Canon's Confusing Marketing
In the last 24 hours, news hit the wire announcing Canon’s latest camera. Depending on where you live, it’s called the Canon EOS 500D, the Canon Rebel T1i, or the Canon Kiss X3. Featuring basically the same sensor as Canon’s EOS 50D, 720p video at 30fps, and 1080p vido at 20fps, it’s poised to be quite the camera, especially with its $799.99 MSRP in the United States. If you’re after maximum bang for sensor quality buck in a crop-frame camera, this camera has it.
Beyond the feature set, however, I want to focus in on those three names that this camera has. What is it with Canon and their naming schemes?
In a previous day and age, it may have made sense to have different brands in different markets. After all, information about products were constrained by traditional marketing machines. The average camera buyer would learn everything there was to know about a company’s products through a magazine—typically distributed on the national level—or at their local camera shop. The movers and shakers went to trade shows to find out what was going on. Given this, it might have made sense to have brands that appealed to the local market, such as Kiss in Japan and Rebel in the United States.
These days, everyone from rank amateur to serious mover and shaker gets the bulk of their information about cameras from one source: the Internet. As you know, the Internet is global and doesn’t care about borders. Google’s search engine only cares about national borders to the extent that they have to comply with the rules and regulations of each country. When news breaks that a large global audience is interested in, it does so over the entire planet at once.
If there’s a lesson this: It’s one world, message accordingly.
The Canon EOS 500D/Rebel T1i/Kiss X3 is scheduled to ship in May. You can find out more about it, including hands-on previews, in Rob Galbraith’s review or at DPReview. Or, just Google for Rebel 500D.
14 Comments
Yes, they seriously need to rethink their branding, and not just for their DSLRs: witness the Digital IXUS/PowerShot Digital ELPH/IXY Digital madness.
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Ned, I agree that the IXUS/ELPH whatnot is part of the madness. And, even though it's not localized, the Mark II this and Mark III that is nuts as well.
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It makes it a bit easier for Canon to support the regional service centres. A futile attempt to reduce grey marketing.
Many years ago, the editor of MacWorld in Australia wrote a great editorial about grey marketing (Apple then, as now disproportionately uplifts prices outside of the US) and concluded with this wonderful comment: "there are no grey markets - just markets"
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It is futile indeed. The pricing imbalances are horrid, aren't they? I know lots of people that live in Europe and elsewhere that make sure to stop off at an Apple store when they are in the States.
On the flip side, once when I was coming back from Europe with my camera gear, I didn't have all my paperwork for customs proving that I had bought my gear in the States. The guy gave me a hassle for a few minutes, but relented when I pointed out how much it would cost to buy my gear in Europe where I'd been. That was right about the time the USD was at its lowest against the EUR as well.
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> When news breaks that a large global audience is interested in, it does so over the entire planet at once. It’s one world, message accordingly.
Wow really? When was the last time you went to a japanese website to read about the latest Canon camera?
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Crab, you live up to your chosen name, don't you? In this particular case, sure, I haven't been to a Japanese camera site in a few years. I don't read Japanese, so pushing things through a translation engine kinda sucks. I did it for a while in the 90's and early part of this decade, but then the websites--and camera companies themselves--sorted it out. For example, I found out about the 500D via London-based DPReview who included a press release from the Canon office in the Netherlands. Is that global enough for you?
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Crab, if you are from Europe the different names drive you crazy. When I’m searching stuff in the Internet I don’t care about the language and where it was written (as long as I can understand it), and accordingly it’s hard to keep track of the different names that refer all to the same camera. I’m sort of used to the whole Rebel/###D thing, but Canon’s compact cameras are a nightmare. I often rely on Wikipedia to find out whether those names all refer to the same camera. Add cryptic product names to the mix, and suddenly you start to believe that Canon doesn’t even want you to buy or recommend their compact cameras.
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While Crab might be a bit blunt about it, he does have a point. While the internet has made global access to information possible, there are still cultural and language differences. I imagine that when Canon devised their naming scheme for the xxxD/Rebel series, they took this into account. I agree its confusing, and the reasons you name in your post might have something to do with it, I get the feeling we too often forget there are many people in the world that still get their information from sources within their region/country. Not everyone speaks English (Even in the Netherlands, where I live, and everyone is taught English in school, many people still only read Dutch websites).
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great post,lots of truth
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I don't necessarily disagree, and find the multiple names a pain when I lookup camera reviews.
Still, the example you gave of names that appeal locally is a pretty good one. Rebel is strong for the US, Kiss for Japan. If you look at commercials you see they're very different in different parts of the world as well. Different things appeal to different cultures; the Internet hasn't changed that.
I believe there may also be trademark issues. Let's say Canon wanted to use a single name; combining Kiss and Rebel they get Kibel. Running it through legal they see Kibel is a photo outlet in Austria (oops, can't use it there). It's also a candy bar in Geneva (rats! - those darn Swiss and their chocolate). To play it safe they shift to multiple names.
I think finding a single name that's a) suitable globally, and b) AVAILABLE globally, can be part of the problem.
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Very good insight there, Tom. I mean even in the states it happens, even WITHIN state boundaries. You don't want to know how many companies have the same names. It only becomes a problem when one of them is a big corporation with brand identity to maintain (or both of them...).
On the one hand, I completely agree with David. I mean, a MacBook is a MacBook is a MacBook, right? But not every naming scheme is open in every market.
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Indeed, Rebel is obviously targeted for the US and KISS for Japan. Brands have their own special charm. I still remember those Andre Agassi Rebel ads. I found one of the original ads up Youtube. Egh. The late 80's and early 90's were something else.
And yes, there can be trademark issues in various countries, tho IXUS/Elph seem pretty clear cut. In any case, I have to note that they manage to do with global names in their mid and top of the line cameras, the D30-50D, 5D Mark I and II, 1D Mark I through III, and 1Ds Mark I through III. Of course, there's another layer of confusion in the 1D/1Ds Mark whatever scheme.
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Interestingly Sony saw this problem and solved it when it acquired the Minolta SLR technology. If I remember correctly Alpha (Japan), Maxxum (US) and Dynax (Europe) were all just different names for the same film cameras from Minolta. When Sony took over the line, they ditched the other names and just went with Alpha worldwide.
Sony being a much bigger company may explain why they did this. They probably have a more global outlook with regards to marketing all of their products (Playstation, movies, music, etc.)
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Sorry to be terribly eurocentric but why bother with those stupid Rebel/Kiss names? Three digits (higher number means newer model) and a D seems really simple to me, no need for cryptic alphanumeric stuff next to the childish brand name.
Yeah, maybe Canon wanted to convince people that they can and should also buy a DSLR and not just a pont and shoot, but those times are long gone. Nobody needs to be convinced (with childish brand names) that budget DSLRs are a wothwhile option. So why not fall back on the normal naming scheme of DSLRs? (500D fits all the other DSLRs Canon sells.)
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