Parker Pen Company

Parker Pen Company is one of the most successful companies in the pens sector. Despite this fact, Parker had faced many problems especially in the first decades of its operation. Problem statement Some short-term problems that occurred were around currency issues, the confusion in the positioning of the product and the long product line but the company managed to solve them overtime, usually with decisions taken by its top managers. The most important with the long-term results was the confusion in companys strategy, including the chaotic communication existing into the operations of Parker Pen. At first, each subsidiary of the company had autonomy and everything was adapted accordingly. Pens were acting as status and image makers well adapted to every consumer. This led to a catastrophic division of operations and ruined the companys positioning. However, they realized that this was not so successful and profitable and they adopted a more globalized policy which again failed to be implemented because they finally did not achieve to keep a balance. In other words, the top management team went from the one side to the other without finding a medium. The symptoms of the problem started when managers started to leave the company, being fired etc. Key facts The reason why the company came to this point is that in business everything starts from the internal marketing and communication. If you fail to satisfy your staff and to create loyalty, then you will not manage to work effectively and also this was the reason behind the inability in balancing the policy of Parker Pen. Moreover, this general lack of communication led to the final acquisition of the company from Gillette.

Strategic Alternatives Some alternatives that the company has are the following: to follow a standardization model but always take into consideration the fact that it sells its products to different people and different cultures with alternate preferences which needs time to be implemented, to solely reposition itself in the market but this is not the only one problem the company has or to establish new subsidiaries through licensing in every country it operates. This alternative is costly and it may harm the companys image in the long run because you have to know well your partners. Final Solution The most effective alternative is the standardization model through some adaptation in the products, the ways of selling and the promotion. Implementation Parker Pen should use a Coca Cola model of standardization. The core product will be the same but the augmented one will contain some adaptation. In the case of Parker standardization should be used for the distribution network, the suppliers and the production. The company must not ignore that people are different and have different tastes even in pens. This means that Parkers products should be adapted according to the local preferences. In other words, Chinese people would prefer more fancy pens, whereas Scandinavians would look for an ordinary one. Every decision should be taken by the top management team which will coordinate every issue occurring in the company. Another example in the promotion is that colors that will be used in the printed advertisements should not the same everywhere. For instance, Japanese people do not prefer white, whereas in Europeans do like it and find it attractive and elegant so it could be useful for advertisements.