>From the looks of things on other websites, Oly and Panasonic overproduce in
great quantities. Wouldn't they do better if they sold a couple of
containers at a reduced price to BB instead of the drastic discounts we see
on the web? And how does Samsung get cameras in BB? Does BB want their TV's
so bad they bend over and take some cameras?
-----Original Message-----
From: Moose
Sent: Friday, April 12, 2013 5:19 PM
To: Olympus Camera Discussion
Subject: Re: [OM] Do financial statements mislead?
On 4/12/2013 2:05 PM, Bill Pearce wrote:
> Oly and Panasonic do poorly in the North American market, which is a huge
> one, because they are either stupid, incompetant, or just plain don't
> care,
> as their attempts at marketing are too little too late. If Panasonic can
> get
> TV's in every Best Buy in America, why not cameras? Why doesn't Oly get
> cameras in camera stores?
Your lack of understanding of how products get - and stay - in mass market
stores appears considerable (not uncommon here).
You can make special cost deals, pay slotting fees, and, maybe, get them in.
If they don't sell adequately, they are
OUT. Each cube of shelf space is evaluated for profit and ROI. There are
categories and items that are simply required,
even if contribution is below standard, because of customer expectations.
You can't, for example, have a camera section
without C&N. a cleaning section without P&G, and so on.
It may even be that the other stuff is mostly there to provide a broad
enough range of apparent choice. Long ago, some
folks at the huge retailer I worked for decided to get rid of some under
performing SKUs. I don't remember the exact
numbers ... The best selling brand of hair coloring had say 12 shades, and 3
or 4 accounted for 80+% of sales. So they
tried cutting back to 4 shades. Sales dropped like a stone. Apparently,
buyers need to look at a range of options -
before buying the same thing as everyone else. Without the range, they
simply buy elsewhere. Some categories must be
evaluated for contribution as a whole, not individually. (Fortunately,
we/they were savvy enough to only try it in a
handful of stores.)
Whether this applies to cameras, I don't know, but the mass market business
is chock full of such arcane realities.
The old systems of spiffs to counter people, if not long gone, don't apply
here. You have to sell the consumers on your
goods to get them in the big stores. Yes, I know, it's terribly frustrating
for lots of sellers, a real chicken or the
egg situation. But that's the way it works. New lines do break in, like
Method cleaning products, but it requires
something special that appeals to consumers in a new way, preferably one
that retailer buyers can see easily.
It seems to me that Oly may have a couple of extra problems. Unlike Sony and
Panny, they don't have an ongoing sales
relationship with the retailers*. Like Panny, they don't have a line of
DSLRs, and unlike Panny, their line of compacts
is obscure and mediocre, except perhaps in tough cameras.
I know we may not 'get' it, but I'm betting a majority of people who walk
into a BB to upgrade to a 'real' camera'
expect to buy something relatively large, of a certain form factor and
black. They may well be wrong about what would
serve their needs best, but nobody in the store is going to talk them into
something different.
I wouldn't be surprised if it were true that Sony NEX cameras sell in part
in the big stores because their lenses are so
big and macho looking. They MUST be better, mustn't they?
BB and the rest LIVE or DIE on volume. You probably can't believe how much
that is so. If the product doesn't move fast,
they can't afford to stock it. Non big business people get hung up on
margin, and forget turns. Half the margin, 2.2x
the turns, and you just made about 20% more ROI. And inventory, goodness,
'ya gotta keep that down, too.
Ex Mass Moose
* If you've broken in before, and failed to sell, getting another chance is
really tough.
--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
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