Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/05/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]MAP is Minimum Advertised Price.. Let's say you are a local dealer, you want to run an ad this weekend telling about all of the wonderful Leica, or Nikon or Canon products you have for sale. You look and see that each company has a program where they will pay for part of the costs for the advertisement, but since they are paying for part of the ad, you have to meet certain requirements. For example, Nikon is not going to pay for you to advertise Leica or Canon cameras... they would like you to advertise Nikon cameras, lenses, flashes and binoculars. Nikon also doesn't want to pay for you to advertise a camera at a ridiculous $1 over dealer cost. One way around the MAP requirement in advertising that you often see is to put a call for price comment with the ad. The other way around is don't ask Nikon for advertising money the next you want to run an ad at a lower than MAP price. Stores like Best Buy advertise stuff that is below MAP.... at least they did when I worked in photo-retailing. But MAP doesn't regulate pricing, you can sell stuff for whatever you want.... you just aren't going to get any coop ad moneys for it.... Obviously many dealers (and in turn manufacturers) would like everyone to sell stuff at MAP or above too so low-ball pricing doesn't pull traditional customers away to mass merchandisers. Duane Duane's Photographs of Ecuador http://duane_birkey.tripod.com