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.
Join the conversation
Certification: