Web Analytics RiceHigh's Pentax Blog: Poor Marketing of Pentax

Thursday, September 01, 2011

Poor Marketing of Pentax

See this latest official Fuji promotional video for the X10 today:-


(URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qttiZkQBq2s, via Jimmy Yen's Blog)

This I would call it advertisement. In comparison, let's watch back the last Pentax Q official promotional video:-


(URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbZ_aHI6p3k, via More Pentax Q YouTube Videos)

Although the total time length of the Pentax video is very close to that of the Fuji's (both in 3 minutes something, the difference is only in 2 seconds), the Pentax video is rather boring along and indeed very unattractive from the beginning. In fact, the background music plus the narration or simply the presentation as a whole all make it looks like the descriptive audio-visual exhibits inside a museum, rather than an *Ad*! :-o With such weak "promotion", I just wonder how many people will be attracted to buy the product after watching?

So, after all, this shows the weak and low marketing ability of Pentax, in addition to the various weaknesses of their products, already. In marketing sense, they should think to do more, and more importantly, they should think about HOW to do it better and what should be done!

Some people would say that Ricoh will soon take over Pentax and things would change. But what I want to tell is that last time I watched a Ricoh Ad on the TV, it was NOT better than those of the Pentax', or even worse! >:-[

Besides, it can be seen that Fuji has been very proactive this year in promoting their new products via different Internet channels. For example, they have their Fujiguys to do this dedicated job, say, to upload exclusive new camera hands-on and official promotional videos, etc. to the YouTube. In contrast, who are doing this job for Pentax in the Pentaxland? Who? Me?! ;-p

At the end of the day, the poor publicity and works (if any) done by Pentax is one of the main reasons why their sales and results have been so poor. A very recent example is that their that recent five-year Pentax Q development speech is just plain stupid and rather silly afterall and will certainly help them nothing for their sales! All in all, I think the decision makers of Pentax really need to sit down and think more, for what they should and could do in order to improve and then get better results!


Related:-

The State of Pentax (by Q1 2011)

Pentax' Performance Evaluation Against Forbes' Seven Secrets of (Successful) Companies

Comments (14)

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You're completely ignoring the fact that the Fuji movie is intended for the western market while the Pentax movie is clearly intended for the Japanese. They are not comparible and your opinion of the Pentax movie is absoluty rubbish in that perpective.
I really think you are jumping to the wrong conclusions way too fast Rice. I mean seriously, it's like you are not thinking the context, perspective or things a bit further. (agree with what forty two said).
i really found the fuji one boring filled with a lot of technical stuff about lenses and lens coatings that I really don't care about. The pentax heald my attention even if i didn't understand a word of it. It showed me the what the camera does and all the lens options.
I must say that I even enjoyed the jazz background music of the pentax video.

I doubt that Rice knows much about marketing. So to call it weak does not meat anything. If we look at the chinese symbol of yin and yang pentax would have a yin video and fuji a more yang video but it doesn't make any video better than the other. I would say to me the pentax shows the simplicity of it and the fuji actually make the camera look a lot more complicated to me.
1 reply · active 707 weeks ago
Maybe Fuji spent more money on their video - but it surely is boring.
Fuji video is conventional and boring. .. I have seen dozens of videos like this.
Q is fresh and have unusual atmosphere :) The music is unusual and... friendly.
I went to post my comment but it seams fortytwo beat me to it. The videos do have a different targeted audience. I think the Pentax one would actually be better than the Fuji one, if I could understand what they are saying. Also the music is completely a personnel preference. But tell me this Rice, Did you think you would get this kind of feed back or did you think more people would have agreed with you?
Deprends on the pricing in the west, I have decided to go for an X10 as my SLR compliment.
Yes, the target audiences will have cultural differences, but I totally agree with RH here - for me the Pentax advert was boring, the background "music" unbelievably irritating. Based on the Fuji advert, I'm obviously going to have to buy an X10! (Though I had to check I'd got the name right - at least Pentax have got Fuji beat when it comes to product name).
Pentax has marketing?!!!! :P
3 replies · active 706 weeks ago
Sorry but I think most people here confuse "marketing" with "advertising". That is not correct. Read a book.
Sorry, I guess I'm just a layman in this field. I thought you advertise when you market something.

Besides, I'm just referring to an old 'joke' that Pentax didn't have any marketing or any good advertisments to speak of.
Marketing is in many companies just a different term for product or brand management.
Pentax has - from my perspective - pretty good marketing, because it manufactured three DSLRs (K-10D, K-7, K-5) that at their respective launch dates featured exactly what I was looking for. So they do listen to (some of) their customers... which is good marketing. What do I care about their ads? (nothing)
http://youtu.be/5rj5-49IW_U

Pentax ads rule!
1 reply · active 706 weeks ago
Actually, that's the one I meant ...
http://youtu.be/gzKut15_0uQ

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