Groupies and the D300s
On 30-Jul-2009, Nikon announced the successor to their very successful D300, the Nikon D300s and... Nothing. Last year, Nikon released the D90 and every single photography blog, website... was saying how great the Nikon D90 was, sight unseen, without trying it or without taking any photo. I wrote an article about the Groupies and the D90. There was much more press and blogger coverage for the Nikon D5000 that was announced in April 2009 at the bottom of the recession.
Why?
- Have the bloggers and all the other photography people have learned not to comment on something they don't know anything about?
- Is it the recession? People are not enthusiastic for spending another two thousand dollars? The mood is really different. I don't see the enthusiasm that we saw a year ago. This isn't just Nikon. The same thing is happening with Canon and the other camera manufacturers.
Marketing
- Does this mean that the photographers will not buy it? The Nikon d300s can still be a success, but not the home-run.
- It only means that there won't be big back-orders.
- Customers are still out there. Customers are still spending during the down-turn in the economy, we have seen it with the "Cash for Clunkers" car program in the US1.
- The extravagant mood is gone. Big budgets are out, more reasonable budgets are in. I have found that my customers are still spending but not extravagantly. No 16x20 photo framed and mounted to hang in the office. Right now, most of my prints are 5x7 and 8x10 with a few 11x14 prints.
1 Full details at Cash for Clunkers ↑