Pentax shift to online marketing and sales not limited to Japan

The Pentax Rumours site has a piece about Ricoh's policy going forward!!

Oldhat

link

What does this mean for retailers here? If I cannot pick up and try a product then I am not interested - example: I tried the much vaunted Fuji XT4 yesterday and put it straight back, poor grip made it unusable with long lenses.

This is potentially bad news for retailers.
It doesn't fit well with me but I am ancient and always prefer to see/hold a product before buying.
However, given the dearth of retailers in the UK ,many already buy their cameras online and this is probably a variation on that ongoing process.

The problem with online retail is buyers rely entirely on reviews and paper specifications which removes the process of physically comparing camera bodies and lenses; now the only other place that could be done would be a photography show but Ricoh have withdrawn from those events outside Japan. Several times now I have visited photography shows with products in mind only to change when seeing them. The bias shown by reviewers and YouTubers towards their favoured systems and the economic advantages of so doing (Cameraville said his click rate increased threefold when doing Nikon) means there will be very little positive exposure to Pentax so I can only see sales declining to non-existence outside of Japan if Ricoh really do follow this route.

Sadly this will impact on all of us even if we don’t buy new gear as our existing kit will be harder to exchange or sell, with a dwindling pool of buyers around and retailers not wanting to be burdened with unsaleable stock.

Well said, RobL, regrettable but true.

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Be well, stay safe.

So was this not relevant?

Or have they changed their minds?

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John K

Surely this is to be expected. If not liked. As all camera manufacturers see a decline of camera sales, in the UK. The handling of product's. As I read it. Will still be available. But through workshops rather than retailers. Though we may have to sign up for a workshop. Rather than just visit a local store. Problem as I see it. Is what do you do when you need a repair..? Where is the back up and support going to come from...?

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K-1Gripped K-1 ungripped K-5ii K7 Various lenses

Stuart..

There's nothing in the Ricoh blurb about replacing retail by digital sales. It's about digital communications and 'workshop' manufacturing. People (here and elsewhere) have been complaining for years that Ricoh/Pentax doesn't engage with its customers and marketing is poor. Perhaps this is recognition that they really do need to sort that out and digital is the way to go.

Steve

I don’t understand what is planned here. A switch from mass production to workshop type looks to me like there will no longer be stocks of equipment ready to sell which is the traditional retail pattern, but instead a build-to-order format. This might be more efficient for the manufacturer but for the buyer this would mean having to wait every time for an item to be built and shipped. I can see that for high end esoteric equipment but not for a typical consumer product, we are now used to getting next day deliveries so how long would a bespoke order take now? Or perhaps I have this all wrong if someone could enlighten me.

Given the communication with customer spiel it would be a good start if Ricoh actually told us in clear and simple language what is going on.

Like a lot of things, it could leave us wondering what it actually means. I'm not sure what a "workshop" approach would be, unless it means a return to small scale hand on manufacture such as we might have found in a Leica or Rollei post war factory? Lines of people actually making cameras? Or does it mean that SRS, for example, would order say 50 K-1 II camera bodies in various colours and some with special specs and then the batch would be made for them?

Meanwhile, my Pentax cameras and lenses continue to work very well, oblivious to the new world that lies beyond them!

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Best regards, John

A quick rummage through the internet suggests that in this context "workshop approach to production" could mean collecting and analysing data from users, potential customers etc. and using that to determine what items to make now so they meet today's demands. Imagine a world in which a computer held the instructions for manufacturing every lens in the Pentax catalogue, when sufficient demand was identified for a particular lens it sent the instructions to an automated machine that produced a batch of that specific lens sufficient to meet demand. Get it right and distributors across the world would get products when the demand is there rather than having to try to create demand for existing stock (might even be able to get new Q lenses again...). Contrast that with the current practice of Ricoh marketing people guessing what the market wants, hoping it will still want it in several years time, lengthy development, setting up a production line, producing a big batch then holding that stock for a long time until it's all been sold.

It's hard to believe that it won't be possible to hold a camera in the hand before buying. But it could become more like buying a new car - try the demonstrator, specify the details you want, wait for your new toy to arrive.

And like John, I've consulted my existing Pentax kit and it doesn't care at all about what is going on in the big, wide, world outside. All it wants is to be loved and cared for and in return promises to give many years of good and faithful service.

Steve

Sorry but where aside from SRS can you actually go into "Bricks and Mortar" and hold a Pentax Camera? I'm sure there's a few in the south but in the north, the land of Wilkinsons or Jessops there's nowt!

Pentax or Ricoh or whatever they are this year are changing their model, if it works, fine, if not go get something else but don't expect Ricoh to give two hoots about the resale value. I fully expect that they will not be the last to "Reboot".
If it means they listen and no more cludgy/Japan centric, K-01/K-S1 I'm all for it.

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Cheers Jules...

www.exaggeratedperspectives.com

In my local LCE the salesperson told me they stopped selling Pentax as they have gone down the pan. Not true, obviously, but the lack of any visible presence and promotion must help to foster this view.

Think I have had every top end camera Pentax (Ricoh, Hoya) have produced starting with the K10D up until my K-1 and I never held one of them in my hands before purchasing.

Same goes for the other brands I have tried.

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. My Flickr

Seems to be the way nowadays Mike, whenever you go to a camera shop to just have a dekko, the thing you want to look at isn't there.

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Cheers Jules...

www.exaggeratedperspectives.com