Bic’s disposable ballpoint pens have sold over $100 billion worth since their introduction in Europe in 1950, averaging 57 pens sold per second. Bic’s success with disposable products also includes a long-lasting lighter, but failures with underwear and perfume.
Bic’s line of disposable ballpoint pens was so popular that in 2005, the company reported that its sales had crossed the $100 billion mark. This means that Bic has sold 57 pens per second since the disposable ballpoint pen was first introduced in Europe in 1950. Bic believes that if you lined up all pens sold end to end, they would reach from Earth to the Moon about 40 times.
Bic’s success with disposable products:
When the classic Bic Cristal was introduced to American consumers in 1959, the pen sold for 19 cents. The product slogan was: “Write the first time, every time”.
The company’s founder, Baron Marcel Bich, bought a small factory outside Paris after World War II and had plans to produce fountain pens. Instead, Bich invented a pen that dispensed ink with a spinning ball.
In 1973, the company also struck gold with a disposable lighter that burned 3,000 lights before burning out, but Bic disposable underwear and a Bic brand of perfume were busts.
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