[mikesbike]

Unfortunately, marketing has never been a significant part of the Pentax story, and that has not changed through various ownerships during the past decade. In fact there has been even less effort. There have long been a combination of special features which, though potentially useful and some being exclusive, were never brought to the public's attention even when advertising did take place. The exclusive Pentax Hyper System is a case in point. DPReview discovered it upon their review of the K10D and loved it, but it had already existed for some 15 years beginning with film bodies during the 1990's yet still not widely known of.

Mark, congrats to your wife for her having the ability to even contemplate such a challenge!

Since photographers there were surprised in seeing you out in the rain with your K-1, image how surprised they'd be to see someone out there with a measly $600 K-70!

[MarkJerling]

Mark, Congratulations to your wife for running this race, and Congrats to you, for showing what a Pentax is capable of!

Thank you Carol. I'll pass on your congratulations to Annie.

[tokyoscape]

...He'd also never seen a K-1 although he did know about the Pentax brand.

I do often wonder how many more Pentax cameras would be in use if Pentax did just a little bit of marketing to show off what their products can do. These photogs both did not even realise that Pentax still existed. Pretty sad really.

Pretty much the same for 6 - 7 out of 10 non-Japanese I have meat and shoot with.
Most older people know the brand but never seen one or think that it went out of business long ago.
Most younger people will be like... urr...can I see your camera again? Or some people asked back if I said Panasonic?

To get the words out, Pentax needs to utilize the power of internet social media more.

[stevebrot]

Unfortunately, marketing has never been a significant part of the Pentax story

Never is a very long time. My memory does not agree with your statement.


Steve

[MarkJerling]

Pretty much the same for 6 - 7 out of 10 non-Japanese I have meat and shoot with.
Most older people know the brand but never seen one or think that it went out of business long ago.
Most younger people will be like... urr...can I see your camera again? Or some people asked back if I said Panasonic?

To get the words out, Pentax needs to utilize the power of internet social media more.

100% agreed. I wonder if they market more effectively in Japan?

[mrosenlof]

I don't know about effectiveness of marketing, but Pentax is very visible in the Tokyo camera stores these days.

[Rondec]

I'm just impressed that your wife could run such a race. Good job!

I agree overall. Seems like Pentax could do well to show their gear to outdoors folks -- ads in magazines like Outdoor Photographer or other magazines focused on activities done in all sorts of weather. The one caveat is that they would need to make sure that people know that not all of their lenses are sealed. It just takes one person to take their KP and DA 15 out into a blizzard and have it fritz out and then post angry thoughts about how Pentax quality isn't what it's cracked up to be.

[totsmuyco]

WR is one of the main reasons I chose Pentax. I'm a rugged person. At least when I was a lot younger I did a lot of outdoor sports. I like rugged things. I don't like things that need special care or attention. Like I've pointed out in previous threads, I'm one of the new guys to Pentax. I never believed in it during my film days. It's just when I read more about it in 2013 that convinced me to move to the brand. So far, I haven't regretted it.

[tokyoscape]

100% agreed. I wonder if they market more effectively in Japan?

I can see a few advertising in Youtube japan. A few TV ad long ago A few banner ad in large train station such as Tokyo station long ago too.

They still, have large Ad panels up in Ginza which is the most expensive area in Tokyo. Note that, Richo has a showroom there.

From the image below, it is Ginza, you can see K1 panel on the right of the building in the center (just above the biker guy head) and Theta panel on the left.

[bdery]

i had the chance to try them and i found quite good.. maybe more the zooms than the prime lenses

Images will look good on casual inspection. And I'm saying they are useless. But they need to rely heavily on in-camera corrections, for a lot of flaws. Even their RAW files have some "baking" in them (you can work around that but the default is there).

There's no free lunch. When Pentax delays the release of the 50mm because they found that the weight could, in some cases, bend the lens ever so slightly, Fuji is releasing lenses at a fast pace. They're not magicians, there's a price to be paid for that.

[MarkJerling]

I can see a few advertising in Youtube japan. A few TV ad long ago A few banner ad in large train station such as Tokyo station long ago too.

They still, have large Ad panels up in Ginza which is the most expensive area in Tokyo. Note that, Richo has a showroom there.

From the image below, it is Ginza, you can see K1 panel on the right of the building in the center (just above the biker guy head) and Theta panel on the left.

Aha! Well, that does look rather good.

[MarkJerling]

Mark, congrats to your wife for her having the ability to even contemplate such a challenge!

Thank you Mike, I'll pass on your comments.

[Gerbermiester]

I for one have never seen a Pentax advertisement other than those run by local retailers in their newspaper flyers. Even there, the "ads for Pentax" amount to little more than the price of the cameras that they have in stock.
This is despite that I live on the rainy Canadian pacific, in a Pentax hot spot. Right now on Vancouver's craigslist, there are about 350 postings selling/trading Pentax gear.

[MarkJerling]

I for one have never seen a Pentax advertisement other than those run by local retailers in their newspaper flyers. Even there, the "ads for Pentax" amount to little more than the price of the cameras that they have in stock.
This is despite that I live on the rainy Canadian pacific, in a Pentax hot spot. Right now on Vancouver's craigslist, there are about 350 postings selling/trading Pentax gear.

I get that print advertising is practically dead. But, a bit of Google Ads would certainly be money well spent I think.

[Digitalis]

I do often wonder how many more Pentax cameras would be in use if Pentax did just a little bit of marketing to show off what their products can do.

Expecting the famous Pentax marketing team to do anything is a bit futile, these guys could hold the cure for the worst maladies on earth and people would still be in the dark about it.

These photogs both did not even realise that Pentax still existed. Pretty sad really.

Occasionally I have had students who haven't heard of Pentax, Leica, Hasselblad, or Rollei. I do what I can to remedy their ignorance.

---------- Post added 2019-10-04 at 02:19 PM ----------

a bit of Google Ads would certainly be money well spent I think.

Not a chance, many advertisers already know how to game the system particularly SONY™.