Editing The Pen Addict 384/transcript (section)

== Kenro Introduction ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I think I first kind of learned about Kenro and what Kenro does when I started to fall for some Aurora pins. So I think that's a good, good place to start. So Aurora is an Italian brand. Kenro has been the distributor for as long as I've been in this business, which, you know, I don't know how long, you know, they've officially been the distributor, but it's been certainly long enough amount of time. And how does a distributor relationship work from Kenro as a business in say, the case of Aurora, when you're working with a company and getting their products to pass on then to your customers, which are our, you know, the collective pen addict listeners, our retailers that we shop with. So give us a little bit of insight on how you work on a day to day basis with say, an Aurora brand, and then we'll talk about some of the pins.

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Well, it is, it is a process and it's, sometimes it's longer than people realize, you know, I mean, a new pen comes out and you see it and you don't, you know, the consumer, which used to be like myself and you, when we would just be like, oh, it's out. And never realizing in the background that there was sometimes a year or more of work that went into getting that product out into the public. And as a distributor, and especially with, you know, with Kenro, and it's something that attracted me is that they're very dynamic. And, you know, we don't just take a product, take the ad that's given to us and put it out there and say, here it is and walk away. You know, for us, a lot of times we're working our ideas with Aurora, telling them things that we see in the marketplace, things that are changing, things that people request, things that people want. And then they produce a product based upon that. We then see the product, maybe make suggestions here and there. But once we know what's coming, then we're out. And that's when like the whole marketing starts and going out there and going to pen shows, trunk shows, looking to have the products a lot of times photographed, you know, a way that would appeal to our market. Because how they photograph it for, say, in Italy may not appeal to the market in America. You know, what we're looking for or what they're looking for at the time. So we have to take care of that and then putting it on the web and then giving, you know, all this information out to the retailers. You know, it's way beyond pricing and just the basic product. There's so much more that goes into it before it gets to that retailer. Because then the retailer has to have all that to tell the story.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. And I was surprised when you and I have talked about this exact topic years ago at how much one-to-one input you have with the brands you work with. I mean, they may take your advice or they may tell you to jump. But you can at least have that conversation, which I always found to be surprising. That was a surprising aspect to me that, oh, the manufacturer is listening to these distributors because actually the distributor is in a good position to understand what the market is looking for as opposed to just the flat creation. Even though Aurora does their own, you know, market research and things like that, you can tell them things that they don't have feet on the ground in this market to try to understand. Right. Is that how that relationship kind of works?

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. We work with them constantly. And it's not just us, it's other distributors. I mean, there are pens that they do, the limited editions that you see in other countries. And people are like, especially in our community. Our community is knee deep in the trenches every day looking at what's out there. You know, who's doing what and how they're doing it and why can't I get it? You know, that FOMO comes into play if you're missing out, right? And the perfect example for your question is like the Sun Moon Lake that came out for China. And that was over a year ago. And people were just striving to get it just because they couldn't. You know what I mean? Sure. Well, and because it's a beautiful pen. All right. Right. No doubt about it. But we've done the same thing too. And Aurora is very good at listening to us and then being willing to invest and make a pen that we need specifically for our, you know, area. And they've done that many, many times. I mean, if you remember the Nebulosa came out, which was part of that Planet series in 88. People ask, they're like, oh man, if they ever made it in an Optima. And we went to Aurora and it was a material that they really are stringent on because they keep, you know, archives of all these rods so that if there's ever repair, you know, just whoever's going down into the basement of the factory, literally in the basement. And pulling rods out so they can repair a pen, whether it's 20 or 30 years old. Right. So, but our marketplace wanted it. So we were able to make, I think we made 88 of each in two finishes for that Optima in purple and the Nebulosa purple. And it was only for us. And it just sold out in a minute. It was really, really beautiful. Nice. But we got calls from other countries and they're like, wait, that was just yours, you know, and can we get it? And, you know, it's just, it's just gone. And, um, it happens, you know, where you make something specific to your place. And, uh, and like I said, Aurora is really good with that. They listen to us. They work with us. You know, Joel, uh, who owns Canro. Joel is our, you know, top guy. He, uh, you know, he has a very strong relationship and he speaks to them on a daily basis. So.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. That's super cool. So they'll do stuff for you, like specifically like exclusive to this market in their worldwide market, say things everyone has an access to. Do you have to fight for your allocation?

'''Kerry Yeager:''' Oh yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I mean, the latest one came up in conversation in the office today was, uh, the black Mamba 88, which was, you know.