JOTTER - HISTORY OF AN ICON

The definitive guide to the Parker Jotter!
Published in 2010
329 pages
 

Soon after the end of WWIl a new type of writing instrument was introduced to the American public which had been starved of novel consumer goods for some time. The item was the ballpoint pen which was destined to earn a fortune for its pioneer but a terrible name for itself However, the ball pen was not really new. In 1888, just as George S Parter was beginning to think about starting a pen company, another man, John Loud was granted a patent for the first ball writing instrument in the US. Loud, however failed in his attempts to produce a satisfactory model and the original idea lay dormant for many years.

As the storm clouds of WWII faded away, the battle of the ballpoints was about to begin. The ballpoint had been introduced in a tidal wave of hucksterism in 1945 and within a few years over 250 major pen manufacturers had put some kind of model on the market. Parker, was not one of them. The company had no desire to put its name to pens which stopped writing well before the ink ran out, skipped, blobbed and were not accepted by most banks because the ink was not permanent.

In 1946 Time Magazine took Parker to task, because the then leading maker of quality pens had been beaten to the ballpoint punch by an unknown firm. The article prompted a response from its President, Kenneth Parker, who stated that the company would come out with a ballpoint when the pen was a quality product. "If and when Parker brings out a ball pen it won't resemble anything now on the market", Parker wrote in reply.

By 1954 Parker was ready. Operation Scramble, which put a product on the market in less than 90 days, used the years of research to come up with the Parker Jotter. On 5 January 1954 Parker announced "Among the country's major writing equipment makers, only the Parker Pen Company has never marketed a ballpoint pen. Today the firm is ready to invade the field. We have been waiting," declared President Bruce Jeffris, "until such time as we could offer a ball pen worthy of inclusion in our price and quality bracket. We now have such a pen and this new product does justice to both our customers and our reputation." With that statement, came the introduction of the Parker Jotter. For the first time the purchaser was assured of lasting quality in a ballpoint pen.

The Jotter of 1954 was simple in design yet incorporated features that sought to correct some basic flaws of ballpoints that up until then had rendered them inferior writing instruments. It matched the Parker 51 fountain pen in originality, dependability and customer satisfaction. The Jotter quickly established new performance and sales records.

Now, in 2009, the company that would not make a ballpoint pen has sold in excess of 800 million. And why has the Jotter been so successful? The answer may lie in the recurring theme of excellence that Parker achieves. The Jotter is universally acknowledged as the best designed ballpoint ever made. More importantly Parker has continued to make improvements. The Jotter of today is much changed from 1954 and these improvements are standard throughout the industry.

Why did Parker wait for such a long time and then move so quickly to produce a ballpoint?
This book will provide you with all the answers and is the story of a continuing success - the Jotter.