Canon's almighty

According to the data provided by Canon, in 2007, the Chinese digital camera market size was about 9 million units, and Canon achieved a share of over 25%, ranking first in the market. Correspondingly, in the 2008 "Top Ten Manager Brands" survey of "CEConline", Canon ranked first in the digital camera category in the three indicators of brand advocacy, share and preference. Canon predicts that the market size of digital cameras in 2008 will reach about 13 million units, and has set higher expectations for its own market performance.

In 2005, Canon beat its old rival Sony by a small margin in the IDC market penetration survey for the first time, and has not given up the first place since then. It can be seen that the veteran of the camera industry has found almighty power from the accumulation of history. Whether it is the steady and steady operation of the channel management, or the quietness of the brand culture, Canon's brand approach is well established.

All-round Champion

In the past year, Canon has performed well in both consumer-grade and professional-grade products. There are still strong competitors in certain fields, but there is no competitor that can fully compete with them. With the appeal of its big brand, Sony has won the hot sales of consumer cameras, but it is inevitably held back by its own optical disadvantage. Although it has entered the SLR field through its marriage with Konica Minolta, it only has α100. A standout. Nikon, Fuji, and Olympus have advantages in traditional optics, but they have shortcomings in the field of imaging chips, and their mechanical and electronic deficiencies also limit their body designs. This is clearly visible from the 2007 best-selling rankings of classified products.

A home camera designed for home users and photography enthusiasts, Canon is evenly matched with Sony, with four PowerShot A series occupying the top four of the top ten best-selling models. Sony also has 4 models on the list, but 3 models won the market with low prices.

The field of compact camera is Sony's most advantageous, with five of the top ten products sold by Sony, and its cheapest DSC-T10 and most expensive T50 compact camera have achieved good market performance. Canon's 4 products on the list are the most powerful IXUS 850 IS (with 28mm wide-angle and optical image stabilization), and the cheapest high-pixel camera in 2007, the IXUS 70 (it is also the only Canon camera that does not support optical image stabilization). Shake the list), the 12-megapixel IXUS 900 Ti (it's Canon's first 10-megapixel card camera with a titanium body), and the IXUS 950 IS.

In the field of SLR cameras, Sony no longer has the ability to compete with Canon, only the α100 is on the list. Canon won three seats by virtue of its brand appeal and lens resources in the SLR field. Nikon, which also has a long optical history, is strong in the SLR field, but weak in the consumer camera field, and rarely makes the list.

In the field of telephoto cameras, Canon has brought in the advantages of its IS optical image stabilization, as well as an ultrasonic zoom motor. The flagship model PowerShot G7 is close to the performance of the Fuji Fine Pix S6500fd. In addition to their performance in telephoto cameras, Fuji and Olympus have no products in the top ten in other fields.

Canon has successfully leveraged its long optical history to develop a complete product line. It has also continuously launched winning products in the field of SLRs, consolidating its dominant position in the digital camera field.

Flat channel

From the second half of 2004, Canon has obtained the direct import and sales rights of its products in the Chinese mainland market. Previously, Canon could only sell products in mainland China through a Chinese general agent with import rights. The way from the general agent to the dealer and then to the user has blocked the contact between Canon and the end user, which is one of the reasons why Sony, which took the lead in setting up sales counters in the store, won the first market share in 2003.

After obtaining domestic sales rights, Canon implemented a series of channel flattening measures. Under Canon (China)'s system, three regions of North China, East China and South China are set up to be responsible for sales in the corresponding regions, and through the National Dealer Conference, the strategy of flattening the sales channels of Canon's imaging products has been re-planned and deployed. In conjunction with this, Canon has established logistics supporting sales. Now, the company's logistics can achieve an average nationwide delivery within 48 hours to the destination.

Canon has established product exhibition halls in Beijing and Guangzhou, where consumers can experience product experience before purchasing; the quick repair center built in Beijing is the first Canon in Asia to repair some products within 60 minutes except for Japan. repair center. According to the introduction of Canon (China) Vice President and Senior General Manager of Imaging Information Consumer Products Division Yoshioka Tatsuo, Canon plans to establish a marketing, service, logistics and IT network covering more than 150 cities in China, which will further lay a solid foundation for Canon's presence in China. The basis for providing differentiated services in the market.

Canon hopes to provide consumers with places and opportunities for communication and trial through a series of activities such as the establishment of exhibition halls and touring exhibitions, to strengthen communication with users, and to get closer to consumers and market demand to the greatest extent through the flattening of channels.

Last year, Canon localized its product names for the Chinese market, and launched three series of products: Boxiu (ie, the home camera PowerShot), Ixus (ie, the compact camera IXUS) and Xuanfei (ie, the photo printer Selphy) Chinese brand name. Canon found that Japanese brand names penetrated consumers more easily than English names in the Japanese market. After research, Canon confirmed that the same phenomenon occurs in the Chinese market, and Chinese brand names are more easily recognized by consumers.

Moved by Symbiosis

Da Duanli, General Representative of Canon (China) North China Headquarters and General Manager of Beijing Branch, still remembers the situation when Canon Company proposed "Symbiosis" as its corporate philosophy in the early days. In the late 1980s, Da Duan was the first director of Canon's Beijing office. Canon was preparing to build a production company in Dalian. Da Duan accompanied the late President He Lai Long Saburo to meet with Dalian officials. During the meeting, President He Lai talked about Canon's symbiosis concept, saying that Canon should realize the localization of technology, localization of personnel, and localization of funds.

The idea of symbiosis has long been rooted in Da Duan's heart. At work, he pays great attention to helping employees deeply understand this concept. He said that the simplest embodiment is to "develop with dealers and grow with employees". Misunderstandings and frictions between departments can also be resolved by acting in the spirit of "symbiosis".

In Da Duan's view, the "movement is always present" advocated by Canon in Asia is the embodiment and localization of the concept of "symbiosis". In actual work, most of the practice is to go back to the original point, whether it is the rules and regulations or the process settings, go back to the basics, and understand what the purpose of the system and process is. If the situation changes, it is not conducive to achieving the originally set purpose. It is necessary to reflect on whether improvement is needed.

An example is the approval of returns. In the past, the internal review procedures were very complicated. No matter the size of the amount, the general manager had to sign before returning the goods, which was often delayed for a long time due to the general manager's business trip or the business trip of the intermediate approver. The slow processing of returns has severely impacted customer satisfaction. Da Duan said that the purpose of this system is to supervise and prevent unjustified practices, so it is necessary to formulate standards for judgment, what is qualified and what is unqualified, strictly follow the standards, and then set up a supervisor. After a large number of reports to the Chinese headquarters, the return approval of each regional headquarters has now been improved. The general manager does not need to approve the general approval, and the establishment of the supervisor in the intermediate link also takes into account the business trip of the party, and a person who acts on his behalf is set up. The process is greatly shortened, and the processing time is also greatly shortened.

The concept of symbiosis not only promotes the process and operation efficiency related to the brand within the company, but also further improves the direct communication and interaction between the company and customers, effectively strengthening the brand image. Taking symbiosis as the fundamental starting point for thinking about problems, Da Duan found a better solution. When touching customers becomes the starting point for every Canon person to think about problems, similar examples may occur in every corner of Canon China. Like a brand driver, "Symbiosis" brings employees and customers into Canon's brand experience. Humanistic design, convenient operation, reliable quality, and respect for buyers, Canon wants users to record the ubiquitous touch. The ubiquitous "movement is always there" has also become the difference between Canon and other imaging product brands.

Sports Environmental

Canon is probably the most enthusiastic imaging manufacturer to sponsor sporting events. In 1997, when Canon China was just established, it became a sponsor of the Chinese Super League. Yoshioka said that Canon chose football because it hoped to experience "challenges and passions" with the Chinese public. This is also consistent with "moving is always there", using video products to record happiness and moving for everyone.

Canon has sponsored many sports events such as China Open, China Baseball League and Beijing Marathon. Canon hopes to solidify every wonderful moment in sports events through its professional video products, reproduce the glory of Chinese sports with video, and move the society with video sports.

When Canon and "Moving Always" appeared in the boiling scene, Canon's support for Chinese sports, together with Canon's brand image, was imprinted in the hearts of the audience at the scene and in front of the TV.

Another important aspect of Canon's operations is environmental protection. As an important aspect of the concept of "symbiosis", Canon adheres to the concept of "green environmental protection" from product development, raw material procurement, to manufacturing, transportation and sales. Last year, Canon organized "Green Park Pioneer" employee volunteers to carry out large-scale park cleaning activities in Beijing, Nanjing and Tianjin. Canon also held a series of environmental protection-themed image collections, which moved and motivated the whole society to pay attention to and participate in environmental protection. These events have injected a "green" element into the Canon brand.

2008, moving and wonderful with Canon.