[Leica] Re: A rant on Leica marketing

[Brougham <brougham3@yahoo.com>]

Bryant <tbryant@wizard.net> wrote:

> APS?  Another expensive flop.  Phil Greenspun has a good rant about
> it:
> 
> www.photo.net/photo/aps
> 
> Leica apparently hires expensive MBAs who know lots about sales and
> nothing about photography.  The MBAs commission market surveys and
the
> surveyors wander out to shopping malls across the world and talk to
> housewives who want everything done for them in any endeavor you
> mention.  Thus APS and digital cameras.  Something that I won't even
> think of buying.

Just because a product doesn't appeal to you, why is it a flop?

I'm about to buy an APS camera...for my mother-in-law.  It's perfect.
She never enlarges beyond 4x6.  She hates to load film...even when
it's just a matter of pulling the film out, dropping it in, and
pushing a button.  She has a problem mastering that.  Anything
mechincal or technical is not her forte.  But she wants snap shots.
For $100, I'm going to get her a very tiny camera with the 35mm
equivalent of a 35/2.8 lens.

For every serious photographer out there, there are at least a couple
people who just want pictures and don't *care* how they got them.
They are more concerned with whether Aunt Thelma and cousin Eunice
both have their eyes open at the same time than why there's flare on
the corner.  

Of course, I can't imagine why Leica would want to get into the APS
market.  Leica has little brand recognition outside a select group of
photographers.  I don't think that group is likely to be using APS.
The housewives in your example who want everything automated are the
same ones who will recognize Nikon or Sony but won't know Leica.


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