It's been my opinion that corporations, for the most part, don't truly pay
attention to their customers. They may attempt to feel out the market
(which they could gain far more info by analyzing own and competitor's sales
than from listening in on the PDML). Primarily they listen to their
stockholders and board members who for the most part don't give a damn what
product they produce as long as it turns the biggest profit possible.
In the instance of a fairly small niche group, who care whether they produce
a new PZ-1/LX replacement, I think it'll rain on the parade. Look at the
PZ-1p. In many many respects it was a winner and competitively priced when
produced, but the world didn't follow.
As far as the ghettos go, it's probably more likely that a camera get stolen
and pawned, than purchased.
Tom C.
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Tuesday, January 16, 2001 5:21 PM
Subject: Re: Wake up
>Bill,
>
>I've got to agree with Peter. I've looked at demographics in the USA
professionally, and the USA is generally and specifically very rich. You
could drop a McDonald's down in almost any neighborhood and have enough
customers (400,000-500,000 per year) who can afford a $3.50 meal to make a
hansome profit. Almost everybody has enough disposable income to afford to
the luxury of spending on eating a meal away from home.
>
>This is not the case in the third world.
>
>As for camera sales, someone published a link to Japanese camera export
figures here last year. If I remember correctly, exports divided roughly
evenly with the most to the EU, 2nd to North America, and 3rd place to the
rest of the world. Of course, this doesn't account for sales in Japan, but
I suspect it is good sized.
>
>Based on this, I'd guess the Japanese pay attention to the home market
first. The research and feedback is just plain easier to do. Mercedes and
Range-Rover may pay attention to their email lists, but Pentax isn't selling
items with a $40,000 to $60,000 price tag. They don't have the profits to
keep up this kind of research.
>
>Regards, Bob S.
>
>Peter ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
>
> Bill,
> I don't know what part of America you come
> from but I've traveled quite a bit both inside
> and outside the USA. No one here lives in
> anything approaching third world poverty. There
> may be some recent immigrants, mostly illegal
> living very poorly but most 'poor' people in the
> US own their own cars have air conditioning and
> enough food to become overweight. Poor people in
> most of the world have a hard time getting
> enough to eat, (you don't see many fat people
> in the poor sections of San Palo or just about
> any lower income area in Africa or South America.
> Someone making $20,000 to $40,000 a year, (more
> than 85% of the US population if I remembe
> correctly), is rich beyond the wildest dreams of
> the typical human being living outside North
> America, Western Europe and Japan. People in
> those circumstances can at least contemplate
> buying an expensive modern camera.
>
>--- William Robb <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2001 9:07 AM
>> Subject: Re: Wake up
>>
>>
>> ><Snipped content>
>> > As you noted Pål, our numbers are smallish
>> relative to the
>> world's population
>> > but America's consumer purchasing power makes the
>> real numbers
>> nearly moot.
>> >
>> Not true. The income disparity in the USA means
>> that while
>> the per capita income may seem to be very high (this
>> is
>> statistics at work), the fact is that there is a
>> concentation of
>> high income in a very small population group, making
>> the USA a
>> much smaller market than Mafud likes to think it is.
>> A very
>> large percentage of the population of the US lives
>> in conditions
>> approaching the poorest of the third world , while a
>> very small
>> percentage lives in genteel conditions. It is this
>> monied gentry
>> that buys the expensive consumer goods. William Robb
>-
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>
>
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