RE: [Leica] M Campaign

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

Jeff - If that brochure is intended to appeal to the under-40 crowd, why is
a goofy guy with a beard and funny hat featured on the cover? Yes, I know
it's Che, but that's because I'm 53. Anyone who is 40 or under was BORN in
'59 or later...Most of they haven't the vaguest idea who Che was.

And if that brochure is aimed at an under-40 crowd that hasn't heard of
Leica, why all the old photos that many of them have never seen before? Why
the extensive company history and blather about the invention of 35 mm
photography?

I ask all this, by the way, as someone who earns a very good living in
public relations/marketing.

All that brochure really is is a designer's contest entry celebrating the M
as an object d'art...

Believe me, I agree that most of Leica's other brochures are dull and
stodgy. I believe they should be producing attractive, well designed pieces
that grab the potential buyer by the lapels. But I don't think they've given
any serious thought to who that potential buyer SHOULD BE if they want to
survive long-term.

Rob Schneider pointed out in a recent post that many major manufacturers -
including Haselblad, Mamiya, etc. - give students steep discounts. To carry
that idea a step further, if I were "Herr" Cohen, I'd ask my bean counters
if there is any reason why the company can't offer to sell - AT COST - an M
body and 50 Summicron to any student majoring in photography in a recognized
BFA or MFA program. THAT's how to introduce Leica to a new generation of
photographers, a new generation who otherwise won't ever shoot with anything
that isn't an autoeverything reflex. But I guarantee you, once these kids
hold and shoot with an M, they'll sell the VCR to buy additional lenses and,
eventually, additional bodies.

B. D.



> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of 4season
> Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 1999 3:52 AM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Re: [Leica] M Campaign
>
>
> "B. D. Colen" wrote:
> >
> > Last night I was on a powerful enough computer to really
> get a good look at
> > the M campaign brochure for the first time...and...sorry,
> folks, but from a
> > marketing standpoint it made me want to gag.
> >
> > It is graphically wonderful. But that's all it is - a
> graphic designer and a
> > pedantic writer showing off.
> >
> > It's a campaign designed to turn the Leica M into the Rolex
> of photography,
> > an expensive status symbol that one will need to display to
> be "with it."
> >
>
> The new campaign is aimed at a younger audience, and that's
> very smart:
> Brand recognition with the sub-40 crowd is, from my observation (I've
> been hauling M cameras about for about 10 years, since I was 27), just
> awful, yet they are Leica's future. The new monied establishment reads
> Wired and dreams of adventure travel: Leica's simply changing with the
> times. The old brochures are pleasant but not compelling, IMO.
>
> Leica is and always has been a "Rolex of Photography", but
> that needn't
> stop you from taking world-class photos with one!
> --
> Jeff Segawa
> Boulder, Colorado
> www.boulder.net/~4season
>
>