freaklikeme Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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goosemang wrote:
but jeez, the thought of buying further into a brand that works to hard to be a status symbol is really off-putting.
I don't see how using co-branding to get your product out to a potentially receptive audience is any different than getting a celebrity to hawk your wares in print and television ads. Ashton Kutchner isn't there to sell you a specific camera, after all. He's there to sell you on Nikon as a brand. Canon didn't get world-famous tennis players to stump for them in the 80s and 90s because they were all dedicated Rebel shooters, they did it because they wanted their brand associated with a popular worldwide sport. And Leica isn't alone in doing co-branded special editions. Nikon and Canon have done them as well.
It's just calculated, manipulative marketing at its best or worst, depending on your perspective, and given that Leica is one of the few camera manufacturers turning a profit, I'd say it's working. But I don't think you can say they're actively trying to create a status symbol, which is difficult to create in a marketing campaign since it's dependent on the consumer, their immediate society, and the shifting regionalized sociological and socioeconomic variables that govern their behavior, but rather targeting their expensive product at a group of consumers who is likely to buy.
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