Digital Camera Market in the UK - Case Study Example

Digital Camera Market in UK Name Course Lecture Date Contents Contents 2 Digital camera market in the UK 3 Canon 3 Olympus 5 Nikon 8 Segmentation of products to different markets 8 Targeting and consumer profiles 9 Nikon 10 Canon 10 Samsung 11 Marketing mix of products 11 Nikon DSLR 13 Samsung Galaxy 13 Two trends in the overall digital camera market 14 References 16 Kay, B & Fogg, L 2012, The Basics of Affiliate Success: Running a Business (Top Secrets of Successful Affiliate Marketing), Amazon Digital Services, Amazon. 17 Peter, J & Donnelly, J 2007, Marketing Management, 6th Ed, McGraw-Hill, New York. 17 Digital camera market in the UK In the year 2012, the market for digital cameras in the UK continued to evolve. The growth in manufacture and sales of smartphones between the year 2009 and 2011 in a way slowed the sales figures of digital cameras as people viewed smartphones as an equivalent of the digital cameras. They based their assumption on the fact that the smartphones would perform similar functions as those performed by digital cameras and that they had an added advantage since they could use the smartphones in making calls, messaging and socializing through social media (Armstrong 2001). There is a broad range of companies that deals with digital cameras, and they include companies such as Olympus, Canon, Nikon and Sony (Sathish & Venkatesakumar 2011).This makes competition in the industry more intense. Canon Canon is a Japanese multinational company that has specialized in the manufacture of optical and imaging devices such as camcorders, cameras, steppers, photocopiers and computer printer and some medical equipment. Through the various products that it offers the company can meet the customer needs as they become more sophisticated and diversified. The company is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. When measured in terms of the market capitalization Canon is the tenth largest public company in Japan (Market capitalization n.d). Canon has a total of 26,409 employees. Canon is a brand that is trusted and recognised globally. The diagrams below shows the financial information of Canon Diagram 1: Net Sales Diagram 2: Financial information for Canon Inc. Retrieved from www.canon.com/ir/annual/2014/canon-annual-report-2014.pdf Olympus Olympus is a manufacture of optic and reprography products, and it is based in Japan. It was established in the year 1919. It headquarters is located in Shinjuku in Tokyo Japan. The company specialized in cameras and audio, medical and surgical equipment, scientific and industrial products (Olympus Official Website 2015). The company has an employee base of 39,727. The charts below shows the financial data of Olympus Corporation as of March 2015, and the figures have been rounded off to the nearest million Yen. Diagram 3 Retrieved from http://www.olympus-global.com/en/ir/data/brief/2015/ Sony Sony Corporation is also a Japanese multinational corporation, and it has its headquarters in Konan Minato Tokyo Japan (Sony Group 2015). Over the period that the company has been around it has focused more on the creation of full range of products and technologies so as to make life enjoyable easier and productive.the number of employee at Sony are 14,600 (Sony Group Annual Report 2012). The diagram below shows the financial results of Sony for the year ended 31st March 2015. Diagram 4 Retrieved from www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/14q4_sony.pdf Nikon Nikon Corporation is also a company that is based in Tokyo Japan, and it specialises in cameras, binoculars, measurement instruments, camera lenses and ophthalmic lenses. The company was formed on July 25, 1917 and currently it as a capital of 65,475 million Japanese Yen as of March 31, 2015 (Nikon Official Website 2015). The net sales of the company when consolidated amounted to 857,782 million Japanese yen and when non-consolidated it amounted to 607,556 million Japanese Yen. The company also have an employee base of 25,415. Segmentation of products to different markets The cameras in the UL digital camera can be categorised as follows Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Sony, Panasonic, Casio, Kodak, Samsung, Fujifilm and Bell &Howell. The digital cameras at Canon are segmented based on two major market segments that are the psychographic segmentation and demographic segmentation. The psychographic segmentation entails the professional photographers who make a living through photographs. The demographic segmentation involves the families and individuals who are likely to use the cameras just for their leisure activities (Canon Annual Report 2009). The market segment for Nikon is based on psychographic segmentation, and it entails photographers and corporations majoring in photography. Olympus makes use of psychographic segmentation and demographic segmentation in segmenting their products for different markets. The young generation is more likely to take advantage of the digital cameras during their leisure time to take picture and record videos and then upload them on social media sites. Sony, Panasonic, Casio, Kodak, Samsung, Fujifilm and Bell &Howell also makes use of demographic and psychographic segmentation (Bulik 2004, Fujifilm 2015 and Tarr 2010). Amateurs, professional photographers and corporations that focus on photographers are the ones that are mainly targeted by these digital Camera manufacturers in the psychographic segmentation (Bell & Howell 2015). The middle-aged people such as the college going students, their families and individuals fall under the demographic segmentation (Kodak Digital Cameras 2015). These people are likely to use the digital cameras for leisure activities such as family outing, hikes and educational tours. They are liable to buy the cameras so as to capture the precious moment spent with their loved ones, and they may wish to refer to the pictures and videos in future (Casio 2015 and Panasonic 2015). Targeting and consumer profiles Nikon Nikon DSLR camera has three major target markets that are the primary target market, secondary target market and tertiary target market. The primary target is composed of the professional that make use of high-quality images in their business environment. The group includes of men of women who are likely between the ages of 35 to 50 years. Based on the quality and price the product is more suited for people who earn money from photography. The secondary target market includes of the semi-casual camera user (Kotler & Keller 2009). This group of people usually takes the picture for their enjoyment as opposed to business. This many include people to are technologically savvy and in their late twenties, and people who are middle aged, and they enjoy photography as a past time activity. The tertiary target market include of organisations and businesses. These companies and corporations may include web design companies, schools, and newspaper and photography firms Canon The target market for Canon DSLR cameras can be grouped into two broad categories that are the professionals and families and individuals. Professional photographers will make use of the cameras to take high-quality pictures related to their jobs and by doing so they will be following the following variables motives, personality, lifestyles and geo-demographics. The other group includes families and an individual who make use of their cameras to illustrate and capture memorable moments in their lives. This implies that the people of all ages that are the college going teens, the working class and the old will be well suited to making use of the digital cameras. This offers a broad range of consumers for the company to sell their products. The digital camera is also suited for the young people who are starting up their careers in photography and other professions that require quality cameras. By having such a large target market, Canon can be able to make significant sales for their digital cameras. Samsung Samsung on the other hand target two major groups the professionals and the high school, college and university students. The professionals are likely to purchase the digital cameras and use them in their work for example in covering corporate events. Media houses can also be a target audience since they need to report events with quality and appealing pictures to their viewers. The young people are the other primary target group, and they mainly make use of the cameras for their leisure activities and some may use them in their class assignments. Samsung focused more on the young people since they are diverse, and they like attending social events and through the utilization of the digital cameras they could be able to capture memorable moments (Kay & Fogg 2012). Thus, the digital camera is well suited for young people between the ages of 18 years to 35 years. These groups of individuals seem to be in need of good and quality digital cameras. Marketing mix of products Canon DSLR Canon has a very active marketing communications strategy that includes advertising, selling products via their websites and shops, public relations and trade shows. All the potential information that consumer require is made available in mobile applications, websites, magazines and in newspapers. At times, the company holds promotional displays on malls and the Internet. Canon has also joined hands and formed transportation partnerships to make goods available to the retailers, distributors and consumer at the least cost and with minimum fuss (Peter & Donnelly 2007). The warehouses are suitably located to makes products available in a smooth and efficient manner (Hollensen 2008). Additional there exist a broad range of retail stores where Canon products such as the DSLR are sold. The official dealers also offers consumers with efficient services and one can also buy original spare parts in Canon website and showrooms. Every detail is well explained, organised and dealt with in their websites. For instance, there are pictures of the products, price, latest updates, specifications, surprise deals and best deals. By making use of the website consumers, can decide on which products are fit for their pockets and thus consumer’s makes personally satisfying choices. Concerning price, Canon believes in the notion that the path to success calls for quality and hence they always manufacturer quality products for their consumers in the market. Canon maintains price policy that is affordable making it possible for a great number of people to purchase the camera and they also keep in mind their loyal and faithful customers. Additionally Canon tries to make changes to price based on demands and trends. Canon always tries to place their products lower than that of their competitors in the market. Canon has also ensured that there is a balance between the selling price and the manufacturing price. When their quality products are coupled with lower prices consumers tends to be more attracted to their products such as the digital cameras. The DSLR camera is available in various colours making it possible for the users to choose the colour that suits them most with the major colours being black and grey. The Camera is also designed in a way that it is less in size and weight. This makes it possible to one to be able to move along with it (Worthington & Britton 2003). Nikon DSLR The camera features a guide mode and it is also coupled with a scene recognition system this in a way enable newcomers and new user to grasp and make use of the digital camera in an efficient way. The expeed image processors, as well as the autofocus system, ensure that clear and crisp images are produced. The Camera has an additional in-camera editing feature that allows the consumers to edit the picture while on the move. Concerning price, Nikon has priced its camera at a very affordable rate. When compared to other similar models from the competitors, Nikon DSLR offers a vast array of features and thus provides the consumer value for their money. Consumers of Nikon DSLR can get the products from Nikon authorised dealers and in other online stores. Also, their products can be found in major shops and malls. Their wide availability makes it easy for consumers to be able to get their products and spare parts with ease. This also makes it easier for the customer to realize and purchase genuine products. Nikon promotes its products through their websites, magazines and newspapers and also in social media sites (Graham 2008). In their websites consumers can be able to check the features, colours and compare prices of the cameras. This makes it possible for the consumers to make more informed choices the use of various advertising media makes it possible for the organisation to reach a broad group of audience, and this may have an effect on the sales made by the company. Samsung Galaxy The camera can be termed as the showstopper it has crisp, a white exterior and a clear touch display. The camera also offers total connectivity, and it is also complete with an Android 4.1 Jellybean operating system. The camera also has an easy to use user interface (Samsung 2015). In regard to pricing, Samsung applies competitive pricing since there are other brands that it needs to beat the market such as Cannon. Thus, the main reason behind competitive pricing is to beat the competitors. Samsung makes its products present through various channels (Guidry 2011). For instance, the service and sales dealers are more concerned with the corporate sales and at times Samsung opens their own exclusive showrooms where consumers can be able to purchase the products from. They also make good use of retailers who at times prefers to keep Samsung products only due to quality products and its brand name. Samsung also poses a unique distribution scheme where they have a single distributor in one city who then provides products to the other retailers in the same area. They apply the concept of channel marketing that consists of three segments that is the sales and service dealers, distributors and retail. Samsung makes use of various forms of advertising. Through advertising, Samsung is confident that it will pull customers and in some instances they apply strong tactics such as sales promotion so as to push the product to the consumers. At times, Samsung offers discounts and offers to their trade partners with the aim of motivating them to sell their products such as the digital cameras above those of the competitors (Graham 2008). With these strategies, Samsung sales in digital cameras seem to be on the rise and both the pull and push appears to be working simultaneously in Samsung. Two trends in the overall digital camera market A significant trend that affects the digital camera market is the increase in disposable income among the middle-class consumers and the upper-class consumers all over the globe. The increase in disposable income means that a significant number of the people have money to spend in other activities that encompass their leisure time. People may engage in adventure trips, hikes and may set some time aside to attend social events with others and they may like to capture those precious moments and this will be facilitated by the use of digital cameras. This means that though a great number of the people may have earlier models of cameras they are likely to purchase new ones that are technologically advanced (Drummond, Ensor & Ashford 2008). This will in a way increase the profitability of digital camera firms in the years to come. Another trend that has an effect on the digital camera market is the growing popularity of social networking. The number of people making use of social media sites such as Whats up, twitter and Facebook and YouTube just to mention a few have been on the rise and people have a trend of sharing images and video over the various sites and this has played an essential role in the growth of digital camera industry over the years. Thus, there seems to be a need to developed digital cameras that are in line with the evolving consumer needs (Moutinho 2008) to cameras with high resolution and that produce quality pictures and videos. References Armstrong, L 2001, ‘Digital Cameras That You Can Afford’, Business week, (3737), 152-153. Bell & Howell 2015, About Us, viewed 4 June 2015, . Bulik, B 2004, ‘Sony, Kodak lead U.S. battle for share in digital cameras’, Advertising Age, vol. 75, no. 22, pp. 12. Canon Annual Report 2009, Canon Annual Report, viewed 4 June 2015, . Casio 2015, Digital Cameras, viewed 4 June 2015 . Drummond, G, Ensor, J, & Ashford, R 2008, Strategic marketing: planning and control, Butterworth-Heinemann, London. Fujifilm 2015, Digital Cameras, viewed 4 June 2015, . Graham, J 2008, ‘The new marketing mix: where will you meet your customers?’, American Salesman, Vol. 53, Iss. 3, pp 16-20. Guidry, M 2011, Marketing Concepts that Win! Save Time, Money and Work by Crafting Concept Right the First Time, Live Oak Book Company, Texas. Hollensen, S 2008, Business-to-business marketing management, Cengage Learning, London, Kay, B & Fogg, L 2012, The Basics of Affiliate Success: Running a Business (Top Secrets of Successful Affiliate Marketing), Amazon Digital Services, Amazon. Kodak Digital Cameras 2015, Digital Cameras, views 4 June 2015, . Kotler, P & Keller, K 2009, Marketing Management, 13th ed. Upper Saddle River, Pearson/Prentice Hall, NJ. Market capitalization n.d, Historical Market Caps of the Largest Japanese Companies, viewed 4 June 2015, . Moutinho, L 2008, Strategic marketing management: a process-based approach, Cengage Learning, London. Nikon Official Website 2015, Nikon, viewed 4 June 2015, . Olympus Official Website 2015, Olympus, viewed 4 June 2015, . Panasonic 2015, Cameras & Camcorders, viewed 4 June 2015, . Peter, J & Donnelly, J 2007, Marketing Management, 6th Ed, McGraw-Hill, New York. 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