[ToGo]

This question goes out to Adam, Ole and all the moderators.

I've been a member of the site for a few months and noticed that there doesn't seem to be any official Pentax Imaging presence on the site (not sure of Adam and Ole’s affiliation with Pentax). I think it would be great to have someone from Pentax to answer questions and concerns like Chuck does for for B&H.

I realize there would be a lot of logistics and maybe it would have to be limited so Pentax Forums doesn’t lose it autonomy or turn into customer support. In terms of marketing I’m surprised that Pentax hasn’t already contacted this forum.

[Adam]

In terms of marketing I’m surprised that Pentax hasn’t already contacted this forum.

[Chex]

I think it also falls into this being a north american based forums... I wouldn't doubt that there are plenty of Pentax workers etc in asian based forums.

[ToGo]

Pentax is loosing out on a great asset and target market.

I posed the question because I just took a class at work dealing with marketing and social media. The moderator stressed how important it is for a company to quickly respond to customer's posts (both good and bad) on social media sites.

B&H does a great job at this. I’ve seen posts here where they would have lost a customer forever over a small problem. But when the customer gets the chance to correspond with a dedicate B&H rep that knows about Pentax the problem is easily ironed out.

Just think of all the info floating around the Internet about Pentax cameras from this and other forums. Pentax can’t just remain isolated and ignore it in this day and age. One negative (or positive) comment can be seen by anyone with an Internet connection, and it would benefit Pentax immensely to include themselves in the exchange.

Adam and all keep up the great work!

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Last edited by ToGo; 04-13-2011 at 10:49 PM.

[sterretje]

I agree they should. I know that on a South African site, a local Canon topman hangs around to pick up threads where customers are not happy with the Canon service.

[Chex]

He must be a busy man!

[Rondec]

John Carlson came on the forum for a little while when the K7 was released, but the reality is that he didn't know an awful lot and couldn't do an awful lot about problems, except "alert Japan." I think it ended up being a frustrating experience for both him and for forum users.

[KLSMpls]

It is indeed unfortunate Pentax does not use the huge amount of consumer input from this site. Such an opportunity. It would probably be a full time job for somebody, but the ROI would be huge I would think...even if the answer sometimes was "I don't know". From what I gather there is a communication gap between the US and Japan but is anyone trying to improve it??

[MRRiley]

I think Adam is right... They are scared of us. This tends to be a rather passionate crowd and many of our users know far more about Pentax then their average "non-marketing" employee. Frankly if it wasn't for Pentax Forums (and similar sites) I believe Pentax would be suffering severe marketplace losses but they fail to realize or appreciate that.

Mike

[dgaies]

I think Adam is right... They are scared of us. This tends to be a rather passionate crowd and many of our users know far more about Pentax then their average "non-marketing" employee. Frankly if it wasn't for Pentax Forums (and similar sites) I believe Pentax would be suffering severe marketplace losses but they fail to realize or appreciate that.

I can say that for myself personally, if it wasn't for this site, I would almost certainly be using something other than Pentax.

[ToGo]

Not sure how their marketing is in Japan and other countries is, but here in the US it seems almost nonexistent. I checked out their Facebook page and wasn’t impressed. Lots of posting of Pentax related articles, but not much administrator interaction and no addressing question or comments. As a marketing standpoint it’s kind of crazy to create a page and leave it up to the public to run. As KLSMpls said, sometimes saying I don’t have an answer or I’ll look into it can go a long way.

And as for selling their products in store, WOW. If you're not familiar with Pentax or a first time buyer, I bet 95% of the time you’ll go into a store (If they carry Pentax!) end up getting another brand. And that means you’ve not only a missed customer for this sale, but probably for sales of lenses, accessories, and future camera upgrades.

I work in NYC so I have a few of the biggest camera stores in the county. B&H, Adorama, and Calumet. At Adorama and Calumet you have to search to find the Pentax Cameras (not even sure if Calumet has any on display.) On the sales floor at B&H they have about 1/4 of a kiosk for its DSLR’s. It shares the space with other brands and point and shoot cameras. The sales people are helpful but can’t always answer specific questions about the brand. They actually had a KR floor model that had the e-wheel problem on display! The other brands are superstars compared to Pentax. If I remember right their kiosk are brand specific, with lots of eye catching signage and the sales people seem to be experienced users who know the cameras, lenses and brand inside and out.

Many a time I’ve stood at the counter next to people who know nothing about using a DSLR (Sale person is explaining shutter speed, ISO, Resolution) and they wind up buying the top of the line Cannon or Nikon on the recommendation of the counter person. I’ve never seen or hear their sale people pushing anything Pentax.

I think that Pentax marketing rides on the wave of their past success. Pentax has some great products, and it isn’t too hard to sell to us dedicated users on this forum. They really need to get out and push their quality, price and usability to new customers.

Sorry if this post was so rambling.

[sterretje]

ToGo, you better come live over here. Below the extract of a opening post by an annoyed Canon user

As a Canon owner has anyone noticed a disturbing trend. Shop window space. I was in fourways. The particular shop I looked at had 4 shelves at eye level for Pentax, 2 shelves at eye level for nikon and half a shelf right at the bottom for canon. I have seen the same trend in many shop windows and in every single newspaper insert the nikon Dslr outnumbers canon 3 to 1 and in many add brochures there is not a single Canon Dslr advertised?

Shop space and marketing

Thanks to that thread, I found a shop where I actually could buy the FA31Ltd

[ToGo]

The particular shop I looked at had 4 shelves at eye level for Pentax, 2 shelves at eye level for nikon and half a shelf right at the bottom for canon

.

That only because Pentax is the best looking camera of the bunch.

I was just looking an old fall 2010 catalog on my desk from Adorama that they put in your bag at check out. 68 pages, page 6-7 Double page spread for Nikon, Page 9 full page Canon EOS ad, Plus all listings of the cameras in stock. Not ONE Pentax Item in catalog.

I know it is Adorama's call what goes into their sales materials, but Pentax does have a role in promoting their product.

[manishved]

Hope Pentax marketing wakes up ....

[KLSMpls]

There are so many threads here and on LinkedIn as well about the mysterious Pentax marketing philosophy to put it kindly. However, I do have a success story. I belong to a photographic meetup group in Mpls, MN. Canon just brought in a photographer to do a presentation as part of their "Explorers of Light" promotional series. I thought, hey, just maybe Pentax is interested? (perfect opportunity for some organic growth). Believe it or not I contacted their Media Relations Manager who passed on my inquiry to a Regional Sales Account Manager. As a result, we will be having Kerrick James come in to do a presentation and possibly workshops! I could not believe it. He was quite receptive. I had to confess we probably have only dozen Pentax users out of a membership of 1500! But ya gotta start somewhere! So I guess they do have some marketing funds, but I would love to be a fly on the wall at a marketing meeting in CO. Similar to the observations about Adorama and B&H, the only camera store here that sells Pentax is National Camera Exchange. They run big ads in the paper all the time....but Pentax is NEVER included.

Oh, and Kerrick will be bringing a 645 to demo. Can't wait!!