Packaging / Advertising & Office

A neutral pen is 55 yuan, an automatic pencil is 48 yuan, and a pencil sharpener is 250 yuan... In the autumn of October, those ordinary and expensive imported "stationery assassins" entered China's major stationery markets, becoming the new favorites of many consumers.

According to the survey, a Japanese imported stationery store located in Chaoyang District, Beijing, had pens, notebooks, erasers, tapes, seals and other stationery of various styles and colors on rows of shelves. Take the neutral pen as an example. The price of a domestic neutral pen is usually between 1 yuan and 3 yuan, while a Japanese brand neutral pen is usually sold from 5 yuan, and the price of a color neutral pen is about 8 yuan to 10 yuan. An imported low gravity automatic pencil costs 48 yuan, and the relatively cheap automatic pencil costs 20 yuan to 30 yuan. The customers selected around the shelves are mainly young people. Mr. Yang, the customer, said: "I bought a 10 yuan black neutral pen imported from Japan, which is smoother to write, but as a common pen without other additional functions, the price is slightly higher. Of course, there are many good products in domestic stationery, but the overall good and bad are mixed, and it takes time and effort to choose."

According to the customs data, with the Japanese hand account culture sweeping our country in recent years, from primary school students to office workers, white-collar workers have "entered the pit" hand account. The manual account originally refers to a notebook used for recording events. Later, it gradually evolved into handmade works of painting with colored pens, writing records, and collage and typesetting with adhesive tape and stickers. The rise of hand account culture has driven the growth of consumer demand for many stationery such as neutral pens, colored pens, pigments, adhesive tapes, stickers, etc. Ms. He, a senior hand account enthusiast, said: "The materials I need for hand accounts will give priority to imported products, mainly Japanese brands. Although the price of Japanese stationery is slightly higher than that of domestic ones, it has a better sense of use and is more durable. European products are more professional, and the price is higher than that of Japanese brands."

There are not a few fans and consumers like Ms. He. There are more than 40000 notes about "Japanese stationery" in Xiaohong's book, more than 30000 notes about Japanese brand stationery such as Zebra, Guoyu and Paitong, and even 120000 notes about Baile.

According to Chinese customs data, from January to August this year, China's imports of pen stationery reached 1.394 billion yuan. According to customs data, pen stationery imported from Japan accounted for nearly 60% of the total import of stationery, with the import amount exceeding 845 million yuan.

Why is Japanese stationery still favored by many consumers despite its high price? A foreign student in Japan told the reporter that most of the Japanese stationery was beautifully made, with stable quality control, a good sense of use, and supported by technology and continuous improvement of the production process. In addition, Japanese enterprises are very good at marketing, and they often launch co branded and exclusive stationery with good implication, such as Conan's co branded stationery and Coolomey's co branded stationery.

"In contrast, although China's modern stationery industry started late, its development speed is fast and the industry has made remarkable achievements." Yi Aijun, associate professor of the School of Business of Jiangsu Ocean University, believes that, on the one hand, China's stationery industry continues to expand in size, and the number of enterprises above designated size continues to increase. On the other hand, the stationery industry in China started from simple OEM production and imitation. With the development of the industry, many enterprises gradually strengthened their investment in technology research and development, and the gap with foreign leading enterprises continued to narrow. Some product technologies even reached the global leading level.

According to customs data, China currently has more than 7.04 million stationery related enterprises. Since 2012, the annual registration growth rate of stationery related enterprises (all enterprises) has increased year by year. According to customs data, there will be more than 2.14 million registered enterprises in 2021, with an annual registration growth rate of 39.35%, the highest in history. As of August 30, more than 1.76 million stationery related enterprises had been registered this year.

As a stationery enterprise established in 1996, Mr. Wang of Ningbo Tianhong Stationery Co., Ltd. said: "Nowadays, it is difficult for Chinese stationery export enterprises to continue the competitive advantage of low prices, which is not the direction of long-term development of enterprises. Only by making efforts to explore new development paths and continuously integrating with foreign enterprises can the quality of Chinese stationery products and enterprise competitiveness be further improved."

In terms of product design, in order to cater to the "national trend" culture that has arisen in recent years, major stationery manufacturers in China have designed and manufactured stationery products that contain both traditional Chinese cultural elements and modern trends, which have been well received by consumers. For example, the "Confucius Temple Praying for Happiness" series of stationery launched by Chenguang Stationery is not only good in use, but also deeply loved by the majority of students. Many examinees who take part in important examinations such as the secondary school entrance examination and the college entrance examination will buy the "Confucius Temple Praying for Happiness" stationery.

For Chinese stationery export enterprises, Yi Aijun suggested that, first, we should strengthen the research and development of products, focus on improving product quality, gradually get rid of the state that core technology depends on imports, and clearly position the products based on product quality to create medium and high end stationery products that consumers are satisfied with. The second is to improve the product innovation ability. Innovation is the source of enterprise development. It can combine traditional Chinese cultural elements to create "national fashion" products with Chinese style elements. At the same time, from the needs of consumers, learn from the mature stationery market such as Japan, and constantly launch creative products.