This week we had another repeat (echo?) of messaging from Nikon's executives being interviewed: essentially that the Zf (and previously Zfc) have been a hit with the younger audience.
Sure, because they were targeted. ;~)
Tsuji-san partly said it himself: "we put a lot of effort into social media." If you look at that effort, you find that Nikon was plying marketing messages specifically to a younger audience in their social media campaigns, and that actually started with body design. You'll note, for example, that despite being "legacy" cameras, both the Zfc and Zf have fully articulating Rear LCDs with a dedicated selfie/vlogging mode. True legacy cameras also didn't come in colors ;~).
The interesting thing to look at is the difference between the original Df, which absolutely was an attempt at throwback camera design, and the Zfc and Zf, which are not. As much as I liked Goto-san (progenitor of the Df) I absolutely didn't like the Df user experience and believed that it was a Frankencamera that was primarily well received only for its lower cost access to a very excellent image sensor.
The Zfc and Zf are a bit different. Their designers spent much more time trying to blend—not always successfully—a retro control style with well-considered modern capabilities. Had they not had the latter, those two cameras would not have resonated with the young, regardless of how rad they might have looked.
I'll point out, though, for this tactic to work long-term it isn't just about the camera. Prior to the 12-28mm f/3.5-5.6 PZ VR DX lens appearing, the Zfc might have looked like it was a capable selfie/vlogger, but it wasn't. Now the Zf has that same problem: exactly which lens pairs with it that accomplishes what many of the young really want? Where's the compact 16-35mm f/3.5-5.6 PZ FX lens?
As a number of people have pointed out, the popularity of the latest offering, the Zf, is partly due to factors that are unique at the moment: (1) the Zf is the only retro full frame camera (as long as you don't look at the Leica rangefinders); and (2) the Zf is, at US$2000, exactly what the Z6 III could have been, only with dials and no front grip. You can add a grip and ignore the dials and get the camera you've been waiting for, basically.
The question I have is how clearly Nikon actually sees the nuance, because it's the nuance that will eventually win them more customers long term. When you keep repeating the words "more demand than expected," that tells me either that management has decided that's the term they'll use for "we're not going to increase manufacturing capacity" or that they're firing shots at random and surprised when they hit a target.
