Ken wrote (about americans):
> They tend to care less about the brand name and have no interest in
> paying premium for things like "name".
I'm not at all convinced. At least not when talking about cameras. Nowhere is Nikon
vs. Canon thing more pronounced than among american consumers. Hell, most americans
seems to be surprised when hearing that Pentax at all are used by serious
photographers. I believe americans where the ones who actually invented branding.
> Similar thing can be said on cars. Except recent trend of luxury lines like
> Lexus and Accura, most Japanese cars imported here are plain Jane (yet
> solid) models, i.e., very practical. In Europe, on the other hand, they are
> exporting fancier models not available in North America.
Absolutely NOT. Europe hate "fancy" japanese cars. The most sold car in the US is the
Toyota Camry. In comparison they sold 1000 of it in the UK making it the least popular
car in its class. This is the fate for all "relatively" expensive japanese cars. In
Norway it was sold 1 (one - uno) Lexus LS last year.
Expensive or large japanese cars are utter failures in Europe. They are seen as
reliable but utterly boring lacking appealing design and material quality. BTW Both
Lexus, Acura and Infinity are plain Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans, respectively, over in
Japan. They are just rebadged for export. They americans buy it; the Europeans don't.
The most sold mid size car in Europe is a BMW. The most sold large car is a Mercedes.
The most sold small car is a VW; all considered expensive so might have a point
regarding Europeans more exclusive taste. However, this is also reflected in SLR sales
something the Europeans seems to prefer more than the americans; the latter seems to
have a hang for p&s.
[Why do I get a feeling of deja-vu - Have we had this discussion before?]
> So you could say that the U.S. market tends to be considered as a mass
> market, rather than as enthusiasts'.
You might have a point here but it still really doesn't adress my original point
around the MZ-S and the value of american customers which was the context this
started. Besides, P&S cameras are mass market everywhere because practiaclly everyone
owns one.
It may very well be that americans consume more than most but they mostly consume in
excess thing that are cheap over there; like petrol and hamburgers. They compensate
for ridiculously cheap petrol (I know they complain) by excessive sized cars with
petroholic tendencies. Maybe they need so big cars because of all the fast food they
eat :-)
And to Mafud; the size of the average income doesn't really matter in my chain of
argument because a large number of people in the US doesn't have this income
regardless of the average.
Pål
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