How to use a Leica M Rangefinder: Craig Semetko

This video shows potential customers how they can spend 10x more than they would for competing products in order to buy something that is actually more challenging to use. Then again he is talking about a Leica - the only brand other than Apple I ever heard Steve Jobs mention at an Apple keynote presentation.

“10:32AM “You gotta see this in person. This is beyond the doubt, the most precise thing, and one of the most beautiful we’ve ever made. Glass on the front and back, and steel around the sides. It’s like a beautiful old Leica camera.””

— http://leicarumors.com/2010/06/07/steve-jobs-on-the-new-iphone-4-its-like-a-beautiful-old-leica-camera.aspx/

This point is also picked up in the following news article:

“I love my camera. I love it even though I took terrible pictures with it for a month. I love it even though I have to adjust the aperture, worry about depth of field and annoy my family while I twiddle with its metal knobs. I love it because it makes me think: about light, colour, composition. I take fewer pictures with it than I take with my phone, but much better ones. And I’m not alone in my love for my camera. While sales of point and shoot technology continue to decline, the market for fiddly manual cameras is growing nicely.”

— http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/04/why-we-should-design-things-to-be-difficult-mastery

So some references then, to the hedonic benefits that customers can derive from this brand, and there are some more after this video.

I think the following comments from a review of the camera on DigitalSpy give some indication of its hedonic attributes:

“When you consider what you could buy for more than £5,000 plus the cost of a lens, the Leica M starts to look overpriced. Is it worth spending all that extra dough when your photos are only slightly better? Assuming, of course, you get the composition right. Perhaps not. But then this camera is not for those on a budget or the penny conscious.

Like an expensive Ferrari turns a mundane drive into something special, the Leica M brings back the satisfaction from photography mastery.



”

— Read more: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tech/review/a573573/leica-m-typ-240-review-keepin-it-old-school.html#ixzz3TIr488Z1 Follow us: @digitalspy on Twitter | digitalspyuk on Facebook

Going back to the comparison with Apple, DPreview.com had this to say about the Leica T (which is made from a single block of aluminium), 'This, you can't help but feel, is the kind of camera that Apple might make, if it were so inclined.' http://www.dpreview.com/previews/leica-t-typ701

Ryanair's reintermediation

Last year Ryanair went back to using a GDS (global distribution system) and struck a deal with Amadeus. Until that time Ryanair had sought to sell its tickets only via its online presence. The Amadeus will enable Ryanair to sell tickets via travel agents and to customers who would otherwise not have bought directly from the company

More about Amadeus:

“Today over 70 low fare airlines have chosen Amadeus as their distribution partner and low fare airline bookings via the Amadeus system increased by 21% during 2013. Since its introduction in 2007, Amadeus’ XML link has enabled low fare airlines to benefit from the reach and yield provided by travel agency distribution without the complexity associated with traditional ticketing processes for airlines. Amadeus’ Light Ticketing enhancements were first deployed by a low cost airline in 2013, allowing travel agents to use standard pricing workflows whilst being able to access the airline’s content from the standard neutral availability flow, modify PNRs and finalise the booking process with the creation of ticket numbers – just as they do when booking traditional flag carriers.
”

— http://www.amadeus.com/web/amadeus/en_1A-corporate/Amadeus-Home/News-and-events/News/2014_9_24_Ryanair-partners-with-Amadeus-for-travel-agency/1319560217161-Page-AMAD_DetailPpal?assetid=1319606953943&assettype=PressRelease_C

Pebble watch, innovation and fund-raising.

The product lifecycle concept refers to the adoption of an innovation by end-customers, since the vertical axis can be measured in terms of sales. The Pebble story is an interesting one insofar as it takes place in a world where consumers can also be investors and the firm's performance so far has shown how the two domains of fund-raising and consumer marketing can overlap. By appealing to consumers in terms of fund-raising the firm is also hoping to validate its technology and appeal in a way that focusing on private equity may not necessarily have done.

Co-creation at Lego

Lego has announced its annual results for 2014. The FT describes the firm as having come back from a 'near death experience' to being the largest toy company in the world. This is a corporate presentation by Connie Kalcher. She explains how Lego has sought to engage customers.

Spiral of silence

Writing in the Academy of Management Review, Clemente and Roulet (2015) deal with the 'spiral of silence', which explains how public opinion is formed. Individuals avoid expressing views publicly that they think are marginalised. As a result, 

“members of a minority ae less likely to express their opinion, while members of a majority are more likely to express theirs. These dynamics lead to the emergence of a dominant opinion.”

— Clement & Roulet (2015:101)

Clemente, M., and Roulet, T. J.  (2015) Public opinion as a source of deinstitutionalisation: A 'spiral of silence approach', Academy of Management Review, Vol. 40, No. 1, 96–114. 

Behavioural economics and health

Keeping the motivation to go to the gym can be difficult. Pact uses behavioural economics to address this. 

Loss aversion, the fear of losing money is 2.5 times more effective in changing behaviour than receiving a reward. One of the founders of PACT is an endocrinologist and he finds the incentive aspect of the app important, clearly having information about the benefits of exercise is not enough.

There's more about this in the following story in the FT:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/11f7908c-b796-11e4-8807-00144feab7de.html#axzz3SZcSZEef

Market driving and market driven - the case of impressionist art

For many years the Bible of marketing, Kotler's text on the subject, held forth that marketing oriented firms responded to customers' needs and wants, while the less sophisticated product oriented firms were fixated on selling customers whatever it was that they were making.

In more recent years Kotler has made the subtle distinction and now also refers to 'market driving' firms, those whose products may not immediately be seen by customers as meeting a need or want, but which ultimately become successful.

The following story in the Guardian newspaper is a good example of an historical illustration of this. It's particularly useful since nowadays it is often technology businesses that are given the label of being market-driving.

“Innovative artists needed an innovative dealer and Durand-Ruel’s particular genius was not just to spot the talent of the young impressionists, but to promote them indefatigably and create a market for them where previously there had been none.

To gain them the recognition he was convinced they deserved, he developed a range of new ways of promoting them that redefined the relationship between dealers and artists.

He found himself and his charges “attacked and reviled by upholders of the academy and old doctrines, by the most established art critics, by the entire press and by most of my colleagues”.

Among the other methods used to bolster his artists, Durand-Ruel would sell works through other dealers on a profit-sharing basis, and he did this with collectors, too. He would lend works against business capital and buy his own artists’ paintings at auction to inflate the price. He also opened his own house to visitors on Tuesdays, when the main galleries were closed, so that his collection of impressionist works could be seen. ”

— http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/feb/21/the-man-who-made-monet-how-impressionism-was-saved-from-obscurity

Generalised exchange and carbon offset

The following video shows how Toyola stoves in Ghana have been able to market a product that saves consumers money by using lower levels of charcoal. This also has a clear positive impact on the environment, by reducing the number of trees that have to be cut and also generates health benefits, since the more efficient stoves also create less smoke.

However the cost of the stoves can be too high for local consumers. This provides an opportunity for carbon-offer schemes:

“Carbon offset projects around the world enable you to immediately meet your carbon reduction target and finance the development of crucial renewable energy and resource conservation activities. Many projects also deliver benefits to communities and biodiversity, providing a positive association for your brand.”

— http://www.carbonneutral.com/carbon-offsets/carbon-offset-project-videos

Such schemes make the stoves more affordable and enable polluters in richer countries to meet their carbon emission targets.

Scent, power & consumer behaviour

Madzharov et al writing in the January 2015 issue of the Journal of Marketing explain how ambient scents can affect consumers' spatial perceptions in retail environments. Their thesis, draws on the negative relationship between social density and perceived control. They also rely on existing research which shows that:

“Powerlessness is typically an aversive state that people work to change through activities and consumption that restore their sense of power. People in a state of low perceived power place greater value on products and attrib­ utes that can satisfy their active goal of power restoration (Rucker, Galinsky, and Dubois 2012)”

— Madzharov, Block & Morrin (2015:85)

Using an experiment with undergraduate students, the authors find that: 

“in a warm scented and perceptually more dense social environment people experience a greater need for power and an increased preference for and purchase of premium products and brands”

— Madzharov et al (2015:83)

How big will the Ricoh Theta be?

Well it attracts some significant coverage in the Ricoh annual report.

“RICOH THETA, launched in November 2013, trumped prevailing ideas that cameras merely shoot or record clipped scenes within a frame. This device captures two-dimensional images, incorporating all the space surrounding the photographer with just one click. ”

— https://www.ricoh.com/about/sustainability/report/pdf2014/all.pdf

The following video does not do a lot for me from a consumer perspective:

But the annual report does mention various other uses as well:

“RICOH THETA can be used to check on routine movements, behavior and actions of patients and the elderly, and steps can be taken immediately if something unusual or dangerous is dectected. In the safety and security fields, RICOH THETA could help in the early discovery or complete prevention of criminal activity through application in crime-prevention and surveillance systems.”

— https://www.ricoh.com/about/sustainability/report/pdf2014/all.pdf

What reviewers get in exchange from Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor is a good example of an organisation relying on the free input of its users. The question is what do they get in return. This blogpost gives the answer:

“Maybe a week later, I received an email from Trip Advisor saying that someone found the review helpful.
Very nice touch. Without that email, I might not have gone back to the site or posted another review. Now I am starting to see some signs of encouragement.”

— http://www.jeffsetter.com/trip-advisor-travel-blog/

There are more reasons given, together withe examples of the emails and badges that Tripadvisor uses. 

Caspar's Disintermediated Mattresses

Caspar have a nice little video showing their disintermediated approach to selling mattresses. There is also another interesting aspect to their business model, which is their restriction of the product range to just one model - rather than taking a more differentiated approach. The video contains an explanation for this strategy.

Promoting modularity

Phonebloks promotes the concept of modularity, whose adoption by manufacturers could lead to a reduction in waste, as people update their existing consumer goods, rather than replacing them entirely.

23andme

23andme provide a genetic testing service and the advertisement below sounds innocuous indeed heart-warming enough. It's claimed that paying for the test (it's around US$100), enables individuals identify medical conditions.

The following paper in Scientific American, however, points to an unforeseen risk with the service. 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/23andme-is-terrifying-but-not-for-reasons-fda/

Having paid for the test, individuals may not realise that 12andme then has access to the individual's data and this can be used both for research and marketing. To explain the nature of the risks in a pithy way - one of the founders of 23andme is married to one of the founders of Google. As the Scientific American article says:

It is a mechanism meant to be a front end for a massive information-gathering operation against an unwitting public.

Dynamic pricing

Premier Inn, a British mid-market hotel chain uses 'dynamic pricing. The video below contains a presentation by one of their executives about how this type of pricing is used and the benefits to the organisation of this pricing mechanism. The term revpar is used in the video and it refers to 'revenue per available room'.

The following video has another explanation of the concept: