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CAMPAIGN LOGIC

It's like a scene from Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii "" a banquet hall-like house, complete with chandeliers, rich upholstery and a family all dressed in finery. Actually, it's the new television commercial for Kodak, the $13.5 billion global imaging products major.

A young man, camera in hand, is overseeing the preparations for a "do" "" his grandparents' fiftieth wedding anniversary. The 30-seconder proceeds to show him clicking spontaneously romantic moments between his grandparents.

The ad closes with the voice-over promoting Kodak's new celebration twin roll pack, priced cheaper than two rolls separately. The message: click more without worrying about the price.

The second ad in the series shows a young couple on a beach with their son. They're trying to re-create a photo opportunity they lost because they hadn't brought a camera on their last visit.

The man sprinkles bird feed all around a rock on the beach and even on his wife's hat as she poses on the rock. Seeing the bird fly towards them and perch on the hat, the man runs to click the moment but misses it just as the bird flies away.

The ad signs off with a promotional offer of three rolls free with a Kodak EC 300 camera. The message: get a camera because you can't recreate lost moments.

"The marketing task is to urge consumers to click more "" more un-posed, spontaneous moments," says Ravi Karamcheti, country business manager, digital film imaging systems, Kodak. Which explains the focus on standard cameras and affordable photography.

That makes this campaign different from Kodak's previous communication. Last year's ads emphasised picture quality. "The task this time was to shift consumer behaviour from taking just posed pictures at occasions, to capturing unposed moments," explains Zenobia Pithawalla, associate creative director at Kodak's creative agency Ogilvy & Mather.

So the current campaign for Kodak not only promotes affordable photography, it also breaks away from the occasion theme: Kodak's ads last year revolved around weddings. This time round, although an ad shows a celebration, it emphasises spontaneity.

Kodak is clearly becoming aggressive about marketing its standard cameras. Still, the thrust on standard cameras comes at a time when the digital camera market is in the limelight.

According to industry sources, digicam sales have been growing at 60 to 70 per cent since 2002. Add to this plunging prices and growing tech-savviness and it would appear that standard cameras are "" or will soon be "" under threat.

Karamcheti doesn't agree. "In India, the penetration of standard cameras themselves is low. So digital cameras haven't affected the market much."

Nationally, camera pentration is under 13 per cent; compare that with the 80 to 100 per cent penetration level in European households.

But then, high entry and usage costs aside, cameras in India are not generally seen as individual possessions, but are owned by the household as a whole. Also, Indians use cameras just three to four times a year, compared to the global average of 10 times.

"For Indians, clicking pictures is an occasion-led activity," agrees Karamcheti.

Perhaps that will now change. Apart from the cheap Chinese imports, even branded cameras are now carrying smaller tickets. At Kodak, for instance, while the average price of the camera range hasn't changed, the company re-introduced two models at entry-level prices in August 2003.

The Kodak KB10, which earlier cost Rs 995, was slashed to Rs 499, while the EC 100 was brought down to Rs 995 from Rs 795.

Camera film prices, too, have been falling over the past two years "" from around Rs 125 a roll to Rs 90. Add to this combination offers of films and cameras, or on multiple rolls of film "" and consumers have more reasons to point and shoot.

At least, that's what Kodak is hoping. In spite of the digicam revolution, 65 to 70 per cent of the company's camera sales still come from standard cameras, growing at 6 per cent a year. And that will continue, says Karamcheti.

"Standard and digital cameras are bought by completely different sets of buyers in India," he explains. According to him, digital cameras, thanks to the higher prices and need for necessary technological support such as data cables and computers, are bought only by the upper income urban consumerss. "Unlike globally, Kodak can't afford to ignore its standard camera business in India," says a vendor.

Hence the thrust on good old standard cameras. But is Kodak backing the wrong horse by upping the ante on standard cameras in the age of digital technology?