Being founded as Precision Optical Industry Company Ltd in 1937 in Japan, it has come a long way to emerge as a prominent player in imaging technology and solutions industry. The world’s leading manufacturer of office multifunction devices (MFD), Cameras, Laser/inkjet printers, Copying machines and lithographic equipment generated 79% of its sales from outside Japan in the year 2016. It primarily deals in 3 product categories Office business units, Imaging systems and industry & other businesses.
Segmentation, targeting, positioning in the Marketing strategy of Canon-
Segmentation helps in profiling/grouping the various characteristics of the population. Canon uses a mix of demographic, geographic and psychographic segmentation strategy for a different set of its businesses. It segments based on factors such as income & occupation, social class etc. It uses need based analysis to target their customer basically corporate and individual customers.
Differentiated targeting strategy is used by the company in order to the serve different segment of customers accordingly.
Canon uses value based and user benefit positioning strategies based on the products offered to the customers and customer groups.
SWOT analysis
Mission- “NOT AVAILABLE”
Vision- “The World more Vibrant”
Tagline-“Delighting You Always”
Competitive advantage in the Marketing strategy of Canon
Manufacturing Centres: Strategically located manufacturing sites considering factors such as costs, taxes, logistics, procurement and labor in each country and region helped the company in being competitive. Focus on different customer needs, globalized innovative, adaptive & advanced technology is helping Canon in enriching the lives of its customers.
Mergers & Acquisitions: Strategic alliances and buyouts such as Axis communication, Milestone Systems, Tereck Office Solutions, Inc etc. had helped the company to leverage out the functional advantages of these companies.
Go Global Act Local Strategy: Canon has been continuously striving for strengthening its home products through its integrated technologies and automation for achieving cost to sales ratio of 45% in the FY2017-18.
BCG Matrix in the Marketing strategy of Canon-
In BCG matrix its consumer solution product Digital cameras SLR/DSLR are stars.
Printers, scanners, and binoculars are stars since companies like HP, Samsung is playing aggressively to capture the market and are priced competitively as compared to canon.
Business solution segment offers black and white and color office printers, multifunctional printers, large format printers, scanners, black & white and color production printers, as well as software to support these products, are a question mark.
Fax machines and binoculars are dogs in BCG matrix.
Distribution strategy in the Marketing strategy of Canon-
Canon’s next-generation logistics system enables it to maintain prompt, safe and low-cost logistics globally. Canon uses mix channels strategy to make its products available in the market. Distribution partners, e-commerce sites & brand outlets are the channels of distribution used by the company.
Canon is distributing its products and services through various subsidiaries Canon Marketing Japan Inc., Canon U.S.A., Inc, Canon Canada Inc, Canon UK, Canon Singapore Inc etc.
Brand equity in the Marketing strategy of Canon –
Canon had always been regarded as a brand of excellence for photographic equipment. Canon had the reputation of being a safe and sensible brand. Canon has been working hard to shift from a product focus to a more consumer-centric marketing model by inspiring creativity based on deep understanding of consumers and their needs.
Competitive analysis in the Marketing strategy of Canon –
With the advent of technology and the flourishing Smartphone market, the competitive scenario is changing for Canon due to the fact that the digital imaging market is not only crowded by the peer’s companies like Kotak or Nikon it is also becoming the target segment for the companies like Panasonic, Samsung etc.
Canon has entered into licensing agreements with various MNC’s such as HP Inc., Ricoh Company Ltd. Xerox Corporation and many other companies for leveraging its technical know-how and co-creating competitive products and services.
Market analysis in the Marketing strategy of Canon-
The digital camera market is a highly mature market and is highly saturated with slow growth. The imaging & optical product market is capital intensive with automated machinery resulting in high exit barriers while at the same time it is overcrowded by other companies in the Meta market.
Customer analysis in the Marketing strategy of Canon-
Customers group consists of Individuals, Corporate customers & professionals who some or in other way are associated with technologically advanced Canon products.
