Originally posted by photoptimist Yes, "the public" (technically only that minuscule fraction of the public that might be interested in a stand-alone camera) must know Pentax exists. But to say that advertising is the only way anyone ever learns of the existence of a product seems quite wrong. ( Personally, I learned of Pentax and the K10D from a friend.) And to further assume advertising is a cost-effective way certainly compounds the potentially flawed logic. In an era of social media word of mouth, consumer skepticism of corporations, click-fraud, and ad blockers, I wonder if advertising is a huge waste of money but I readily admit that I don't know.
The drivers of sales is only half the equation. There's a big trade-off between the drivers of sales (e.g., the list of whiz bang features, performance levels, camera architectures du jour, and marketing) and the drivers of costs (e.g., R&D, manufacturing, purchased components, inventory, marketing, and services). We all have our personal opinions about what might drive sales the most although I'd expect Ricoh probably has better actual data on this based on their own sales figures and high-level contacts within the industry. What we lack is good estimates on the costs -- how much does it actually cost to design and manufacture a new lens, or a mirrorless camera with a suite of lenses, or world-class AF??? We don't know.
I don't think anyone is saying that advertising is the
only way anyone ever learns of the existence of a product. But advertising is a crucial way to introduce and explain your products to the public. Advertising includes social media and is not apart from it today. Plus advertising can lead more word of mouth introductions too.
We don't have to know business costs as the consumer, that is up to the company to figure out. All we should ever have to care about is "Does your company offer a product lineup that meets our perceived needs and goals at the price we are willing to pay?" and nothing beyond this. It is up to the company to figure out what they are offering, why they are offering it, at which prices they are offering them, and to whom they are offering these products.
I do not have answers to those questions today with the current Pentax brand. They haven't explained it clearly enough..
That said, Did Kodak have the same inside information? Blackberry? Polaroid? Xerox? Yahoo? Blockbuster?
These companies failed to innovate and got lost in the undercurrent in a sea of change. But I bet they had all kinds of information saying "go the course", "competing products are just a fad", "things will be OK", "the market will stabilize", "don't be concerned" etc... no one wants to spend money and change an established platform into something new and not so established. Which tends to bite large companies in the keester if they are not willing to risk and innovate when they ultimately need to do so.
Information is only useful if it is accurate.