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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
09-05-2018, 12:25 PM
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Worked for early mammals. Just sayin'....
You know....in another thread I suggested that Pentax cooperate with Cosina/Voigtlander on re-introducing a select group of their old classic lenses, K's and A's. If they were to reintroduce an MX (simpler than an LX, but better than the K1000), that might catch some people's attention. It would be truly weird in a cool way, could be a limited edition.
Bring back the 6x7 with a few upgrades, maybe use some lighter weight materials....very cool.
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
09-05-2018, 06:11 AM
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Exactly. For now, if tea leaves are to be read, it's the ones in the Ricoh cup that should be read. I'm thinking that's a wise assessment. Pentax hasn't been a big player with a lot of muscle for a long time, as in decades. Why jump into a scrum of 800 pound gorillas?
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
09-04-2018, 06:41 AM
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I agree with you at a base level, but then you have to factor in the Japanese-ness of all of it, which is something of a knuckle ball. To whit:
- It's an amazingly insular society, literally and figuratively. I work closely with some Japanese who are as worldly as they come, besides those living in the west. They struggle to understand some basic stuff about the west.
- Pentax has, apparently, a solid enough market inside Japan to satisfy them. Couple that with the above.
- Ricoh bought Pentax for the imaging engineering, not so much as a camera unit, as I understand it. And it's a long range thing.
- Japanese companies seem to be able to sustain in their market what Wall Street would never tolerate.
---------- Post added 09-04-18 at 09:43 AM ----------
Yes indeed! This is the sort of thing I wish Pentax would do.
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
09-03-2018, 11:35 AM
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I think increasingly most manufacturers are looking at the enthusiast and the small pro market as the place to sell most of their stuff. You can see it in the kind of devices they are rolling out. They aren't the things you used to see in consumer electronics stores about 6-12 years ago---the glory days of the digital camera boom. The whole market has changed. In an odd way, this may benefit Pentax. I think they are managing as a niche player, and can continue to do so. They won't be very exciting, but that's OK. My problem is not that they don't have splashy marketing, but that they seem to have none at all of any kind. They should be quietly marketing to knowledgeable photographers, reaching out to them, providing support, and giving a clearer sense of the future. It's not like they need to keep it a secret---who's going to copy them, Sony, Nikon or Canon? Highly unlikely!
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
08-24-2018, 11:08 AM
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Well, one of my best friends is an independent Pentax rep, and has always answered emails. Sadly, this person gets little support from the sales manager and/or marketing people up the food chain. So, you might get an email back, but it would have little info.....
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
03-15-2018, 04:23 AM
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This is my hope. The accelerator chip is in front of the main one, so I think my hope is not a vain one. We'll see.
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
03-13-2018, 02:58 PM
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That's an astute point. When I first saw the Theta in person, at PhotoExpo 2016, not only was I impressed with it as a gadget (and I had previously thought it a bit of a joke...), but also with the Ricoh guy demonstrating it. He knew more about its capabilities than the Pentax guys around the corner did about any of the Pentax kit, as much as I could determine. The 645Z guys were just barely competent, which in my book was disgraceful for a product of that nature. I've done sales, and when I did I knew my products backwards and forwards (and the competition's, too!).
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
03-09-2018, 03:22 PM
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Well, in this case I think they have been very poor on the marketing front, so poor it's laughable. The people I've met in person were barely competent, knew little about the things they were marketing except what could be read in the press release. A demo I went to was also laughably poor. And the latest episode is this interview with whoever it is from Japan at CP+ . I've seen far livelier sculpture. This just won't do.
So, before I'd recommend what you seem to be suggesting, spending an additional cool million (although this is reminding me of Austin Powers' evil nemesis, Dr. Evil, and "ONE MILLION DOLLARS!" )
You Tube
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src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jTmXHvGZiSY?controls=1" allowfullscreen>
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, I would challenge Pentax to do whatever marketing they are currently doing at the current budget, only henceforth do it competently. Today, in 2018, they could indeed do a great deal more with the money they have. Think: more Youtube demo videos, double them on Vimeo, collaborate with this site and a couple of others, put someone in front of the cameras for interviews who can show more liveliness in front of them (that's a skill, actually...so, find that person in-house and use him/her), get the guys at the booths with the gear and train them on it, do a bit more brochur-ing (it's not expensive today!), get the ambassadors either out into the field or do some videos with them, and more. None of that would cost that million dollars.
Here's a concrete example of bad marketing: one of my best and oldest friends is an independent rep for Pentax. This extremely experienced salesperson can't get samples to show the dealers in the territory. That's just completely pathetic. And, forget about a tech rep...good lord. And, I'm not really even talking about spreading the joy much past the faithful to begin with. Monochrome et al. do have a point, above. But why not solidify the base? And on the medium format side, Pentax could and should work to attract more sales, and they wouldn't be bumping up against Canon and Nikon.
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Forum: Pentax K-1 & K-1 II
03-09-2018, 11:10 AM
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That's a true statement. But it is not why marketing exists. Marketing exists to increase sales. That's it. And if Pentax has better sales, they'll ultimately have better stability, and more resources for more R&D and/or creation of new products.
I'm with you there.
That's fascinating.
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