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Pricing, Lies, and why Olympus Marketing Flopped!

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slartz

slartz

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As I was communicating in another thread, I realized I understood what the biggest Olympus mistake was. It was not only pricing this too high, but it was HOW they did it.

Right now, Olympus E-M1.2 is the single most expensive non-FF camera in the market.
  • The D500 was launched at 2000$ but sells at 1800$
  • The 7DII sells now at 1500$
  • The Fuji XT2 sells for 1600$
  • The Sony A6500 sells for 1400$
So where's the problem? Who says Olympus can't do a better, more expensive camera?

So there are a few problems.... The first, and most important one, is the way it's done. If Olympus truly believes the EM1 outperforms any other non-FF camera in the market, and as such should be priced higher than all of them, Olympus should have been upfront about it. They should have come to Photokina and say - "We created the best non-FF camera in the world. It outperforms any other camera including APS-C DSLR cameras in every possible aspect including IQ and AF, and because of that we are going to charge more than anybody else".

If they did it, and could provide the supporting EVIDENCE, that shows:
  • AF Performance outperforms D500
  • ISO/DR perfromance outperforms (or at least equals) D500 and XT2
  • Other features are betteer, etc...
Then they could have gotten away with this.

Instead? what did they do? they boasted a bunch of marketing claims, with no supporting evidence. And they said "pricing will be slightly higher" than previous model "to adapt to exchange rate" and then similar pricing to competitors. And then they blew us all out with this ridiculous price.

So.... this is a big flop.

The price, MAY be justified, IF AF outperforms D500 and DR/ISO improvements are big enough. Ming Thein review suggests both claims are not substantiated. In that case, the pricing is a complete flop. If Ming Thein is just too critical, and AF/DR/ISO is good enough - then the price MAY be justified, but the way it was brought to the market is still a catastrophic flop.
 
It's not about outperforming cameras or anything like that. Pricing is all about expected profit.

Olympus expects that the sales at $2000 are at least 80% of what they would be at $1600 or 90% of what they would be at $1800. If they sell more than those numbers they're making more profit than they would at the lower prices. Also, even if less than 80% of the people who would buy the camera at $1600 are going to buy it at $2000, it doesn't matter.

Also, maybe Olympus cannot produce it in large enough numbers so selling at lower price just doesn't make any sense as they wouldn't have enough cameras to satisfy the demand at a lower price? As of now they can sell it at $2000 to the many people who are willing to buy it at that price and then lower the price to $1800 or $1600 or whatever in six to twelve months and watch more people buy it.

Yeah, I get people are disappointed. However, I totally don't get how this is worth as many threads as it is getting. I mean, this is your second one today, isn't it? The price is higher than you are willing to pay. So what? Deal with it and don't buy it. Use whatever you already have or switch to an another system if you feel like they offer more value for your money.
 
Last edited:
slartz said:
As I was communicating in another thread, I realized I understood what the biggest Olympus mistake was. It was not only pricing this too high, but it was HOW they did it.

Right now, Olympus E-M1.2 is the single most expensive non-FF camera in the market.
  • The D500 was launched at 2000$ but sells at 1800$
  • The 7DII sells now at 1500$
  • The Fuji XT2 sells for 1600$
  • The Sony A6500 sells for 1400$
So where's the problem? Who says Olympus can't do a better, more expensive camera?

So there are a few problems.... The first, and most important one, is the way it's done. If Olympus truly believes the EM1 outperforms any other non-FF camera in the market, and as such should be priced higher than all of them, Olympus should have been upfront about it. They should have come to Photokina and say - "We created the best non-FF camera in the world. It outperforms any other camera including APS-C DSLR cameras in every possible aspect including IQ and AF, and because of that we are going to charge more than anybody else".

If they did it, and could provide the supporting EVIDENCE, that shows:
  • AF Performance outperforms D500
  • ISO/DR perfromance outperforms (or at least equals) D500 and XT2
  • Other features are betteer, etc...
Then they could have gotten away with this.

Instead? what did they do? they boasted a bunch of marketing claims, with no supporting evidence. And they said "pricing will be slightly higher" than previous model "to adapt to exchange rate" and then similar pricing to competitors. And then they blew us all out with this ridiculous price.

So.... this is a big flop.

The price, MAY be justified, IF AF outperforms D500 and DR/ISO improvements are big enough. Ming Thein review suggests both claims are not substantiated. In that case, the pricing is a complete flop. If Ming Thein is just too critical, and AF/DR/ISO is good enough - then the price MAY be justified, but the way it was brought to the market is still a catastrophic flop.
Click to expand...
A good summary of the launch.

And more are going to follow when Olympus claims does not measure up
 
JoostL said:
Posts like yours make it urgent that DPReview introduce the possibility to UNlike!
Whine, whine, whine...
Click to expand...
Why whine about us stating the obvious, you whine about the whiners looool
 
I think Oly's management of expectations could have been better, but it hardly rises to the level of "lies" and whether it results in a flop remains to be seen.

Remember that the 300Pro came in priced higher than widely expected. There was much freaking out, but it sold out immediately and repeatedly.
slartz said:
...

So there are a few problems.... The first, and most important one, is the way it's done. If Olympus truly believes the EM1 outperforms any other non-FF camera in the market, and as such should be priced higher than all of them, Olympus should have been upfront about it. They should have come to Photokina and say - "We created the best non-FF camera in the world. It outperforms any other camera including APS-C DSLR cameras in every possible aspect including IQ and AF, and because of that we are going to charge more than anybody else".

If they did it, and could provide the supporting EVIDENCE, that shows:
  • AF Performance outperforms D500
  • ISO/DR perfromance outperforms (or at least equals) D500 and XT2
  • Other features are betteer, etc...
Click to expand...
They don't have to outperform every other camera on every single feature, they just have to offer a compelling package, which they have certainly done for some applications at least.
slartz said:
Instead? what did they do? they boasted a bunch of marketing claims, with no supporting evidence.
Click to expand...
No manufacturer has anything but marketing claims, until the real hardware is released.
slartz said:
And they said "pricing will be slightly higher" than previous model "to adapt to exchange rate" and then similar pricing to competitors. And then they blew us all out with this ridiculous price.
Click to expand...
Did Oly actually say this? Or did 43rumors say it over and over, and suckers heard what they want to hear?
 
I have an idea why the mk2 is priced as it is, and why the public is reacting negatively to it.

Olympus originally hinted that it had cracked the conundrum of making high-res work at handheld speeds. Late in the development cycle came the admission that the company would not be able to deliver that feature. Will it be available through firmware update, or in the next model? We don't know.

My guess is that Olympus set the price of the mk2 when it believed that the camera would be shooting most of the time at or around 50MP. With that feature, I think there would be little or no push back.

Why was the price not dropped? One possible theory: a firmware fix is around the corner, so the maker is happy to accept slow launch sales knowing it'll soon release the update that makes the price look a lot more reasonable. Another possible explanation: the R&D budget, and those for tooling, parts etc were all set when hand-held high-res was in the feature set, and now it's too late to backtrack.

Time will tell whether either of these hypotheses is right. In the meantime, the product:price equation doesn't compute for me, much as I'd like it to.
 
slartz said:
The price, MAY be justified, IF AF outperforms D500 and DR/ISO improvements are big enough. Ming Thein review suggests both claims are not substantiated. In that case, the pricing is a complete flop. If Ming Thein is just too critical, and AF/DR/ISO is good enough - then the price MAY be justified, but the way it was brought to the market is still a catastrophic flop.
Click to expand...
Not going to do you any good to complain if you're heavily invested in M43 lens and have no other system, in this example, Nikkor lenses, to go with the D500.
 
I'm not impressed with this launch either, but you are taking it to ridicolous levels with your temper tantrum.

I'm kinda grateful to Olympus, they just saved me a lot of Euros. GAS is a horrible affliction and Olympus found a cure. At least for me. Well, temporarily I guess.
 
Astrotripper said:
I'm not impressed with this launch either, but you are taking it to ridicolous levels with your temper tantrum.

I'm kinda grateful to Olympus, they just saved me a lot of Euros. GAS is a horrible affliction and Olympus found a cure. At least for me. Well, temporarily I guess.
Click to expand...
It's not a tantrum! it's a call to arms. we need to be responsible customers and not to cooperate with this!
 
I feel you pain. You are desperate to get you hands on this latest and greatest camera but unfortunately it is a bit over your €200/$200 budget limit for camera equipment.

Oh well, I guess you will get over this little temper tantrum in a while.

Unfortunately top rate cameras cost a lot of money new.
 
That's a total of 3 threads you started within hours of each other...couldn't you put all that rage into just one thread? Did they all really deserve a separate thread?
 
slartz said:
Astrotripper said:
I'm not impressed with this launch either, but you are taking it to ridicolous levels with your temper tantrum.

I'm kinda grateful to Olympus, they just saved me a lot of Euros. GAS is a horrible affliction and Olympus found a cure. At least for me. Well, temporarily I guess.
Click to expand...
It's not a tantrum! it's a call to arms. we need to be responsible customers and not to cooperate with this!
Click to expand...
Hear, hear!

 
peppermonkey said:
That's a total of 3 threads you started within hours of each other...couldn't you put all that rage into just one thread? Did they all really deserve a separate thread?
Click to expand...
I heard he's raking in the monies through the DPR Affiliate Program, and we're actually funding his E-M1 MkII purchase.
 
NCV said:
I feel you pain. You are desperate to get you hands on this latest and greatest camera but unfortunately it is a bit over your €200/$200 budget limit for camera equipment.

Oh well, I guess you will get over this little temper tantrum in a while.

Unfortunately top rate cameras cost a lot of money new.

--
Click to expand...
oh you are so hilarious

I have over 10,000$ worth of cameras and lenses. But I don't like when a big company thinks they can get away with anything.
 
slartz said:
NCV said:
I feel you pain. You are desperate to get you hands on this latest and greatest camera but unfortunately it is a bit over your €200/$200 budget limit for camera equipment.

Oh well, I guess you will get over this little temper tantrum in a while.

Unfortunately top rate cameras cost a lot of money new.

--
Click to expand...
oh you are so hilarious

I have over 10,000$ worth of cameras and lenses. But I don't like when a big company thinks they can get away with anything.
Click to expand...
I think NCV is pretty funny, too!

Good to see you now have a sense of humour about Evil Olympus Corp.
 
I do agree that this launch was handled poorly because they said the price would be slightly higher than the original EM1. So everyone though it would be in the $1600-$1800 USD range. So everyone is freaking out now because it's significantly more than expectations. Olympus did a poor job of managing that expectation. I am wondering if this will backfire on them, as you see several people debating about dumping their m43 gear and moving to another system.
 
slartz said:
NCV said:
I feel you pain. You are desperate to get you hands on this latest and greatest camera but unfortunately it is a bit over your €200/$200 budget limit for camera equipment.

Oh well, I guess you will get over this little temper tantrum in a while.

Unfortunately top rate cameras cost a lot of money new.

--
Click to expand...
oh you are so hilarious

I have over 10,000$ worth of cameras and lenses. But I don't like when a big company thinks they can get away with anything.
Click to expand...
What vile evil crime have Olympus committed. Oh I see; they have priced a camera at a level that poor old you cannot afford it seems.

I think the Olympus CEO should be publicly flogged for such a dastardly crime.
 
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