility and secure the future top line as well
as bottom line of the company, but Linc is perceived as a mass market brand
despite offering high quality product. How effective would it be to add another
product in its portfolio without doing some strategic changeover!

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Company Background
Linc brand was established in 1976, by Mr. Surajmal Jalan. Deepak Jalan joined his
father’s business in 1980. Linc had built a name over the years in the domestic market.
LPPL had an extensive network in South East Asia, Middle East, USA, UK, Europe,
South America, Africa, Russia, and CIS countries. In 2003 LPPL marked its entry in the
global market by supplying writing instruments for sale as a private label to Wal-Mart.
The year 2012 was a witness to a capital alliance in which Mitsubishi took over 13.53%

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stake in LPPL. LPPL was the exclusive importer and distributor in India of brands; Uni-
ball, Mitsubishi Pencil Co. Japan and Bensia, Taiwan. Linc’s popular sub-brands were
Signetta, Glycer, Majesta, Meeting and Markline. LPPL focussed on innovation in
product designing and packaging. The sole brand of LPPL, Linc, occupied approximately
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10% market share in Indian writing instrument market. The brand Linc had an array of
products ranging from ball pens, gel pens, retractable ball pens and stationery. Exhibit
2A shows the product sub-categories and their shares respectively whereas Exhibit 2B
shows pictures of popular pens of Linc at price points of ₹5, ₹10 and ₹20 (of the ball pen
and the gel pen categories). LPPL had a daily manufacturing capacity of more than 2
million units with quality guaranteed under ISO 9001:2008 certification2 at Serakol and
Falta3. In 2017, LPPL had set up an integrated factory in Umbergaon (Gujarat). LPPL
was listed on NSE, BSE and CSE4. In 2005 LPPL received the ICICI Bank – CNBC
TV18 Emerging India Award in the FMCG category. This is one among its many other
laurels.
Indian Writing Instruments’ Industry
The non-paper category of stationery was a size of ₹41 billion. It contributed
approximately 40% of the total stationery market. Non-paper market was dominated by
writing instruments, followed by products for office use, colours, and other adhesive &
technical instruments5. The segment of writing instruments was divided as pens (79% by
revenue), pencils (15% by revenue) and others (6% by revenue). The other segment
consisted of markers/ highlighters, refills, nibs, sketch pens, leads, and crayons. The
segment of pens could be further subdivided into ballpoint pen, gel pen and fountain pen.
There was hardly any demand for fountain pens though.

2
ISO 9001 Certified” meant an organization had met the required quality management system (QMS) set up by the
international organization of standard (ISO) . ISO 9001:2008 focused on how the certified organization meeting customer
expectations and delivering customer satisfaction
3
Serakol and Falta are two suburban towns in West Bengal, India
4
NSE - National Stock Exchange, BSE - Bombay Stock Exchange and CSE - Calcutta Stock Exchange
5
https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/4636681/india-non-paper-stationery-market-overview-2018
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The Indian writing instrument industry saw incessant changes in innovative design of the
products, innovation in quality of writing and efficiencies in costs6. Pen had become a
necessity for all sets of people and there were multiple options available to suit one’s
taste and preference of pen. The pen industry in India was valued at ₹32 billion with 70
percent organised market7. Approximately, sixty percent of the pen market was occupied
by ball pens followed by 25% gel pens. Exhibit 3 shows product wise percentage break-
up of writing instruments. The industry was growing at 6-8% CAGR. The reasons of the
growth in Indian market were attributed to the increasing literacy rate (about 74 percent)
and an increased number of school-goers resulting in a youth literacy rate nine percent
higher than adults. Analysts were of the opinion that the Indian market would show a

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similar growth of approximately 6-8% CAGR in the next five years. The market players
with leading market share were BIC Cello, Linc, Flair, Hindustan Pencil, Doms, Kokuyo
Camlin among others and regional players like Montex and Lexi.

The pens were priced in the range between ₹5 and ₹100,000. The Indian pen market
contributed to approximately 60 percent of revenue from pens that were priced at ₹5 or
below per piece with another 10 percent of revenue each from pens priced at ₹10 or
below per piece and ₹15 or below per piece.

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A small percentage of revenue came from pens that fell in the price range of ₹100 to
₹300. Premium brands contributed a meagre percentage in the market. The pens that
were priced below ₹15 grew at the rate of 7-8% annually in the market, while pens priced
at more than ₹15 grew at the rate of 8-10% annually8. The Indian consumer today is
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extremely ‘value for money’ conscious and is willing to pay a premium for a superior
quality, which the brand had been consistently delivering in the past. It is found that the
price sensitivity of a pen costing between ₹ 5 and ₹ 10 is much less than the price
sensitivity of a pen between ₹ 10 and ₹ 20.

The consumers in the writing instrument industry comprised of almost 55 percent of

students, followed by executives and office-goers at approximately 20%. The remaining
25% was used by others in business, shops etc. There were about 20 million students
who started writing with a pen every year in India. On an average, each Indian used 6-8
pens per year. The mass market of pens priced at below ₹20 was dominated by market
players like Cello, Linc, and Reynolds. In the high-value segment, where the price range
was between ₹20 to ₹400, the market was dominated by Uni-ball, Pilot and Parker, while
the premium and luxury segment, at price above ₹400 was dominated by Mont Blanc,
Parker, Cross, Lamy and Sheaffer.

The availability of natural and recyclable materials as inputs for manufacturing pens and
use of eco-friendly colours in colouring instruments such as crayons and sketch pens led
to enhanced demand globally. The scope of expansion of writing instruments broadened
with innovation in multipurpose writing instruments, product offerings like pens with
styles, variants in coloured inks, appealing body colours for kids, pencils in various sizes,
increased usage of highlighters and markers. There was a small market for customized

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https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/analysing-the-indian-writing-instrument-industry-marketing-essay.php
accessed on 20th April 2020
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trend-117031200207_1.html
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pen body styles, clips, and use of superior quality ink. Luxury pens were made attractive
owing to their designer finish look and quality despite premium pricing. Indian players
entered strategic partnerships and joint ventures with foreign players to gain competitive
advantage.
Writing Instrument Consumer’s Behavior

The students preferred gel pens that were subdivided on the basis of prices as up to ₹5
products, ₹10-20 products and above ₹25 (This was considered semi premium and
premium product). Price was the primary factor of selecting a pen followed by the colour

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of ink and then brand. Students were more brand loyal than the adults, but both looked
for any brand if they did not get their choice of pen available in one brand. The fourth
factor was the look of the pen. For students, the look criteria often played a primary role
in choosing their pens.

While purchasing a new pen, consumers who were not brand sensitive, would tell the
retailer the price range and ask to show a pen within that price range. It was then up to
the retailer to decide which pen to show. Retailers often showed the pen that gave them

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the highest profit. Hence, trade promotion played an important role in the sales of pens.
Some prominent trade promotions were ‘one pen free on ten pens’ (the most popular
one), free passes to amusement parks/movies and a free gift on a large quantity purchase.
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The reasons for growth of non-paper stationery items was more due to disposable income
of consumers, awareness about the significance of education, increase in the number of
educational institutions, increase in offices, increase in population, and the psychology to
prefer writing more. Also, writing instruments became a part of corporate events in the
form of gifts or mementoes. Higher writing experience like smoothness of writing,
comfortable grip and proper weight played a significant role in spending higher amount
on writing instruments by the consumers.

Some industry experts felt that digitisation was in the process of making a dent in the
writing instruments’ market, while others felt that due to digitisation, computers and
smartphones might have very high usage but the use of pen and paper was going to stay.
The reason, they felt, lay in the advent of technology in this segment. This advancement
related to advances in the raw materials, ink and metal used in the construction of writing
instruments. India’s working population was expected to grow by 20% in 2020, which
would lead to increase in per capita income, which in turn would lead to increased
literacy and an increased demand for stationery. These would see the demand for writing
instruments growing in India. Exports to countries, which were highly into digitisation,
were increasing and pens from Indian manufacturers were preferred over the Chinese
counterparts for quality as well as price.
Linc’s writing instruments
Linc was a brand that catered to all customer segments through its several range of
product categories of writing instruments. Linc was a brand for the masses and focussed
on delivering innovative products of high user-friendliness and improved quality at
reasonable prices. Linc pens came in varied tip sizes and multiple appealing colours with
fast-flowing ink technology for very smooth writing on paper. Keeping up with its brand
image of being a product for masses at a lower cost, in 2013 Linc introduced three pens
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at ₹20, innovatively packed and branded as Linc Glycer, and also introduced an
innovative product called Linc Twinn, which happened to be the world's first ball pen
and pencil combo in a single writing instrument at a price point of ₹10.

Linc’s non-writing assortment

LPPL also houses innovative and low-priced stationery through the Linc brand. Markline
was one such brand of LPPL known for reasonable pricing of stationery items with
innovation. For example, Markline erasers were dust free for a mess-free experience.

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Also, the DVD/CD/OHP markers had advanced mechanical technology in manufacturing
yet were reasonably priced. Over the years, LPPL had been manufacturing and selling
supplements of every requirement of stationery ranging from geometry boxes to desk
organizers.
Lemon was LPPL’s notebook sub-brand under the Linc brand. However, the consumers
did not find the product different than the existing products in the market, hence it was
not well accepted in the market. Jalan said,

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“It was very difficult to make money in the notebook category. Notebooks went
very well with LPPL’s network. Lemon did not work because LPPL couldn’t
compete with brands like Classmate. We could have called it Linc notebooks but
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we chose not to call it Linc because when you think of Linc, you think of pens. We
wanted to associate pens and Linc together. As a marketer, I feel that if a brand
has been strongly associated with one category the consumer might get confused
seeing other products with the same brand name. Linc notebooks might have been
confusing.”

Competition

Writing instrument industry comprised of a few major players and numerous regional
players, enjoying substantial market share in certain geographies. Entry barrier was less,
and so was the requirement of investment. Hence, there were several organized players
who had increased competition. The primary competitors of Linc Pens were Cello,
Reynolds, Flair, Montex and Lexi pens.9 The competition was highly intense and there
were low differentiating factors between the product offerings of all the players as well
as the low involvement level exhibited by the consumers in the purchasing process. Some
details of the top three competitors are given below.

Cello Pen

Founded in 1995, Cello Pens was one of the largest stationery and writing instrument
manufacturers and distributors in India. Cello started its journey by manufacturing &
marketing a wide range of classic ball pens with imported tips and German inks. Like
Linc, Cello also focused on innovation and high quality with contemporary technologies,
In December, 2015, the French stationery major BIC acquired 100 percent ownership in

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and-plastics-ltd-18594807_1.html
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Cello writing and the company was renamed as "BIC Cello (India)". BIC Cello focused
on developing new innovative products and unique ink flow systems, intending to deliver
significant value to the writing experience of the customers. Cello had approximately 25
percent market share in the Indian writing instrument market.

In addition to ball pens, gel pens and pencils, Cello had expanded its magnitude to
stationery products like Permanent Markers, White Board Markers, Fountain Pens,
Roller Pens, Colour Markers and Office & School Stationery. Cello had its own R&D
team to do research to improve the writing experience. It also had a well-established
distribution system across the country. Cello also exported a broad portfolio of products

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to North America, Europe, Africa, Middle East, and Asia.

Reynolds Pen

Reynolds Pen was a famous American pen manufacturing company which introduced
ball pen in 1945 in the US10. Reynolds had entered India in the 1980 through GM Pens,
the sole licensee of Reynolds. The franchisee agreement discontinued in the year 2016
and Reynolds started operating as Reynolds India Pvt Ltd with distribution partnership

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with Flair India. Reynolds was considered to be one of the most reputed writing
instrument manufacturers and distributors in India. Market share of Reynolds at that time
was approximately 15 percent in the organized pen market. Reynolds introduced fine
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writing in India and played a key role in making a commodity like pen into a branded
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product. In 2006, legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar became the brand ambassador of
Reynolds for nine years from 2006 till 2015 and steered the brand adroitly amongst kids,
youth and adults of India. In Reynolds, product range consisted of ball pens, gel pens,
roller pens, mechanical pencils and fountain pens11. In 2017, Reynolds tied up with Flair,
another pen manufacturer and distributor in India to relaunch all their products. The
reason for the strategic alliance was to utilize Flair’s distribution network to reach about
55000 retail outlets across the country.

Flair Pen

Flair was an Indian company established in 1986 and was incorporated into a private
company in 2016. It offered primarily ball pen, gel pen products and non-paper stationery
products like mechanical pencil, office stationery, correction pens, painting crayons etc.
It had approximately 13 percent market share in the Indian writing instrument market.
Flair had been an exclusive distribution partner of Reynolds since 2017 after GM Pen
disassociated with Reynolds. Flair operated through 7,500 distributors and about 250,000
retailers. Flair’s revenue in FY 2017-18 was INR 5.75 billion with net profit of 500
million. Flair exported to 80 countries through its 50 international distributors.
Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan had been the brand ambassador of Flair and it came
with a tagline ‘Mera Dost, Mera Flair’ (Flair is my friend). Flair had bought international
brands namely Pierre Cardin (Paris), Hauser (Germany), Rudi Kellner etc. and was the
distributor of ZIG (Japan).

There are other players like Montex and Lexi Pen in the same market having a market
share between 4-8 percent. In the premium pen category, Parker had a market share of

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https://www.reynolds-pens.com/about-us
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https://www.zaubacorp.com/company/REYNOLDS-PENS-INDIA-PRIVATE-LIMITED/U36991TN1998PTC040913
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approximately 3% followed by Pierre Cardin and Mont Blanc who occupied meagre
share.

Brand Building Initiatives of Linc

LPPL’s flagship brand was called Linc. The Linc brand was positioned around the
tagline, “Think it, Linc it”. This was a play on the word Linc for link and an indication to
collect and connect one’s thought and put them in writing with a Linc pen. “The Think it,
Linc it” campaign was meant to inspire each one to express more on paper because ideas
change lives and they need to be expressed, LPPL felt. The campaign was aimed at

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motivating its real and potential customers to use Linc pens (See Exhibit 4).
In 2004 Linc launched retail outlets with the names Just Linc and Office Linc for more
brand visibility. These stores stocked all brands and products of LPPL to meet the needs
of school and office-goers, needs of stationery at offices and the general requirement of
writing and non-writing stationery of the people at large. But this exclusive brand outlet
did not work for Linc and it was making losses due to high property rental.
Consequently, company had to close most of the outlets and kept only a few for branding

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purposes. In 2008 Linc roped in Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan as the brand
ambassador of Linc. In 2010 Linc associated with IPL12 teams– Kolkata Knight Riders
and Rajasthan Royals13. In the same year Linc also associated with the IIFA14 awards as
the literacy partner. In 2011, LPPL roped in Bollywood actor Katrina Kaif as ambassador
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for brand Uni-ball and was associated with two more IPL teams.
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In 2015, Linc introduced Linc Twinn, a pen that also had a pencil at the other end. LPPL
launched this product as a highly innovative product at INR 10, double of regular Linc
pen price. LPPL promoted Linc Twinn aggressively both in TV and print media. To
make this product cut a space as a premium product, LPPL sponsored 2015 ICC cricket
world cup telecast on Doordarshan (DD)15. LPPL also used animation in its Ad to make
the communication cut out of the clutter. While Linc Twinn did make a space in the
market, it could not develop an identity for the company, and remained as just another
product in Linc’s portfolio perceived as another value for money product.

SPELLINC – English language mastery contest for school children

In 1999, Linc started an inter-school English language mastery contest called Spellinc. It
was being held at three levels namely school, city and national levels annually to provide
a platform to the students for displaying their mastery in English language. Spellinc
encompassed spelling and vocabulary. This kind of an event gave Linc immense
popularity and visibility among its important target segment- the school-goers. The
contest covered more than 1500 schools, with different mediums of instructions, levels
and number of students through 11 cities in India to become a national event.
Academicians were of the opinion,

12
IPL: The Indian Premier League is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in India contested every year by teams
representing different states/cities in India.
13
Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals are IPL teams representing the city of Kolkata and the state of Rajasthan.
14
IIFA: The International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards are a set of awards presented annually by the International
Indian Film Academy to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in Bollywood, the Hindi language
film industry.
15
Doordarshan (DD) is an autonomous public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the
Broadcasting Ministry of India and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest broadcasting organisations
in studio and transmitter infrastructure, it was established on 15 September 1959.
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“Spellinc is a worthy initiative for the subtle push it gives, leading towards a
well-spoken and well-read community.”
The 2017-18 edition of SPELLINC witnessed a participation of more than 60,000
students from 79 schools across classes V to VIII, spread nationally in all major cities
and metros of India. British Council became the Knowledge Partner for Spellinc. Jet
Airways and Tiger Turf also came on-board and added to the appeal of the event. Jalan
said,
“We are immensely proud to contribute to the development of the student

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fraternity and organize an event of such magnitude for so many years. The
response at every stage has been nothing short of overwhelming. We promise to
return with a more engaging and exciting format in the years to come. This year
Spellinc had extended its wings to include some specially-abled children and will
strive harder to increase its reach to such students.”
Cash prizes, academic assistance, supplies of stationery and gift hampers were the
takeaways for the winners at Spellinc.

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Write-O-Values
Focussing on the importance of handwriting and keeping up with Linc’s core business of
writing instruments, LPPL started an event named Write–O–Values in 2009, which was
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an intra-school handwriting competition for the students of classes V and VI, in English.
The event focussed on moral values for tender minds and offered valuable tips on
improving handwriting skills. Since inception, Write-O-Values had marked its existence
among 125,000 students and 750 schools.

Brand Perception of Linc

LPPL felt that over a period of four decades, Linc became a household name for writing
instruments and stationery, and a popular choice for school-goers. Linc also acquired
high visibility and reliability from its consumers. The prices were essentially kept low
around INR 5 for most of its products because users associated Linc with high quality
and lower prices. Jalan believed that most of the similarly priced pens in the market from
competitors did not give the required writing experience as they lacked smooth flow of
ink and had design issues. Linc therefore made a mark for itself amongst the masses.
LPPL felt that they had a thorough understanding of what the consumers required in a
pen and continued the positioning of Linc in the minds of the customers as a utility
centric pen at a reasonable price, making Linc pens affordable but a product for mass.
Jalan remarked,
“With brand Linc, we have traditionally been in the popular ₹5 price point of ball
pens. A price point of ₹5 being the most popular price point; even if we launch
good quality affordable ball pens at ₹50 or ₹100, the acceptability will be very
low because we are perceived to be a low cost, good quality ball pen brand.”
Jalan was confident that if he had to develop a new product, he had the technology to
make a pen that writes better and smoother than the competition at a lower cost.
Innovation had been the strength of LPPL, he believed. At the same time, if he developed
a new product it had to be named by following marketing norms – using alliteration or
double entendre or repetition if it was a two-word name. LPPL could not follow that
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while naming Linc Twinn, but it strategically misspelled the word - ‘Twinn’ to attract the
attention of its consumer while communicating the idea of the product, twin – pen and
pencil. He thought the flow of ink in Linc pen resembled the word ‘tonic’ of a pen. Some
words rhythm his mind like ‘Tonic’, ‘Titanic’ and a few more. Whatever may be the new
name of the new product to be developed, should it carry the mother brand Linc’s name
with it like the ones before? He thought deeply.
Jalan’s Dilemma
Higher discretionary spending, a preference towards higher lifestyle in all segments of

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consumers in India and higher attention paid to individual’s perceived status was leading
Indian consumers towards better products. Experts believed that this change represented
a fundamental and potentially permanent shift in consumer behaviour in low involvement
products; more in categories that consumers could display in public. Other consumer
product categories had been paying attention to this change in consumer behavior. For
example, products in food categories like grocery products, and non food FMCG
products like soaps and detergents brands coming with product extensions with higher
price points with superior quality. Companies are making substantial investments to

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develop its positioning strategy and brand equity.
Jalan knew that Linc as a brand had good visibility and recognition in the writing
instrument market. The awareness about Linc as a writing instrument brand amongst the
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consumers was high. The users of Linc had a high perception about its quality. But if he
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increased the price of existing products to offset the increase in polymer prices, wouldn’t
consumers shift to the competitors? Wouldn’t LPPL lose its market share? Wouldn’t the
four decades of efforts which have gone into building the brand Linc turn futile? Over the
years the brand Linc had become synonymous with trust and reliability, at the same time
surviving without sustainable profits meant no business. Jalan thought,
“Linc is a brand; when you think of the brand Linc you think of a ball pen, an
affordable ball pen. Brand positioning of Linc had automatically become that of a
low cost affordable, quality ball pen.”
Not only offsetting the increased raw material price, Jalan also wanted to take LPPL at a
higher level in the writing instrument business. At the time three options seemed most
plausible. First LPPL could introduce a slightly premium line of Linc ball pens with
higher price, maybe ₹10 or ₹12 to capture both current consumers as well as new
students who were looking for a little more expensive but better-quality pen having
higher brand salience. It would give economies of scale with respect to advertising and
promotional activities, Jalan thought, but LPPL executives and brand managers may have
concerns anticipating that consumers may get confused about Linc's brand image. Also,
would this option help LPPL to come out of the only value image that it had built in the
last four decades, and add a premium image to its brand? Jalan was not sure.
Second option could be to develop an entirely new product with higher price points under
a new brand, and then develop the brand. In Such case, the future of the new brand will
be quite uncertain, and the company would need to chalk out a foolproof strategy. Initial
investment to establish another brand would also be high. Third option could be
completely rebranding Linc with a new brand name giving premium appeal; and then
launching a down market line to cater to Linc’s present customer segment. This may help
LPPL to reposition itself as an upscale writing instrument company with a fighter line for
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the mass market. The third option would give LPPL a best-better-good product line-up
and potentially keep consumers buying LPPL products regardless of their reference price.
It would also give economies of scale with respect to advertising and promotional
activities.
It was already late evening and Jalan called it a day. As he was driving back home, he
saw an ad hoarding with a photo of a black colour tall circular tower building with its
antenna straight up from the roof. It looked to him as a pillar of confidence held high. He
liked the design and mused.

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Exhibits
Exhibit 1 – Financials of LPPL (₹ in lakhs)

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Particulars 2017-18 2016-17
Revenue from Operations 33189.15 35049.34
Other income 116.28 42.59
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Profit before depreciation, interest and taxation 2693.32 3404.14

Finance Cost 485.24 216.66
Depreciation 960.29 792.83
Profit before Tax 1247.79 2394.65
Provision for Taxation-Current 267 543
Provision for Taxation-Deferred 196.68 125.33
Profit after Tax 784.11 1726.32
Total Other comprehensive Income -2.11 -9.37
Total Comprehensive Income of the Year 782 1716.95
Add: Credit Balance of the previous year 996.39 1013.32
Amount available for Appropriation 1778.39 2730.27
Transfer to General Reserve 500 1200
Dividend 443.58 443.58
Corporate Tax on Dividend 90.3 90.3
Balance carried to Balance Sheet 744.51 996.39
 520-0106-1

Exhibit 2A: Products from Linc brand in the year 2017-18

Share of
Products Price Point Brands
Sales (%)

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Below Mrp Maxo, Glycer, Smart Gl, Pocket
65%
10/- Rocket, Faster
Ball Pen
Mrp 10/- & Signetta, Signetta Gold, Glycer
12%
Abv 10X, Majesta, Twinn Ball

Below Mrp
Ocean Gel, Soffy Gel, Maxx Gel 14%
10/-
Gel Pen POPP Gel, Executive SL-500,

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Mrp 10/- &
Flowsign Gel, Inklusion Gel, Twinn 6%
Abv
Gel
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Bensia Printed Pencil, Markline

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Pencils 1%
Pencil
Markline Eraser, Bensia Rocket
Other
Eraser, Markline Lazor Geometry 2%
products
Box, Markline Bi-Colour Pencils
100%

Exhibit 2B: Picture of Key Products from Linc brand

Linc Ball-point Pen ₹ 5 Linc Gel Pen ₹ 5

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Type

Others
Ball pens

Fountain pens
Linc’s high end pen Signetta ₹ 20

Gel/roller pens

Premium pencils
Mechanical pencils

8
3
2
3
22
62
in writing instrument market

(%)
Share

Exhibit 4: “The Think it, Linc it” campaign

Exhibit 3: Product categories and their shares
Linc Twinn Gel pen ₹ 10
520-0106-1

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