[Leica] doomed? Now "a la carte" & "certified pre-owned"

[sethrosner at nycap.rr.com (Seth Rosner)]

Douglas and Karen wrote:

Leica should get into the used camera business.Buy up all
>>the second hand stuff CLA, re-box and re-sell it with a guarantee,at least 
>>we'd be sure of the quality.
>
> Leica is indeed doing this. They're going to be offering a certified 
> pre-owned service soon. No kidding.  News in the latest LFI.

Seth sez:

Had I mentioned to the list that I wrote Hanns-Peter Cohn in October 2000 
suggesting exactly this and suggesting too what became the a la carte 
program? Though my idea in suggesting a "made to order" program was to be 
able to offer M6's at a REDUCED price e.g. without meter, to broaden the 
market.

My understanding is that attachments are not allowed on the LUG list so I am 
taking the liberty of putting my letter in text below for those interested. 
It is three or so pages so delete if you don't want to read.

31 October 2000

Herr Hanns-Peter Cohn

Chairman and CEO, Leica Camera AG

Oskar-Barnack-Strasse 11

D-35606 Solms, DEUTSCHLAND



Dear Herr Cohn:



            Thank you for asking Lothar Koelsch to respond to my 13 April 
2000 letter to you

about the Leica 50mm Summicron lenses. His information has been very 
helpful.



            Three weeks ago I attended my first annual meeting of the Leica 
Historical Society of America. Having with great pleasure used Leicas since 
my boyhood, it was great fun finally to meet Leica photographers and 
enthusiasts, among them Stefan Daniel who spoke very well to the group.



            Some thoughts of members expressed at the meeting and that I 
have read in Viewfinder magazine and on the Internet Leica Users Group give 
me serious concern about the feelings of those people who should be Leica's 
best customers.



            Leica Camera AG is the heir to a great photographic and optical 
tradition. It must obviously concern itself with the present and the future, 
given the economic and financial realities of today's world markets. It must 
also keep in its collective, corporate mind and heart the emotions and 
desires of a very diverse, not always consistent, group of photographers of 
different ages, talents and artistic and commercial sensibilities. Many at 
the LHSA meeting loved the new null series Leica. Others said it is an 
anachronism having no meaning. I happen to believe it a wonderful effort to 
demonstrate Leica Camera's awareness of and dedication to its history and 
tradition, especially if the camera can awaken in enough people a love of 
the early Leica, at the same time finding a small niche market that can make 
money for the Company. Commercial success is, after all, essential for 
Leica's 
continuing life.



            A recent posting on the LUG raised a very interesting 
possibility which is a main purpose of this letter: given the high price of 
Leica cameras and lenses, can Leica Camera offer buyers the option of 
ordering custom-built cameras? If it were feasible from a production 
standpoint, why not offer a standard M6 without TTL and even without 
internal metering? After all, there are many professional and advanced 
amateur photographers who are so adept and experienced that they can 
accurately estimate





Herr Hanns-Peter Cohn

31 October 2000

Page Two



exposure without a meter or prefer to use a separate hand-held meter. I 
presume such a camera would be significantly less expensive to manufacture.



The buyer could then be offered a base camera with many options: internal 
meter, TTL flash, a cast metal top-plate with black or silver chrome finish 
or a brass top-plate with black paint or titanium finish, with choice of 
viewfinder magnification, an M3 or M4/M6 film advance lever, etcet. all as 
extra-cost options.



As one member observed at the LHSA meeting, it is annoying to pay a great 
additional cost for limited production black paint (equivalent to the cost 
of some fine cameras) that doesn't really cost that much more to produce (I 
am aware that the brass top plate is more costly than the cast top plate) 
rather than to order it as an extra cost option for custom order production.



            Such a program would certainly require some rearrangement of 
production but it would give the Company greater control over the final 
customer retail sale price (giving the dealer a commission on his sale at 
your price) and might even result in better information on customer demand. 
The customer would have to wait for his order to be filled as a custom-built 
machine but I believe that many, perhaps most, Leica customers would be more 
than willing to wait for a camera built to their order.



            A second suggestion is one that I made to Stefan at the Boston 
meeting. Several of the high-end automobile manufacturers - Mercedes, BMW, 
Jaguar and Lexus among them - have developed programs where they purchase 
used cars of their marque, restore them to excellent condition and sell them 
with factory warranties. It provides an additional source of income and, 
more important, a new customer base of people who cannot afford a new BMW, 
Mercedes, etcet., who are apprehensive of buying a used car from the owner 
but who would love to own their first BMW, Mercedes etcet. These customers, 
once in a BMW, will later buy another new BMW.



            Such a program for Leica Camera would mean a significant 
expansion in service capability (that should be in Solms only, not local 
e.g. Leica Northvale or Argenteuil or Milton Keynes or Nihon Siber Hegner) 
so that you can advertise Solms service as the restorer). As you know, there 
is an exceptionally active used Leica market and in addition  to your own 
local service facilities there a number of very fine independent Leica 
repair people in several countries. Still, it seems to me that this is an 
opportunity for you to



Herr Hanns-Peter Cohn

31 October 2000

Page Three



develop a new and steady income stream and a new group of photographers to 
whom the Leica name is a legend but who are not sufficiently well-informed 
to find reliable used Leica cameras and lenses but who would be comfortable 
buying Leica-warrantied used cameras and lenses.


[Sincerely yours, etc.]

I understand how this required revising production and planning marketing 
but four years is a bit long to have implemented these two ideas. They 
really need to look at a la carte pricing and think about lower prices to 
broaden market.

That said, I certainly hope these two programs help Leica address their 
sales and financial issues.

Seth          LaK 9