Stationery

Discount Store News, Oct 20, 1997

Of all the categories in a discount store, the stationery department was where most consumers said they don't have a brand preference. In fact, for the past five years. the stationery category has hovered near the bottom of DSN's annual Power Brands ranking of categories in which consumers indicate a brand preference. Only in categories such as glasses & dishware and domestics do consumers indicate less of a brand preference than stationery.

Despite their lack of enthusiasm, when consumers are asked what brand they would want if shopping for stationery, they consistently mention some of the biggest names in the business. Household names such as Bic, Mead, Crayola, Papermate and Pentel show up regularly from year to year. Other brands such as Hallmark, Schaefer, Scotch/3M, Parker and Stuart are also mentioned, although less frequently.

Brand preferences seemed to be influenced, in part, by where a person shops. Those consumers who shopped at Kmart and Wal-Mart during the past year were more fond of Bic and Mead than were shoppers at Target. Bic was singled out by roughly 35% of consumers at Kmart and Wal-Mart as a brand they want compared to 25% for Target. The popularity of the Bic, Mead and Crayola brands surged dramatically according to age. Those under age 35, perhaps with kids in school, were probably in the market more often and reported the strongest preference for Power Brands such as Bic, Mead and Crayola. For example, 47% of those under age 35 mentioned Bic as a brand they would want to buy, and 43% mentioned Mead. Those percentages dropped considerably among the 35 to 49 age group as well as shoppers over age 50. With Crayola, 10% of consumers under 35 cited it as a preferred brand, but for those over 50, the percentage dropped to 3%.

As familiar as consumers are with various brands in the stationery department, it's clear from Power Brands research that most aren't going to be heartbroken if the brand they said they wanted to buy wasn't available at the store they were shopping. Slightly more than 80% of consumers said there was a chance they might buy a store brand or private label stationery. This willingness to buy a store brand or private label corroborates the previously mentioned finding that brand preference in the stationery category was among the lowest of all categories. Whereas the category ranked near the bottom of those where consumers had a brand preference, it ranked at the top of the list of categories where consumers said they might buy a store brand or private label. For the past four years, slightly more than 80% of consumers surveyed said they might buy a store brand or private label.

Stationery also ranked at the top of the list, which indicated that brand loyalty was low. Consumers may have said they wanted Bic, Mead or Crayola, but the unavailability of those brands were not likely to deter a sale. About 75% of survey respondents said they would buy another brand rather than skip making the purchase if the brand they wanted wasn't available. While that 75% is the highest of any category, the remaining 25% is nothing to sneeze at since it essentially means a lost sale for a retailer not carrying the brands consumers identify as the most sought after. The remaining 25% of survey respondents said they would skip the purchase if the brand they wanted wasn't available.

Few retailers would want that to happen, so it's not surprising that retailers have consistently mentioned many of the same brands high-lighted by consumers as their best performing brands. Mead continued to top the list of best performing brands identified by retailers, with 51% mentioning Mead as one of the top sellers in the stationery department. Bic was also noted frequently with 34% of mentions. Papermate at 22% and Crayola with 13% were the third and fourth ranked best performing brands, according to retailers.

Mead, Bic, Papermate and Crayola were also the four top brands mentioned by consumers. However, moving beyond the top four, differences between brands consumers said they want and those store managers identify as best sellers begin to differ. For example the rest of the retailers' top picks included familiar names such as Stuart Hall, Dayrunner, Scotch/3M, Parker, Pentel and Cambridge. The previous year, Elmers, Norcom and Flair were also included. Conversely, consumers didn't even mention Cambridge or Dayrunner, and only 1% of consumers mentioned Stuart Hall as a desired brand. Meanwhile, Hallmark and Schaefer showed up on the list of brands mentioned by consumers but not the top performing ranking based on retailers' responses.

Just as retailers' opinions of top performing brands conflicts with consumers' opinions of the brands they want, there are striking differences among the responses from Kmart, Wal-Mart and Target as to which brands are the best sellers. For example, nearly 60% of Kmart respondents mentioned Mead as a best performer compared to 48% of Wal-Mart respondents and 42% of Target respondents. Only 13% of Target managers mentioned Bic, but the brand was mentioned by 44% of Wal-Mart respondents and 41% of Kmart respondents.