SYDNEY, 21 December, 2010: Amid increasing vendor claims to market leadership, Canon Australia has today spoken out on the growing confusion in the reporting and interpretation of market data in the Australian market as a result of poor reporting standards and lack of industry regulation.

“On any given day, consumers and retailers are presented with contradictory and misleading claims to leadership in the digital camera market,” says Darren Ryan, General Manager Consumer Product Marketing, Canon Australia. “Most recently we have seen GfK reporting categories spliced and diced to create composites that make no sense in terms of how a reasonable person views the camera market and reporting periods as short as one month.”

Canon contends that it is incumbent on dominant market data providers such as GfK to ensure standardised reporting by enacting and enforcing clear reporting guidelines. These include clearer category definition to prevent the use of specific camera feature sets to blur category boundaries. Also to be addressed is the minimum reporting period for any leadership claims.

Clearing the air

“Canon is the ‘total’ retail camera market leader with a 30% share by value for the most recent 12 months*1, which in simple terms means that almost one in every three dollars spent on a camera in Australia during that period was spent on a Canon,” continued Ryan. “To be clear, Canon has the overwhelming leadership position in the total camera market.”

Canon believes in healthy competition and that vendors should be entitled to lay claim to genuine and sustained category leadership.

“Competition is great for the industry and the consumer, but clearer identification of market results is important for all stakeholders,” said Ryan.

*1 Source: GfK Retail and Technology Australia, Digital Still Cameras, Retail Sales Value Nov 2009 to Oct 2010 (excludes MMC, internet and online channels)