Target Markets Of Canon and Nikon

Since our eyes are unable to take pictures, cameras come in handy when capturing moments that are gone forever otherwise. In this case, Canon and Nikon are often the first brands that come to mind when thinking about getting a new camera. Initially, Canon positioned itself as a high-end and expensive brand while Nikon kept itself affordable for people. Both of these Japanese corporations managed to reach revenues equal to 708 billion JPY for Nikon and 3.4 trillion for Canon. However, are the accurately chosen target markets and different marketing campaigns the only vital factors that are responsible for their tremendous success?

To find out, let’s have a look at marketing strategies and campaign examples of Canon.

In October 2019, the company came up with a new advertising campaign called “Do Great With Canon.” The brand wanted to grant its customers the opportunity to capture memorable moments in the festive season that would last a lifetime. They aimed to inspire people and make their dreams a reality with evocative images that tell a story. Canon displayed its EOS DSLRs through this campaign and focused on bringing out people’s passion for photography.

The focal point in the commercial is how ordinary things turn into greatness with the help of Canon cameras. In the video, a young man catches simple moments and transforms them into beautiful photos. He captures faces, the sidewalk that he interprets as the new canvas, colors, and simple things from his daily life that all tell a story through images.

This way Canon communicates the idea of limitless vision, imagination, and mind. The brand was successful in persuading people that it can spur the path to greatness with the help of a Canon camera.

Now it’s time to analyze Canon’s communication strategy.

In the United States, Canon’s slogan is “See Impossible,” while in Asia, it is “Delighting You Always.” Both of these taglines communicate how the company prioritizes customer satisfaction. In the U.S., Canon strives to inspire people to see the impossible with Canon. In the case of Asia’s slogan, Canon shows its constant need to please its customers by providing avant-garde technological innovations.

The “Delighting You Always” tagline became very popular over time and has been adopted for more than ten years. Additionally, on the tenth anniversary of the slogan, Canon released a new music video that features employees singing a cheesy song.

Now it’s time to identify the Canon’s target market.

To do so let’s have a look the commercial.

The commercial features a group of friends going on a trip together. These young photographers always take Canon EOS 3000D to every trip they go to.

In the video, we see them playing volleyball on the beach, dancing, jumping into the lake, playing with birds, and just having fun while capturing valuable moments with Canon. There is music playing in the background with lyrics about how people collect memories and make every trip an EOS trip.

Based on the events in the commercial, the behavior of energetic friends, and how optimistic and open they are to the world leads me to the conclusion that Canon has chosen Chardonnays as their target audience.

So, who are Chardonnays?

The target market of Canon.

Lifestyle and Values of the segment

Chardonnays are very outgoing and positive people.

These people enjoy spending time with their friends and constantly being out and about. Chardonnays are always open to new challenges, but sometimes their naive optimism leads to dissonance in what they say and do. As a matter of fact, they are extremely sociable and have a large and diverse group of friends.

Chardonnays pay a lot of attention to their looks and like to keep up with trends. They spend hours getting ready yet want to make it look like they did it in just a few minutes. It’s essential for these people to always be attractive, especially to the opposite sex. Chardonnays are spiritual people that like to learn about other cultures. They enjoy learning so that they can be someone that their friends look up to. Chardonnays also love being different and standing out from the crowd.

Attitude to Shopping

Shopping is like a lifestyle to Chardonnays. They try to buy what they want and will save up to buy to get their desired item. For Chardonnays, it’s quality over quantity. This is reflected in their sense of style and other purchases they make. Additionally, they dislike tacky and large logos.

Chardonnays pay attention to advertising and enjoy advertisements that are entertaining, engaging, and interesting. Value is essential for them since they can’t stand ads with just good looking people features in it. Like their taste in friends and style, they enjoy advertisements that stand out and communicate a relevant message.

Some interesting facts about Chardonnays

• They enjoy city life that is full of excitement and new impulses.
• Chardonnays are mainly employed people with medium to high salaries. They want to get to the top of their careers but are not ready to make some sacrifices.
• They often go to the gym to stay in shape and be attractive.
• Chardonnays are not environmentally conscious and are not interested in societal issues.
• Although they are extremely emotional, they are also very loyal and ready for commitments in any relationship.

16 Personalities (Which one is for your business?)

Canon helps customers capture their joyful memories. Superior functional characteristics of Canon cameras are out of the question. However, functional superiority is only a fraction of their success. Canon has succeeded in building a high-quality product and promoting it for a concrete segment of people. This target segment is called the Chardonnays.

Chardonnays are positive, energetic, and optimistic people, who love trying new things, pay a lot of attention to their looks and have an outgoing lifestyle. They are stylish, seek adventures, and consider themselves spiritual. 

Canon and has found a perfect segment, representatives of which will value their products and maximize profits. Chardonnays is only one of many, as the range of buyer personas is much wider. Want to get more on this?

With the book “16 Personalities“, you will discover a new world full of opportunities and endless potential for your business to grow. The detailed descriptions of all buyer personas will give you solutions to your marketing problems and help put emphasis on features your segment loves.

Let’s now proceed with the company Nikon and have a look at a campaign example.

In April 2017, Nikon came up with an incredible idea to start an advertising campaign that would mess with their customers’ emotions. The whole New York City, particularly the Time Square and the N Subway Line, was covered with images taken with a Nikon camera.

The photos were shots of the city with writings about what people loved about N.Y. Every image featured a hashtag “#NikonLoveNY to encourage citizens to capture moments and write love letters for their beloved city. This way, the company promised quality that expressed the emotional connection between people and New York.

Printed images could be found in different stops that passed on the love we all need. People who took photos were able to express themselves and tell stories to connect everyone. As photography has become popular these recent years, Nikon aimed to show that there are moments that can’t be communicated through a phone camera. In a sense, many photographers enjoyed how they could show the world their passion for photography through this campaign.

One of the shots was taken in Brooklyn on a hot summer day where the spray of the water could be displayed and frozen through an image with a professional camera like Nikon 85mm f1.8 lens wide open with a shutter speed of 1/3200th of a second.

One of the photographs talked about this marketing campaign by expressing his belief in this fast-growing industry. Nikon grants a chance to photographers that crave much more than a simple selfie. In his opinion, the best is yet to come.

Moving on, it’s time to analyze Nikon’s communication strategy.

At the moment, the company’s tagline is “At the heart of the image.” Nikon challenged itself to make its products capture every little detail and nuance that a person seeks to show. Every person in the world sees the world and wants to present it in a whole new light. With this slogan, Nikon aims to inspire the human spirit to express different experiences and realize all the endeavors of the heart.

Additionally, the slogan conveys its three promises to the world: to be true to the heart, ignite the heart, and invent for the heart. The first one is about the quality of the shot, which will transfer the essence of the image. The second one is about inspiration through images that ignite the passion for self-expression. Finally, with its third promise, Nikon aims to uncover the untapped potential of images.

Finally, let’s explore and analyze the target markets of Nikon.

To do so, let’s discuss this Nikon commercial.

The commercial features an Asian man on an adventurous journey where he captures beautiful moments in every trip he takes. The video starts with him saying that he could reach the only because he dared to start. Throughout the video, this man explores different places through shots taken with Nikon. He finds beauty in places like the market, on the road, during the night near the fireplace. With Nikon, the end of his journey is where another begins.

The man featured in the commercial and his eagerness to find new impulses led me to only one conclusion. Here we are dealing with a segment called Conscious Progressives.

So, who are Conscious Progressives?

Lifestyle and Values

Conscious Progressives are generally very knowledgeable and outgoing people.

They love learning and are always open to new challenges. This information is used for making decisions. Conscious Progressives are curious people that are interested in other cultures and the outside world. They are practical, grounded, and honest people that always try to make conscious decisions.

This segment prioritizes appearance, but this is not reflected in the same way as for others. They have a casual yet sophisticated sense of style, yet they value inner attractiveness rather than what’s on the outside.

Hence, they consider themselves intellectually appealing with external attractiveness. Conscious Progressives also value honest friendships and try to be friends with people with different inspirations and knowledge.

Attitude to Shopping

They enjoy shopping yet try to keep it “intelligent.” The packaging is essential but has to be in balance with the functionality of the product. Sometimes they are emotional buyers just like the rest of the segments. Since people in this segment are conscious people, they value quality over quantity. Conscious Progressives like to be in fashion but try to hide it behind their casual style.

Most of them pay attention to advertisements when they are entertaining. However, they prefer ads that are intelligent and relevant.

Here are some interesting facts about Conscious Progressives.

• They are well-educated people who believe that knowledge is the key factor not only for success but for the right way to succeed.
• Conscious Progressives enjoy reading books, but besides that, love sports and traveling.
• They prefer activities that are not mainstream,
• This segment is rather modern who are interested in politics, debates, and social issues.
• Among the segments, they are the most environmentally conscious consumers who try to recycle and give preference to socially sensitive companies.

To conclude, I hope this post was informative enough for you to learn about the marketing and segmentation strategies and slogans of two very prominent camera brands. For more similar posts, click the homepage button.