Read and complete the Capstone exercise on page 177 and answerall of the questions associated with the case.
In 1885, Binney & Smith had a product line ofONE—An-DuSeptic dustless chalk. While promoting this product toteachers across the United States, the company founders discoveredthat teachers were importing expensive wax crayons from Europe. Inthe early 1900s, nearly 20 years after starting the company, Binney& Smith introduced a new product, eight colored crayonspackaged in a green and yellow box. Crayola Crayons remain a staplein American classrooms today. The size of the boxes and theselection of colors have changed over the decades, but the basicproduct remains essentially the same. (The “Big Box” with amind-boggling 96 crayons was introduced in 1993.) In 1964, Binney& Smith acquired Permanent Pigments, an acrylic paintmanufacturer, and in 1977, it acquired the rights to Silly Putty.In 1984, the Binney & Smith company became a wholly ownedsubsidiary of Hallmark Cards, Inc. In 2007, the Binney & Smithcorporate name was changed to Crayola because of the brandfamiliarity. The name Crayola has a 99% recognition among U.S.consumers. Eighty percent of all the crayons sold in the UnitedStates today have the Crayola brand name. Crayola products are soldin 80 different countries and packaged in 12 languages. The namechange also reflected the company’s new direction. For nearly 100years, Crayola targeted children and their parents with a productline of back-to-school products. The products had expanded fromcrayons to water paints, markers, chalk, colored pencils, andposter paints. However, in an effort to expand the market andgenerate revenues throughout the year, Crayola entered the toyindustry. Bath tub art, glow stations, Color Explosion products,Mess-Free Art, flavored drinking water, and even a colorfulcomputer keyboard and mouse are just some of the products added tothe Crayola line. Today in any big box store, Crayola will haveshelf space in both the art and school supply aisle AND the toysection.
1. How would you define the attributes and benefits of Crayolaproducts?
2. Define the core, actual, and augmented product benefits.
3. Where was Crayola in the product life cycle before it enteredthe toy market? Where do you think they are now? Explain.
4. Do you see the move from school supply products to toys asproduct development? Explain.
5. Describe the Crayola product portfolio strategy.
