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A question about Contax Digital

Dirk,

I found your last message fascinating and informative...let's have some more!!

One curious thing, even though I agree with you that it seems like .... "Kyocera P&S is the only thing they are interested at the moment.".......I find it odd that I can not remember the last time I saw any significant advertising of a new Kyocera camera product in the UK! Is Japan HQ asking the Euro countries to swim with their hands tied behind their backs in the race?

Even Contax launches seem low-key in the UK, what is it like in the rest of Europe?

Cheers, Bob.
 
Bob,

there are no Contax marketing efforts at all in Europe. To be honest, there is even not a person in marketing Europe dedicated for the Contax products - only for Kyocera P&S.

For the US I do not know, but I imagine that this is the same. And the people in Japan seem not to plan to adapt anything for the non-Japan market for Contax. You get very nice Contax marketing materiel in Japan by the way and the prices are between 30-50% less than in Europe.

The marketing I have seen so far for Kyocera P&S in Europe is a certain marketing which (in my personal view) just costs a lot of money, but results not in sales or brandname recognition.

They did finance i.e. sandsculptures in Berlin This was a 5 day event, totally unrecognized by hobbyphotographers because it has nothing to to with photography.

I am not sure whether the marketing people there actually know what they are doing or what would increase brand recognition and sales. Since we have a lot of experience by profession with marketing and because of all of our photo-sites we know what we are talking about.

The fact that they want to push into the mass-digital-market of P&S (as everybody else does it at the moment), does not mean that they really know how to do it.

This might be the major reason why you have not seen anything/ payed attention to it yet
happy.gif
 
Bob,
Certainly in the photographic press, there have been many instances of full page adverts for Contax products, and Kyocera cameras such as the Finecam. There have also been quite a few tests by the magazines of (recent) Kyocera products, and they have just announced a new version of the Finecam (the S5R). To say there has been no advertising or promotion of Kyocera and Contax products is simply not the case.
All this interest in the compact market must I would think, have a knock on effect to what they do in the SLR market, but in terms of technology, it is moving at such a pace, that it must be difficult to keep up for any manufacturer.
It's interesting that the new Nikon SLR uses a 4 meg chip, and is aimed squarely at the press market. Contax is aimed much more at the "quality" market, in terms of both results and pricing. What a lot of commentators, magazines and the like do is try to compare apples and oranges - the N Digital is not aimed at the same market as the other SLR cameras in my view - and that perhaps is where the problems of promotion, advertising and so on have started .

On a slightly different subject, Dirk, I want to upload some N Digital pictures to the gallery, but you say not to use Photoshop 7. Surely a Jpeg is a Jpeg - can you explain what the problem is, and if there is a workround - I only have P'shop 7.

Regards to all,

Andy
 
Hi Andy...long time, no hear!

I agree that there have been some full-page Contax adverts and the occasional Kyocera advert ... but it still seems low-key compared to the competitors! I suppose it boils down to what an individual regards as “significant advertising“. Adverts appear for short periods and then ages until the next one. By comparison, the competitors seem to keep a near constant presence in the press, or so it appears to me!

Even in the PC mags, I notice that mentions of the Finecams are few and far between.

I’m not knocking our UK team ... it must depend on what they are allowed to spend on advertising. If the budget for Europe is dictated by Japan, then I fear that Kyocera might be shooting themselves in the foot. It would appear from Dirk’s messages that he would agree with me, and I with him.

Cheers, Bob.
 
I seem to be a lone voice but I have had nothing but good experience in my infrequent dealings with Kyocera UK.
On a different and maybe off-topic tack, the new Pentax DSLR looks as though it will be interesting.
John
 
Not at all, John.

You are not a lone voice. With my frequent dealings with Kyocera (Yashica) UK, I too have had nothing but good experiences. So have many of the members in the Contax Postal Club (UK)... so, they have at least 55+ supporters, I included (oo...56+, forgot Andy)!

You will note that I said in my last message that I am NOT knocking KYUK. I’ll leave it to you to figure out who I am “knocking”.

I have had nothing but great dealings in the past with KYUK, and fully support them, as they have supported the Contax Postal Club, and my efforts on behalf of the Club, and myself personally!

I have spoken to and corresponded with many, many UK Contax and Yashica users over the years, and I find very few unhappy ones. Sure, they grumble here and there, but all love their cameras and lenses and are happy with KYUK’s service. Note that many of the members own other makes as well as C/Y, and discussing their respective merits with them, reinforces the benefits of the C/Y cameras and the UK Company.

I would not spend such a good deal of my spare time on Contax and Yashica and running the Contax Postal Club if I did not believe in the products and the UK Company.

This support does not contradict the statements or questions both Dirk and I have made.

Cheers, Bob.
 
I agree with Bob. I was not referring to Kyocera UK. Decisions are made in Japan, neither in Europe nor the US.

The name Contax is owned by Zeiss, not by Kyocera. Kyocera is only producing the bodies. The marketing and service for Contax products however is the responsibility of Kyocera, not of Zeiss.

If the decision of Kyocera Japan for Contax products is not to care about anything outside of Japan (no marketing, no new products, no services), the results are decreasing sales numbers. UK can only act within the borders and budgets Kyocera Japan is allowing them.

If Zeiss would not put so much effort in supporting its lens costumers with their own efforts, there would be no Contax future at all.
But Kyocera is not willing to understand this. I am impressed about this ability to ignore common sense, facts and reality.
 
I believe that before Kyocera/Contax can focus on a marketing plan, they need to develop a solid BUSINESS plan. If they have one, or had one, I think it must be buried under a 6-inches of dust and no one has paid any attention to it. A company can't get this far off track if they have a good working business plan that they keep monitoring and updating as events change. That's true for all business. Then, when they have that, the marketing strategy just flows from it. Not the other way around. You can't market products if the products either are not there, or are not desired by the market. My complaint about Kyocera Contax started a few years ago when they alienated themselves from the larger dealers in my area. There are no Contax dealers in my area - and I am talking about the greater Milwaukee area. You have to drive to Chicago to find one and that's 1.5 to 2 hours away. How many casual photographers travel that distance to buy a camera that they haven't seen used or promoted in some fashion? Anyway - they need help from the ground up - not just in marketing. If Zeiss were to come out and build bodies on their own again without Kyocera I would jump for joy. Zeiss deserves loyalty and respect. Zeiss is very responsive to questions and inquiries and seem to really care about answering even insignificant questions from users like me via email.

-Lynn
 
Dirk

Perhaps, with the current employment problems in Germany, it would be possible the return the production to Germany. I have believed for sometime that Kyocera has been riding the Zeiss name and not putting forth and effort to market the products as Lynn mentioned. If Zeiss began producing cameras again like they use to (as Leica is today) I believe that would set the camera world on fire. I know that I would be a very happy about it.

Greetings


Gilbert
 
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