Get ready for the 1996 BTS season

Drug Store News, Nov 20, 1995

More than 500 vendors will offer new products for back-to-school, home and office, and kids arts and crafts this month at the School and Home Office Products Association (SHOPA) show in Dallas.

Here is a preview of some innovative new products:

* Day Runner will debut its new licensed theme organizers with Disney and Warner Bros. characters. The Looney Tunes line of loose-leaf organizers and telephone/address books is targeted to male and female consumers age 12-25 and includes such evergreen characters as Tas (the in-your-face Tasmanian Devil) and other Looney Tunes characters.

The Mickey Unlimited line features a nylon-covered personal organizer for teens and adults and includes a line for school-aged girls of Mickey Unlimited Sticker Notes, Sticker Diary, Assignment Book and Sticker Planner to help young users both decorate and plan ahead.

* Mead will introduce Cambridge CarryAll Day Planners, a planner and wallet all in one; also new is a home tax organizer CFO Cambridge Financial Organizer (SRP $19.99-$24.99).

Mead has new college licenses for school products, Major League baseball, expansion of NFL and NHL products and a new 3-dimensional Nike look, and will introduce four new multi-purpose planners in its Five Star line targeted to ages from junior high to mature adults. Mead's new Sassafras line of school supplies is designed to appeal to young girls and to complement its sports lines.

* Sanford will debut new products in its fashion Write Worx line, including Graphites (high tech rubber grip pens), Slates (rubber grip pens in marble looks) and Reflex (mirrored aviator sunglass-type finish), targeted to the 12-to-24-plus market. Sanford also has a new McDonaldland pencil license for BTS 1996, with three pencils featuring Birdie, Ronald and Grimace on huge eraser tops (one top, three pencils per pack). Sanford's new home office line is Home Office Sets, aimed at tax time and second semester and targeted to the 40 million home office workers with the tag line "When one dozen is too many and one is too few" (products come in three packs to 10 packs).

* World Trends offers two new pens and is adding a rollerball and fountain pen in its Super Wave pen line (a bulky pen with a multiridged design engineered to give a good grip at different points). New licenses include Sailor Moon in the Super Wave line as well as changes in the Tiny Toons and Animaniacs products.

New products...

* Binney & Smith's new Dual Color Colored Pencils have two lead colors (16 colors in an 8-pencil box). Crayola Big Tip Colored Pencils with hexagonal shaped barrels in bright colors are designed for young children. Crayola Mini-Stampers Markers (they don't require a stamp pad) adds eight stamps to the line, and B&S will also debut a new line of preschool products including Crayola Washable No-Spill Paint.

* Lisa Frank will offer unique merchandisers for many of its products for girls featuring designs with characters like Hollywood Bear, Painter Panda and Markie the Unicorn. Among the offerings will be some of its newest items like clipboards, Imaginationary (die cut sheets of paper and envelopes) and study sets.

* Stuart Hall will launch a new look for its Looney Tunes Blues line licensed from Warner Bros. and featuring Bugs, Tas, Tweety, Wile E. Coyote and other characters. The line will include a new soft side line of nylon binders and other products. Looney Tunes character Marvin the Martian, which scores high with teenagers, will replace last year's sports theme.

Stuart Hall has also licensed for its school products the Coca Cola Polar Bear (the rebel bear with low jeans, to appealing to boys and girls), Coca-Cola Bear Cubs (targeted to girls) and Mystic Places with unicorns and a fantasy setting, also targeted to girls.

* Acco is introducing a new line of twin pocket folders called Acco Snapper, designed for convenient storage and to fit in a three-ring binder without opening the rings. Another debut is Diamonds, Acco's new textured ring binders and twin pocket folders, which alternates a high gloss and matte finish in a diamond pattern.

* Staedtler will introduce Designables, a line of coloring products lettering guides, templates, compasses and protractors for the younger age group. Staedtler will also introduce launch a new generation of Elite, its high end mechanical pen and pencil, with a soft grip and rich colors. A new ink jet highlighter that doesn't smear the text will also debut.

* Manco will introduce On the Go Desk for trips, daycare and visits to the grandparents. The soft, yet firm, lap desk has storage and a dry erase surface with a liftup board and side pockets for markers and other creative materials. Manco is also developing learning themes (geography, space, dinosaurs) to be sold separately or used with On the Go Desk.

...New promotions

* Pentel will promote a value-added tie-in with a free on-pack sheet of 3M's Post It Note Page Markers. Products with the offer include three SKUs of Pentel's Gizmo line of pencils and pens, the Forte automatic pencil. As a cross tie-in, 3M will offer a free Pentel Rock `n Write roller ball pen on the most popular size Post It pack (3 x 3).