RE: [Leica] 50mm f1.5 Nokton question

[Larry Kopitnik <kopitnil@marketingcomm.com>]

>>>>>>>>>>
Would there sales have been 100%, 75 or as low as 50%? I
 wonder if they did any market research prior to release or whether they've
done any since? Perhaps a return question on the registration sheet could
ask, "Would you have bought this lens if it had been designated a Cosinon
50/1.4?" I suspect that if people were honest, some might well say 'no'.
Thoughts?
<<<<<<<<<<

Without a doubt you're right. Up until the release of the Heliar, Cosina
has been known -- at least in the U.S. -- as the company that makes the
Nikon FM-10 and Olympus 2000 and Yashica FX-3 Super and a some cheap
Vivitar, Ricoh and Phoenix cameras. Quality is not a word that one has
particularly associated with a Cosina-made product.

But the screw mount lenses are quality products. And by lableing them with
Voigtlander rather than Cosina, they immediately gain a cache and
credibility and sense of being something better than the Cosina name, until
now, has conveyed. Never mind that the Bessa-L is the same body as the
cameras mentioned above, except for the lack of a prism and mirror, and the
addition of another set of shutter blades to block light. By being labled
"Voigtlander" it is thought of by consumers as something better. And as
photographers find this camera and these lenses really are Cosina products,
the overall perception of Cosina products justifiably improves.

It's marketing, pure and simple. Pay someone for the right to use a name
and sell more product because of the resevoir of good will that name brings
to the product. Michael Jordan's name (Air Jordans) on Nike shoes.
Voigtlander's name on Cosina cameras. It's all the same.

And as someone who works at an ad agency, I frankly find it a brilliant
marketing move by Cosina.

Larry