What do we mean when we say that Montblanc is a German pen? Or, in other words, how do we ascribe a pen brand to a country?
The question might sound either obvious or irrelevant. In actual terms, it is both.
Usually, we aficionados largely follow the tradition and initial birthplace of the brand. Thus, Montblanc is German and Parker, American. But changes in the property and delocalization of the production pose a number of questions to this strategy: Is Parker still American when its production and headquarters are located in France since 2011? Or is it still American because the parent company –Newell Brands-- is American?
American or French?
But if so, is Lamy now a Japanese brand?
And then we see the problem—any criterion we might want to follow will result in some strange or paradoxical conclusion.
Interestingly enough, the big three Japanese companies and their brands are among the easiest to identify as Japanese—Japanese production, Japanese capital, Japanese headquarters...
Japanese Platinum.
And then marketing enters the scene. The prestige of the label “Made in Japan” tempt other makers to claim it for themselves based, more often than not, on very weak arguments. Such was the case, at least for a while, of Danitrio: Taiwanese capital based in California using German nibs and with Japanese decoration. Enough to be Japanese?
And that is the problem after all—capital, components, manufacturing, etc can all have different locations and ascribing one single country to that melange is, at least , inaccurate. And misses completely the economics of pen production.
German or Japanese?
So, in this state of events, it would be much easier to simply ignore the category of country of origin and stick to the brand. After all, we might be ready to identify Lamy as Japanese or Parker as French.
But.. what am I doing writing about Japanese pens?
WiPens Toledo – Pilot (Thai) Black
Bruno Taut
May 2024
etiquetas: mercado, metabitácora
Bruno Taut
May 2024
etiquetas: mercado, metabitácora
