Inside Story

"Interest in the GXR spurred by the website or other information, customers sometimes ask questions at a store. We wanted to create GXR fans among store personnel so that they would be better able to answer questions from such customers," said Katsumi Sakurai, a member of the Sales Strategy Group in the Personal MultiMedia Products Company ICS Sales Office.

"The structure and mechanisms of the GXR are fundamentally different from past digital cameras. So we explained the GXR concept to store personnel, and at the same time we put the actual product into their hands and had them take pictures with it. One common reaction when we explained the concept was, 'This is really interesting!' Their genuine interest can be seen in the fact that immediately after the start of sales the GXR was featured in the 'popular new products' section of many store websites. Both camera and non-camera units will be introduced in the future so we want to continue our efforts to turn store personnel into fans who will look forward to the future development of the GXR," said Sakurai.

Since the GXR pioneers a totally new concept for a camera, Ricoh also worked hard to develop the GXR sales environment in stores. This included moving quickly to respond to requests from the people doing the actual sales. For example, when we heard that customers were having a hard time figuring out how to change the camera units, an easy-to-understand explanation board was produced and displayed in a conspicuous position in GXR sales corners to help people understand the operation method.