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Fujifilm Overcomes Earthquake With a Winner

DH | August 16, 2011 | 0 Comments

What happened to Japan-based Fujifilm earlier this year was an unusual mix of opportunities to boost brand image interrupted by the unexpected task of managing a crisis of historic proportions. It clearly has been a challenge throughout for corporate communications at Fujifilm. And, the work by Fuji communications in managing the crisis was superb. The only blip was when the company attempted to tell the story through an overly commercial/promotional corporate video.

It all began on February 8. With much fanfare and anticipation from camera enthusiasts around the world, Fujifilm unveiled its new X100 digital camera, an appealing retro-design high-end digital camera for pros and semi-pro photographers. More importantly, the X100 positioned Fuji squarely in competition with Leica camera in quality yet for a lower price than a Leica. Demand for the X100 soared.

Fuji's much in demand new X100 digital camera.

Then, on March 11, a massive earthquake struck Japan, crippling all of Fujifilm’s production plants and much of the rest of the country. Despite demand for the X100, shipments slowed to a trickle.

Ray Hosoda, president of Fujifilm in North America, issued a sincere and transparent status report about the company’s challenges:

This has been a difficult time for the people and manufacturers in Japan, and we at Fujifilm continue to work through the challenges. Fortunately, no Fujifilm employees were injured, and our six major factories, plus a number of smaller factories sustained only minimal damage, causing short delays in production of some imaging and electronic imaging products. In particular, the factory responsible for production of the new Fujifilm FinePix X100 digital camera was temporarily shut down. Fujifilm will start supplying the overseas market at the end of April.

What I really respect is that Hosoda, in his statement, put the country, the people and the company in an order that is to be commended.

At the same time, a number of advance reviews of the X100 appeared, written by respected professional photographers who came to the general conclusion that Fuji’s new camera was as good or better than Leica’s X1 digital camera that costs $800 more and is packed with many more features. The Fuji X100 has even been put a par with Leica’s M9 camera that costs six times more and considered one of the best cameras on the market.

One leading reviewer of the Fuji X100 has been David Pogue of the New York Times.

Not surprisingly demand for the X100 continued to soar even though corporate communications people for the company were limited by availability of even enough cameras to lend to reviewers.

Just now, more than five months after the earthquake, availability of the Fuji X100 is starting to become normal … and, I might add, that it is selling out within hours everywhere it shows up.

Credibility of the story about Fujifilm’s work to overcome a crisis stumbled when the company produced a video. They gave it the title, “Calling the Phoenix.” You can view it below.

The video had all the elements of what could have been a powerful news feature on Fujifilm’s efforts to rebuild and resume production after the earthquake … a TV news piece that could have been picked up and used worldwide by mainstream media. But, the otherwise appealing news story was lost. The video was not news but rather an in-your-face commercial production that even contradicts Hosoda’s authentic corporate message.

The real distraction of this video, in my opinion, is the cheesy, overly dramatic use of music, sound effects and a pretentious-sounding narrator, mismatched to convey a credible message. Everything is there for a straight-ahead news style video treatment with interview soundbites that would have attracted far more viewers and underscoring Hosoda’s outstanding competitive positioning for his company … had the video not been so promotional, so commercial.

You see, we live in a world cluttered with mostly predictable and outdated commercial promotions, videos, messages and events that fewer and fewer people pay any attention, according to research. Times have changed, audience interests are very different. What appeals to audiences is news … legitimate, real, timely news. Unfortunately, Fujifilm’s story got lost in the commercial clutter “about” the company.

Here … judge for yourself about the video. But, just let me add that demand and sales of the Fuji X100 digital camera continue to skyrocket, video or no video.