What Happened To Montblanc?

[pen jubky]

It looks like Montblanc is slowly but surely going the way of the Dodo.

[TLMG]

From a business standpoint: it is because they have DRASTICALLY increased their costs because they are attempting to become a truly high-end brand again. In the same way that Ferrari does not sell its cars in "collective" dealerships, Mont Blanc wants to do the same thing. The problem is that while the marketing is almost there, they fail to understand that, at least at first, your product must have a USP that centers around the high-end, luxury good that it is.

Right now, MB is riding on its name and is selling a product that, if you are taking a step back, is HIGHLY marked up. The body of the pen costs approximately a dollar or two to make. The nib costs approximately $100. All in all, at MSRP, we are talking about $900 markup for a product based solely on the name. If you look at the secondary market, you can see what the consumer considers the true value of a brand new 149, as it stands now, approximately $500, best case.

 

MB could have taken two routes in the years prior: the could have redesigned the 149, increasing production cost, but giving it more talking points (ie, solid gold trim, celluloid-- since it would be a USP-- etc.)... or they could conduct a FUD campaign saying "pay us MSRP or your pen will likely be fake and will have no warranty."

They chose option 2 and, unfortunately for the brand, it wasn't the best choice.

Apple got where it is because, originally, they had extremely novel ideas and a very novel product design, etc. Mont Blanc, if it wants to follow the Apple model, needs to have the same.

[gwyneddd]

I'm interested in this topic--having worked in Germany for a while, and being in finance (stock broker.)

 

I think "luxury brand" or premium brand marketing is a difficult maze to thread. First, how well are writing instruments doing these days, in general? In the US, cursive writing has been taken off the curriculum for children in favor of teaching to the tests that are required. (The kids still are learning nothing, but at least now they can measure that decline. ) The advent of computers and keyboards and texting phones means writing by hand has declined in general. We took notes in college (copious notes) but now I am sure every kid going to school has a recorder, a video, can replay the lecture on the web, and probably types on a small laptop if they take notes. (We didn't even have freakin' CALCULATORS and I was taking physics and chemistry classes. Can you IMAGINE ..oh and no computer. At all.)

 

So other than for attorneys and yeah, people like me who write with a fountain pen during meetings, who is buying luxury pens?

 

I understand why MB went with boutiques. They want to clone the ability of Apple or luxury handbags like Hermes to command a premium for the cachet brand, and to control the price, it's easiest to restrict the selling to company boutiques.

 

The problem with this approach is that there are fewer stores and thus the sales depend on strong desire by consumers to own a Montblanc in favor of anything else. Once a brand cools off and isn't as faddy, the decline is rapid. A case in point are Coach bags in the US--they were "the thing" and it's not clear if they are any more. Fads run hot and cold, especially in the fashion market.

 

The move to jewelry may be smart; luxury brands are popular, not so much in Europe now but in Asia, where the right pen, the right purse, the right doodad in a box for a gift are terribly important. With the rise of Chinese wealth, and the fondness in Asia for luxury European brands, it could be they are moving to capture that market and the rest of the world is not as important. In Japan, the right pen as a gift is still part of the culture and many in Asia write preferably with fountain pens because writing characters and the alphabets (hiragana, katakana) is easier or more elegantly done with a fountain pen.

 

I stopped very briefly in a few boutiques this year and last as I was transferring though Frankfurt on my way to somewhere else, and didn't really have time to inspect the goods on offer. I'll have to go take a better look next time. The prices in the window seems quite high.

[Trom]

middle class is decreasing because of bank bailouts and austerity measures.

[_Stormin_]

middle class is decreasing because of bank bailouts and austerity measures.

Yes, it's not inflation and government entitlements that are the problem... Because that means that the people getting the benefit are somehow part of the people to blame.

 

Lets keep this MB and not a political debate that's going to spiral into a complete S-Show.

 

Quite frankly, I keep seeing "I got new pen XYZ" threads, and we all seem to have no problem lusting after the new 1914 pens... MB is definitely doing something right if we are all still buying them and somehow want the pens priced out of our regular purchasing range. Plenty of companies release crazy expensive LE pens and get very little hate for it. Someone on here will end up with a 1914 and there will be a pile of online high fives over a truly beautiful pen... Hell, I hope it's me. I just need someone to go buy it and then decide to sell it because their impulse has settled on another item.

[eidola]

Quite frankly, I keep seeing "I got new pen XYZ" threads, and we all seem to have no problem lusting after the new 1914 pens... MB is definitely doing something right if we are all still buying them and somehow want the pens priced out of our regular purchasing range. Plenty of companies release crazy expensive LE pens and get very little hate for it. Someone on here will end up with a 1914 and there will be a pile of online high fives over a truly beautiful pen... Hell, I hope it's me. I just need someone to go buy it and then decide to sell it because their impulse has settled on another item.

 

I don't think people here begrudge MB putting out expensive editions as such. More the fact it is plastic, as such priced egregiously, while proving MB can still make historically sensitive editions, they just won't at prices reasonably accessible to most collectors. Leaves a bad taste in the mouth. It would be interesting to know how many accessible LEs sell out in comparison to the old days.

[_Stormin_]

They sell enough of them to justify not lowering the price AND to continue to produce more of the same. This is plainly displayed by the continued growth in prices and the lack of diversification of the lower end of the line. Though they have flickers of trying to appeal to the image conscious consumer with the Starwalker line (and it's recent expansion). I can tell you with very little hesitation that the person that they're marketing the Starwalker to doesn't know or care who Balzac, Swift, or Collodi were.

 

Richemont isn't run by fools, it's a profit driven company that's managed to appreciate 94% in the past three years. That's not just a "post '08" thing either. They never really trade above 36 CHF before the crash, and now trade in the high eighties.

 

I know that people don't like the fact that they produce "plastic" which they consider to be priced "egregiously," but they keep getting bought. Sure this may simply be the Middle East and SE Asia, but in terms of luxury goods thats where a lot of the market is heading. The only way to get the kind of perception that their management has of their market to change is to have merchandise remaining on the shelf, unsold... That's not happening right now, because the two aforementioned markets happen to buy more than all of us who'd just like a "new" 139 for around $1500.

[gwyneddd]

As to low end or mid priced pens, these used to exist (the Slimlines in the 80's weren't really that pricey.) But with the purchase by Cartier and the advent of cheap fountain pens from China, I assume that Montblanc will not want to "dilute" their brand with a lower priced product and simply keep it as a cachet brand. So I look to more expensive items like the writer and artist-special editions and nothing in the mid range at all. Ever.

 

In a way it's a shame, as of all my pens, I like my MB slimlines. They aren't flashy looking, but they really write like a dream. After thirty years, they are like new and write more smoothly than anything else I own.

[orfew]

As to low end or mid priced pens, these used to exist (the Slimlines in the 80's weren't really that pricey.) But with the purchase by Cartier and the advent of cheap fountain pens from China, I assume that Montblanc will not want to "dilute" their brand with a lower priced product and simply keep it as a cachet brand. So I look to more expensive items like the writer and artist-special editions and nothing in the mid range at all. Ever.

 

In a way it's a shame, as of all my pens, I like my MB slimlines. They aren't flashy looking, but they really write like a dream. After thirty years, they are like new and write more smoothly than anything else I own.

I also have several "cheaper" MBs. I have fallen for the elegant black pens of the 50s and 60s, many of which can be had for a reasonable price. I have found them to be excellent writers.

[gwyneddd]

I also have several "cheaper" MBs. I have fallen for the elegant black pens of the 50s and 60s, many of which can be had for a reasonable price. I have found them to be excellent writers.

Those are also my faves. I recently acquired a 146 and we'll see how well it writes. I am kind of stuck on MB--I could have bought Pelikans etc in Germany when I worked there but somehow they didn't have the same look or feel to me. I would like to acquire one, just to try it out but I never have. I used to use Parkers etc when I was a kid (I wrote in fountain pen as a high school student) but fell away from it after a while.

[provis]

 

The Montblanc boutique has a very different environment to the Apple Store. In the Apple Store, it's all very pleasant, and you can play with and try out lots of different products and explore on your own before asking one of the people walking around for help. At the Montblanc store, you need to approach one of the people working to test out the different pens and other items. I'd imagine that this makes it a bit more intimidating for some people. Even I, who own a nice special edition Montblanc, was hesitant to ask the Montblanc representative to look at pens that were cheaper than the one I had. They are usually very friendly in both stores and help you with purchasing decisions, but the environments in the stores are very different. I'm not entirely certain you can run a Montblanc store like an Apple store. Montblanc stores are more like some other luxury boutiques where you get personal attention in a sharp-looking, colder, formal atmosphere. Apple stores have a more casual atmosphere. Having tester pens out all the time that customers can play with is very risky in any case. What if something gets damaged by someone who doesn't know how to handle it? In the Apple store, the worst you can do is drop the display unit, but then it's tethered to the stand, so it's not going to hit the floor and shatter (and you can't steal it either). Montblanc boutiques probably do have some merit as a sort of image thing. Many luxury brands have boutiques of sorts that pop up in more upscale malls. One difference is that every boutique I've gone to has been empty when I walked in even if most other boutiques on the same level had one or two people in them at any given moment. That can't necessarily be good for business.

 

Dillon

 

The experience is the compete opposite this part of Asia -- Singapore and Hongkong, plus the rest of Southeast Asia.

 

Here, the staff walk with their noses in the air. You're 'evaluated' on the basis of what you wear into the shop. Which is fine because you can easily take it up with the manager after your purchase and have a real ball of time watching them stumble over their feet.

 

But the most unforgiveable part, is the lack of basic pen knowledge by the staff, who are hired more to push their secondary clothing and leather products although Montblanc is still known for fine writing instruments.

 

They rattle off erroneous information, are extremely ignorant, and basically put you off buying pens. I won't even use their pen service, because there is no resassurance that these guys will treat your pen right.

 

Stranger yet, the paper they use for you to write on, are the flimist, cheapest copier-type paper that feathers if you dare even try a nib larger than medium.

 

And since the quality of the leather, though nice, do not justify the price tag (seriously, I'm better off at Ferragamo and Chanel), there's no reason to purchase anything else.

 

These days, I just walk in to buy ink.

 

And pens online, from sellers who have also become friends.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Ruth,

old used MB's are good....some can be had for the same price as good, old Pelikans. It don't have to be a 1xx model.

So speakth the guy who expected to average the cost of two pens at a live auction....the next pen a Dupont after the 146 was vastly under priced....a real Somgai........then Mrs. Murfey sitting right next to me, who had bid on nothing, had a husband who is not a member here, who collects pens, bid on 'my' Dupont.

No Somgai.

Two pens at a "fair" price.

 

Yep new Pelikans and MBs are over priced.

[HamFist]

Could it be because economy is in the crapper everywhere and people would prefer to pay for fuel food and medicine instead of a luxury item?

[pen jubky]

It is my opinion that the market for luxury pens is getting smaller over time. In my line of work for example there is no need for pens anymore. I can go weeks without having to write anything. The digital era has basically made the pen obsolete. The question is whether there is a large enough hobbyist/ collectors market to sustain the high end pen manufacturers. Just this week I held a beautiful 90th aniversery SE pen in my hands, but decided not to buy it for I have no use for it. My last MB purchase was over 3 years ago and I fear my pen purchasing days are permanently over.

 

The fact that Montblac keeps raising prices, a marketing ploy in an attempt to create an image of exclusivity, says nothing about how well sales are really doing. Reducing prices would be the final death blow to any high end goods manufacturer. Stores are often void of customers.

 

I hope I'm wrong. Time will tell.

Edited September 27, 2014 by pen jubky

[Fabienne]

It's us buying and selling used pens instead of spending a fortune buying new ones. We are to blame. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

[Matlock]

It is my opinion that the market for luxury pens is getting smaller over time. I my line of work for example there is no need for pens anymore. I can go weeks without having to write anything. The digital era has basically made the pen obsolete. The question is whether there is a large enough hobbyist/ collectors market to sustain the high end pen manufacturers. Just this week I held a beautiful 90th aniversery SE pen in my hands, but decided not to buy it for I have no use for it. My last MB purchase was over 3 years ago and I fear my pen purchasing days are permanently over.

 

The fact that Montblac keeps raising prices, a marketing ploy in an attempt to create an image of exclusivity, says nothing about how well sales are really doing. Reducing prices would be the final death blow to any high end goods manufacturer. From my experience stores are often void of customers.

 

I hope I'm wrong. Time will tell.

 

I think we have to ask who is buying MB pens? It is certainly not the person who wants a pen to use every day, that person will buy one of the many good quality cheap pens available today. So it seems that the bulk of MB's market are "pen collectors" and that market is shrinking fast. I believe it is too late for MB to introduce a lower priced model and it would probably be commercial suicide to do so. I can see the time when MB sell only luxury leather goods with the occasional "Special Edition" pen. I hope that I am wrong but I fear not. As an aside I have several MBs and, although they are wonderful pens, my Pelikans at a fraction of the price are much better. (That should start some feedback )

[drstan]

@rare

 

I am not so sure about this.

 

I work as an lawyer and in our firm a lot of lawyers have at least one montblanc - and we use it every day

 

I think the collector's argument applies for the various special editions - yet I see even writers' editions used every day....

 

almost nobody will buy a 149, 146, 161, 162 etc just for collecting purposes.... such MB pen will be used heavily

[orfew]

 

I think we have to ask who is buying MB pens? It is certainly not the person who wants a pen to use every day, that person will buy one of the many good quality cheap pens available today. So it seems that the bulk of MB's market are "pen collectors" and that market is shrinking fast. I believe it is too late for MB to introduce a lower priced model and it would probably be commercial suicide to do so. I can see the time when MB sell only luxury leather goods with the occasional "Special Edition" pen. I hope that I am wrong but I fear not. As an aside I have several MBs and, although they are wonderful pens, my Pelikans at a fraction of the price are much better. (That should start some feedback )

Sorry but I must disagree. I have bought MBs from boutiques and I use them everyday. I do not like cheap pens. I have tried quite a few under the 100$ mark and have not liked any of them. I have given most of these away. This is not to say that there are not good pens out there for under 100$, I am sure that there are. I however have not found any to my liking...yet. Pens are are matter of taste. I have yet to use a Pelikan that I liked. I am not a fan of their nibs. I am also not a fan of the fact that they seem to be manufacturing the same pen over and over again with minor changes. I like the innovation MB brings to the table.

[Matlock]

Sorry but I must disagree. I have bought MBs from boutiques and I use them everyday. I do not like cheap pens. I have tried quite a few under the 100$ mark and have not liked any of them. I have given most of these away. This is not to say that there are not good pens out there for under 100$, I am sure that there are. I however have not found any to my liking...yet. Pens are are matter of taste. I have yet to use a Pelikan that I liked. I am not a fan of their nibs. I am also not a fan of the fact that they seem to be manufacturing the same pen over and over again with minor changes. I like the innovation MB brings to the table.

 

I said it would start some feedback. As to Pelikan (and other makes) it is just as well we do not all like the same pen, what a boring world it would be.

[stevesurf]

It is my opinion that the market for luxury pens is getting smaller over time.

 

Very true, globally, but I believe the shift is regional, so where, North America may not be as large a growth market, Asia is.

 

In my line of work for example there is no need for pens anymore. I can go weeks without having to write anything. The digital era has basically made the pen obsolete. The question is whether there is a large enough hobbyist/ collectors market to sustain the high end pen manufacturers. Just this week I held a beautiful 90th aniversery SE pen in my hands, but decided not to buy it for I have no use for it. My last MB purchase was over 3 years ago and I fear my pen purchasing days are permanently over.

 

The fact that Montblac keeps raising prices, a marketing ploy in an attempt to create an image of exclusivity, says nothing about how well sales are really doing. Reducing prices would be the final death blow to any high end goods manufacturer. Stores are often void of customers.

 

I hope I'm wrong. Time will tell.

 

In my work, hand sketches are not only used but they are rare and a welcome treat. Digitizing palettes do not have the flexibility and low cost of simple pen and paper.

 

One thing to consider is that Montblanc's success with watches and other luxury items helps continually fund other divisions that might be lagging, like the mid-to-high end pen market.