On Jan 12, 2010, at 7:52 PM, Adam Maas wrote: > On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 7:29 PM, paul stenquist <[email protected]> > wrote: >> >>>> >>>>> To draw some parallels, Mini survives as a marketer of small cars, >>>>> without having flagships. VW had it's best years when it stuck to a >>>>> segment. You don''t have to be full range to sell successfully. What's >>>>> more, APS-C will continue to improve. There will always be an upgrade >>>>> path. FF isn't absolutely necessary in that regard. >>> >>> Mini is BMW's compact brand, as SMART is for Mercedes. Both survive by >>> being a product, not a product line. VW is VW AG's budget brand in the >>> west and needless to say they d best when not competing with >>> themselves (IE the low-end of the Audi spectrum). >>> >>> >> But Mini is a brand, and Mini buyers aren't BMW wannabes. Mini isn't >> marketed as a small BMW. The 1 Series occupies that niche. >> >> Most car brands are owned by a parent company, but they are marketed >> independently. In regard to VW, they were at their best when they produced >> small cars only and were an independent brand. In any case, success in a >> market segment is always possible. It's been proven many times in many >> product categories. >> Paul > > But Mini doesn't care about the market past their niche, and doesn't > need to because BMW covers the rest of the market for them. They're a > product (with a couple variations), not a product line. essentially > they're BMW's Hipster car, marketed to a segment that BMW can't market > to otherwise because of their essential brand identity. And they're > the real BMW small car in North America, not the 1 series (which is > much more expensive and less practical). > > As to VW, they were at their most successful overall in their current > form, during the 80's and 90's. When they did only small cars and were > an inependant brand they pretty much drove themselves out of the > market due to a lack of resources to develop competitive cars (they > were stuck with a late 30's design until they bought Auto Union and > got the Audi FWD technology). While the Beetle was very successful for > a period, it nearly put VW out of business in the long run. > Mini doesn't care about the market past their niche, because they make money as a leader in their own segment. BMW sells to the top end, but Mini prospers on their own. Yes, BMW shouldn't venture into the lower end, they have to work on developing a leadership position in their part of the markett. Just like Pentax. > -- Of course VW could have built on the Beetle heritage. The Beetle didn't have to drag them down. But they didn't know where to go. And their engineers blew it on the first Rabbit/Golf. You gotta get it right in any part of the market. A lot of marketers experience success with one product but con't know how to follow up. It's all about making market decisions Buying AU turned out to be a good one, at least for a while. Then they went in the toilet after the 60 Minutes sudden acceleration debacle, now they're up again. It's all a matter of making the right decisions at the right time.
Whether full frame development is a worthwhile investment for Pentax is a difficult question. Only time will tell. > M. Adam Maas > http://www.mawz.ca > Explorations of the City Around Us. > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
