Lytro Case Study

Why has there been such a disconnect between the initial reception of Lytro in the “tech” community and the broader population? Was Lytro’s initial management effective at driving market acceptance? Why or why not?

Luckily one of my best friends in my dormer university did his thesis about this kind of camera called “light field camera”. As an engineer I could more or less understand how the principle is working and how to render the kind of picture the camera is producing. In the same time I don’t think that most of the people with no engineering background will understand this because it is very technical and in the same time you need a very good spatial sense.

Therefore I think the company did a big mistake by not setting up a website and don’t release information about the development of the product. Why? First of all there is a big likelihood that your product and your technology getting mentioned in the news or on technic website or gadget website which is not only free promotion but it also helps to spread your name and people associate the product later with your brand.

An example is GoPro. Even there are many similar camera with the same functionally most of the people only know the brand GoPro and if you say that you have a GoPro people know exactly what you mean.

Another point which highlight the point of spread the name of your product is the fact that the product is new and there are not many application for it and costumers don’t know yet what it is good for or what benefit it has. But as soon as the value added services work or there is a good application for that kind of camera people will buy the brand with your name because they heard of it first.

If we look at market acceptance there are two things we need to distinguish. The market acceptance regarding camera users as a general and the market acceptance of tech versed people. If we look at the market acceptance of the normal camera users the management did a horrible job because the product is not known. I believe than only a very few people who not know the camera industry know this product. From my personal experience I can say that I did not heard from this kind of camera until my friend did his thesis about it and that was about 7 years after the company was found.

Secondly if we look at the market acceptance of the tech versed people I think they did a good job because they could gather the attention in different social media and traditional media which are interested in this kind of product as mentioned in the paper. In addition the reviews of those people are quite good if we consider that it was the first product of its kind.

Looking forward, identify two distinct potential Lytro customer segments. Describe how these customers are different than each other, and how the value proposition for each group must differ. Which customer should Lytro choose? Can they serve both equally well?