Brand decline linked to stationery strategy - discount store stationery sales

Discount Store News, Oct 4, 1993

Brand growth in the stationery category took a steep downturn in 1992 as retailers sought to concentrate their merchandise mix on core items with the most popular brand names.

According to manager responses to questions concerning top performing stationery brands in the 1993 Top Brands survey, stationery was omitted from the list of merchandise categories in which national name brand goods rose from 1992. When managers were asked for their average number of top performers in the stationery department, just 1.9 brands were mentioned, down from 2.5 brands in '92. This decline means that stationery now has fewer top performing brands than a store's average, which, according to survey results, is 2.5 brands this year.

The decline goes to the core of retailers' business strategy in stationery: to shorten vendor lists to a select group that can offer a range of products and then salt the mix with programs from smaller companies for variety and distinction.

As a result, the list of top performers reflects the core items and none of the lines that lend distinction to each retailer's stationery program. This year, as in the past, managers named three paper vendors (Mead, Stuart Hall and Norcom), three pen vendors (Bic, Papermate and Pentel), one upscale organizer line (Cambridge by Mead), one crayon brand (Crayola), one adhesives label (Scotch/3M) and one social stationery vendor (Sangamon).

For Sangamon, more typically associated with its greeting cards line, 1993 marks the first time that it made the Top 10 list in the stationery category. Its position comes entirely from Kmart and Wal-Mart managers and offers insight into the company's diversity.

Norcom, which returns to the Top 10 after a two-year absence, made the 10th spot on the 1993 list due to its strength at Wal-Mart. The No. 1 retailer offers an extensive back-to-school program from Norcom.

In total, store managers named 25 top performing brands in the stationery category. However, a number of extremely popular brands with retailers and consumers alike failed to make that list. Brands such as Pentech, Manco, DataCom, Atapco, W.T. Rogers, Creative Works, Fellow's, Acco and Rose Art, among others, were apparently lumped together in a response called "other" because each failed to receive enough mentions for a specific breakout of its own.

More than a fifth of all store managers mentioned a stationery brand that was clumped together in the "other" category. Kmart managers named more such brands than any other retailer, nearly a third. [TABULAR DATA OMITTED]

Mead remained the top performing brand in stationery among all conventional discounters and Target. But, among other upscale discounters--Venture, Caldor, Bradlees and Fred Meyer--the top performing brands differed dramatically with their No. 1 brand, Bic, followed by Mead. Papermate, sixth overall, was the third ranked brand among upscale discounters other than Target.

Lisa Frank, a comer in the category, just missed the Top 10, but was fifth at Target with one in 10 manager mentions and eighth at Wal-Mart.