Stationery has an unusual problem for a consumer brand: it is everywhere, yet it can be easy to overlook.

A pencil is a pencil until a child starts asking for a particular one. An eraser stops being just an eraser when it comes in a shape worth collecting. And a stationery set becomes a gift when brands start looking beyond the school bag and towards the occasions in which consumers are already looking to buy.

For DOMS Industries, this shift has been central to how it has approached marketing a category that has traditionally been driven by trade and school requirements. Saumitra Prasad, CMO, DOMS Industries, has been looking at the category through a wider consumer lens, from product innovation and content to gifting, brand-building and the question of how a traditionally offline category stays relevant in a digital-first world.

“We target both our end consumers as well as the most important influencers, which are the parents. And I would say so it’s a blend of both,” Prasad said.

The challenge, however, has not simply been about reaching two audiences. Children have become increasingly influential in household purchase decisions, while parents have remained the gatekeepers, particularly for educational products.

“As a responsible marketer, we knew that to reach out to children, especially mediums like digital, for example, we have to reach through the parents,” he explained. “And a brand has to make themselves very responsible in these educational products, whether it’s the products or the content we create.”

At the same time, the child consumer has become harder to hold on to. Prasad has described children today as both “the most exciting as well as the most challenging consumer” because their expectations and interests keep changing.

“You can’t keep them glued with one product for few months or even few days,” he said. “And that’s what was very well understood by us.” For DOMS, the response has been speed and variety. The brand has continued to introduce products across price points and has built a portfolio designed to keep the category interesting for young consumers.

“Our innovation speed is phenomenal. We keep developing exciting range of products, far, far much higher speed than any other competitor,” Prasad said. “Over a period of time, we have now 24 types of pencils.”

The thinking has extended beyond simply adding SKUs. Prasad has believed that innovation can help make a relatively functional category more experiential, particularly when consumers are looking for more choice and novelty.

“We are not competing with other brands and we try to compete with ourselves because we know that stationery still is very under-penetrated in India,” he said.

That under-penetration has also opened up new occasions for the category. Gifting has emerged as one such opportunity, with DOMS moving stationery sets beyond birthdays and return gifts and into festive occasions. “Our gifting range starts from as low as 10 rupees to 2,000 rupees,” Prasad has said, pointing to the range of consumers and occasions the brand has been attempting to address. The shift has made festive marketing increasingly relevant for the category. According to Prasad, gifting has contributed significantly to the stationery segment becoming more important during festive periods in recent years.

“Festive season becoming more important has been in recent times, largely because of gifting products,” he said. “In the last few years only we have seen a huge shift to gifting sets of DOMS in the festive season.” But despite these seasonal spikes, DOMS has not treated stationery as a category that needs to disappear between major consumption periods. Its marketing approach has instead been built around being present throughout the year.

“We are a brand which we believe should connect with a child every day,” Prasad has said. “We are present throughout the year.” That has translated into an always-on content strategy, particularly on YouTube. DOMS has built a community of around four million followers on the platform, while producing content around its products, art and creative activities.

“We have new content every day,” Prasad said. “Sometimes, two content pieces on our social media in a day because it’s today’s life. There’s so much happening that we believe to remain in touch with our consumers.”

Importantly, the brand has not treated digital merely as a distribution channel for advertising. YouTube has been viewed as a space where the brand can create content that parents are comfortable with children consuming. “We invest a lot on YouTube because we understand from parents as well as teachers that this is one medium they allow children to use for their assignments, learning, and with parental guidance,” he said.

The strategy has also included influencer marketing, although Prasad has emphasised selectivity over sheer follower numbers. “We select our influencers very carefully, not just going by mass, celebrity influencers,” he said. “We are going with influencers who may still have much lesser followers but who are creating good meaningful content.”

For a brand that has continued to invest in digital, Prasad has also rejected the idea that technology has necessarily been a threat to stationery. Instead, he has viewed it as something that can work alongside the category. “I always believe that it is not a threat. Technology can always be a partner if we collaborate well,” he said.

That philosophy has also influenced how DOMS has used offline experiences. The brand has participated in consumer touchpoints such as KidZania and art-led experiences, with the objective of getting children to engage with creativity rather than simply seeing another advertisement. “We don’t believe in just pure vanilla advertising of the earlier years,” Prasad said. “Here we are looking at how to engage them and give them experience of creativity.” This approach has also shaped the brand’s media partnerships. DOMS has participated in television properties when they have aligned with its brand thinking rather than simply because they offered scale.

The brand has sponsored Kaun Banega Crorepati in the past, including advertising around the kids’ round, because of its connection with DOMS’ belief that “every ambition needs preparation.”

“What we realized is that yes, this man is also talking about preparation and with the celebrity which is also seen as very respectful, and so that made us invest,” Prasad said.

That principle has become increasingly important as marketers have gained more media choices. For Prasad, the question is no longer simply which medium offers the largest reach, but whether the property makes sense for the brand.

“There are more options also to choose,” he said. “Every medium, I believe, can stay relevant in a way.” The same thinking has extended to brand communication itself. DOMS has continued to create product-led communication through its in-house team, while using creative agency partners for larger brand campaigns. “A brand is much bigger than the products,” Prasad said.

The distinction has allowed the brand to balance the constant need to communicate new products with longer-term brand building. While product communication has remained frequent, Prasad said DOMS has also attempted to create a larger brand communication regularly, built around stories that connect emotionally with both children and parents.

The recent ‘Every Year Counts’ campaign has been an example of that approach, moving away from simply putting products at the centre and towards storytelling around the back-to-school moment.

“When we have, for example, the last campaign which is Every Year Counts, it is again not to talk about products,” he said. “We want to talk about a brand.” For Prasad, the choice between humour and emotion has ultimately depended on the brand, its audience and the occasion. “It all depends on the brand and the target group and the situation,” he said.

With children becoming more demanding and consumers increasingly exposed to new experiences across categories, Prasad has believed this expectation will only intensify. “Consumers are expecting far more at half the cost,” he said. “They want things faster, they want things newer, better, at lesser and that’s happening across category.” For stationery, that could mean making even the most basic products feel new. Prasad has pointed to products such as shaped erasers as an example of how everyday stationery can be turned into something more experiential and collectible.

“The consumer will be more demanding and marketer has to be prepared to fulfil that need,” he said. For DOMS, then, the next phase of stationery marketing has not been about choosing between traditional and digital, seasonal and always-on, or product and brand. It has been about understanding when each has a role to play.

The category may be built around pencils, colours, erasers and paper, but the marketing challenge has become much bigger: keeping a young consumer curious, giving parents a reason to trust the brand, and finding new occasions for products that have traditionally been associated with the classroom.

And if Prasad’s view is anything to go by, the brands that win will be the ones that understand that consumers are no longer satisfied with simply getting the product. They want more choice, more experience and more value from it.

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