Open Letter to Pentax USA -- Pricing & Marketing Stink

Well said +1

I believe the message is good, but the delivery needs tweaking.
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+1

moving_comfort wrote:

You lost me at "You screwed up royal".

-Mike

This open letter may fall on deaf ears but I'd bet it gonna receive numerous posts in the days ahead. You just cannot ignore the consumers when they count most.

+1.

Camera stores are going away, is a trend, no one can stop it. Online store is the trend. Why Pentax try to reverse?

Lee

I bought Pentax gear last 5 years (2 cameras, 1 flash and 7 lenses) because only one reason: Pentax has worse AF comparing N/C/S but it is cheaper. I wish to be new comer without brand dependance

citrontokyo wrote:

... Between those two poles, there is no magical accounting method to make up the difference, unless you're Olympus.

Good one!
--
Nikola

citrontokyo wrote:

It's a fake out , to pretend to appease those who complain about availability, while they try to carve out their niche as an "upscale/pro-oriented" maker.

The more I think about Ned's post, the more it think its audience was meant to be the retailers, not the consumers. The retailers probably watch these forums more than Pentax, so they are probably more concerned about the reaction as they don't want to get stuck with a bunch of inventory that doesn't move. Ned is just offering the retailers a rational to stick with the program.

At it's core the post offers the consumer nothing, but the retailer everything and the threat that Pentax is working with other vendors. It's all aimed at the retailers. Look at the post proceeding it that prompted the post we are talking about. It was about relationships with the retailers and the hubris on the forums. He hears their plight, not your or mine.

So the rational to the retailers is Pentax doesn't make anymore money with the new prices, more dealers carry the brand, and everyone gets hooked on the margins. The thing that isn't said is that next year Pentax keeps the end prices stable, but raises the cost the retailers pay and so on until Pentax is making a pretty fair share. Just need to have to get the consumer to accept it to keep the wheels moving and that will take time, but they will get over it, or not, as we a marketing to a new crowd anyway.

Why doesn't Pentax not just increase the cost to the retailers from the get go? Well, the few retailers Pentax has now probably don't sell enough to make it worth their while to keep selling Pentax products at less margin, so Pentax has to lure the current retailers in with easier money. Pentax then has time to try to sell the wonderful margins to the new retailers to get more retailers to carry the brand and lessen the grip the current retailers have to keep Pentax from taking more of the profit. Really even if Pentax doesn't get new retailers, they transitioned the old retailers into a position where Pentax can take more of the cut sooner or later.

Pentax knows how much money the retailers were making with the old system and knows what the new system is generating, so as long as they don't push the margins for the retailer below the old levels, Pentax USA as a distributor makes money. Remember Pentax USA has to cover support and sales distribution, so there will be a graph that shows support cost to units sold, and where the drop off point is on how small the organization can go with RIFs. As long as Pentax USA sells enough units to stay above that point, they have room to try to increase their revenue. Yes Virginia, it is all about making money after all.

With the increase in prices, the more fluff driven cameras, Pentax transitions from the old market base of old guys with budgets, to old guys without budgets, and young hipsters with cash to spend. It's the movie model, sell to the 18-25 crowd with most of your product aimed at that market, and throw in some premium goods to pick up the older crowd with money to spend. There is no place in that model for the value the forums are crying about.

The market has moved on to people with more money to spend in the short term. It's a good market if you can ride the trends, but sooner or later a bet goes wrong and you find yourself in the trough, and them finally in front of the next wave and pushed under. I guess it is good to be owned by Ricoh then.

Thank you
Russell

Do not know. But it's not impossible. Life would go on. People would buy them from Asia, or change to another brand. People in Pentax USA would work for someone else.

Brand wise, US is very if not the most conservative (just an observation, not sure the reason). Many good Japanese, Chinese and even European brand products are not in the US market, but they are everywhere in the world. The good English indoor shoes are not seen in US. The whole line of Li Ning sports goods are not seen. Butterfly is not the only Japanese table tennis product makers in Japan, but it dominates US market (and so they are very expensive as well). Haier is not the best Chinese appliance and TV maker, may not even be the best maker in China......

(Soccer is not popular here. Baseball is the number 1)

awaldram wrote:

I wonder what the reaction would be if Pentax announced their pulling out of the US market place ?

http://1x.com/artist/awaldram/wall

Pentax could be right or wrong. Many brand have that policy, like Panasonic. But I guess the problem is that, while they increase prices we don´t see new, or simply more, equipment on stores. So now we continue buyingiuyy blindness and with more expensive price. For example Panasonic, as Samsung, Sony, etc, in my country have a Stores/Show Room where you can try all their new products, and then buy any where you want. It´s a bad coordinated plan, but maybe( I hope) not a bad one.

Pentax has 2 year warranty elsewhere, but 1 year in US. Does not seem to be confident here.