BiC
Invent the future
Attending the course of “Introduction to Advertising and Public Relations”, that we had this semester at the Communication, Media and Culture department, the first exercise that we were asked to do was to become a company’s brand ambassador. In cooperation with my team, after we examined a variety of potential companies as the options were countless, we decided to present and work for BiC.
BiC is, undoubtedly, a giant in the production of stationary and daily-use products, such as lighters, razors etc. It’s history begins during the second world war, in 1944, when the French baroness Michele Bich, who has worked for many years as a manager in similar businesses, decided, cooperating with his friend Eduardo Buffar, to purchase an old abandoned factory, outside of Paris, and to establish there a factory of stationery, which they called BiC. Their vision was to make consumers’ life easier, providing simple and trust-worthy solutions to their daily needs.
In the next 20 years, BiC managed to expand and to establish factories in every continent, as well as to be nominated with significant awards, as the “Oscar de la publicite” award in 1952 for their advertising campaign “Elle court, elle court”. BiC was one of the companies that popped instantly to all of our team members’ mind as it has managed to appear everywhere from our workplace to our home! BiC initially started as a manufacturing company of long-lasting pens, and afterwards, buying off other companies, it managed to produce various stationery products, while from 1973 to 1975 it inserted to their production line 2 of their most significant products, lighters and razors. Nevertheless, BiC did not only restrict themselves in these fields. A few years later, it decided to work in the athletic field and due to this, BiC Sports was founded, which produced equipment for sea sports.
All along, BiC’s interest was fixed on education. One of their major values is that everyone should have the right to access it. Based on this belief, in 2012, BiC created a campaign called “A school, a future”, in which, cooperating with READ Educational Trust and Zinto Activation Group, they donated 1 million pens to students who could not afford to purchase the basic stationary. At the same time, the campaign sensitized pupils to gather, with their families, money for these children. The grand total which was donated was adequate to construct 3 new classes in Haiti. The majority of their campaigns were fluctuating on the same wavelength, such as the “Change the future” campaign, as well as many other cooperations that BiC created with non-profit organizations, such as Enactus.
While reading with my team BiC’s actions, we were impressed with the “The ‘write’ kind of bench”, where they were practically manufacturing the first benches made of recycled BiC’s pens. Their sensitivity to environmental issues is also observed by the effort they put into the significant reduction of electricity, water and non- recycled materials. At the same time they chose not to use unnecessary paper or plastic in the production of packages for individual products, such as lighters.
Finally, I would like to mention that despite BiC’s high success, their employees are not complacent and always aspire to innovate. One of their innovations is the opportunity they provide to their consumers to design their own lighters. In that way, they spark consumers’ imagination and allow them to express themselves, creating something special and unique which will represent a part of themselves and will accompany them in their everyday life.
Betty Tsakarestou Margie Kam Grasiela Varkari Ina Makrydaki Afroditi Kokla
