Dear Hasselblad: I Like That You’re Widening Your Audience, But Hate How You’re Doing It

Dear Hasselblad: I Like That You’re Widening Your Audience, But Hate How You’re Doing It

The photography industry is so drastically different today than it was just ten years ago that if you’re going to survive, you absolutely have to be dynamic and ready to adapt to the things quickly. You have to find your niche and go for it full force or risk failure. Hasselblad is doing this with their form-over-function Lunar and Stellar. Yet I’m left thinking… Hasselblad, I’m not certain you thought this latest set of moves through. I’m not certain you know what’s happening to your brand. I’m not certain this is where you need to be.

I think I can put myself in Hasselblad’s shoes pretty easily. Based on the moves they have made in the last year, I feel like I have a decent hold on what happened to get them to this point. Here is my guess: 

  • Due to the economic downturn, consumers started spending less money, especially on high-priced “luxury” items.
  • Hasselblad saw a decrease in sales. Decrease enough, and for long enough, that they got worried. They reorganized their US distribution and partnered with Broncolor to try and stem the tide.
  • Knowing this won’t be enough, Hasselblad decides to expand their market. But the only way to go was something far cheaper. Wanting to save their “high quality” brand status, they needed to keep prices higher, but not out of reach.
  • Hasselblad partnered with Sony to save money on researching and developing their own cameras from scratch. To save even more money, their partnership only allowed them access to cameras that had been on the market for a certain amount of time.

 
So here we stand now, with Hasselblad’s access to older, but still petty good, Sony cameras. Put a little lipstick on them, and voila! Cheaper, smaller Hasselblad. Simple, effective and guaranteed to earn them lots of money.

Except I’m not convinced that any of that is true.

If Hasselblad had slightly more foresight and invested in their own R&D early on and produced 100% Hasselblad original compact cameras, I’m pretty sure we would all be singing a different tune today. But they didn’t. In fact, it’s painfully obvious how not original their cameras are. The image quality produced from a Hasselblad Stellar is absolutely no different than the original Sony RX100. By the time the Lunar hit the market, Sony already had a better version of the NEX-7 on the market. Not only are you paying more, but you’re paying more for technology that’s already on its way out. You’re paying 100% for name recognition in a market where specs and performance are king.

Let me compare the decision to a different industry. What if we took a cheap but well-performing car... Say, a Toyota Corolla. Let's say this car retails for $18,000 or so, which is pretty low these days. Here it is:

toyota corolla regular

It's a fine car, has its particular audience and performs pretty great. Now, lets say Lamborghini partnered with Toyota in an attempt to broaden their audience and sell to more folks. They took a Corolla design, but jazzed it up a bit. Added some wood accents, and tossed the Lamborghini logo on it. The end result is the Lamborolla, a clever mix of high-selling and luxury, all for the low-low price of $60,000:

lamborolla

Except it's not clever. It's stupid, it's ugly and it causes irreparable damage to the Lamborghini brand. What is the difference between this farce and the Hasselblad Lunar and Stellar? There is none. It's exactly the same situation (except Lamborghini is too smart to make such a terrible decision).

The way Hasselblad is talking about their new cameras scares me. They are daring to tell me that the Stellar is unlike any camera on the market when it is quite obviously not. They aren’t even trying to hide the fact that it is just a re-skinned camera, but simultaneously trying to convince me that it is special and truly original.

And I don’t think there is a soul out there that is buying their lie (literally and figuratively speaking).

My main point is that I’m concerned for the welfare of Hasselblad in the future. Their current strategy is highly indicative of a bold move to prevent their own collapse, yet the decision to go with just decorating existing cameras is damaging the one thing Hasselblad relied on to make money: their reputation. They are dramatically cheapening a reputation that can’t afford to be cheapened.

Even though these cameras have no direct link to a standard Hasselblad H5D, the feeling of discontent with the cheaper cameras will spread to the overall feeling of the brand, eventually cheapening arguably the best medium format camera on the market. That’s a side effect Hasselblad simply cannot afford to let happen, and yet they created the environment where this snowballing cause and effect situation cannot be avoided… unless they right their ship- and soon.

Hasselblad, I really like that you’re trying to widen your audience. It’s the smart thing to do when the walls are closing in on you. However, the way you have decided to go about gaining more customers will not only fail, but will drag the only thing that you have down with you: brand value. You need to stop your present course, reassess what Hasselblad really stands for, and bring us more affordable cameras that match that. Right now, your brand is highly conflicted and confusing to consumers. This is the absolute worst place for any brand to be, and you need to address the situation immediately if you plan to survive past the next five years.

[Hilarious Corolla Photoshop by Noam Galai, Originally Published on JaronSchneider.com]

Jaron Schneider's picture

Jaron Schneider is an Fstoppers Contributor and an internationally published writer and cinematographer from San Francisco, California. His clients include Maurice Lacroix, HD Supply, SmugMug, the USAF Thunderbirds and a host of industry professionals.

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79 Comments
Previous comments

My sense is you are not worried about Hasselblad's rep as much as their marketing hype might rub off on somebody that buys one of these beasts. First: Think of Hasselblad's true target market - not sure about you, but it’s WAY above my pay grade. Second: Hasselblad's bread and butter ain’t these cameras anyway - nobody using a real Hasselblad is going to buy one of these. If they did they’re truly stupid and get what they deserve. It’s for people that have way, way too much money who couldn’t care less about any of the points you make. None of their friends care, either. It’s all about image (not photographic). Third: You don’t have a clue about marketing today - it’s all leveraging a well grounded, excellent brand name and spreading it around as much as they can. And what do they care is they only sell 10 of these POS’s a year, they were never serious about this market anyway. All they are trying to do is leverage their brand name to make a few bucks off the very rich and famous. And for that the very rich and famous are still getting a good camera, it’s just not the latest and greatest, and likely they don’t give a rat’s a** about that anyway. Just saying.

They care enough about this market to have opened a design center in italy.

http://photorumors.com/2012/10/10/hasselblad-opens-new-design-centre-in-...

In my opinion the problem with these cameras is that they offer nothing except esthetics above the already obsolete cameras they are inside. If you buy them only for image, what if your gardener comes showing you the camera he bought for a sixth of the price?. "my nephew told me it's exactly the same camera you have, without the wood"

Panasonic rebranded leicas at least have different menus and image rendering compared to the originals. What about forgerys of these cameras or body kits for them. It would be very easy for many chinese manufacturers to offer those, and there will be no performance penalty for using the fake ones.

Got the design center info - Thanks. I’m still not impressed. They showed 2, maybe 3 “designers”. Think of it this way:

We tend to think of things from our finite perspectives. I’m suggesting they put a product out there and really don't care what the average consumer thinks or wants to buy. Sure you’ll have some low economic scale people splash and buy one, but again that fits my argument.

This product has nothing to do with the real “Hasselblad”. It will absolutely no impact on their primary market. The real “Hasselblad” is a niche market so narrow that a fart can’t squeak through. There is absolutely no crossover between real “Hasselblad”and this thing. Corporate Hasselblad set up a division with a marketing director and a press agent, as noted, a shell design center.

This effort is nothing more than an effort to use the Hasselblad name to turn a few quick bucks. Quit thinking like a consumer and put your corporate robber baron hat on. You’ll release you mean nothing to these people. FWIW

In the short run they might make a few quick bucks. But in the long run, unless they invest a lot more and bring some technology of their own, there's nothing to sustain this endeavor.

I understand there's a market for simple to use luxury cameras, as Leica does. But what Hasselblad is doing is very risky. To be successfull with this (and I mean just not losing money and prestige) they need to create an extreme luxury image with a product that's very easy to criticise. So as you say they need to find people so far from us common folks they will never find out they're being fooled. (and yes, they are being fooled).

About the "real" hasselblad, there's not much left of it. They're not producing the iconic 500 series anymore, and they've made their H series so "exclusive" by closing it to third party digital backs and choosing a smaller sensor that professionals, (which are the natural customers for them) are excluding themselves from Hasselblad and going with PhaseOne, who's making a much better product today.

In the end, we agree, but I think this is all going to be a disaster for them and you don't. I'd hate to see the hasselblad name go down, but if this is successful there's not going to be much to be proud of anyway.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not sure how this will turn out for the core Hasselblad product line. I just described the difference between consumer logic and corporate robber barons. It doesn't have to make sense as long as they turn a buck. If it is a desperate as you say, then this POS camera trick is a death rattle - sell the family jewels before the repo man come to take what's left. I just see a lot of cross marketing today that's like the old Hollywood movie sets - nice front but nothing behind it. All the major names, marques, icons, etc. are being used as shell marketing stents. Think of as one time great names and products stood for something and were established an an ideal in people's thinking - like Hasselblad. We as consumers immediately recognized them as greatness. Now, it wouldn't surprise me to see Hasselblad's name on a line of toasters in K-Mart

Guys, I don't agree with car analogy and I also don't agree that this camera is so stupid idea.
But please bear with me.
There are a lot of products on the market, that have a little bit different audience than you would imagine. You are all looking from your own perspective, but you are not looking from the perspective of a very rich person who doesn't care so much about performance, but about style and unique product.

This camera is for some sheikh, probably for his wife or child or for some collector. It looks like a piece of art and you should look at this from that perspective. You can't look at everything from the perspective of performance and from perspective of best buy.

If you go to car analogy, many cars you can buy just with your heart and not with your mind.

And no, I wouldn't buy this camera, but then, I'm not a target market for it as I suppose is maybe less then 1% of fstoppers readers who could be interested in this camera.

And no, it will not water down the main product. The same thing is with Aston Martin's Cygnet. You couldn't buy it if it is your first Aston. Hasselblad ticket is price ;)

Furthermore your analogy is not good if you think that people who buy Hasselblad camera's wouldn't buy another camera if there is a "cheaper" Hasselblad. Especially as MF cameras are really rare and special market for professionals.

So, you are saying that one of the worlds best camera makers is not making camera's any more but pieces of art and that their ability to make pictures is irrelevant. Sweet!

I hope canon/nikon does the same thing ;)

Read my post again and then reply. I said that they made camera for different audience then usual. They made a camera for collectors, that are not necessarily a photographers.

I am still sad that they are no longer making medium format film cameras. I always dreamed of owning one, and now I never will. I would never choose to go the low road to own a Hasselblad, either. Lipstick on a pig is still a pig.

Why will you never own a film Hass? They're on the used market all the time. Do you have some sort of aversion to buying used gear? If so, you should get over that. My mint Nikon F5, and Wista 4x5 rail camera are a joy to use and I did not buy them new.

What kind of photographer are you if your biggest problem in life and something you are wasting your entire evening on is marketing decisions of some company which products you can't afford anyway? Did you ever think about your photos as much as you think about what Hasselblad is doing with their money?

It's simple. Hasselblad is one of those classic European companies that are simply too conservative for their own good. The whole company beats to that drum, anyone in any position of power over there is there because of past successes in doing their own thing. This is the best they can think of, and the "furthest" they are willing to go out. I don't give them much left, and you know what? That's life. Someone else will fill those high end shoes. I'm not saying it's not sad, but unfortunately, it happens. All the time.

Hear hear!! Toke the words right out of my key-board…

It sounds to me Hasselblad didn't pay their advertising dues to F-Stoppers, the most biased BS website ever.

Try holding a Lunar in your hands and you will instantly want one.

Hi Jaron.

First of all, I think your in may ways right. It is not the way I wanted to se Hasselblad go, even though I am a Hasselblad owner and have been for over a decade. I have been sticking with the H2 for ages because it is a strong camera and works well with my Phaseone IQ140 digital back.

Now, back to the article, a little research would have shown you that this is not the first time. When the H1 came out, it could also be found under a different name, Fujinon GX645.

The only problem was that the Fujinon could not be purchased on other then the asian marked, or so i was told, at least I could not purchase at the time here in Danmark, just to save a fiew bucks.
Her it is: http://www.nationalphoto.co.jp/2F/camera_fuji_gx645.htm
another link: http://www3.xitek.com/bingqiku/hasselblad/body/h1.htm

So for me, there is nothing new under the sun. What´s important is to have all the information and then make up your own mind what you want to buy.

If you prefer it in automobile terms, If you want a Audi, just by a Skoda, its made by the same company :)

Aston Martin did this with the Toyota Aygo in an attempt to meet EU regs. The Aston Martin Cygnet. It's amazing... ly stupid.

As a teacher in Branding told us one day:
If I was a guy that spent a ton of money in a product (in this case would be a H5D for example), I would be horrified to see that some dude has a camera that has the same logo as mine, that is way cheaper and WAY crappier. Like many people say, more than quality and etc. etc. (and don't get me wrong here, those are vital) what is in danger here, is Hasselblad's Name, MAN, THAT LOGO! COME ON! most of us would faint if someone told us that they'd let us use their H for a day. but knowing that they've got this little "brother" in the line, would really deteriorate the name of the brand. And even though I can't afford one, I wouldn't fantasize like I do now with those Medium frame epic monsters out in the market form Hasselblad.

Ass Hell Bad.

Jaron, I concour with most of your assertions, except with the very first one. Luxury market is not dependent on "consumers", so there's no real downturn with the economic collapse. If any, these market are impervious to economics, and that would explain Hassy's move. I see it like the high-end watch market. You have the machine, with dozens of complications, and moon phase, and calendars, and whatever. A million dollar piece. Then, you have the jewelry gold and diamonds watch, with simple movement, that tells you the time and day. Do you see different market for each? One is for the lover and collector of great machines, the other is for the status seeking, money showing. Now, one would think with Hasselblad's reputation, it would go for strategy number one, since they have the name, technology and brand value, but... Market is bigger on the other side, as small as it is globally.
And another thing, and I don't have numbers to support this, so take it as is, but with the growing number of photography professionals, wouldn't the market be bigger for the MF brands? Ten years ago the market was smaller, but had many more brands still active. Include profit margins, and overheads in R&D it could explain why they still struggle, but still, food for thought...

And another thing, why didn't they kept their relation with fuji? Those are some great cameras...

Does Hasselblad really want digital imagers as customers anyway? They are never happy or satisfied. It doesn't matter what new product comes out because all they will do is bitch and complain anyway. In the film era, a customer bought one camera and then was never heard from again (maybe because he was too busy making pictures). But in the digital era, the impossible-to-please customer buys a soon-to-be-obsolete camera (or sometimes already obsolete) and then proceeds to spend the rest of his time bitching about it on the internet. Eventually, a new version of the camera is released that fixes all of the things he was griping about... But is he satisfied? Of course not! The new release will only gives him an opportunity to create a whole new set of "issues" and the whole cycle of bitching starts over again.

"digital imagers - They are never happy or satisfied." Sounds like FS- audience LOL

they are struggling in the high end and so trying to make up profits in lesser/more affordable markets

Valid article but a couple of points I disagree with:

1) Sales of luxury goods go down with economic recession - untrue

2) Selling genuine Hasselblad technology at a cheaper price will make them more money - untrue.

I never understood why a camera cost so much, this generation of kids
are going to destroy this "not really necessary" market. Lets face it,
most photos are taken on camera phones and people are perfectly fine and
pleased no matter how bad the photos are. We'll have to wait until this
"incharged" generation dies off before this reality sinks in.

I am a great fan of Hasselblad medium format products, both analogue and digital... But for me this is the "Beats by Dre" of the camera industry.

Almost makes me feel bad for going with Phase 1. I just thought it was better and as a bonus, costs less.

What really pisses me off and makes me furiously angry is the way that Hasselblad are spinning off away from their core product to milk the name dry. Their core product should be their H range. Here they have brought out a new camera the H5 which is nothing more than an H4 with a paint job, there is no improvement in iso rating or function.imagine having to shoot all your work below 200iso. They have closed uk servicing and discontinued support for H3 mk1 cameras. They have never fully addressed reliability and tethering issues for any cameras ever and never finished their software, they promised compatibility with Nikon and canon files but this has never been completed. This is possibly the most expensive camera range a photographer can buy into with the potential of being the best quality and surely that should be enough.The H series produces images far superior to the d800 but is still unable to perform as well. They would have made more sense rebadging a d800!
This is like Aston Martin producing a badged range of mopeds made by Hyundai!
I've spent a huge amount of money with them over the years, been loyal and spoken well of them but this is enough!

How many commenters are actually Hasselblad ownrers, don't lie. Marketing is always an exercise of exploration.