Montblanc at the Fountain Pen Hospital

[pix]

7 hours ago, rickap said:

What proof do you have of this?

 

An email from them after an inquiry of mine about the new Origin collection.

[rickap]

6 hours ago, pix said:

An email from them after an inquiry of mine about the new Origin collection.

Ok. Thanks. So I wonder why so many Montblanc pens on their site?

 

Thanks

[pix]

1 hour ago, rickap said:

Ok. Thanks. So I wonder why so many Montblanc pens on their site?

 

Remaining stock, I guess.

[Michael R.]

According to rumors Montblanc reduces the number of dealers in areas with Montblanc boutiques.

[Cyrille81]

Yes, in Europe, MB decreases a lot the number of authorized resellers. For example in Benelux (Belgium, Luxembourg and Netherlands) it will remain only 38 I think. And for 2 years already, AR can't sell anymore the limited edition only the special ones, except the MoA 4810. The goal of MB is to force people buy to the official store or online website that is always empty in general... And Montblanc doesn't allow AR to propose reductions on its products so I suppose that's why online stores like Appelboom lost their agreement or have difficulties with MB.

[torstar]

On 4/13/2024 at 2:34 AM, marlinspike said:

This would make the 3rd well-known dealer I have heard of losing their Montblanc partnership. I think they only want to sell through their boutiques ultimately.

 

been going on for at least 20 years around here

 

[JCC123]

I think part of the problem is that fountain pens are a dying tool. In order for Montblanc to stay in business, they have to both reduce quantity sold and raise prices. You can see this strategy in many dying products as they go upstream and increase prices to counteract the decreasing demand. Cameras for example went the same way. Leica cameras are now a very small market segment and very high price. I think Montblanc is paying the same game. They know that decreasing demand is inevitable so they reduce the number of outlets, tighten up supply to feign exclusivity and raise prices...it's the oldest trick in the book.

[marlinspike]

56 minutes ago, JCC123 said:

I think part of the problem is that fountain pens are a dying tool. In order for Montblanc to stay in business, they have to both reduce quantity sold and raise prices. You can see this strategy in many dying products as they go upstream and increase prices to counteract the decreasing demand. Cameras for example went the same way. Leica cameras are now a very small market segment and very high price. I think Montblanc is paying the same game. They know that decreasing demand is inevitable so they reduce the number of outlets, tighten up supply to feign exclusivity and raise prices...it's the oldest trick in the book.

I don't think that's exactly write, but I don't have hard numbers to know. With cameras, sure, that's the way Leica went, but Fuji sells a LOT of instax. All I know about pens is when I was in college and grad school nobody else used a fountain pen, and it wasn't until I had been working for about 8 years that suddenly my junior colleagues had fountain pens (almost never did I meet a senior colleague who did).

[I-am-not-really-here]

1 hour ago, JCC123 said:

Leica cameras are now a very small market segment and very high price.

"Now?" Back in the early 80's, I had a $500 budget for a new 35mm camera with lens. I pored over issues of Modern Photography and Popular Photography, found Leica, marveled at how compact the cameras were and how TINY the lenses were.  Perfect! Then I saw the pricing.  Awww, , my $500 could buy a used Leica camera body but no lens or a used Leica lens but no camera.  So, in my opinion, Leica has had a different market segment for quite a long time.  Their digital offerings are no different, when the M8 was announced nearly 20 years ago, not even full frame and it was a $7,000 entry. Just the body, no lens (deja vu!).

[a student]

9 hours ago, JCC123 said:

I think part of the problem is that fountain pens are a dying tool. In order for Montblanc to stay in business, they have to both reduce quantity sold and raise prices. You can see this strategy in many dying products as they go upstream and increase prices to counteract the decreasing demand. Cameras for example went the same way. Leica cameras are now a very small market segment and very high price. I think Montblanc is paying the same game. They know that decreasing demand is inevitable so they reduce the number of outlets, tighten up supply to feign exclusivity and raise prices...it's the oldest trick in the book.

But Leica also has authorised dealers, and some of these dealers do give discounts or gift an accessory when you buy a camera

[torstar]

MB has forever required a quota sale of its product to non-MB stores, fail to meet it and buh-bye

 

sometimes over the last 20+ it seems like a more concerted purge, usually when you know a store owner kicked out and they complain, so it seems like a new and exciting thing in the world

 

 

[JCC123]

A simple google search shows that camera sales dropped by 87% since 2010 https://www.statista.com/chart/5782/digital-camera-shipments/

 

This is after digital/film cameras being eaten alive by phone cameras. If we are to go back further to before digital cameras, I bet it's even more drastic, falling by more than 95%...

 

You can draw similar collapse of fountain pen sales over the past 100 years. It's still dropping. Kids don't even know how to read or write cursive as that has not been taught at schools for over 20 years. Most young people can barely write, they type. As the Marx quote goes, "who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?"

[marlinspike]

Cursive is actually coming back into schools, just as an aside.

[JCC123]

Perhaps, let's see if the trend holds as gen Z and most of millenials don't know how. They are supposed to be the current buyers in support of these companies, but they're not since they don't know how. Younger ones won't be buying until much later. By then, a lot more companies will go out of business. Pelikan is likely to go under soon. They will need to raise prices drastically in order to compensate for the volume shortfall like Montblanc, Leica, Rolex etc...to stay in business. If, they can get people to pay. All these businesses of dying industries from the last century. Relics....

[marlinspike]

21 minutes ago, JCC123 said:

Perhaps, let's see if the trend holds as gen Z and most of millenials don't know how. They are supposed to be the current buyers, but they're not since they don't know how. Younger ones won't be buying until much later. By then, a lot more companies will go out of business. Pelikan is likely to go under soon. They will need to raise prices drastically like Montblanc, Leica, Rolex etc...to stay in business. If, they can get people to pay. All these businesses of dying industries from the last century. Relics....

I believe year over year fountain pen global sales have grown every year for a decade or so now. The North American market has had shrinking years, but the world is not America.  Drastic price increases are not a solution for most brands. Except for those with the strongest marketing, the business model of let's sell fewer but at a rip off margin doesn't work. Watches are not comparable to anything else, as many of the brands business models rely on being used for bribes in corrupt countries (Piaget sales basically track the extent of anti corruption enforcement in China). If you add it all up, I have cleared $10,000 in MB (wow, never thought of it that way) and they've pretty much lost me as a customer at this point with their current full ripoff approach.

[gerigo]

As someone who advises clients in marketing strategies, if you don't evolve and change, you will die.

 

As simple as that.

 

Fountain Pen Hospital is so long in the tooth in the way the store is retailed, the displays designed and the service rendered that it will eventually die because the customer it serves are all dying. However it is not quite accurate to say that fountain pen is dying. It is evolving because it is no longer an essential business tool, and serves a very niche community today. It is there if you know where to look. Within NYC itself, there are other fountain pen stores that are rising and thriving. This means that the tool has indeed undergone a transformation to appeal to a different group, one that would never step into the Fountain Pen Hospital. 

Montblanc themselves know this and are adjusting their retail presence to focus on this change. Yes they are taking back the license to selling products outside of their own boutiques, but are not completely eliminating it. They know the market is changing and perhaps the concept of impulse buying is no longer the retail segment they are focusing on. Rather a small but loyal group of customers who seek more expensive and exclusive products that Montblanc has captured. 

[marlinspike]

21 hours ago, gerigo said:

Montblanc themselves know this and are adjusting their retail presence to focus on this change. Yes they are taking back the license to selling products outside of their own boutiques, but are not completely eliminating it. They know the market is changing and perhaps the concept of impulse buying is no longer the retail segment they are focusing on. Rather a small but loyal group of customers who seek more expensive and exclusive products that Montblanc has captured. 

The mistake they are making is, if the reason they are giving the stores they are ending their relationship with is believed, that they are killing off the retailing by businesses which they perceive compete with their own boutiques too much, which means they are essentially targeting their most effective retail channels.

[torstar]

9 hours ago, marlinspike said:

The mistake they are making is, if the reason they are giving the stores they are ending their relationship with is believed, is that they are killing off the retailing by businesses which they perceive compete with their own boutiques too much, which means they are essentially targeting their most effective retail channels.

 

same old same old for decades

[gerigo]

Not to be rude, but if you feel that the products/ pricing/ approach no longer appeals to you,  and that you're walking away from the brand, I guess that is a risk that Montblanc is willing to take. They seem to be going to strength to strength with their endless limited editions and constant price raises. 

[marlinspike]

5 hours ago, gerigo said:

Not to be rude, but if you feel that the products/ pricing/ approach no longer appeals to you,  and that you're walking away from the brand, I guess that is a risk that Montblanc is willing to take. They seem to be going to strength to strength with their endless limited editions and constant price raises. 

Perhaps, or perhaps their milking of their customer eventually comes to a crescendo as others like me also walk from the brand. Sure, they have customers who spend more than $10,000 on a single pen, but I would still wager over $10,000 in Montblancs is pretty committed as far as customers go to now be walking.