Brand Spotlight: Fisher Space Pen
April 30, 2022
Paul C. Fisher revolutionized the pen industry with his sealed and pressurized ink cartridge that allows a pen to write in zero gravity, upside down, under water, over grease and in extreme temperatures. His invention literally launched Fisher Space Pens into space in 1967.
Debuting on the Apollo 7 mission, the Fisher Space Pen has been on every NASA-manned space flight to this day. In addition to their unique outer space functionality, Fisher Space Pens have become a beloved staple to everyday consumers who use the pens everywhere from the office to in the field due to their top-notch design, quality and seamless writing experience.
Challenge
Before partnering with ZQUARED, Fisher Space Pens enjoyed decades of success in both retail and ecommerce, but sought out assistance for dealing with unauthorized resellers who began muddying the waters, especially on Amazon. The reseller issues on the platform brought their company unique challenges, including lack of MAP control, inconsistent brand positioning, and disorganized listings.
Plan
When Fisher Space Pen partnered with ZQUARED, the teams worked together to develop strategies for optimizing the Amazon space and regaining control of distribution. First, they mapped out a plan with the purpose of eliminating rogue resellers, allowing only trusted distributors that abided by MAP to continue buying and reselling product. They also outlined plans for limiting the products available for sale on Amazon to only those that were profitable in the space, thereby streamlining the product catalog and optimizing advertising campaigns to strategically focus and apply ad-spend funding.
Execution
ZQUARED identified harmful resellers who were not abiding by MAP and the established guidelines Fisher Space Pen set forth. Ultimately, this change led to the removal of offending resellers from affected listings, leaving a network consisting only of trusted distributors. By creating a marketplace branding guide and optimizing existing content, Fisher Space Pen’s messaging benefited from clarity and consistency. Additionally, a reduced number of product listings led to streamlined advertising campaigns focused on growth.
Results
Because Fisher Space Pen regained control over MAP and cleaned up their distribution network, distributor relationships from trusted, policy-abiding resellers improved. This positive development even led to the recovery of many previously lost brick-and-mortar dealer accounts once MAP was restored across the board.
Additionally, ZQUARED successfully helped Fisher Space Pen streamline their product catalog, reducing their number of listings from over 500 to 216. This change allowed for more focused advertising efforts, a driving factor in continued growth.
“ZQUARED has been a game changer for our brand. Our partnership has allowed us to maximize sales and revenue growth, streamline our product offerings. and increase our pricing back to MAP – which ultimately led to many lost brick-and-mortar dealer accounts coming back. They are also able to identify errant sellers hurting our business to keep the channel clean.”
– Joshua Skidmore, Director of Sales & Marketing, Fisher Space Pen Co.