Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/10/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]From: A.H.SCHMIDT <horsts@primus.com.au> Sent: Monday, October 11, 1999 06:17 Subject: Re: [Leica] How to manage a camera company? > Guy, why is it, that everybody ,when it comes to a less > expensive Leica Camera, Talks about either cheap or > lesser quality. Because you cannot make a camera of the same quality at a significantly lower price, unless there are massive inefficiencies in the manufacturing process. You cannot machine titanium or brass for the price of plastic injection molding, period. > When Leitz made more than 1 model of cameras concurrently, > they didn't make the lower priced models with a lower > quality. These cameras had less functions. Perhaps so, but the discussion here has centered on feature-rich, inexpensive cameras. These cannot be made at the same quality level as an M6 and yet still be sold at low prices. Additionally, the cost in R&D and tooling alone is likely to be beyond what Leica can afford at this point in time. > Everybody is very happy and pleased with the one model > range finder Leica makes. But it seems there are just > not enough very happy M6 users. Many potential M6 users simply don't know that the camera exists. Good marketing and public relations can change this. > Maybe they, the upper charges in the company, should go and > find out, why most people don't have a Leica. I think that a majority of the potential market for Leica rangefinders does not own them because it doesn't know that they exist. Leica is simply not known well enough in the photography community. Too few people know enough about the Leica M series to appreciate how nice it might be to have one. Outside the tiny community of Leica enthusiasts, Leica is mostly a myth, a legend, or a joke. Most people don't realize that there is a real-world and highly useful camera system behind the name. > Go and ask the common folks who spend money buying > photographic goods why not, and why they prefer another brand. They prefer other brands because they know more about them. It's easy to find literature on Nikons or Canons, or magazine articles about them, or camera stores that will let you look at them. Leica cameras are something you have to go looking for, in odd little shops in out of the way places. Leicas are rarely discussed in photography magazines, except as curiosities. Leica literature is scarce. > If it is true, what a lot of the LUGers say:" Leica hasn't > got the money to develop new products." Then they either > have to get it, or its by, by. Yes. But if you don't have the money to develop new products, you can't get the money to do so by developing new products, because you don't have the money to develop new products. The solution is to sell more of what you already have, until you have enough money to consider other possibilities. When money is tight, betting the farm on a completely new product that you can't even afford to design and produce correctly is not a good idea. -- Anthony