06 December 2009
December 7, 2009
07/12/09 19:14
Why we buy blockbusters and not niche products ?
Blockbusters in cinema, books and music and consumer products dominate the audiences and advertisers now even more than in the past. This seems to be a paradox as the internet has been seen as the medium where one could become more informed about niche products and had more sales opportunities. The amount of niche products would increase at the expense of the main players. The opposite happened. The growth of niche products has come at the expense of the products that are just popular, the middle class of products.
First of all all, everybody wants to be associated with a winner and want to have a topic to talk about with friends because everybody is talking about it. Secondly the almost limitless supply of products makes making a choice an act of desperation unless you choose the one on the top or the one everybody is talking about. Some people may thrill by the prospect of seeing a documentary about Leica cameras, but not many want to see this, notes the Economist in a recent article.
Statistics can show that regression to the average value is the norm in life. Extreme deviation is seldom and hardly effective. That is why most cameras offer all features of all others, there is an average list of features and designers tend to comply with this list and so do prospective buyers. Buying a Nikon or Canon is safe: it offers the average and everybody can talk about it and recognize it. It is simply a safe buy. Canon and Nikon have blockbusters and everybody wants to be associates with such a product or company. Blockbusters are not by itself the best products you can buy. They are basically the products most people want to buy or read or discuss about. Buying a Leica requires a lengthy explanation if anybody cares to listen to your arguments.
Marketing adds to this blockbuster tendency: advertising is now mostly outsourced to PR companies who simply scan an article about a product on negative comments: if there is one, you can forget about a followup in advertising revenue. However nonsensical the positive comments, they are positive anyway and that counts.
The Leica cameras have always followed the Wabi-ideal, discussed by Herrigel in his Zen in the Art of Archery, incidentally the book that Henri Cartier-Bresson mentioned as his inspiration for formulating the theory of the decisive moment. The Wabi ideal has been cultivated by the samurai in the notions of the beauty of less and the esthetics of frugality.
We happen to live in a society of superabundance where modesty is not seen as a positive attribute. And we want to be associated with winners. There is no doubt that the camera products from Canon and Nikon are blockbusters that offer the best and complete assemblage of the current main stream feature list. But they are not necessarily the best cameras you can buy. It is very difficult to swim against the stream and so ’no’ where everyone wants to hear ‘yes’. That is called the consensus-syndrome: a tendency to say and repeat what all others say and want to hear.
An interesting example of this tendency is the email I got from a reader of my website who attacked me because I made some positive remarks about AgX technology, a technique that is dead and no one should mention this now that digital is the dominant force where resistance is futile.
Recent financial results of the Leica company are not positive. Without the sales of the digital compacts the situation would have been dramatical. The true Leica fan might shudder at the fact that rebranded Panasonic cameras are the saviors of the company. The backlog of orders for the M9, S2 and X1 is quite substantial and more positive financial results can be expected for the next half year.
A blockbuster product cannot be detected in the Leica portfolio and for true niche products the selling price is quite high. Leica is in danger of maneuvering itself into the position of having near-misses, products that sell acceptably well but do not capture the imagination to become a product everyone is talking about. WIRED magazine was quite positive about the X1, but Leica is too often seen as a company struggling for survival and stature in the electronic imaging world. The M9 and the S2 are very competent cameras that command respect and even admiration, but they are not going to delight large numbers of people. And where Nikon and Canon continue to produce high-profile products with an occasional blockbuster, the number of people that are still discussing the characteristics and possibilities of the M9 (or S2) are dwarfed by the number of people that get excited about the newest camera product from Canon and Nikon.
In the current economic climate and environmental challenges one would wish that the Wabi-ideal could capture the imagination of more than a handful of people.
Reports in the NYT note that vinyl record albums and turn tables are gaining sales and the industry is now convinced that vinyl has staying power in the current market place. Film loading cameras may become desirable as well, again not becoming blockbusters, but as quoted in NYT: “It is absolutely easy to say vinyl doesn’t make sense when you look at convenience, portability, all those things,” Mr. Jbara said. “But all the really great stuff in our lives comes from a root of passion or love.”. Mike Jbara is president and chief executive of the sales and distribution division of Warner Music Group. Repace vinyl by film and you may get the message.
Blockbusters in cinema, books and music and consumer products dominate the audiences and advertisers now even more than in the past. This seems to be a paradox as the internet has been seen as the medium where one could become more informed about niche products and had more sales opportunities. The amount of niche products would increase at the expense of the main players. The opposite happened. The growth of niche products has come at the expense of the products that are just popular, the middle class of products.
First of all all, everybody wants to be associated with a winner and want to have a topic to talk about with friends because everybody is talking about it. Secondly the almost limitless supply of products makes making a choice an act of desperation unless you choose the one on the top or the one everybody is talking about. Some people may thrill by the prospect of seeing a documentary about Leica cameras, but not many want to see this, notes the Economist in a recent article.
Statistics can show that regression to the average value is the norm in life. Extreme deviation is seldom and hardly effective. That is why most cameras offer all features of all others, there is an average list of features and designers tend to comply with this list and so do prospective buyers. Buying a Nikon or Canon is safe: it offers the average and everybody can talk about it and recognize it. It is simply a safe buy. Canon and Nikon have blockbusters and everybody wants to be associates with such a product or company. Blockbusters are not by itself the best products you can buy. They are basically the products most people want to buy or read or discuss about. Buying a Leica requires a lengthy explanation if anybody cares to listen to your arguments.
Marketing adds to this blockbuster tendency: advertising is now mostly outsourced to PR companies who simply scan an article about a product on negative comments: if there is one, you can forget about a followup in advertising revenue. However nonsensical the positive comments, they are positive anyway and that counts.
The Leica cameras have always followed the Wabi-ideal, discussed by Herrigel in his Zen in the Art of Archery, incidentally the book that Henri Cartier-Bresson mentioned as his inspiration for formulating the theory of the decisive moment. The Wabi ideal has been cultivated by the samurai in the notions of the beauty of less and the esthetics of frugality.
We happen to live in a society of superabundance where modesty is not seen as a positive attribute. And we want to be associated with winners. There is no doubt that the camera products from Canon and Nikon are blockbusters that offer the best and complete assemblage of the current main stream feature list. But they are not necessarily the best cameras you can buy. It is very difficult to swim against the stream and so ’no’ where everyone wants to hear ‘yes’. That is called the consensus-syndrome: a tendency to say and repeat what all others say and want to hear.
An interesting example of this tendency is the email I got from a reader of my website who attacked me because I made some positive remarks about AgX technology, a technique that is dead and no one should mention this now that digital is the dominant force where resistance is futile.
Recent financial results of the Leica company are not positive. Without the sales of the digital compacts the situation would have been dramatical. The true Leica fan might shudder at the fact that rebranded Panasonic cameras are the saviors of the company. The backlog of orders for the M9, S2 and X1 is quite substantial and more positive financial results can be expected for the next half year.
A blockbuster product cannot be detected in the Leica portfolio and for true niche products the selling price is quite high. Leica is in danger of maneuvering itself into the position of having near-misses, products that sell acceptably well but do not capture the imagination to become a product everyone is talking about. WIRED magazine was quite positive about the X1, but Leica is too often seen as a company struggling for survival and stature in the electronic imaging world. The M9 and the S2 are very competent cameras that command respect and even admiration, but they are not going to delight large numbers of people. And where Nikon and Canon continue to produce high-profile products with an occasional blockbuster, the number of people that are still discussing the characteristics and possibilities of the M9 (or S2) are dwarfed by the number of people that get excited about the newest camera product from Canon and Nikon.
In the current economic climate and environmental challenges one would wish that the Wabi-ideal could capture the imagination of more than a handful of people.
Reports in the NYT note that vinyl record albums and turn tables are gaining sales and the industry is now convinced that vinyl has staying power in the current market place. Film loading cameras may become desirable as well, again not becoming blockbusters, but as quoted in NYT: “It is absolutely easy to say vinyl doesn’t make sense when you look at convenience, portability, all those things,” Mr. Jbara said. “But all the really great stuff in our lives comes from a root of passion or love.”. Mike Jbara is president and chief executive of the sales and distribution division of Warner Music Group. Repace vinyl by film and you may get the message.