Penagain’s Marketing Strategy

Case Study: PenAgain’s Marketing Strategy

Conducted by: Lauren Martinez

IBM 320

Professor Jae Jung

1. Introduction

The PenAgain is an ergonomic writing device designed by Colin Roche. It was designed to alleviate stress and reduce the risk of repetitive strain injury while writing. Writing with the PenAgain differs from writing with a traditional cylindrical pen. The writer's index finger sits in the wishbone-shaped device, so that the weight of the writer's hand directs pressure to the pen’s tip. This eliminates the need to grip the pen and push the tip into the paper. The index finger guides the tip of the pen.

Colin Roche designed the PenAgain while serving detention in high school in 1987. In college, year 2001, Colin Roche teamed up with his fraternity brother, Bobby Ronsse, and each put $5,000 towards patenting the PenAgain. From there, they launched a web site and started production in the San Francisco’s Bay area. The two worked hard to sell their products in small retailer stores, which was a success because of PenAgain’s innovative design.

In 2004, the business grew and PenAgain had $2 million in revenue. This included 5,000 in stationary and office supply stores, 200 Staples in Canada and many more. PenAgain became a number 1 seller on Amazon. The company then set off to obtain a large retailer account, Wal-Mart, which made Roche and Ronsee lower their prices for the pen and ultimately outsource their production to China. They received a trial run for some of the Wal-Mart chain stores, with endcaps of their products to see if the pens would be successful, and they were. PenAgain now has an account with Wal-Mart, who only accepts about 2% of all new manufacturers. This makes an outstanding accomplishment for PenAgain in being successful against all odds.

2. Company’s Marketing Activities

♣ Target Market: Narrowing down potential users of your products or services by developing a profile of a likely consumer. Information typically is gathered through marketing research, which makes use of tools such as surveys and questionnaires. By determining a customer profile, you can develop a marketing campaign geared toward your target market, which can be much more cost-effective than trying to reach a mass audience.

• Psychographics: PenAgain has identified lifestyle choices that influence the use of it’s products, such as children and senior citizens.

o This simple design of the traditional pencil is fine for most children but there are a substantial number of kids who have trouble learning to write because their fine motor skills are still developing or they have been diagnosed with a developmental disability such as Autism. These kids need a transitional tool to help them through the process and bridge them to using a conventional pencil.

o People who

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