Pilot Pen Corporation of America

Always an innovator in the writing instrument category, Pilot Pen Corporation of America decided in 1996 to bring these skills to the world of hand-held computing.  A careful study of the market validated their opportunity and led them to launch the Pentopia line of stylus products in 1998.

Aware of the competition in this emerging market segment, Pilot was careful to produce products that differentiated them from Cross and other stylus/pen makers.  Their products are feature-rich and "techie", designed to appeal to the millions of customers buying hand-held computers and PDAs.  Pilot's challenge was not, however, related to their product line, but to their traditional channels of distribution.  For many years, Pilot has maintained a strong distribution base with the office supply retailers and distributors.  Their challenge with Pentopia was to get the product merchandised where the hand-held computers customers shopped.  This is where Genesis Strategies came in.

In August of 1998, Pilot hired Genesis Strategies to help them to develop a new and different distribution channel for Pentopia.  For the line to succeed, it was imperative to get on the retail shelf of accounts that Pilot had never done business with.  To accomplish this, Genesis Strategies assembled a network of manufacturer's representatives with contacts in the computer business.  In many cases these rep companies also represented other leading computer accessory manufacturers.  Their relationships were leveraged to develop a quick rapport with the industry's leading retailers, allowing Pilot to get Pentopia placed at Best Buy, The Wiz and many other leading technology retailers.  After a successful launch the channel was moved over to Pilot's existing sales force for day-to-day management.  To learn more about Pilot and their Pentopia product line, click on the picture above and you'll get to the Pentopia home page.