You know, the business of selling pens to the trade has changed dramatically in the last ten years. Then it was simply a matter of paying for entry into business gifts catalogues and possibly producing the odd personalised pens catalogue of your own. Nowadays, the level of support primarily because of digital imaging and the internet is awesome.

Here at The Pen Warehouse, we have built up a library of quality images over the years including photographic images and vector drawings. Tens of thousands of hours has gone into the making of this library and it is being added to each day. It would be true to say that photography of promotional pens and digital manipulation at The Pen Warehouse is a permanent job for a number of people. Do we need to go to this expense? – Not really is the answer. Fortunately or unfortunately our MD was a professional product photographer and consequently he insists that we set the bar very high. He takes many of the images himself in high resolution on a large film gallery camera – none of that digital rubbish where constricted dynamic range, artefacts and weird colours are the order of the day. No Siree – good old fashioned film 10″ x 8″ transparencies drum scanned for the perfect results. This is the standard set by National Geographic for many of its top images and dare I say it ‘Playboy Magazine’ where outstanding gradation of colour is paramount.

It is amazing that twelve years works can be condensed onto one single DVD, but it can and it is freely available to our distributors for your website, catalogues or any form of digital merchandising. Why, we have images of printed pens that can be produced for pop up banners 6 feet tall without a pixel in sight and razor sharp edges – that’s how good they are. Just ask our sales department for your DVD and we will get it off in the post to you today.

Keep tuned into our newsroom here at The Pen Warehouse – The home of promotional pens and pencils.

Pens come and go and this is very true of personalised pens in particular as the promotions market chases the latest in design. However, some promotional pens stay around forever and probably the best example of this is our time-honoured printed pen; namely our range of  Giotto Ballpens.

With its metal upper part and high quality injection moulded barrel, rounded off with a chrome plated metal nosecone, this pen oozes traditional values. Indeed it has often been compared to the range of Parker Jotter Ballpens, which we also stock and is a much less expensive option. The body houses a black refill with an extra large reservoir of German documental quality ink = the preferred colour for completing formal documents and also for photocopying. It is a firm favourite then with Solicitors, Police Forces and the Legal profession.

These pens are great as advertising or printed  pens because the barrel can be printed in up to six colours and we can match these very closely to the shades of your choice. The barrel comes in five traditional colours and complements the upper chrome part of the pen perfectly. This pen operates on a push-button mechanism and we can supply a range of packaging options to suit every budget. Of particular note is our range of pen tubes that barely add any cost to the product but is the perfect accessory when you want to impress.

If you would like something even a little bit more exclusive we can also supply this pen in an all-metal construction. The barrel is impact extruded from solid brass, then chrome plated and finally a protective lacquer is applied to reduce smearing during use. These are The Giotto Metal Ball Pens which also can be supplied with a matching mechanical pencil as a boxed set. Although these look really expensive, they are in actual fact very reasonably priced.

Keep tuned to our daily news report from The Pen Warehouse – The Home of Printed Pens and Pencils.

Pens, or more specifically personalised pens don’t just have to be standard off-the -shelf promotional items – they can be supplied as custom pens as well.

By this I mean not only can you rely on the printed message to carry your corporate colours, you can also have the colours of the pens themselves either mix and matched or moulded in a specific shade. We refer to this type of personalisation as custom pens or bespoke pens. Here is a list of options that The Pen Warehouse can provide.

Mix and Match Pens:

• Kiki Fantasia: This belongs to the larger Kiki Pen range that is available in a range of standard colours. The Fantasia Range refers to a type of pen personalisation that allows these standard component colours to be arranged to your specification. With the Kiki pens this refers to the barrel, upper body and clip. This allows for an endless amount of permutations to suit your corporate identity. You can also have these as printed pens by asking for personalisation on the barrel and the clip. Minimum order for this is just 1,000 pieces
• X-Three Fantasia: These are two-piece pens for advertising – barrels and clips. The minimum order quantity is 3,000 pieces and are a more cost-effective option to the Kiki Pen range
• X-Five Fantasia: These pens must surely be the ultimate in personalisation. You can mix and match the nosecone, rubber grip, barrel, lower cap and clip giving you an endless choice of combinations. We don’t stop there as not only can we print the barrel and clip we can also print an inner cylinder that rotates inside the barrel that is visible when a transparent barrel is chosen. Minimum quantity here is 1,000 pieces.

Special Coloured Pens

• You can have any pen in our range moulded to a specific colour reference of your choice. Pantone matches can be fairly closely matched but please bear in mind that these references are translucent in nature and our pens will be opaque – consequently do not expect the same brilliance in colour. However, this has never been an issue on any order and we also offer an optional pre-production proofing service for your peace of mind
• Minimums start from 5,000 pieces. Please call for more information.

So, no matter what you want we can cater for it in terms of colour options.

Keep tuned to our daily news bulletins to hear the latest offerings on promotional pens from The Pen warehouse

I have done a few news items now outlining my thoughts on the direction that the route to market for pens but more specifically promotional and personalised pens is changing, particularly where online trading is concerned. In summary, we are seeing many distributors becoming importers and trade suppliers and there are also strong indicators that seemingly trade-exclusive suppliers are either sponsoring, working hand-in-glove or ‘cloaking’ to secure route to market. What is The Pen Warehouse’s answer to this?  Will we consider going direct at some point in the future?

This is a question I am being asked with increasing regularity by distributors because the more enlightened ones can see what is going on in the war for route to market. Here in the UK we have a long history of being ‘exclusive’ rather than ‘inclusive’ in the way we operate in the promotions industry. Our two trade bodies are not inclusive in any way as membership dictates that it is fundamentally exclusive. We see the same thing with general promotional gift websites and catalogues that are seemingly even-handed but in reality are heavily biased towards one supplier or another. Indeed there are many so-called trade catalogues that exclude some trade suppliers altogether as they see them as a threat to their own overt or covert operation. It is little wonder therefore that some distributors see the writing on the wall for the traditional methods of distribution prevailing, particularly as there seems to be less incentive for trade-exclusive suppliers to remain so.

Here at The Pen Warehouse, we have no intention whatsoever of going direct to the end user by overt or covert means. We have every confidence that a large body of distributors have a  strong preference for dealing with trade exclusive suppliers providing that we deliver great customer service benefits. However, we do not simply want to stop there. The Pen Warehouse has always provided benefits to distributors that are creative and groundbreaking and we intend to continue in this vein. So far we have helped revolutionise the printed pens business by introducing products and services that were industry-firsts, leaving our competitors to simply try and mimic what we are doing. Here are just a few.

• Largest and most comprehensive Pen Catalogue Anywhere in Europe
• The first company to introduce 24 hour service
• The first pen supplier to supply both recycled and biodegradable pens
• The first company to supply pens with recycled refills
• The first to offer an anonymous pen website to the trade
• The first Germ killing Pen with modern technology
• The first to offer low volume orders in full colour
• The first to offer high quality product images in all colour options
• The first and still the only trade supplier to actively support their loyal distributors by passing leads to them.

Really, the list goes on and on and that is not to mention what we have planned for release in the next few months and years. We believe that innovative approach to trade supply keeps us ahead of the competition. Competition, by and large that is bereft of creative ideas; whose best attempt to retaliate is to copy and plagiarise and in doing so are destined to be second-rate forever. We hold great respect for our loyal distributors and in turn they recognise our contribution to the industry by way of our innovative approach that helps stimulate interest with the end-user and ultimately leads to more orders. That is our way forward, it is unique but we have the wherewithal and the determination to ensure we stay on this path into the foreseeable future.

Stay tuned to our news items coming to you on a daily basis – The Pen Warehouse, home of promotional pens.

I think it is fairly obvious to most keen observers of the changes in the promotional pen industry that the lines between being a trade supplier of personalised pens and an end-user supplier are becoming blurred. As discussed in an earlier news item more and more distributors are becoming trade suppliers whilst at the same time demanding that their own suppliers remain trade-exclusive. An onerous aspiration if ever I heard one as it is fundamentally unfair. I believe a number of seemingly trade exclusive suppliers of personalised pens are not standing idly by and are finding their own route to market through the following mechanisms

• Overtly opening or buying a distributor business and using that to secure route to market. This is seemingly like shooting yourself in the foot but in reality there is little downside to running with the hare and hunting with the hound. This will be the topic of a future article related to the trade sales of personalised pens.
• Working hand-in-glove with existing distributors on an exclusive or semi-exclusive basis. This is like a half way house and of course there is nothing wrong with the practice but it is a policy that is designed to curry favour with a particular distributor (usually influential) on the basis of excluding other distributors. It is a matter of opinion whether this is an acceptable practice for selling personalised pens and the two opinions on the matter are probably governed by whichever side of the fence you are sitting on.
• Cloaking: The practice of overtly selling personalised pens to the end-user through a distributor business that is covertly owned or sponsored by the seemingly trade-exclusive supplier. There is no hard evidence this is happening but there are plenty of indicators to suggest it is being used as a strategy, particularly where online business is concerned. Opinion on this will be divided on the lines of whether it is right or wrong. Distributors will clearly feel betrayed and many trade exclusive suppliers will quietly be thinking ‘not for me at the moment, but I will keep my options open’.

Does this mean that I believe we will have umpteen trade-exclusive businesses going direct in a covert fashion somewhere down the line? I don’t know is the answer but  I do know that The Pen Warehouse has a strategy in place that will secure our position as trade-exclusive supplier forever.

However, in an industry such as ours, where there are no trade associations with regulatory teeth it was always going to be an inevitability that trade-exclusive suppliers would be forced to resort to desperate measures. If it is happening we should blame nobody but ourselves for sitting on our hands and allowing our industry to be largely unregulated. That will also be the basis of a future news item on personalised pens.

Stay tuned in to our daily news desk here at The Pen Warehouse – The Home Of Personalised Pens.

In an earlier post I touched on the importance of being a trade-exclusive supplier of pens and personalised promotional pens in particular. This has been a subject of debate long before I came into the industry and no doubt it will carry on long after I have gone. It is a contentious issue and I suppose as humans we want the best of both worlds, supplying to the trade and also supplying to the end-user.

We are seeing an increase in the number of distributors that are also becoming trade suppliers as well and as such are our competitors. It is a one-way street, seemingly, as there is no evidence of trade-exclusive suppliers abandoning their treasured status although many would like to in adjusting to the new paradigm. The temptation to jump-ship is certainly increasing for many trade-exclusive suppliers as their trading policy is proving to be their achilles heel. There is nothing worse than being constrained by a set of rules whilst at the same time not being protected by them. In other words, trade suppliers are accountable to their customers but it does not work the other way around. That is a fundamental that is difficult to reconcile for any human being and is the stuff of many revolutions.

Like so many revolutions, they rarely happen overnight; there is usually a gestation period of underground covert activity. I believe that there is strong evidence that sort of covert activity is now in place for a small but growing number of trade-exclusive suppliers. Of course I am focussed on the printed pens industry but there is no reason to suggest that it is not happening across the whole industry. I would refer to this as ‘cloaking’ because there are numerous trading companies appearing on the internet selling promotional items and personalised pens in particular that seem to be exclusively allied to one particular trade supplier. Any attempt to make an appointment to see them with a view to getting our pens on their website is denied in various ways – and a small number actually refuse to even discuss the issue. One seemingly independent distributor based very close to our head office recently stated that their eco-biased website was no longer actually being proactively used and was virtually defunct – yet they were paying for sponsored advertising on Google with that very site. I suffer from a degree of paranoia like any other driven entrepreneur but what is unmistakable is the increasing level of secrecy behind internet-based companies. Most are who they say they are but there is a huge question mark over many because their openness to competitive alternative products is totally lacking. In a capitalist system where your very survival rests with your competitiveness why would any business owner not pay close attention to all sources of supply, particularly those that would seemingly provide a trading advantage?

Well what is The Pen Warehouse doing about it? You will have to wait for my next news item here at pens.co.uk – the home of personalised pens.

I remember reading a mailing that went out to the trade some years ago with the title ‘Are Your Suppliers Your Competitors?’ Although this was not anything to do with pens, or perhaps I should say personalised pens, the tenor of the mailshot was that if you are a wise distributor you should be careful who you buy your promotional gifts from because they may be connected with an end-user selling arm or may be openly selling to both trade and end-user. It is an irony that very company some years later fell into the same boat themselves.

I remember when reading it that the message could be seen as ‘scare’ tactics and could backfire. I believed then as I do now that I have to live in the world as it is and not the way I want it to be and as long as distributors are making a conscious decision based on the full knowledge of the security issues surrounding passing their customer’s details to a supplier that is ‘running with the hare and hunting with the hound’ then that is their prerogative. In all fairness to the mailshot in question I think the message was a valid one as it was intended as thought provoking.

I am always wary of making claims publicly about issues such as these because a small part of me screams that I am trying to gain advantage by claiming some sort of moral high-ground and I could not reconcile that with my own values, so I kept quiet – like most other people. My general view is that Distributors are capable of making up their own minds and you cannot blame any supplier for trying to sell to whoever they want – that is capitalism and enterprise and if you rob people of that you will also rob the industry of some of its leading lights.

You may at this point wonder why I am bothering to write this news item, apart from the obvious one of putting important keywords relevant to promotional pens in here and there (…see I’m at it again), well it is because I am beginning to notice a very worrying trend – that of the seemingly trade exclusive supplier selling to the end-user through ‘cloaking’ companies.

That will be the subject of my next article in pens.co.uk – The Home of Printed Pens, so keep tuned in.

Since its inception over 12 years ago The Pen Warehouse has been a trade-only supplier of pens or more to the point Personalised Pens and promotional pens.

We are now the leading pen supplier to the trade, particularly in the UK  and we owe our success to the loyal support of our distributors spread across the length and breadth of the country. Our success is based on trust and we believe that this will hold us in good stead for the future. We are certainly in a very changing world as far as the distribution of promotional gifts go, particularly because of the internet. My own sales training many years ago was based on customer-facing skills and how to turn leads into orders. Today, as far as the internet goes those skills are largely irrelevant as online business is very impersonal. Today, success on the internet depends on a different skill-set; largely technical because of search engine optimisation and everything that surrounds it. Our job as a trade supplier however, remains the same as it is largely a backroom supporting role for our distributors. It is true that certain adaptations had to be made to support the type of distributor that trades online but fundamentally things have not changed at all. It still boils down to good service, great prices and choice. However, it is easy to get carried away with the importance of online business as it is still a very small percentage of the total business being done. Distributors, in the main have a good rapport with their customers and enjoy a good percentage of repeat business where prices are less sensitive. Whether you trade online, sell through traditional means or a bit of both it matters little to us here at The Pen Warehouse – it boils down to the fact that our pedigree as a trade-exclusive supplier is unrivalled.

We are beginning to see the emergence of several ‘cloaking’ companies on the internet purporting to be independent distributors but are in actual fact end-user arms of trade suppliers that don’t wish to be seen jumping ship – just yet anyway. That may be the subject of a future article so keep tuned into our newsroom here at www.pens.co.uk – the home of printed pens for business.

Walking around trade shows one cannot help but notice that pens and in particular personalised pens are now the promotional giveaways of choice for most exhibitors. The Pen Warehouse is ideally placed to help our distributors exploit this market because of our extensive range of low-cost promotional pens and pencils. (Cheap in other words)

I remember being an avid watcher of  ‘Tomorrow’s World’ when it was a popular television series because , like many others I believed they were giving us a glimpse of the future. In reality virtually all the weird and wonderful predictions never came true. We all thought that by now we would only need to get up each morning and point our robots in the right direction, load them up with the tasks for the day and then go and lie on the beach. Funnily it never happened; but then a small part of me never believed it would. We are working longer and harder than ever, even though technology has eased some of our burdens we have managed to create must-have desires for umpteen gadgets and general trappings of the modern world that we actually have less time to enjoy them. A great example of this is the ridiculous notion of  ‘The Paperless Office’. I first saw this idea on ‘Tomorrows World’ and I remember thinking to myself that I should not take the programme too seriously. We have never used so much paper and you need pens to write on it so there is no realistic prospect of paper and pens disappearing until we become telepathic. That is precisely why people give out printed pens at exhibitions. You will notice that there isn’t a single mention of a giveaway stylus for your PDA – no Siree!

So here’s to good old cheap plastic pens, the world revolves around them and any predictions to the contrary is just plain balmy! Give us a call for free samples and we will guide you through the selection process….Just an afterthought – why not have a look at our range of  Spectrum ball pens; you can have them printed in full colour – now that is something for Tomorrows World!