SHOPA keeps tech trend alive - School, Home & Office Products Association

DSN Retailing Today, Nov 25, 2002 by Mike Troy

ATLANTA -- Technological innovation as a means to achieve product differentiation was a key trend highly evident at this year's School, Home & Office Products Association's trade show held in Atlanta Nov. 12 to 14.

Suppliers attending the event face the challenge of adequately differentiating their products from those offered by other suppliers, as well as retailers' own store brands, in order to avoid the margin compression that comes from competing on price alone. The response of many is to develop features or a method of use that can be patented or other product benefits that are not widely available.

Nowhere was this trend more evident than among suppliers of various types of writing instruments. Several suppliers introduced pen-like markers with a retractable tip feature as an alternative to conventional markers that use caps. Sanford offered its Colorific brand of markers with a tip that retracts into the barrel of the product, where a tiny lid flips down to keep it from dying out. A first-time exhibitor at the show called InnoDesk also introduced a retractable tip marker called Retrac-Tip that has two silicone lips inside the barrel that conceal the tip.

Another product with a patented feature is PaperMate's Pendulum. An angled tip attached to the ink chamber rotates inside the barrel to ensure the tip is always perpendicular to the writing surface.

The trend in mechanical pencils is for suppliers to offer larger diameter lead sizes in addition to the conventional 0.5- and 0.7-millimeter lead sizes. Bic introduced its Bic Matic Fun mechanical pencil with a 0.9-millimeter lead inside a colored barrel with a foam grip to appeal to younger consumers. Pentel offers an even larger 1.3-millimeter lead inside its Fiesta brand, so named because it comes in festive barrel colors.

Those who don't want to use a mechanical or regular pencil can try Stylus' new Liquid Lead pen. The company developed a graphite ink that writes, erases and performs the same as a No. 2 lead pencil.

In the highlighter area, Staedtler introduced a product called Textsurfer Classic which, unlike other highlighters, can be used on documents produced by ink jet printers and fax machines that use thermal paper. Highlighted areas of a document also appear as such when copies are made of the document.

In other segments of the category, success has bred increased competition. Crayola, RoseArt and several others offer crayons with a twistable feature that advance the crayon. The pen-like look of the product appeals to older kids. Entering the realm of big-bodied pens is Bic with its XXL oversized barrel pen with a foam grip to compete. Staedtler already has an XL writer brand pen and others in the segment include Pilot's Dr. Grip and Sanford's PhD. Growth in the permanent marker segment has also attracted increased competition from Bic.

Even products as basic as the three-hole punch and binders saw technological innovation. Acco's Swingline brand three-hole punch combines a lever handle with a patented punch-head design, allowing users to effortlessly punch through a stack of papers. When it's time to put those papers in a binder, Cardinal Brands has made sure the binder is easy to open, thanks to the lever technology of the Easy Open binder. The feature is used throughout Cardinal's line of binder products and is endorsed by the Arthritis Foundation.

Esselte, maker of the Pendaflex brand of hanging folders, came out with a product called CitySmart. The product features a cover with a surface texture similar to the rubber pads that go under rugs to keep them from sliding. When the cover is opened and placed on a desk or similar flat surface the files hang down and the product won't slip off the desk, even when stuffed full of papers.

The school, home and office products market isn't one normally associated with technologically sophisticated products, however the pressures of competition have given retailers an abundance of innovative new items from which to choose.