Re: [Leica] M and R

[dmorton@journalist.co.uk (David Morton)]

Ted Grant wrote:

> Great idea, heck they could say "Buy a lens and get a body for $500.00!"
> wouldn't be unreasonable.
> 
> But like I said, Leica isn't that bright! It's known in marketing that
> "lost Leaders" are a big gimmick to get customers in the store, and they
> nearly always end up buying far more than they planned, so the result of
> selling an R8 body for $500.00 means (some economic cost recovery) and
> there would be more income available incentive to purchase an extra 
> lens or
> two.

They're in a bind, for sure. They have a *lot* of unsold R8 bodies, they 
won't say how many, but even their own staff are prepared to say that it's 
a lot, and that's when asked by someone who's business card says 
'Journalist' (well, one set anyway).

If they sold the over stock of R8 bodies cheap, they would upset the 
current R8 owners (many of whom are long term Leica customers), and 
seriously worry the shareholders. Start dumping current product and the 
institutional investors are going to get twitchy.

Offer a cheap R8 body with *any* ROM lens, and the current R8 owners would 
probably be upset only for as long as it took them to think "Hmmmm...I 
could have a second/third body cheap if I bought that ??? lens I've been 
thinking about", so that might work.

However that only solves the short term overstock problem. What do they do 
about the long term future of the R line? They have a product that 
consumes considerable resources (even after they've shed 100 staff) and 
which isn't paying its way. I really don't believe that Leica has the 
resources to develop a new R body any time soon.

However you look at it, the poor sales performance of the R8 is a *big* 
problem for Leica.