Kiron Lenses

How to go from 0 to 4 in 12 months

Kino Precision Industries was a supplier to Vivitar.

They manufactured the Vivitar Series 1 lenses for 35mm SLR cameras. These Series 1 lenses were very good quality and highly regarded in the marketplace. Kino was a proud company, and like most Japanese manufacturers in the 70s and 80s, wanted to provide continuous employment to their people. But Vivitar was unpredictable: starting and stopping orders, changing specs, and even subcontracting other companies to make some Series 1 lenses Kino felt they could make better.

To send a message to Vivitar and to 'smooth out' their production flow, Kino created their own brand -- Kiron -- and hired some industry veterans to launch the brand in the U.S.

Kiron's Paul Ellis and Dick Wolf carefully selected suppliers -- from the company that did their packaging to their ad agency. They selected Chiat/Day, and I was chosen to run the account.

Because Kiron was a new name in a field of 64 camera lens marketers, we had to establish credibility quickly. We chose a communications approach that was both 'aspirational' and mentoring. By aspirational. I mean that the images we showed were the kind any creative photographer might aspire to take. The images were intended to stimulate creativity. And the copy was to be written to instruct without appearing to instruct, i.e., "as you know, larger f-stops result in a shallower depth of field."

All of the ad headlines started with "How to...". In 1980, Chiat /Day created five ads for Kiron. At that year's regional Belding Awards, four of those five ads won in their category -- literally an unprecedented sweep of a tough competition.

More important, the credibility of the Kiron management, combined with a great program of point-of-sale materials, outstanding packaging and an aggressive advertising schedule got Kiron on the shelves in camera stores all over the U.S., so when the ads started to 'pull through', the products were there to sell.

I should mention that the product itself was outstanding, and photo magazine reviews begain to come in, reinforcing the high quality image we were promoting.

Kiron became an example of a company that literally was doing everything right. And as a result, went from nowhere to 4th place in sales out of 64(!) independent lens brands in their first 12 months.

The moral of this case history is that if you understand the motivations of the consumer, you can position your brand as the means of achieving their desires. If the product lives up to that promise, you have a winner.