 Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 8:19 pm Post subject: |
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Boomer Depp wrote:
From Lee Mannheimer's inside working knowledge of the companies and article of his personal view on the subject in question.
In the late 60's Vivitar was prospering quite well.Over at Soligor Bruno Multer brains and financial wiz of the company died.Vivtor Silverman who was also sharp,didn't have the charm and management skills that Bruno did....Victor also didn't want to listen to his product division heads....Victor's younger brother Benny though a nice guy,wasn't really sharp or serious enough about the business to really know what to do.He would try to back the division managers,but Victor would have none of it...As Lee Mannheimer said,"it was only a matter of time before decline set in"...Benny,who's office was next to Victor's,would try to convince Victor.In Lee Mannheimer's words,"There would be a lot of gnashing of teeth and screaming between the two at the top of their lungs.With a slamming of doors the corporate headquarters would go into hiding,not knowing what was going to happen next"...not a good atmosphere to run a viable corporation.
Vivitar in the meantime had some sharp minds in their collective division heads and ran their company with a viable working plan and were good at introducing innovative products.This was the beginning of the heady heydays of camera and lens sales of the 70's.
Vivitar was excellent at diversifying and had a wide range of products. With a relaxed but purposeful working environment it was only as a matter of time,that Vivitar was doing quite well.With guys like Don Cohee and their top VP's recruiting bright minds, and willingness of the company management to let Division Head follow their own leads,Vivitar was really kicking Soligor's ass by the mid-70's.A good marketing strategy put in place by Paul Ellis VP of marketing used the tactics of catchy advertisements and innovative products,that helped with sales beyond expectations.
Everything was going swimmingly....it was decided to see how Vivitar faired against bigger fish in the Camera and Lens Division....so the Series 1 lens line development was given the green light.
The Series 1 line did quite well right out of the gate.The Series 1 70-210 was a hot seller in the pro and amateur market ,the 90/2.5 showed how serious Vivitar was about making a good lens,especially a macro.The solid cat lenses were very innovative and helped bolster Vivitar's reputation for a quality product.It's pretty common knowledge that some of the Series 1 primes with their apertures of 1.9,2.3 & 3.0 were met with mixed response versus the norm for typical apertures of 1.8,2.0,2.8.,but they had a following,too.
According to Lee Mannheimer,"Soligor in the meantime was barely treading water.Soligors CD line was not as innovative and exciting as the Vivitar Series 1 line....Also by this time with Victor Silverman's mismanagement,every product sold by Soligor was based on how much it cost and how cheaply it could be sold.The handwriting was on the wall...."
Back at Vivitar the TX line started out well enough and had it's own loyal following,but the most sales came from fixed mount consumer oriented lens.The company choose a consumer direction based on these overall sales figures in the late seventies.They still continued with their Series 1 lens line of macro,prime and zooms and solid cat lenses.
BTW...In 1976 Lee Mannheimer had enough of Soligor management style and had a meeting with Bert Keppler at Modern Photography Magazine to show a new product.During this meeting he divulged to Bert that he needed to escape from A.I.C. (Soligor).A few days later he received a call from Don Cohee,and shortly thereafter had a meeting with Paul Ellis in New York.He went to work as a manager in the Lighting Division at Vivitar and moved from New York to Santa Monica.He later became VP of Vivitar Computer Products.
Soligor wasn't long for the world at this point,and continued to decline till they went bankrupt.
Then the 80's were in full swing...but they were starting to buck against Tamron,Tokina and the upstart Kiron,cutting into their sales figures (Kiron also had an excellent marketing strategy like Vivitar with eye-catching advertisements.The Series 1 line continued with macro,zooms and solid cat lenses with the consumer lens continuing to sell well.The TX line was cut in favor of fixed mount consumer lenses,but by the mid 80's camera and lens sales had fallen off due to the recession of the early 80's.
In 1986 Vivitar was sold to Hanimex Corp. and some of the divisons such as the Computer Division were sold off.Now it was lawyers and accountants that were responsible for the direction of the company.They were lucky to have a few good lens builders producing decent consumer lenses and a few good macros and Series 1.But it was only a matter of time before cost cutting moves by accountants and lawyers,led to Vivitar products being built by the cheapest bidder...."Shades of Soligor"....and so went Vivitar into the 90's with products declining more.
To be an industry leader requires quality products,strategical up to date innovation and a good marketing tactics....
Vivitar once all had these and the world for their taking.To think,if they would have only continued with this viable business plan...
sad really....
Much thanks for this goes to Lee Mannheimer.
_________________
Trust that little voice in your head that says "Wouldn't it be interesting if...." And then do it.
Last edited by Boomer Depp on Sat Aug 11, 2012 2:51 am; edited 1 time in total |
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