Uneak White's Personal Brand Exploration Presentation
Canon and the Disruptive shift to Digital Imaging
1.
2. Christian Sandström holds a PhD from Chalmers
University of Technology, Sweden. He writes and speaks
about disruptive innovation and technological change.
3. As we know, the digital
revolution has swept through
the camera industry over the
last decade.
65. Canon established a ’Digital
Imaging Business Centre’ and
allocated more resources to it.
66. The Japanese firms worked
jointly in an industry
association to solve critical
technical issues.
67. Moreover, they made sure
that the structure was
modular, so that each
individual component could
be improved separately.
68. Instead of fighting battles about standards,
each company could instead focus on the
product and reducing R&D costs. This created
a healthy competition - each one
differentiated within the defined settings.
69. The modular, standardized structure also
implied that consumer electronics
companies could work
on each component.
77. … The digital avalanche
came into motion…
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
78. And Canon was now well positioned
to benefit from this huge growth.
79. Back in 2001-02, virtually all my
friends got a compact digital camera
as a christmas gift. Everyone started
to take, send and share photos now.
80.
81. At this point, Canon spent a lot of money on
marketing, and given that everyone knew the
brand, I guess it had a great impact in the
christmas rush…
82.
83. Canon now got rid of all analogue
development and grew their
digital camera business rapidly.
84.
85. As the performance of digital
cameras became better and better, it
was now time to launch more
advanced models as well.
86. The Canon 1D was one of the first true
alternative for professional photographers
who wanted digital cameras. It was mortal to
many of the old camera firms…
87. Portrait and wedding photography used to be
synonymous with Hasselblad, Contax,
Bronica and Mamiya.
90. Digital SLR
cameras from
Canon and
Nikon were
cheaper,
lighter and
easier to use
than a medium
format camera
with a digital
back.
91. Most firms in the medium format
segment were now collapsing as
consequence of what Canon and
Nikon had launched.
92.
93. As the sensors, optics and
signal processing became
better and cheaper, Canon
now started to focus more
on a completely new
segment – the ’prosumers’.
94. Prosumers can
be regarded as
advanced
amateurs with a
great interest in
photography
that demand
more than a
point and shoot
camera.
95.
96. Canon has
been very
dominant in
this segment
which has
grown
rapidly over
the last
years.
97.
98. People who did
not even own a
camera in the
1990s had
become
advanced hobby
photographers.
99.
100. Photography
has been
popularized in
a way that no
one could
have
imagined.
101.
102.
103. SLR Cameras grew at a stunning
rate of 150 percent in 2004,
mainly since those targeted
people who did not have a ’semi-
high-end’ camera before.
104.
105. By 2005, Canon had become
the market leader after six
years of record profits and a
fantastic growth.
106. Unlike all those companies
that collapsed in the shift to
digital imaging, Canon
mastered the shift and
emerged as the champion of
digital imaging.
108. 1. Canon entered early and
explored digital imaging. While
this did not generate any profits,
it was absolutely necessary in
order to follow the developments
and be able to enter later on.
109. 2. Timing – entering too early is
dangerous since you might bet on
the wrong horse. Canon invested
heavily after the landmark camera
from Casio. This turned out to be a
perfect timing.
110. 3. Canon recruited people from
electronic companies in order to
renew the competence base.
111. 4. The company separated much
of its digital development,
thereby giving it freedom and
preventing that the initiative
would be starved of resources.
112. 5. Canon kept searching for and
created new market segments.
Compact cameras were often sold to
people who had not owned a camera
before and later on the company
created the prosumer segment. The
marketing investments seem to have
been an important reason why
people chose Canon.