Stabilo Company Report and Events Recommendations - Coursework Example

Stabilo Company Report and Events Recommendations Executive Summary The paper reviews the aims of the company Schwan Stabilo and its group of companies in view of the events they are participating in. The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of the current strategies of the company in terms of social events and to identify areas of improvements in order to provide a recommendation for better efficiency. Contents: 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Culure of the Company 1.3 Stabilo’s New Mission 1.4 Greener Environment 1.5 “Colors for a Greener World” 1.6 Make Up Paris 1.7 Beauty World Middle East 1.8 Guerilla Marketing Campaign 2.0 Recommendations 3.0 Conclusion 1.1 Introduction Schwan Stabilo was founded in Nuremberg, Germany way back in 1855 by a pencil company and was, since 1865, been owned by Schwanhausser family and has remained so for five generations. In 1996, the company was converted into a holding company. The company manufactures writing pens, colouring, cosmetics, markers and highlighters. As of today, Stabilo is the largest manufacturer of highlighter pens all over the world. 1.2 Culure of the Company The company’s culture is exemplified through their dedication in producing ground-breaking products and maintaining standards in their production processes. Stabilo has introduced the first colored copying pencil to the market, and has been a household name for the past 150 years. Unlike most companies, Schwan Stabilo allows its individual units to work independently in coming up with their own campaigns and events. Being a diversified company, under the Stabilo umbrella will be cosmetics, writing instruments and outdoor products. The company believes that within the individual units of its businesses, not only should each unit be independent but must also be initiative as well as innovative. The management, they believe, is not there to make remote decisions but is responsible for ensuring that the variety of corporate activities are according to the declared strategy and to ensure individual units will not be waylaid. 1.3 Stabilo’s New Mission Recently, the Schwan Stabilo group of companies declared their new mission to conserve raw material resources. The company plans to keep their carbon dioxide emissions into the environment be kept as minimal as possible during their production processes as part of their contribution to the environment. By collaborating with the international writing instrument company “Stabilo”, which is still under the same company umbrella, the company developed a tube that is 98% made from polypropylene waste. Polypropylene has been used in the medical technology and filter technology and after which, it is collected and properly separated. This new method meets the strict requirements of the appropriate health standards. The greatest challenge presented by this new technology, however, was for the company to make the tube from recycled material with very close tolerances regardless of the natural variations that crop up with this type of recycled material, an endeavor they have once again succeeded on. 1.4 Greener Environment The company has declared its campaigns to a greener environment and appears to have dedicated themselves into promoting responsible consciousness towards the environment, which in itself, is a good strategy in getting on the good side of the consumers. The company is currently certified in accordance with the internationally recognized environmental standard ISO 14001. Their current campaigns and statements are about the importance of preserving our natural resources as well as the environment for the future generations. Their current progress in this regard is indeed well published. The company claims to be dedicated to the optimization of their production and working conditions. The company has stated that the Stabilo pencils are always adapted to the latest product requirements and is often the pioneer of innovation in the entire industry. 1.5 “Colors for a Greener World” For Schwan Stabilo, their products also stand as their campaign. They have launched their campaign they coined “Colors for a Greener World” wherein they introduced a new range of sustainable, high-quality pencils which are made out of renewable wood. This they claim is an integral step towards increasing protection for the environment. The company works together with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) , an international non-profit organization whose goal is to avoid the over exploitation of the forests. This non-profit organization also certified the pencils in the Stabilo Green collection. In cooperation with FSC, Stabilo supports plans intended to: •preserve valuable, original forests, •protect the native populations that live in them, •ensure the long-term, environmentally defensible use of wood as a raw material. The FSC seal of approval is awarded to businesses in the field of forestry and is, at the same time, awarded to the manufacturing processes. Stabilo as a company ensures that every working step in their production process meets the strict requirements of the FSC. This campaign taken on by the company is effective because not only did it not cost extra expenses, but it also promoted a good image for them. 1.6 Make Up Paris On July, 2010, the company held an event they called MakeUP in Paris which is the first version of event the company dedicated solely to the world of cosmetics and has proven to be a huge well-rounded success. It was a two-day event attended by approximately 1,400 experts particularly from the Marketing, R&D and Purchasing. The event was assembled at the Espace Pierre Cardin of which and out of the all the visitors, 14 percent came from different countries. The event initiated a lot of promising potential contacts for the company. They have also introduced a future Internet presence in this event. Schwan Stabilo Cosmetics presented a live Make UP Performance the founder of “Colour & Crème, The Academy”, Loni Baur, who created a look from the current Fashion Colours 2011, with claims of not aiming to report the trends but rather, the aim of the company to make them. The said event has received very good feedback from the participants and was very effective as a means for acquiring potential investors. 1.7 Beauty World Middle East “Beautyworld Middle East” was a trade fair which the company held at Dubai International Exhibition Center in June, 2009. Compared to a similar exhibition in 2008, the one held in 2009 was allotted more space in order to have room for an increased number of exhibitors in attendance coming from 50 countries. A great number of approximately 18, 000 visitors have attended the said event. In view of the great number of guests present on this event, it can therefore be claimed a success. Another annual activity the company takes part of is the single trade fair for cosmetic products in South America known as the FCE Cosmetique. Schwan Cosmetics of Brazil presented the color trends for 2010 including “Nature” which was a very significant theme for SSC. As usual, the renowned traditional SSC-products were well received. Potential clients were reported to have visited to admire the products displayed on the stand position by the company. An increase in the sales of lip-gloss and mascaras were claimed as one of the results of this event. 1.8 Guerilla Marketing Campaign The company also initiated a one of a kind Guerrilla Marketing Campaign by taking to the streets of Tokyo, Japan. Life-sized cardboard highlighters were positioned at the base of the escalators which gave it the appearance that the yellow line on the escalator is coming from the card-board model. The huge model was embossed with the words "Stabilo Boss: Long Lasting," and the advertisement quite literally traveled up the escalator with the passers-by because of the yellow line on the escalator itself. Though it was a very interesting concept and certainly quite memorable, this small campaign event could have been vastly improved by positioning a representative to give away free pens. However, giveaways do tend to just add to the costs and not necessarily effective. Like many companies, Schwan Stabilo take part in co-hosting events, sponsoring workshops in art galleries, small contests and other minor events. 150 years of being a household name does give this company plenty of privilege which makes it unnecessary for them to spend too much on advertising. Despite the economic crises in the past year, the company was able to surpass grave losses and have, in fact, stood to gain 7 percent increase in their profits by the end of the business year in June, 2010 by making strong investments and pursuing their quest for innovative products and the acquisition of new companies in currently weak markets also showed potentials that they took advantage of. 2.0 Recommendations: Schwan Stabilo, is well-known for their exceptional products and top of the line quality as a well established company of more than 150 years. However, visibility is still the name of the game in the tough world of marketing. The events held by the company are very far in between and were, in fact, quite hard to get information on. The company seems to maintain a low profile in terms of social events and affairs. Based on the market today and the multitude of rising new companies in the same field, it will of course help Schwan Stabilo Company to participate more in the events arena without necessarily costing them more. With their prestige in terms of product quality, the brand is popular in the school and office settings, as well as advertising companies, artists, and cosmetics. However, taking keeping a low profile is not really helping their market. The company can arrange more workshops for aspiring new artists on a bigger scale. It is also possible to arrange summer camps for young people who are very enthusiastic about painting. Not only will this help young people, but this kind of event will help the company get free promotion by becoming even more popular to the younger generation. Being an old brand is not always enough, considering the number of brands out in the market today. The company will not have to spend too much on sponsoring this type of summer camp. They will only need to provide a mentor and co-host the event with a gallery owner or other interested patrons. A second suggestion would be participating on a well publicized outreach event. They can offer their own employees the opportunity to help in environmental programs like tree planting by collaborating with an environmental organization. This will strengthen their position to promote environmental awareness, and at the same time, provide their employees the opportunity to spend time outside the work scene which can be a refreshing experience and may even promote camaraderie. It can be used as a team building activity for the company as well as a promotional event. Another suggestion will be touring to public schools and orphanages to donate pens and pencils to the kids. This will help promote their inclination to educate the youth and will not require a lot of funds. They can organize a short program and some games since it does not require a lot to entertain children. They have claimed to care about the environment as a measure to preserve it for the future generation and showing they care about the education will help strengthen their claims. 3.0 Conclusion There are several non-profit organizations like Green Peace, Sierra Club, Audubon and many others who would welcome the opportunity to involve the company, Schwan Stabilo, in their events. Since the aim of the company is to produce their products out of environment friendly materials, it will be in their interest to cooperate with environmental organizations. It will be cheap and good for the society too, not to mention the environment. The company has taken a great step towards a great image. There is no better way to package a company using wood materials than to make them take the stand towards promoting the environment. However, the company needs an expansion in terms of exposure in the social scene. References: Lambert M Surhone, Mariam T Tennoe, Susan F Henssonow. Schwan-Stabilo. 2010. VDM Verlag Dr. Mueller AG & Co. Kg. pg16-33. Christoph Loch. Industrial excellence. 2003. Pg83-96. Press Release. Schwan Cosmetics. 2011. http://www.schwancosmetics.com/en/press/press-releases/. 2011 Webecoist. http://webecoist.com/2008/09/24/25-environmental-agencies-and-organizations/ Stabilo. Stabilo Company Website. http://www.stabilo.com Read More