Shibumik
Member
Let me start by saying I am an growing pen maker. I do it for fun and relaxation. However, my more analytical side is curious about what the pen making market really looks like. I've read through posts here and there seems to be a lack any truly actionable examples because it's predominately a local market. I think we can do a bit better and perhaps help everyone a bit along the way. Luckily I am a R&D director and have a few quants that can help us out a bit.
We have a research division at our company that has been looking into the writing instrument buying habits of men vs. women in 2014 to test out some new software. It has been both interesting and revealing. What I can tell you is ~87% of women in our sample (female sample size: 667) prefer acrylic pens whereas ~71% of men (male sample size: 413) prefer wood. The reasons for this are many, but women appear to be more idealistic and creative and choose pens that reflect those attitudes (escapist), versus men who remain more traditionalists - more so than 10 years ago by almost a 20% margin! Our surveys suggest men are becoming more traditional and women are becoming less traditional – people and analytics are weird sciences indeed!
To gain a better understanding about what this means for pen makers and turn it into actionable knowledge, I would be interested in knowing what your ratio or male to female purchasers are (male/female format).
If you know, it would help also to know what percentage of buyers are purchasing for themselves or others as gifts.
I would finally be interested in where you feel your pricing sweet spot is as of today. For example, is your market weighted to low-cost pens (<$25), medium cost (>$26 but <$60), upper middle cost (>$61 but <$126), or high-level pens costing more than $126.
I realize demographics, product and cultural preferences come into play here, but with enough responses, I will post what it all means in a general sense in the scheme of today's market places and perhaps it can help everyone here with some direction in one way or another.
Thanks,
K. Williams
We have a research division at our company that has been looking into the writing instrument buying habits of men vs. women in 2014 to test out some new software. It has been both interesting and revealing. What I can tell you is ~87% of women in our sample (female sample size: 667) prefer acrylic pens whereas ~71% of men (male sample size: 413) prefer wood. The reasons for this are many, but women appear to be more idealistic and creative and choose pens that reflect those attitudes (escapist), versus men who remain more traditionalists - more so than 10 years ago by almost a 20% margin! Our surveys suggest men are becoming more traditional and women are becoming less traditional – people and analytics are weird sciences indeed!
To gain a better understanding about what this means for pen makers and turn it into actionable knowledge, I would be interested in knowing what your ratio or male to female purchasers are (male/female format).
If you know, it would help also to know what percentage of buyers are purchasing for themselves or others as gifts.
I would finally be interested in where you feel your pricing sweet spot is as of today. For example, is your market weighted to low-cost pens (<$25), medium cost (>$26 but <$60), upper middle cost (>$61 but <$126), or high-level pens costing more than $126.
I realize demographics, product and cultural preferences come into play here, but with enough responses, I will post what it all means in a general sense in the scheme of today's market places and perhaps it can help everyone here with some direction in one way or another.
Thanks,
K. Williams