TWIN SISTERS: CASE ANALYSIS

Submitted by: Akanksha Sharma (263), Ankit Singh (208), D Surya Teja (216),
Mahesh Kundrapu (226), Prerna Modi (236), Nihal Reddy (220), Pranay Shah (136)

Decision Making Process:

The decision for buying a pencil is usually a low involvement purchase as all pencils serve the same purpose,
are cheap and it short-life. Mostly, the users are kids or the high-end users such as artists or architects. The
consumer decision making process for a pencil undergoes the following steps

Analysis of risk involved: Pencil being low involvement product, there is relatively no risk involved
for the consumers. Being low price and less point of different between the various pencils on the shelf,
consumers different on the basis of grip, colour, name and packaging

Need recognition: Pencils have a short-life, generally in days depending upon the amount of usage.
Students want a pen that has an easy grip or the name that they can easily recall. Since the functional
benefits of all the pencils are almost the same, the point of differentiation for them becomes the long-
lasting pencil, smooth grip, different shape and colours of the pencil

Pre-Purchase Search: The product is a low-involvement one and hence the information search would
be very less. The consumer might be impacted by the advertisements shown, however the major
decision making would take place near the point of purchase when the consumer is faced with various
options. The consumer might actually jump this stage (heuristics) and completely ignore the pre-
purchase search stage

Evaluation of alternatives: Since the functional benefits of the pencil remains the same, the consumer
doesnt really evaluate the alternatives before the pencil and may get influenced by the colour, shape,
brand recall and lifespan of a pencil. The shelves of a stationary would be stacked with boxes of pencils
from various brands. Thus, a consumer set to buy a pencil would make a decision at the point of
purchase without much evaluation of a pencil

Purchase Behaviour: The consumer may visit the shop and choose the pencil instantly depending on
his choice of colour, shape or brand recall. The consumer may perhaps evaluate the alternatives there
and then based on the aesthetics of the pencil. The price and functional benefits of the pencil is nearly
the same for all the brands

Post-Purchase Behaviour: After the purchase of the pencil the consumer might experience certain kinds of
the experiences. If the pencils perform all the works which are according to the need of the consumer
i.e. -smoothness, good writing, efficiency, the consumer gets satisfied or if the consumer not get the
satisfactory results from the pencils he may get dissatisfied and may dispose the product. If the
consumer get satisfied he may purchase the pencils again and again

Factors influencing the buying of a particular pencil:

Status & influence of friends/family: A child may be influenced by the pencil his/her friend is using in
his school and may want to own the similar pencil. Since elders know that the pencil should have a
good grip and write smoothly, they might influence their child to buy a certain pencil. Also, a rich kid
 may go for an expensive pencil to match his status. The consumers who are interested in creating full
range of tones like grey to black pencils, while engineers like harder pencils which allows the greater
control in the shape of the lead. This reflected the ways the pencils are packaged and marketed.
Children wants their writing in a very good manner, small children like pencils which looks attractive,
so pencils are made according the interest of the different consumers in different ways

Occupation & economic factors: Occupation and economic circumstances have a great effect on the person.
In the economic factor the main aim of the consumer is to get the maximum or optimum value for the money
spent on a particular product. E.g.: For buying the pencils the person buy the pencil that gives him a
maximum value i.e. having more sharpness, writing speed and more efficient lead used in it. Engineers
want the pencils having the greater control in the shape of the lead. Persons working in the offices want
the pencils which

Strategy which Twin Sisters should adopt:

The strategy of Twin Sisters should be to make the pencil a sustainable differentiator and establish strong
emotional connection with the customers so that they would be pulled to the product. Firstly, they have to
select a name for the pencil which is easy for children to recognise and recall. The case clearly mentions
about big multinationals failing to make an impact in the Indian market with their advertisements which were
too sophisticated for the consumers to understand and to make an emotional connect. They can show ads
depicting and emphasising on the benefits of the pencil. In the initial stages while launching the pencil in the
already flooded market, they can give incentives to the customers like a free chocolate along with the pencil
or a free drawing book along with a set of five pencils thus making use of positive reinforcement and
instrumental conditioning. Also, since the pencil is a low involvement product, they have to use peripheral
route by providing cues to influence attitudes instead of using central route. Thus, in the communications/
advertisements they should depict situational settings in which our product is better (like an examination)
rather than on the functional benefits only in isolation.