Why Casio TR100 is popular among Asian but American

Recently, there is an all new design camera attracted a little bit of my attention. It is  non traditional camera called Casio EX-TR100. It came out in early month of 2011 at a price about 350 dollars, but it turns out the US market react as not what the company expected, then it drops to 249.99, after a few month gone to 199.99 online. The design of the camera allows to take pictures of yourself at any angle. There are two model available, white and black. However, they are very popular among Chinese buyers, especially the white one.

The reason why TR100 is not so popular in US I guess are the culture and demographic differences. American consumer does not really understand this Japanese style products, it does not look professional nor tough. The quality of the camera isn't so good and does not even professional. The lens is really small just like a webcam. The shutter button is not at a regular place. In general, it looks and feels like a cheap toy.

                                   (photo: From Casio international Website)


During the Black Friday, Staple had this camera on sale at price $100. Before the sale start, I saw a lot of Chinese were sharing such ad at Chinese social network, it soon gets really popular and the price in China gets really high, up to $400. I bought four of them from local Staple store, and sold them online through Amazon market place for over 300 dollars. According to the buyers' name, they are all Chinese. (because the way they spell their name is exactly how Chinese spell the name in letters).

The reason why TR100 is SOOOOOO popular in China is influenced by Chinese online and offline culture. Girls like taking pretty pictures and post then online, and rumor spread out really fast online said the TR100 is the camera built for taking pictures for girls. So, many girls from rich family bought it without research too much details. After shooting with TR100 and post it online, it looks pretty. This stimulates other Chinese girl would want to have one. The other thing about the camera is the built in software could adjust the quality of the picture just like the function of photoshop. So, it helps them to cover the defects on their faces, which turned out looks pretty good. On a social aspect, once you got a TR100, you can show off to your friends and makes then jealous.

As a Conclusion, this is a very typical case of consumer behavior, very interesting to be shared with you. Same products could be very successful in one country and very such in another one. The company really needs a good marketing team to do all the research before entry to the market.

Here is a video from youtube, it shows you how this camera works.

Hello!

Hi, my name is Peihan Hao, I am from China, studying marketing at Montana State University.