Business

Saturday May 5, 2012

Simon says iSnap maximises exposure to advertisers’ target market

By LIZ LEE
lizlee@thestar.com.my


Any savvy businessman would agree with Milan Kundera's quote: “Business has only two functions - marketing and innovation”, but more interesting in times like now is when both functions integrate to take retailer-consumer relationship to the next level.

Canon Marketing (M) Sdn Bhd imaging director Simon Wong says that The Star's new advertising feature iSnap is a necessary and far-sighted concept that would enhance the way companies advertise and how consumers process retail information.

“The trend is that more and more people are using smartphones and tablets and I think that iSnap is a timely innovation, connecting both print and new media to make advertisements come alive,” he says.

By scanning an advertisement, readers can be linked to other sources of information in a way which is beneficial to advertisers.

Wong accessing a video advertisement from a Canon ad in The Star using the iSnap feature.

He addet hat iSnap would be a tool for advertisers to maximise exposure to their target market through the various media platforms that consumers may choose to use.

“It bridges the gap between advertising and marketing platforms and maximises the use of these gadgets that have become so popular among consumers,” he tells StarBizWeek.

Wong says that iSnap advertisements add value to consumers in the sense that they now get to interact instantly with Canon through the Twitter and Facebook links.

Being able to access advertisements and other information on other media platforms via the print ad also means that Canon could synchronise all its advertising and promotion initiatives, allowing consumers to gather product information quickly and comprehensively.

“The better they understand the product, the easier it is for them to choose the product they want before they visit the retailers. This shortens the decision-making time.”

Through the connectivity between print and other forms of media, Wong says advertisers can also avoid text-heavy print adverstisements and provide details on digital media where space is not a constraint.

He says that Canon is not giving up traditional media.

“We still believe in newspaper advertising even though we are not forgetting the trends in new media,” he says, adding that “traditional media have worked very well for us and we are maintaining our budget for it”.

He says that although the budget for digital advertising has increased, it is still negligible at about 8% of its advertising and promotion budget.

While it would be premature to measure the effect of Canon's iSnap advertisements on sales and consumer sentiment, Wong says that there were visitors of Canon's showcase at Mid Valley last week who came to the exhibition after seeing the advertisements.

With the current advertisements Canon is running with the iSnap feature, the camera-maker is targeting to increase traffic on its Facebook page to get 300,000 likes' by year-end. In the second phase of its iSnap campaign, Wong says that Canon would look to further engaging customers through a consumer campaign.

“We would like to have some exciting campaign where we can get consumers' direct response to our advertisement of, for example, a new product,” he says.

By bridging all the platforms with consumers, Canon could also gauge an advertisement's appeal to which type of consumers.

Canon has 30% market share of the total camera products industry with an estimated growth in sales at 8% so far this year.

Its camera business is steady and it expects double-digit growth in the second half of this year, propelled by product launches based on current popular models.

Canon's secondary business is in printers where it has a 60% local market share.

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