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Sales and marketing
Marketing awareness
In time, the pencil caught the imagination of a wide variety of people,
including those responsible for buying in large numbers for companies,
and the government's Department of Trade and Industry, which has helped
promote
(G) it. The Design Council chose to award the pencil 'Millennium Product'
status and the company have received many other awards, mainly for the
environmentally friendly aspects of the product. Being invited to include
their pencil - and all the manufacturing machinery - in the Millennium
Dome was a major marketing breakthrough. It was especially important because:
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it gave them considerable extra publicity
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thousands of people saw pencils in production for themselves
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it associated the product with the idea of being up-to-date and
for the future
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it gave them a sales outlet - the Dome souvenir shop.
Product advantages
You may think that all pencils are the same, but you have probably, at
some time, used a really poor one that was simply awful to write or draw
with. Or perhaps you've tried to sharpen one with a knife and found that
it had very hard wood and every time you cut it you broke the lead! Using
a completely new core (new materials put together in a new blend), Remarkable
had to produce a pencil that was a pleasure to use in every way.
Getting the pencil stiff enough was one important factor - if it was too
flexible the core would break-up like a traditional pencil does if dropped
(have you ever wondered why section after section of some pencil leads
keep falling out as you try to sharpen them?). Making sure the plastic
which replaced the wood was not crumbly was another factor.
When writing with them the early production Remarkable pencils tended
to feel just slightly different to good quality traditional pencils, with
a slight feeling that the core was sticking to the paper as you changed
the direction of a stroke. The core has since been refined to ensure that
the feel is really satisfying.
To achieve enough sales it was decided at an early stage that the pencils
should carry companies' printed promotional information - company names
and logos - so they could be given away as a form of advertising. One
of the big advantages of this form of advertising is that the company
name is right under the nose of their potential clients
(G) both when in use and in a pencil pot on their desks - or even kicking
around at home.
For writing or drawing, a pencil is the same whether you are left or right
handed. But once words are printed on it, a right handed pencil will present
the information upside-down to a left handed user (try it with any labeled
pen or pencil). For this reason Remarkable will make them for right or
left handed use in whatever number their clients want.
The pencils are printed with promotional information after manufacture
- either with plain coloured liquid inks or, using heat and pressure to
transfer them, with foil labels. The foils can have several effects built
in, such as glitter.
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