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April 05, 2005
Image marketing
What's the point, dammit, of spending an arm and a leg and possibly several other expensive body parts on a video camera, if nobody realises when they see you using it, that, in addition to being the next Spielberg, you're also a trend-setting fashionista!
Recognising the increasing imperative of not just keeping up with, but comprehensively overtaking the Joneses of the modern world, Sony has come up with the DVD7, and for that matter an entire range of digital video and still cameras that make the owner look like a God.
A Sony spokesman told us firmly this morning that the word it uses for these products - "Lifestyle" - quote can be overused unquote, and "we want you to understand that these are great products that deliver great functionality, but are designed in a way that is fashionable."
But even in its press release, directed at journalists who generally lack the requisite number of coins to create retail friction, Sony is less than subtle about the real attraction of its newest DVD model - one of five being released down here in Australia, next month - proclaiming in its headline:
Stand out from the crowd this season with futuristic handycam. Sony's DVD7 camcorder breaks all the moulds with its one-of-a-kind styling.
It’s one-of-a-kind styling tends to make it look like something out of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but that’s just the opinion of a distinctly unfashionable computer columnist, who is no doubt resentful of the fact that he’s not likely to be able to raise the $1399 required to buy the thing. Not that he would buy it anyway. He’s far more interested in buying a Mini DV camera with Firewire, which the models that record to DVD don’t of course have.
Girls aren't likely to buy it, either, because they will have spent all their cash creating a desirable impression with the DCR-PC55/E range – which comes in colours Sony describes as – let’s see if we’ve got this right – “ Racy Red, Glam White Graphite Black and Sleek Silver”.
The god-like female can slip one of these things into her Prada handbag, what with it weighing only 360g and measuring just 99mmx45mmx72mm. In addition to having a 3” hybrid LCD screen, it comes with a handycam station to simplify connectivity (USB, iLink and AV), and serves as a handy stand for the camera’s Slide Show Plus software to view the VGA still images they might have captured on the Memory Stick card.
It looks ever so much like an electric razor, which may or may not be why, according to the Sony chicks who displayed it to us, every female they’ve shown it to wants to buy one, immediately, at any price ... well, at $1499 at any rate, which is what Sony intends to charge for it. We’re not sure if it complements the prevailing Boho fashion rage or not. Possibly one could drape some beads over it.
Posted by cw at April 5, 2005 02:58 PM