Friday, January 08, 2010: Canon India, which recently slipped to third position in the digital camera category, has announced its aggressive strategy for the year 2010. The company plans to invest Rs 55 crore in the marketing of the camera business. Canon is also announcing new campaigns such as ‘Canon on Wheels’ and ‘My IXUS, My Style’ to tap a wider audience and reposition the category this year.
“Camera industry is growing at the rate of 35 per cent per annum in India and Canon wants to replicate its success stories of the world in India too. Canon is rolling out aggressive marketing plans to touch Rs 450 crore revenue in camera division out of a total of Rs 1,100 crore in 2010,” said Kensaku Konishi, president and chief executive officer, Canon India.

“To continue the momentum further, we will provide our consumers, expanded portfolio of stylish and next generation digital imaging products. We are happy to launch the campaign ‘Capture Mumbai’ in the city of Mumbai to take our market share from 20 per cent currently to 30 per cent by June 2010,” added Konishi.

The ‘Capture Mumbai’ campaign begins in January 2010 with mall road shows at four prime venues within the city of Mumbai, where the company will showcase a wide range of cameras on display for the consumers to have a “hands on” experience. This will continue till June 2010. In Mumbai, Canon will roll out 100 road shows during the next six months.

Across eight cities, Canon plans to reach out 50 lakh customers through a mass contact programme. To further enhance Canon’s presence in exhibitions, plan is to participate in 35 exhibitions across 35 cities to reach out to another five lakh visitors.

‘Canon on Wheels’ – Canon Image Mobile Express – a concept to create a wider touch and feel for Canon products and to connect with not just its customers in the metro but also in Tier II and Tier III cities, said the company. Canon on Wheels will be caravan of four vans that moves in a city to set up ‘Canon Image Fest’ mini expo that provides touch and feel experience. This will travel to cover 50 cities across India and target over five lakh customers.

Canon India also announced the launch of its soon-to-be launched television commercial, “My Ixus My Style”. The new commercial, focussed on youngsters, will be aired from 10 February 2010. The company will also be creating IXUS corners with a total of 500 outlets, out of which 150 will be available in Mumbai from today.

With the organised retail boom in India, Canon has introduced the concept of Canon League retail stores and partners and will target 150 Canon league points by providing cameras for demo to create experience points in retail stores. The Canon League programme for channel partners is to connect, develop and build a strong distribution channel.

Additionally, Canon is creating photo culture by building an online photo community of Canon camera users in India. In 2010 Canon is looking at expanding its members to 200,000 from the current 80,000.

Canon Edge, a one-stop informative website for all Canon buyers, can register and get information, discuss or share interesting tips on photography. Canon has created a panel with 12 famous photographers and six expert trainers to apply their experiences and knowledge about the nitty-gritty of photography.

Canon’s camera and photo products business grew by 32 per cent in 2009, the company claims. The company reported an overall revenue of Rs 840 crore in 2009, registering a 27 per cent growth over 2008.

Tags: 2010, camera, Cannon, India, revenue