Marketing Insights Newsletter

Special Issue: Photography

How Canon Uses Its Pro Credentials To Win Over Consumers

Source: Chief Marketer, article by Tim Parry

Because it was able to successfully market its digital SLR (single-lens reflex) cameras to professional photographers, Canon has been able to win over amateur shutterbugs as well.

"We've taken that message to consumers to show that the pros have chosen Canon," says Rick Booth, director of marketing services for Canon's consumer imaging group. "This creates a halo effect that trickles down to amateur digital camera users."

Canon began to focus more on research and development of digital SLRs five years ago. It then decided to aggressively take on Nikon, which had been synonymous with professional photography, with a marketing campaign that encouraged media outlets and photojournalists to compare its latest offerings to its rival's.

Once Canon won over top newspapers, photo agencies such as Getty Images, and magazines including “Sports Illustrated,” its marketing team launched consumer campaigns touting Canon as the brand chosen by professionals. Canon had previously used its longstanding NFL sponsorship as a "seal of approval" in its ads (via a footnote that it was the "official camera" of the league). Going beyond that footnote, Canon’s expanded consumer marketing campaign includes

• interactive pre-game experiences at the home games of eight NFL teams. Fans get to see the technology in action when they receive a souvenir 4 x 6 photo taken with a Canon digital camera and printed on a Canon printer. Canon gives out between 500 and 700 images per game, depending on the weather and the market.

• an experiential sweepstakes called "Shoot Like a Pro" that offers winners in the same eight markets the opportunity to take photos from the sideline during an NFL game and to cover the post game press conference while getting instruction from professional team photographers. More than 60,000 consumers entered the sweepstakes last year, the first time it was promoted online. The previous year, when it was conducted as a mail-in sweeps, about 3,000 people entered.

• an online rebate calculator added to the Website for last year's holiday rebate season, which had more than 40,000 hits. "We don't know if everybody who used the calculator made a purchase, but we have anecdotal evidence from merchants about people coming into the store with a printout, asking if the items were in stock and to find out more about the items," says Booth. The calculator allowed consumers to find out what they would get back if they purchased bundles, such as a printer and a camera together. "Rebates tend to be very involved. This helped consumers take the guesswork out of it."

• the opening of its annual Hall of Fame photo contest to amateurs this year, which encourages parents and other amateurs to submit photos of children participating in youth football. Winners receive a trip for four to the 2006 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Celebration, a trip for four to the Super Bowl XL in Detroit, and Canon products; they’ll also be honored during the Hall of Fame ceremony.

• TV spots to push the Hall of Fame contest, designed to target moms. The commercials show a mother capturing images of a son playing youth football, while the father sees the same child through the lens as an NFL player. Ron Altman, assistant manager of camera marketing for Canon, says the spots, shown during NFL games, have driven traffic to the contest site.

• a sweepstakes open to consumers redeeming holiday rebates, in which a random winner will be sent to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii and get to shoot the game from the sidelines.

• ads showing Canon's white lenses in use at the Super Bowl.

• an endorsement ad acknowledging that Getty Images has chosen Canon as its digital SLR of choice.

• ads highlighting that noted photojournalist James Natchway has chosen Canon.

• the use of “Sports Illustrated” photographer Peter Read Miller as a spokesperson and ambassador for the brand. Miller speaks to photography students on the brand's behalf and accompanies contest winners on the NFL photo shoots.

Though sales are the ultimate metric for Canon's consumer marketing success, Altman says there are additional ways to measure the impact, such as sales force feedback.

"We rely on the sales force to tell us what programs are working and how we can improve," Altman says. "Our goal is to differentiate ourselves from the competition in both the advertising space and at retail. Our sales force is constantly letting us know if that is working."

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