Clueless

Natalia is an interior design, she is from Abruzzo and came to Milan to study when she was 19 years old.
She received her first camera when she was 12, she has always liked taking pictures. Two years ago she decided to buy a digital camera, she asked her father a piece of advice because photography is her father’s hobby, he has many cameras and knows the brands on the market. His favourite brand is Canon, he thinks they make the best pictures and that the price is good. Natalia had clearly in mind how much she wanted to spend, so she only looked at the cameras that she could afford. She wanted: rechargeable batteries, wide screen and small size. Then she followed her father advice and bought a Nikon, she didn’t buy a Canon because they weren’t any among her range.
One year later her camera broke (she dropped it in the water) and her father offered her a Canon, she says she likes it because it makes better pictures than the Nikon, but the Nikon was smaller and easier to use.
She always takes her camera with her except when she goes to work. She doesn’t always take pictures, she uses it when she has the right feeling, when she thinks it is going to be a “special moment”, her special moment are strongly related to amusement and to friends. She takes pictures because she wants to have a tangible memory of the moment she lived. She often looks at the pictures she took, mainly with friends but also alone, it makes her happy to look at the good moments she lived.
She really likes taking pictures, but she sais she is not very good, she just uses the basic options, that’s why she wouldn’t buy a professional camera event though she would like to have one, she wouldn’t be able to use it properly.
The first brand that came to her mind talking about cameras were Canon, Nikon, Sony and Lexus. She doesn’t know the difference between Canon and Nikon, she thinks they are good brands while Lexus isn’t. She is not strongly related to one single brand, but wouldn’t buy an unbranded camera.
She doesn’t know anything about the brand Nikon, she just knows it is Japanese.


Once in the shop she didn’t seem very interested in the specific features of the cameras, her attention was captured by the coloured ones, expecially the pink ones. She wouldn’t buy a camera because it’s beautiful, but she definitely considers it a plus.
She liked a pink camera from Nikon that had an “old style design”, she took it and asked if she could try to take a picture, but they wouldn’t let her because it hadn’t the battery inside. She asked some information to the shop assistant but she admitted she didn’t pay attention. If she would have to buy a camera, she would prefer to go to a shop where she can try it, she thinks it is more professional and would trust more the shop assistant’s advice.

Insight:
- Entry-level compact users aren't interested in camera features, so they rely on the judgement of more knowlegable users.
- People who are clueless about cameras chose design over function.