[Leica] Leica donation to students

[bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)]

I, too, think it's a good idea, Ted, and it gets better with every drop
in price the used stuff takes. In other words, the lower the trade-in
value of a used M, the better a tax deduction for the used retail value
looks.



-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Ted Grant
Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2004 10:58 AM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: [Leica] Leica donation to students


B. D.,
I think Kit's concept of a camera donated for nothing more than a tax
receipt is wonderful.

I mean Leica get "free cameras" to refurbish and in most cases it
wouldn't be more than a quick check over, wiped down and ready to hand
out to some on the way kid showing potential talent.

The student is hooked and becomes a new life long Leica customer and all
for next to nothing than giving them a free camera or for a few dollars.
Now the IRS may have other ideas about the tax credit, but surely it's
an idea worth trying if it means they're building a market future, than
the damn silliness of the hand pictures by so called "great
photographers!" And worse, the bull shit espoused by some the owners of
the hands.

But when you go back over the past twenty years or so of promotion, a
small company or not, they've had some of the most dumb assed
advertising in the world. And I don't have any doubt it's part of the
Germanic mind set of still living in the '20's and '30's and not moving
with the times.

As I said in a previous post one merely needs to do a presentation to a
photographic school and there are no Leica's! OK maybe some kind of
pre-M body that only fuels the idea a Leica is an ancient camera for old
people!

Worse? They don't have any idea about how valuable a tool the camera can
be in their photography. Canon and Nikon have sucked there brains out
with promotion and press button gizmos that do everything. But the one
thing no camera can do, put the most important element to the operation
...............the ability to"SEE!"

But this topic and concept wont go anywhere but our screens, because in
Solms the top people wont listen seriously as they "KNOW ALL THE
ANSWERS!"

By the same token maybe there are rules and tax regulations blocking
this kind of idea. But surely it's so imaginative and simple without
costing a great deal of money to make it work, one would think Leica
would jump on the idea immediately and get the ball rolling.

Oh well we're mere mortals so what do we know about marketing. :-( ted


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