Ever see FZ cameras advertised?

I've been a devoted Panasonic user for 2 years now, ever since I fell in love with my first FZ1 in 2003, when it first became available. Since then, I have NEVER seen any magazine advertising for FZ cameras. Our local Fry's Electronics carries Panasonic cameras, but the only time I see them advertised is when a model, like the FZ1, is "phasing out," offered at bargain prices or with a rebate. They have an FZ15 sitting out there, and I never even see salesmen touting it or going anywhere near it. How does Panasonic grow their sales? Is the Internet the only way they use? Others have different takes on this? Just curious.
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Just let a smile be your umbrella!

John Reed

Panasonic: EffZeeOneVeeTwo, EffZeeFifteen; Nikon: CPFortyFiveHundred

Yes John, I was waiting for someone in hospital emergency room last month. Lo and behold there was a little pullout in a magazine that had Pana. FZ cameras advertised. Nice pictures & features listed. First time I saw them advertised in a magazine! It had pictures of the FZ 20, 15 & 3. Copy said "You're never too far away from a great shot."
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^WILL^^
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Panasonic FZ 20
Olympus C 700 UZ
Casio Exilim EX-S2
Minolta DiMage X

Speak softly and carry a big lens!!!

Remember last year's tiff (in this forum, I think) that Panasonic's advertizing wasn't on the up and up because their protrayal of the image stabilizing feature was misrepresented? Panasonic advertizes but not much even though it was a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal that first turned me on the the FZ10. Not much need to advertize when your dealers can't keep the cameras in stock.

john

Is any footing with the local camera shops, other than the national chains like Ritz or Wolf Camera, that I know of. I think a lot of people really trust their "local camera shop" guy, and take whatever "he" says as gospel. And right now, the word "Panasonic" isn't part of that vocabulary on the local level. But hey, I guess they're doing alright anyhow, why worry?
--
Just let a smile be your umbrella!

John Reed

Panasonic: EffZeeOneVeeTwo, EffZeeFifteen; Nikon: CPFortyFiveHundred

No advertising that I know of here in Aus, I found the FZ1 on Teds Camera store Web site, was intrigued by 12X zoom and Leica name.

I looked for some web reviews and found 2 with glowing reports albeit 2mp.

I took the plunge and got the FZ1 now FZ1V2 wonderfull camera, as for Leica name well its a token thing Pana make the whole lot they have the most advanced lens facility in the world allied with their electronic expertise are a force ... dont forget they made camcorders for years with
OIS and 15x zoom lenses.

Not many take Pana seriously enough with Canon and Nikon around add

Oly and Minolta Konica to the list oh and pentax, of course a good many buy in stuff as needed Pana do it all themselves and the Lumix range are outstanding.

--
FZ1v2 my view of the world

http://photobucket.com/albums/v307/boyzo/

I have not seen any Panasonic advertising.

Didn't even know there was the FZ lineup until by accident I saw

a user's question on the 12x IS lens capabilities when I was looking

for a prosumer with better reach than my Sony F828.

What I found interesting was there was only 1 FZ20 used in the

Northwest / Northern California Local paper/free classifieds online over

about a five week period.

Either everyone is happy and keeping their FZs or nobody owns

one. I'm keeping mine for quite a while.

In my city (Portland) I could find only two stores-Circuit City and

Kits Camera that even sold the darned thing!

the Fuzzy 20 in their Sunday noozepaper ads. Haven't seen any since this website began moving cameras. I learned about the camera on the dpr site...saw the name Leica in connection with pantysonic. I have bought nothing but Pantysonic phones for years. So, I lurked the Pantysonic site for a year and bought one (camera, that is). Shortly after I learned about the FZ10, I went to our local "real" camera store. Our expert hadn't heard about the FZ10. Not surprising. My wife is now hot for the FZ5. She'd prefer it in red but that ain't gonna happen. The only disappointment is in hearing of the instances of a poorly organized service situation. I have had no problems but have great feelings of sorrow for those who have had to call on Pantysonic for service.
Henry Clements

I have seen ads for FX7s here in Xiamen, but never anything for the FZs. I picked up on Panasonic not long after I bought my Oly 4040 ... I was wandering through Electronics City here and happened to see this Panny with "Leica" on the lens. I guess it may have been an FZ1 that had just come out. I remembered that, so when I wanted a new camera, I looked on the web and found the FZ10 on the Panasonic site. I then went to the people I buy all my kit from--very professional, including selling all the top end Canon and Nikon professional DSL gear--but had to persuade them to order it for me ... they had never heard of it.

They will get Panasonic stuff, but don't seem ever to have any in stock. There is another shop that does, though ... FX7s and similar--that is the type of camera that sells well here. When I went to the Lantern Festival display, I saw there was someone else with an FZ, but I couldn't tell which model at a distance, not the FZ10. Janet Li has an FZ20 ... She's in Shenzhen. I'll ask her if she has seen any ads next time I'm in touch.

Mark in China
--
My galleries: http://www.mzfh.com/galleries/

I was at Best Buy a week or so ago and told a camera salesman I wanted to see the Panasonic FZ20. "We don't carry Panasonic," he said, in a tone of voice like a waiter in a vegetarian restaurant would use to say "We don't serve hot dogs."

jmgiv said:

Remember last year's tiff (in this forum, I think) that Panasonic's
advertizing wasn't on the up and up because their protrayal of the
image stabilizing feature was misrepresented? Panasonic advertizes
but not much even though it was a full page ad in the Wall Street
Journal that first turned me on the the FZ10. Not much need to
advertize when your dealers can't keep the cameras in stock.

Click to expand...

Yeah, now ain't THAT the truth!

jmgiv said:

john

Click to expand...

--
LaRee
just happy to be
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I can think of this only as a definate plus for us Panafans. Advertising costs millions and possibly we are benefactors of those best-kept secrets as cost savings may be passed on through quality and technology.

My first introduction to Panasonic cameras was through an article in US News and World Report shortly after the FZ10 hit the market. The article featured the new Super Zoom digitals and rated the FZ10 tops. I was obsessed with wanting to get my hands on one. I couldn't find one anywhere to look at and was met with the same blank look wherever I inquired. I finally found an FZ1 at a local department store greatly reduced

($165.), because they couldn't get rid of it. They were telling everyone it was limited to 4X6 prints. I still have it ane wouldn't part with it.

The April issue of Kiplinger's (another non-techie magazine), features the latest and best digital cameras. In the segment on super-zooms they feature the FZ20 and the Dimage A2. I just think there must be a rift of sorts between main-stream technology magazines and Panasonic.
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Cheers, Gene (The one in Oregon)

Oly D-450 Z - DMC FZ1v2 - FZ10

John_Reed said:

How does Panasonic grow their sales?

Click to expand...

I was playing with my Dad's image stabilized high zoom camcorder last summer and wondered if there were any digi-cams that offered similar features. After a bit of review site hopping I ran across the FZs and the Canon 1S IS. It was comments from people in the forums and customer feed back scores that swayed my to by the FZ20. Were it not for a particular interest in a long zoom and IS I, to this day, would not know that Panasonic even offered a line of digi-cams, let alone this particular camera line.

Personally, I think that Panasonic relies on their major distributors to take care of their marketing for them. Places like Circuit City won't make money on any cameras they sell if they don't market them aggressively and that saves Panasonic the costs of direct marketing themselves.

--
Ken
Panasonic DMC FZ20, Wired Remote, Sunpak 383
Raynox DCR-6600, DCR-1540, Oly C-210, TCON 14B, #6T
http://ken.smugmug.com/

I always wondered why Panas didn't show up at camera stores, so I asked my local camera store buyer. From his response it seems to be a combination of 3 things.

Lower mark-up at the dealer level.

The KISS factor. Canon and Nikon are easier to sell. The sales person doesn't have to sell the brand name, just the model. With the Panas, you have to sell the brand and the model.

As part of Matsushita, they already have distribution set up for the big box stores. Microwaves, TV's, CD players, cameras, all get routed the same, in bulk, keeping costs and compexity down.

It always seemed a shame such a good tool was so hidden. On the other hand, it's great fun to demo the camera for someone and know you may have made a sale. Word of mouth definitely works in Panas favor.

In Germany there is some Pana advertising in the greater magazines every now and then. And quick information when there is something new(i.e. FZ5)!
By the way: Best advertising for Panasonic cameras is this forum!!!
Regards
PeterPix
--
Photography is painting - not reporting!

Afk reply:

I have been a pansonic fan after buying an LC20 (2 megapixel) 3 years ago. Recently purchased the FZ20 as have discovered the quality of Panasonic's products.

In Western Australia, in some stores the salesmen almost put you down for suggesting an "unknown" such as Panasonic, even though Pana have been making cam corders with digital CCd's, image stabilizers etc. for years (how many of their "competitors" use Pana ccd's in their equipment. Pana relies a lot on word of mouth - A state Pana sales person told me that they don't compete with companies such as Canon in terms of discounts and cut price marketing, so naturally the salesman is going to recommend you the "best" camera for him in terms of mark up, not necessarily the best camera. Our local Harvey Norman store is a good example - plenty of Canon, Fuji, Kodak, Hewlett Packard, Sony, Olympus, but when I asked about Panasonic FZ20, the sales rep said yea I have heard of Panasnonic cameras and that was about it ! Local Retravison, Myer and discount stores are starting to sell Panasonic and you will now see them in some camera houses because they seem to becoming more popular.

Panasonic is a not so well kept secret thanks to places like this great forum - keep up the good work!!!!!!

Afk.

When I saw "Closer" at the movies here in Stockholm, they were running a Panasonic commercial before the movie started. I guess it might have to do something with the fact that Julia Roberts character is a photographer (which used fancy Hasselblad and Leica cameras).

The commercial focused a lot on O.I.S. In it, a couple wanted to take a picture of themselves with a FZ20 sitting on top of a hood of an old car. Oddly enough, the car was left with its engine running so that the camera was a bit shaky but thanks to OIS the picture was perfect anyway.....

-Ambjörn

Watching a few "on the counter" talk about customers asking about a camera, I came to realize that the "local photo guys" here will sell whatever they have available - not what makes sense for the customer.

No matter what camera they show you(you ask about, it is always "the best". Until they show you the next one, which is obviously "much better". Bah.

Best wishes,

Tels

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• If not, I'll refund your money and try again.

Just consider yourself a little more well informed than those guys that need to see an Ad to be told what they should buy. I purchase an FZ20 ater researching it for ages and I have had the camera for 6 months now and like you, I never saw it advertised, my recomendations came from word of mouth.

I still cant really beieve the value for money in the FZ range, as everything that comes close is just so much more expensive. This FZ20 is just stunning.

I think we are both fans of digital photograhy's best kept secret 111111