Do you think the medium to high end "Pentax user base" is sufficiently large enough to
generate the required threshold product volume Pentax requires or will the product
need to penetrate significantly into the C****/N**** user/prospective user base?
Otis Wright
Pål Jensen wrote:
> I think you somewhat mix-up what the american market means to what the Pentax
>customer means. I do believe that you're right that the american markets isn't that
>important for Pentax. It consist of 5% of the worlds population and maybe 10% of the
>worlds consumers. Besides, Pentax is weak in the american market. You're also right
>that the Pentax distributors, US or elsewhere, don't know much and don't have much
>influence. However, they are still urged to report feedback from their customers. One
>of the standard one are the wish for digital back for the medium format systems. This
>is reported to the marketing people in Pentax Japan.
> You're wrong though that Pentax don't listen to their customers. It's wrong to
>believe that camera manufacturers exist in a vacuum without consideration of market
>whims and customer base wants. Pentax customers for any higher end efford is going to
>be owners of K-mount lenses. Ignoring these people is a sure recipe for disaster. In
>fact, the delay of the MZ-S was based on feedback and done because market failure was
>seen unacceptable for Pentax - they want to be sure that the camera hit the customer
>base. 20 million bucks was used on the MZ-S before any upgrade.
> In fact, customer demand may have direct influence on decisions. This has been
>confirmed by both Pentax japan marketing people and Pentax engineers. This is not
>only true for Pentax, Canon also use consumer input in camera design; particularly
>their pro base. However, I do not think they listen to americans in particular :-).
>However, I do believe that the home market may be the most important. Every single
>company spend large resources on custumer and market research. Even though slr's is
>not an important mony maker for any manufacturer, those who want to be in this market
>needs to please the customers even more because it is so competitive. Pentax is in a
>particular difficult situation since they have virtually absent in the upper market
>for ten years. Its easy to know what a Canon user expect but what do a Pentax users
>anno 2001 really want?
>
> Pål
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mike Johnston" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2001 12:22 PM
> Subject: Wake up
>
> > >I have another theory. Maybe Pentax was trying to collect our opinions over
> > >the last few years in order to finalize their MZ-S (the name is not
> > >important) features. Now they have collected enough information (they think)
> > >and the MZ-S is about ready. In order to cut down the cost, they have
> > >decided to drop the list and let someone else to run it. That means from now
> > >on, what we said was less important that we used to be. Just a guess.
> >
> >
> >
> > Here's another think, more based in the reality of the camera industry:
> >
> > Once upon a time, the American market was the be-all and end-all of the
> > Japanese camera companies, and everything we wanted, they fell over
> > themselves to make. Now, the American market is relatively less important
> > than the world market and the home (Japanese) market, and it's relatively
> > unaffected by corporate responsiveness anyway, PLUS the SLR market has
> > become only a tiny fraction of the parent company's camera profit picture.
> > Upshot? They just don't listen to us, period. They don't need to. Japanese
> > companies haven't been heeling to the beck and call of the American consumer
> > for some time now. Our day is done.
> >
> > In fact, from inside the industry, what you often hear is that the Japanese
> > home offices of the camera companies don't even listen very well to the
> > American distributorships--and often don't tell them very much about what's
> > going on. Chance are, Pentax USA isn't very well informed about what Pentax
> > Japan is doing, Pentax Japan doesn't much give a fig what Pentax USA thinks,
> > and "our" opinion isn't worth a hill of beans to either one of them.
> >
> > I don't think it matters much whether Pentax USA is, or is not, "listening"
> > to our alleged collective wisdom. Difficult though it may be for us to adapt
> > to this fact, this is not the 1960s, and we simply aren't important any more
> > to a Japanese company's financial health.
> >
> > Here's a vivid example of what I mean: a couple of years ago, I got a Kodak
> > company insider to admit to me that, for a 5-year period, Kodak had
> > essentially "forgotten" about what it calls the "AdAm" market--advanced
> > amateurs. It was marketing to far larger and more important markets, such as
> > grandmothers and "tween" girls, but it had become largely inconsequential to
> > them that photography enthusiasts also buy photographic materials. We're
> > such a tiny group relatively speaking that we just don't matter much to the
> > company. (Incidentally, when it "remembered" about us, Kodak responded by
> > starting to market a slick, expensive captive newsletter called "ViewFinder"
> > as an "alternative" to advertising in enthusiast magazines. Big whoop.)
> >
> > Japan stopped making cameras primarily for the American market some time
> > ago. What its home market thinks of new products is now far more important
> > to any Japanese company than what we think. We should wake up and get used
> > to that fact. Our opinion really doesn't matter one way or the other. It's
> > hubristic and somewhat ludicrous--not to mention outdated--for us to believe
> > that it does.
> >
> > --Mike
> >
> > -
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> >
> >
>
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