With an eye on expanding its consumer base in the price-sensitive Indian market, Parker plans to remove its high-price image with the launch of a new low-priced `made-in-India' brand - Parker Beta.

In a soft launch, Luxor Writing Instruments Ltd (LWIL), a 50:50 joint venture between Luxor and Gillette India, has for the first time introduced a pen-Parker Beta-in the sub-Rs 100 category. What's more, the pen is designed specifically for the Indian market, and is the first-ever Parker pen to be premiered from India.

The aim: to tap the large untapped segment of young `students' which Parker wasn't able to win over since the entry level price points of the Parker pens often put the product out of reach for the average student between the age of 14-20 years.

Thus in India, within the Parker franchise, the Vector brand (priced at Rs 140 and which is the largest selling Parker pen in India) has come to be seen as a brand for young executives though, worldwide, it is the lowest priced pen and targeted at students as well.

The underlying strategy, therefore, according to company sources is to break the psychological barrier represented by the Rs 100-plus point and offer the youth an opportunity to own a Parker and experience the ultimate writing instrument at an affordable price.

Currently being distributed across the nation, the Parker Beta is available in three writing modes-the Beta Fountain pen at Rs 95, the Beta Roller Ball at Rs 75 and the Beta ball-point at Rs 50. The product will be supported by new packaging and advertising in print which is going to break this month.Even as the company is tightlipped about its Beta initiative, it is believed that Beta is the first product to be launched in the Indian markets as part of the company's `Worlds Beyond' package created internationally to revitalise the Parker brand. The company is believed to have invested millions in R&D for the new product lines.

With Parker Beta, the company aims to create a new segment, while simultaneously growing the functional segment in conjunction with Parker Vector. The Parker range of pens were launched in India in 1996 through LWIL. The range of premium pens includes the Sonnet, the Rialto, the Frontier, the Vector and the Parker Classic.

B2B expects to post Rs 2-crore turnover
With the onset of the festive season this year, LWIL is once again bullish about its business-to-business division. The division, says Ms Pooja Jain, general manager-marketing, business-to-business at LWIL, expects to post a turnover of Rs 2 crore this financial year. According to Ms Jain, the division has been growing at a rate of 15 per cent annually and presently accounts for approximately 15 per cent of LWIL annual turnover. ``We are more buoyant this year we want to take it to 25 per cent annually,'' says Ms Jain. With approximately 5,000 of the country's leading corporate houses as its clients, it claims to be one of the leading players in the fast-growing corporate gifting sector today.