Historic photos from the Seagull factory show workers assembling the much sought-after cameras. Photo provided to Shanghai Star

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Support from customers

Fierce brand loyalty from customers is seen as a great advantage of Seagull. Since the launch of its first digital camera jointly developed by Seagull and a Japanese brand in January this year, Qu says they have received e-mails and phone calls every day.

"Some of them are comments on the products, and others are suggestions for new products," he says.

A senior customer called Seagull to share his ideas, he then went to the camera maker's physical location to make his suggestions even clearer. One of his suggestions is that he found the font size on the instructions too small.

There are other eager customers calling and expressing their willingness to visit the company to give them their suggestions for the brand's future development.

Seagull's new detail-oriented digital cameras are a result of these suggestion from loyal customers.

The whole design is intended to surprise at first sight. The case is in a shape of old-fashioned book, reminiscent of the 1970s, while the red instruction book resembles the form of a marriage certificate.

"The cameras were initially designed with an aluminum cover, but it didn't feel right. So we decided to change it into the current leather cover, which made the several hundred previous investments in molding in vain."

Qu said it was worthwhile because the current version gives its loyal customers a feeling of the classic mode but with a completely new and stylish user experience.

"We want customers to feel our sincerity."