On 03.3.1 0:07 PM, "Mark Erickson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> All, > > Based on my limited knowledge of the Japanese photo and electronics market, > it seems to me that Pentax really addresses their home market first. It > also seems to me that it is probably not very accurate to judge the future > of the company based on their position in, say, Norway or even the U.S.A. > > Can anyone speak for the Pentax position in the minds of Japanese consumers? Hi Mark, I no longer live in Japan but am constantly in touch with my old buddies there by joining one of the Pentax lists there and surf the net to get some up to date info (not just on the photography). Nevertheless, my observation and opinion should be taken as outsider's, so to speak :-). I thought I saw somewhere in their recent press release or something, that Pentax consider the U.S. market very important for the future success. It might be different from Japan's but certainly the numbers are there. This is particularly true in developing the DSLR market. This is why they announced the Optio S and *ist D (oh, fingers...) in the U.S. first. A few years ago, I thought mfrs were regarding the U.S. market mainly the P&S market. But after the popularity of the entry level SLRs, as in Japan, it appears that they have been prmoting the enthusiasts market as well. Japanese market are probably similar based on my observation (they demand, whine and bitch about essentially the same thing as PDMLers are doing), except it is a home market and their inputs are that much closer to mfrs. And in general, Japanese camera consumers are very educated and knowledgeable about the equipment and other technical aspects. Just take a look at some of the Japanese camera magazines and they are filled with all kinds of extremely technical stuff, camera anatomy and performance comparisons among different mfrs etc, more than you can digest. But like cars, mfrs do not necessarily export their top of the line products to the U.S. for various reasons, the cost for one. And I have a feeling that they tend to consider the North American market as a mass consumer market, and see that's where the money is. Sometimes, they drop a couple of features from the U.S. models, although I do not know how much they could save the money by doing so, and they might lose some markets by doing so, I do not know. But this is far less evident than cars. Re cars, Japanese are obviously pushing more affordable folksy cars, and they mostly make them where the market is. Other thing I learned which may be related to the offshore marketing is the fact that some significant portion of the cost of camera equipment, particularly lenses, is the distribution related such as shipping and warehousing etc. So, importers/distributors probably tend to shy away from exotic items which they know won't sell in qty. Other than that, I do not believe there is any kind of discrimination between the Japan home market vs. offshore one. But Japan is certainly a huge market and decisive battle is often fought in the home market. Just my personal observations... Cheers, Ken
