Cameras Emerge From Tsunami Setback

By TWICE Staff -- TWICE, 8/22/2011

TWICE: How has business been so far this year?

David Lee, senior VP, Nikon: Taking out the supply issues in the April/May period that resulted from the [Great Japan Earthquake and Tsunami], sales have been, actually, pretty good for us.

We have seen some market share gains during Father’s Day. We were lucky enough to have the No.1 position with our L120, which is great for looking forward in the market because it was at a $249 price point. That camera has a 21x long zoom range, which shows people are still willing to invest in their technology.

D-SLRs, meanwhile, showed a 6.3 percent increase in units year over year, according to NPD. Nikon was able to keep the No. 1 share in units. So we see the marketplace coming out from the disaster in Japan being very positive as we look forward to the holiday season.

Stefan Guelpen, sales and merchandising VP, imaging, Panasonic: We were lucky in seeing minimal impact on the U.S. business from the tsunami tragedy. We were actually able to benefit in terms of unit sales, and growth. Our sales are up across all categories in our first quarter, April through June. We have double-digit growth in units, and we are seeing the trend continue, and I’m happy to say, to what David [Lee] said before, we can collectively drive the growth on higher ASP [average selling price] categories, longer zoom, light [and] increased light sensitivity. I think that is important for all of us, including the retail channel, that we’ve been able to drive up the ASPs in this business, so I am pleased to report that.

Peter Ewen, specialty sales director, Olympus: The d-SLR category definitely has been impressive in its growth and the way it has sustained multiple price points from $499 all the way up, and again we’re happy to see the industry, and the consumer base embracing the new [mirrorless] compact system camera segment, with multiple manufacturers involved. This is probably the first Christmas season where we’ll see a lot of buzz from the manufacturers promoting this concept.

Point-and-shoots, industrywide, have been taking a backseat to the d-SLRs, and certainly in talking to the retailers that is what they’re seeing in the stores.

The sub-$100 price point is the worst performer, which I think is due to cellphone competition. Cellphones aren’t bad or evil for our industry, though. I think it gets you into the photography. I think it gets you taking pictures, and, if anything, it should help grow other interests in getting better images.

So I think the industry will do a tremendous job this year in spending money on advertising the category. I fully expect a lot of all of us involved here to really step up in the fourth quarter and promote our brands.

Mark Sherengo, sales and marketing director, Pentax Imaging: The shortages seen by some major manufacturers this year presented an opportunity for Pentax. We had inventory that we carried over from 2010, so it allowed us to sell volume units at a higher ASP. Moving forward, we realize that to be competitive we have to have the right market price. So for us, we have to meet the market by advertising more than we have of the past. Talking about our technology, since we’re a little bit different, takes a campaign that heavily leverages social media. This introduced us to another generation that helped our brand grow.

In the point-and-shoot business, we have always stood with the highest ASP in the waterproof category. We are in our 11th generation in that segment, with a $349 price point. We actually raised the price last year, and volume did not go down. We were able to help a lot of the smaller photo specialty stores raise their ASPs. They remember that. They are helping us as we continue to grow, and we’re looking forward to the excitement of the Pentax brand that is going to be infused with more marketing dollars.

(Editor’s note: The roundtable took place just after Ricoh announced it had acquired the Pentax camera business from Hoya. Company executives were not able to discuss the sale.)

Liz Cutting, imaging director, The NPD Group: If we look at the sell-through numbers, overall camera sales were down 9 percent in units and down 6 percent in dollars year to date in May, and that is truly just the impact of the point-and-shoot cameras, and we can slice it down to start to see that higher-end cameras are performing better.

Looking at the rise of the detachable-lens camera as the portion of all cameras sold, they rose from just 8 percent, year to date, in May of 2009, and are now 13 percent. It has been growing incrementally month over month. We are in a great position to be able to have a growing category like this, never mind the accessory side attached with it. Anything in our sell-through information that we are seeing attaching to a detachable-lens camera is growing in dollars. But we have to look at that in the context of camera sales being down as a whole. We always focus on where the smartphones can’t get to us.

And you have to remember, the penetration of pointand- shoot cameras is high. We were at a 73 percent household penetration in May of last year, and have just come down to 71 percent this year. That is still a heck of a lot of replacement volume.