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Can You Sell This Pen?
BNH talks to Robert Silberman, director of marketing for the Pilot Pen Corp. of America, headquartered in Trumbull.
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Business New Haven
2/21/2000
By: Tammy Rachau
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How large is your department and how is it organized?
We have 14 people working here in the marketing department, set up into two different groups. One is what I'll call the traditional marketing group, which is the product management group, and the other is the design or graphics area. The product management people decide on what products to introduce, what to name the products, how the products should be positioned, how they should be packaged and priced. They also do all of the copywriting for the product, all of the sales collateral copywriting, and are basically the people that deal with sales. The graphics people, on the other side, are doing the design work. With some direction from marketing, they are the ones who are doing the creative work, either for packaging or for sales collateral or for ads that portray the product. I oversee both of these sections.
Do you use outside marketing agencies at all?
Yes, we do have an outside marketing agency, KGA, in Middletown. I'm responsible for the marketing and there is another person responsible for the corporate advertising, which the outside agency would be more involved in. At times we use some outside design agencies for creative work, either for ads or for packaging.
What are some recent or imminent products you're working on?
We just introduced two new products: One is a line extension on our Dr. Grip product line, an ergonomic product that is commended for use by the Arthritis Foundation. We've introduced very, very bright neon color barrel products, similar in look to the iMac. The other thing we've introduced recently is another line extension on the Dr. Grip line, which is called the Dr. Grip 1+1. It's a retractable ball point pen and a mechanical pencil in one product with the comfort of Dr. Grip.
What changes have you seen in the industry and the marketing involved?
I've been with Pilot Pen since 1992. A good analogy is the hardware business. When I came to the company, there were probably 8,000 office product dealers in the country; now we're down to about 3,500. The real change has been the growth of the superstores - Staples, OfficeMax, Office Depot. There now are about 2,700 in the country, and they've really taken over a big piece of the business.
What do you see in the future of your industry?
Everyone is expanding to the Internet. We do not sell anything direct online; we're selling to distributors. If people need information about our products or are looking for a certain type of product and where they might purchase it, that would be handled by our Web site at pilotpen.com.
As far as trends go, right now probably the biggest trend are the gel pens. We have introduced two product lines over the past two years. One is called G2, and the other is P500 and P700. We are also getting ready to introduce colored gel pens. They will be pastel and metallic gels. We are a major player and aim to become an even bigger player in the gel business.
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