Scope Of Work: Market Research,
Brand Strategy, Consumer Understanding & Psychology, Product Packaging.

Kokuyo Camlin is a legacy brand that has defined what stationery means to multiple generations of Indians. Everyone has some memory or association with it. So when Kokuyo Camlin’s CMO, Rishi Kakar, reached out, it was a dream come true for CC.

This time the brief was a very simple, change the kid’s crayon packaging. But only if the answer was that as simple as the ask.

The project demanded extensive consumer study to understand why a child chooses a particular product, and what truly drives that decision. Almost a year later, that insight-led journey resulted in a completely refreshed packaging range for the entire kids’ portfolio of Camel.

What excites kids? How do they decide what they want? What is new?

The Indian stationery and crayon market is worth over ₹4,000 crore and is dominated only by four major brands. Among them DOMS, which only entered in 2005, rose rapidly despite competing against legacy players.

They got FOUR things absolutely right. Product innovation, a distinct brand, exciting packaging, and powerful distribution. Naturally, DOMS quickly became the preferred choice.

Shopkeepers preferred displaying DOMS because of the high margins and its growing popularity among children. Which raised the question the whole project turned on.

RESEARCH FINDINGS

44 Parents. 40 Kids. 28 Shopkeepers and 4 Metro Cities.

By observing multiple purchase behaviours, we realised that the decision isn’t made by the child alone, it is a triangular decision between the child, parent and shopkeeper.

The child makes final choice, but is heavily influenced by the other two, along with external triggers like friends or spotting something new at school or tuition. So, to understand the ‘WHY’, it is important to understand the purchase behaviour.

40% Kids

first look at the quantity
or number of shades

35% Kids

look at the shade colours & the overall look and feel.

*the free item is not the first thing they look at

How product
looks & makes
them feel.

They want products that are smooth to use, have a good grip, writes/colours properly (darkness for pencils, colour brightness)

In terms of appearance, kids are drawn to products that are colourful, bright and exciting.

How product
looks & makes
them feel.

The child makes the choice but not the decision.

Before finalising, we took the new packaging to the real world to understand how parents, kids, shopkeepers responded.

We interviewed/ observed 40 participants, used their feedback to make refinements before the market launch. The response was reassuring, overwhelming and made us do a happy dance. However, we made a conscious choice to only refresh a few artworks, so the memory stays intact.

We got the privilege to collaborate with ten Indian artists.

The research had already told us kids judge the quality of a product by the artwork on the pack.

So we collaborated with ten Indian artists, all of whom grew up using Camel products themselves.

We wanted the new generation kids to have real role models as artists, so each artwork was created by an Indian artist that made them bright magical, and full of imagination.

The messy, the fun, the not so pretty part of the project!