Editing The Pen Addict 565/transcript (section)

== Luxury brands commissioning products ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' What was really interesting to me is he was kind of talking about like the idea that luxury brands is effectively commissioning products to exist sometimes in a way, right? Like saying like, hey, we would like this kind of product for our market. Can you make it? And like when you explain it, like, yes, it obviously makes sense. They know their market, right? Like maybe even better than, especially in an international pen brand, like they're going to know the U.S. market better than a German pen brand or whatever, right? But it was also super, is it Platinum? He said that they got a brand new product that they've worked on together. Yeah. That's interesting.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And spoiler alert, there is no spoiler alert. He wouldn't even tell me offline. So I have no idea. Like, I get the secrets ahead of time and I don't have that one at all.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I reckon it's the Curidas 2. That's what I think it is.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, that already exists. It just haven't arrived yet.

'''Myke Hurley:''' We'll see.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But yeah, like that's the things I wanted to know. Like, do you as a distributor in a certain market get to, you know, put your thumb on the scale a little bit and say, hey, like this market wants this. And then, you know, conversely, how much does the company, you know, have faith in you to deliver that? And it's very like company size dependent. Like Platinum is very large. Colorverse is very small, right? So there's simpler conversations. There's more complex conversations and just all kinds of interesting things going on. So I thought it was a good one.

'''Myke Hurley:''' How big of a company do you need to be as a distributor to be able to get Platinum, like to convince Platinum to make specific things for you? Obviously, luxury brands is big enough, right? And that's just an interesting thing. Like luxury brands could be a bigger company than Platinum, but it doesn't really matter. That Platinum's got interests that aren't necessarily just like fulfill what you need, you know? Exactly. It was, yeah, I mean, but also, and you can tell with someone like Bryce, it's relationships, right, as well. It's not just about money. And if they trust luxury brands, then they will be willing to take a swing on something that they're suggesting would be good. So it's really great. Just really insightful conversation. I'm happy. Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So it was good stuff. I was glad to be able to bring that perspective to the show. And we'll probably do some more of that stuff in the future. I think people like hearing about those types of businesses because it affects just like our day-to-day stationery consumption, right? Like this is a very consumer-facing hobby that we're in. It's very capitalism-focused. So it's good to know how all of this stuff happens, right? And just get some clarity on the processes and the roles certain types of businesses play. So I thought it was very cool.