Liew Sip Chon

CANON is shooting straight ahead with perseverance and the confidence that it will pull through the economic crisis.

"We (companies) have been facing tough times not only now, but over the last 20 years. But for us at Canon, we have the spirit of confidence and we know we can pull through," said Canon president and CEO Liew Sip Chon .

"From a mental aspect, our key players in the company have been in the business long enough and have the confidence that regardless of how tough the market is, we can pull through.

"We are fierce and we always like to finish strong. That’s our motto this year – ‘to finish strong’," he added.

"However, we also know that perseverance and motivation can only get one so far. In order to be in the running to emerge stronger, Canon has ventured into new ways of expanding their branding strategies.

"We’re doing branding in terms of lifestyle. When we see an opportunity to engage in indirect branding, we get involved," said Liew.

Asked if the economic downturn was the reason for the company looking at a different direction in terms of its strategies, Liew said lifestyle branding has always been a part of Canon, but this year, there has been a more aggressive push for it.

"People can get bored with TV commercials. We feel the effects of TV commercials have been diminishing. Thus, we need to find new ways to communicate," added Liew.

Some of the lifestyle events include sporting events like golf. Canon recently organised the Canon Invitational Golf for its business partners. It also organised an evening with Jack Nicklaus – a legend in the golfing circle.

Canon is also the official imaging partner for the Malaysian International Gourmet Festival 2009, where it has its team of photographers to record all the event highlights throughout the festival.

"We want to maintain our brand presence for our customers but at the same time, we don’t want to be too intrusive, so we try the feel-good approach to engage our customers," said Liew.

Canon is also expanding its horizons in online communications. It recently set up an interactive online website to engage customers and get feedback.

"We’ve also stopped issuing warranty cards to customers since July. Instead, we ask them to register online for their warranty, and they will receive an additional two years if they sign up via the website," said Liew. While the company ventures into other forms of branding, it also maintains the traditional form of branding such as through advertisements.

According to Liew, Canon plans on spending more in the fourth quarter this year to help drive sales for next year.

"The ballpark figure for cameras in the fourth quarter is RM5 million and for printers is RM2 million. When there is more awareness among customers, it also helps our retailers push the brand easier. So this helps increase the impact of our brand," said Liew.

It would seem like Canon’s strategy of aggressively pushing the brand works.

According to the latest IDC, a third party market analysts results dated in the second quarter of this year, Canon is still dominating the inkjet single function printers’ market at 66%, contributing a year-to-date share of 72% in this category.

"For laser printers, we’re proud to announce that Canon is now the number one player in Malaysia with 37% market share with accumulative year-to-date results of 32%," added Liew.

The company is also known for its camera models and according to GFK, a third party market analyst, Canon’s DSLR cameras have a unit share of 42% in the market while their compact cameras have a unit share of 22% in the market.

However, while Canon seems to have a slice of the market share, Liew seemed cautious on revealing its projected market performance for the year.

"The first quarter has been tough. So we’re expecting a growth of 4%-5% this year," added Liew.