kodak
Explain the demise of Kodak.
Eastman Kodak is an iconic American photography brand which has been in operation since 1880 (Kodak 2012). Kodak created and influenced the photographic industry through an effective marketing strategy. This contributed to Kodak becoming the dominant firm in the industry for almost a century. Ironically the first digital camera was invented by Kodak, which happened to be the undoing of this successful company. Since 2003 Kodak has had to reduce its workforce by around 47,000 and closed many manufacturing plants and processing labs. In January 2012 Kodak filed for bankruptcy (Knowledge@Wharton 2012).
Kodak was a first-mover in the personal photography industry, creating the first automatic snapshot camera (Munir 2012). At the time the camera was released there was no personal photographers, only professionals, so Kodak created the market around its invention. Kodak began a marketing campaign to establish the need for special moments and occasions to be preserved, which were and still are known as ‘Kodak moments’ (Munir 2012). Kodak’s marketing campaigns focussed on women, who became photography’s lucrative market segment due to their perceived responsibility of recording their family’s history and being caring mothers and wives (Munir 2012).
As Kodak was a first-mover of the photographic industry it gained a competitive advantage which led Kodak to dominate the US industry. At one stage Kodak held 90% of the film and 85% of camera sales in the US (Naughton 2012). Kodak was the monopoly company of the photography industry holding between 80 and 90% share of the industry (Finnerty 2000). With such a large percentage of the industry Kodak was also making a substantial profit, according to Knowledge@Wharton (2012), their profit margins were around 80%. This implies the company would have had a considerable amount of financial slack.
Fujifilm Holdings Corporation or Fujifilm are a Japanese photography and imaging company
Eastman Kodak is an iconic American photography brand which has been in operation since 1880 (Kodak 2012). Kodak created and influenced the photographic industry through an effective marketing strategy. This contributed to Kodak becoming the dominant firm in the industry for almost a century. Ironically the first digital camera was invented by Kodak, which happened to be the undoing of this successful company. Since 2003 Kodak has had to reduce its workforce by around 47,000 and closed many manufacturing plants and processing labs. In January 2012 Kodak filed for bankruptcy (Knowledge@Wharton 2012).
Kodak was a first-mover in the personal photography industry, creating the first automatic snapshot camera (Munir 2012). At the time the camera was released there was no personal photographers, only professionals, so Kodak created the market around its invention. Kodak began a marketing campaign to establish the need for special moments and occasions to be preserved, which were and still are known as ‘Kodak moments’ (Munir 2012). Kodak’s marketing campaigns focussed on women, who became photography’s lucrative market segment due to their perceived responsibility of recording their family’s history and being caring mothers and wives (Munir 2012).
As Kodak was a first-mover of the photographic industry it gained a competitive advantage which led Kodak to dominate the US industry. At one stage Kodak held 90% of the film and 85% of camera sales in the US (Naughton 2012). Kodak was the monopoly company of the photography industry holding between 80 and 90% share of the industry (Finnerty 2000). With such a large percentage of the industry Kodak was also making a substantial profit, according to Knowledge@Wharton (2012), their profit margins were around 80%. This implies the company would have had a considerable amount of financial slack.
Fujifilm Holdings Corporation or Fujifilm are a Japanese photography and imaging company