New Leica Homepage

[graeme_hutton]

Laugh out loud hilarious....Are we really all so self satisfied and smug I wonder...Please someone with the technical know-how do an overdub to the dialogue and post a link as this surely needs a reality check.

I can still see their grinning faces and pained emoting even when I shut my eyes.....AAAARRRGGGHH!

[ho_co]

Originally Posted by bill

As a 45 year old bloke I am not in the demographic that ad is aimed at.

Bill--
I'm older than you and dislike the 'new look' just as much.

Moderators or someone: How about a poll--
1) Do you like the new site?
2) What's your age?


As Bill suggested, even though I think the approach cruddy, it may be reaching people Leica wants to reach. That is, they may have decided that Bill and I are hooked and they no longer have to worry about our business.


--HC

[bill]

Originally Posted by ho_co

Bill--
I'm older than you and dislike the 'new look' just as much.

Moderators or someone: How about a poll--
1) Do you like the new site?
2) What's your age?


As Bill suggested, even though I think the approach cruddy, it may be reaching people Leica wants to reach. That is, they may have decided that Bill and I are hooked and they no longer have to worry about our business.


--HC

Howard, you have it in a nutshell.

Ansoff identifies four types of business.

1. Selling OLD things to OLD clients (easy but declining business)
2. Selling NEW things to OLD clients (still quite easy - milking your existing customer base)
3. Selling OLD things to NEW clients (harder, but requires no investment in the product)
4. Selling NEW things to NEW clients (hardest of the lot)

We are in demographic 2. Leica are pushing hard in 3. and 4., as they should. The balancing act is not to alienate the existing client base.

The gamble is that more new customers are attracted by the new homepage than old ones are turned off. Nobody is seriously going to stop buying Leica because of a homepage, eh?

Regards,

Bill

[devils-advocate]

I have just re-tested the M8 against the G9, and I am pleased to announce, when combined with a single-button Armani suit, Hermes shirt and Lanvin tie, the M8 produces IQ on par with the finest 35mm digital RF. Moreover, I felt strangely better about myself afterwards.

- N.

cue Right Said Fred: "I'm too sexy for my Lieca, too sexy for Leica, too sexy for my Liec,Liec, Leica's gonna leave me...."

[thomasw_]

So Bill....

Say it isn't so....

Are you telling me that I won't look as slick and sexy as the models in the Flash Ad? Even if I buy a M8 and wear my M8 and MPs altogether?

I may not be the sharpest tool in anyone's shed, but I think that's what you are getting at, no?

Ah damn, I am 42 going on 43 and it seems my hopes were misplaced!!

Being this despondent, I am off to use google-maps for the nearest bridge that I can jump off.

Ah Leica, my hopes and dreams were dashed by the Flash

[biglouis]

Originally Posted by stuny

I used to run a usability business and almost universally found that users wanted to get to the meat of the site as quickly as possible.

Absolutely. Since 1999 I've regularly followed Nielsen Netratings, and especially one statistic - duration that the average web page is viewed. In December 2007 you had on average 46 seconds to capture a visitor - and my recollection is that has not changed that much in the last 10 years.

Nielsen//NetRatings - A global leader in Internet media and market research

The web site is nice but I'm not buying. If someone is buying then either the graphics will grab them, or not.

LouisB

[Black Dot]

Originally Posted by ho_co

Bill--
I'm older than you and dislike the 'new look' just as much.

Moderators or someone: How about a poll--
1) Do you like the new site?
2) What's your age?


As Bill suggested, even though I think the approach cruddy, it may be reaching people Leica wants to reach. That is, they may have decided that Bill and I are hooked and they no longer have to worry about our business.

I think the people this appeals to have no interest in photography. They use cameraphones encrusted with jewels and carry around small dogs wherever they go.

[ho_co]

Originally Posted by Black Dot

I think the people this appeals to have no interest in photography.

Maybe they'll feel that the only way they can escape the circularity of the links is by buying a camera?

The ad emulates their world view?

"I'm not fulfilled, so I should change perspective? Or should I change episode? Or return to the start to see if this makes sense? Or buy a camera?

"Or at least turn off that insipid music!"

--HC

[john_f]

Howard,

This whole thing is insipid! And pretentious, and ridiculous. One of the worst use of Flash I have seen in a long time. Some consultant(s) must have made a lot of money with this.

I contacted Leica USA earlier today and told them that their new Flash web pages make no mention of the Leica M7 (as previously noted by Philip). Their answer was "no the M7 is not discontinued, just go to Leica Camera AG - Photography ... ". Their new web site is not only awful, it's also half-baked.

Ernst Leitz must be rolling in his grave ...

John F.

[michael_boylan]

Originally Posted by bill

1. Selling OLD things to OLD clients (easy but declining business)
2. Selling NEW things to OLD clients (still quite easy - milking your existing customer base)
3. Selling OLD things to NEW clients (harder, but requires no investment in the product)
4. Selling NEW things to NEW clients (hardest of the lot)

Bill,

I agree with what you are saying but that is still not an excuse for this dog's dinner of a web site. As an example I offer Apple - surely a corporation aimed at your groups 3 and 4 if ever there was one; new things to new clients, and creating new markets for good measure. (Perhaps that should be Group 5?).

I would further argue that Apple is even more likely to want to appeal to the emerging trendy twenty-somethings than Leica, yet apple.com is a paragon of clear tasteful web design. This, from a company with only twenty year's design heritage to draw on. Leica's reputation for design is greater, deeper and older. No, sorry, the you're-to-old-to-understand argument doesn't wash. It is just bad design.

with best regards

Michael

[chris_tribble]

I loathe the new Flash intro - couldn't agree more with others on this discussion. Practical step - does anyone know the email of the CEO - we should be bombarding him now - direct personal response from current customers who use the website for information + from people with serious expertise in web design could help them see the error of their ways!

[johnnyj]

I don't reply very often but the new Leica Website so insulted my intelligence that I had to respond. My company performs management consulting services amongst other things. We usually get called in when things get ugly. My advice to Leica management and Mr. Lee is:
1) Fire the ad-firm
2) Fire the Leica Advertising Manager
3) Clean out the advertising department of everyone that had anything to do with this Website project.
And I am not kidding!

Why?
1) They don't know the customer and they haven't taken the time to learn who the customer is and what the customer wants. (The ad agency is caught up in their own slickness. They are selling themselves, NOT Leica. The Leica manager responsible for this has got some serious reality problems.)
2) They are insulting the Leica customer base and its obvious. It comes across as "tongue-in-cheek" with far too much "cheek". What are they selling, Armani suits or sex? Cameras don't even enter into the thought process!
3) They are wasting the viewer's time and their pretentious attitude comes across. Don't forget where the bulk of long term purchases come from; professionals who are successful because they don't waste their time.
4) They have wasted Leica's money because this Website is going to have to be redone. No company can afford the negative criticism that this Website is generating!

The test is: What is the first emotion that Website generates? The answer in this case is, "What the hell is this?" The answer should be, "Hmmm, how do I learn more."

Leica's clients are professional business people who want to be associated with other professionals, not some company whose Website wastes their time, is pretentious, and is an insipidly stupid attempt to glorify the ad agency's artistic views.

Good God, get a grip on things Lee.

[leicapages]

Agree with the view that the new web layout, at least the intro, is not exactly my cup of tea. Actually it gets almost ludicrous when the R line is being represented by the... Digilux 3 !!! No talk about the R9. With all due respect to the Digilux 3, this is not something I would dare to position in lieu of a true R camera. I understand that they need to find a digital stopgap in the R line, given the demise of the DMR and waiting (hopefully) for a digital R10 body. But one can hardly pretend that putting R lenses on a Digilux 3 represents a viable digital R solution that would be representative of the R line. As a longtime R user I find this most regrettable.

[leicapages]

Also, do I understand it correctly that one has to order the M8 upgrade from March onwards, paying quite some €€€ upfront, while the upgrade will only be carried out as from August onwards? Does one get interest on the upfront payment? Am I missing something???

[Jack MacDonough]

Ah, Leica is a fashion statement! Just what I want to avoid. Next they will depict dentists in their offices with an M8. Thankfully the old site is still behind the flash and works well for me. By the way, the flash and story is technically very advanced, too bad the story is so lame.

[darkstar2004]

I don't drive a Mercedes or a BMW. I don't even drive a Lexus, a Saab or a Volvo.

I don't own a yacht or a mountain villa.

I don't wear a gold Vacheron Constantin or A. Lange chronograph.

Do you think Leica will send out its enforcers to [try to] confiscate my MP?!?!?!?

[NZDavid]

Check out other websites, for example German watch manufacturers -- many are just as glitzy, and quite clever. Trouble is, it's so darned s...l...o...w unless you live in a country blessed with a superspeed broadband connection. Wait to load...still loading...burst of music...wait again. But my main objection is lack of clarity. Yes, the M7 is still there but it's buried and ignored on the main rangefinder page. Other interesting links are also buried, such as upcoming events. In short, I don't think it's too bad and don't mind the intro -- except for the download speed which would put a lot of people off (have they done a test to see how long this takes?); it definitely does need a tidy-up.

[earleygallery]

Click on the M range and you see a headline "In the hands of the expert" but the accompanying image is of some guy holding the M8 skewiff and you know he's going to have a tilted horizon! Expert my arse!

Sorry, I really dislike this new look.

[Paul0303]

Also interesting what is not there. I can't find projectors or special edition M's, maybe they are in a sub-menu somewhere or Leica have moved on from them.