Eastman Kodak analysis Essay

The problem in this case is concerned with Eastman Kodak losing its market share in film products to lower-priced economy brands. Over the last five years, in addition to being brand-aware, customers have also become price-conscious. This has resulted in the fast paced growth of lower priced segments in which Kodak has no presence.

George Eastman invented roll film and an easy to operate camera that made photography easier for anyone to experience photography. He founded the Eastman Kodak Company to manufacture cameras and photographic supplies, making the art of photography available to the masses. This talks about his life and how he came about the inventions that made photography easier for people to use and produce their own photographs.

You may know him from his Lisa Simpson haircut or his mouth full of 24-karat gold teeth; he is the 19-year-old rapper that is taking the music industry by storm. In the past, two years his music has gained national recognition and appealed to all types of fan bases. He is a force not to be reckoned with and his name is Kodak Black. He is the self-proclaimed “Project-Baby” from South Florida that is giving rapper a run for their money. Jon Caramanica, from the New York Times, described Black as “an unlikely savior for a hip-hop industry that has lately been preoccupied with melodic-minded Drake clones. Instead, he’s an old-fashioned literalist and represents the perennial power of grit even in a time that’s squeaky clean.” Kodak Black is an

It was Kodak’s’ strategy to sell the cameras at low prices, and it used to earn revenue from the films; this strategy is called the razor-blade strategy. This model for photography became flop when Sony introduced a camera with floppy disk inside, in which there wasn’t any use of films. As a result of Sony’s introduction of the Mavica in 1981, Kodak took it as a threat and started investing in the digital photography. For this purpose, it has conducted a huge research on the digital photography. As exposed by Fisher in 1997, Kodak’s respond wasn’t appropriate for the digital world: “One of the mistakes we [Kodak] have made is that we [Kodak]’ve tried to do it all. We [Kodak] do not have to pursue all aspects of the digital opportunity and service side.”

The problem in this case is Kodak's steadily eroding market share and shareholder value in the film rolls market. This is especially undesirable given the fact that the market has been growing at a tepid 2% annual rate and the steadily increasing threat from competition. Kodak needs to come up with a strategy for corrective action so as to arrest this decline, regain market share and increase share holder value. Kodak's strategy is to reposition itself by targeting a new segment of price sensitive customers and re-segmenting the super premium customers’ space by including a wider segment of special occasion customers.

We aimed to win market share by appealing to cost-conscious or price-sensitive customers, which we felt that the majority of consumers consisted of. This would be achieved by having the lowest prices in the target market segment, or at least the lowest price to value ratio (price compared to what customers receive). To succeed at offering the lowest price while still achieving profitability and a high return on investment, it was evident that we had to be able to operate at a lower cost than our rivals. We aimed to achieve this goal though a combination of two methods, the first being achieving a high asset turnover. In the manufacturing of our cameras, we wanted to achieve the production of high volumes of output. In theory this approach meant fixed costs would be spread over a larger number of units of the product or service, resulting in a lower unit cost. We hoped to take advantage of economies of scale and experience curve effects[3]. We hoped and realised that higher levels of output both required and resulted in a higher market share, and created an entry barrier to potential competitors, who may be unable to achieve the scale necessary to match our low costs and prices.

The Kodak Company was undisputed in the photo industry until Fujifilm, a Japanese company, was established in 1934.  Since its inception Fujifilm has become a leader in motion picture photography, audio and videotape and the floppy disc industries.   The company also boasts products such as still cameras, camcorders, photofinishing equipment, paper and chemicals, imaging and information products for the office and health care markets.

It is considered that photography only became widely available to the public when the Kodak Eastman Company introduced the box shaped Brownie Camera in 1900. (Baker, n.p.) Its features became more refined since its original placing on the market; one of the reasons why it has become considered the birth of public photography is because of the processing. Using a similar image capture system, the brownie exposed the light to a 120mm roll of film, which could be wound round, meaning six photographs could be taken before the slides needed removing. The first Brownie used a six-exposure cartridge that Kodak processed for the photographer. (Kodak.com, n.d.) Realistically, the armature photographers did not need to understand darkroom processes,

The film industry has continuously changed since its inception due to rapid technology advancements. Camera technology has been a key factor that has influenced the growth of filmmaking. The first motion picture in the world was produced in the early 1880s, and the first public screening occurred ten years later. It didn’t take long for the quality of films to improve as new filmmaking equipment emerged. Ever since the first movie was produced, the film industry has been continuously changing in response to emerging filmmaking technology. Introduction of digital photography and digital data storage along with the development of internet significantly influenced the film industry (Barsam, 2015). These technologies contributed

He started his business of photography in 1881, advertising dry photographic plates. He moved on to patenting his film in 1884, and then in 1889 he patented a roll film. He introduced his first camera, the Kodak camera (shown in picture two) in 1888 (Carlisle 247.) This is when the magic and joy of photography first began. “He called it a Kodak because he liked the strength of the letter K and reckoned it was a word that would be pronounced the same in every language,” (Buckland and Lefer 250). In 1889, Eastman fit his Kodak cameras with transparent nitrocellulose film. This was a major breakthrough in the photography industry because it allowed easier processing and developing of a photo (Buckland and Lefer 250).

In my March 6 memo, I discussed the need for Kodak to revamp its core strategy and regain popularity. Eastman Kodak has been the leader of photography and printing products for nearly 130 years. Over the last few years Kodak has been in distress due to its poor fundamental shift into the digital age. Lack of strategic creativity led Kodak to misunderstand the industry in which it was operating. This lack of strategic creativity was costly for Kodak.

In late March 1996, Ralph Norwood was faced with the task of restructuring Polaroid’s capital structure. In the past, Polaroid had a monopoly in the instant-photography segment. However, with upcoming threats in the emerging digital photography industry and Polaroid experiencing recent losses in their market share due to Kodak’s competition, Gary T. DiCamillo, recently appointed CEO of Polaroid, headed a restructuring plan to stimulate the firm’s performance. The firm’s new plan has goals such as to aggressively exploit the existing Polaroid brand, introduce product extensions, and enter new emerging markets such as Russia in order to secure Polaroid’s future.

Digital camera market has enjoyed tremendous growth since it was introduced in the photographic industry. Starting in 1998, price has been falling rapidly. In addition, the development of CMOS allowed digital camera to not only capture professional market, but also enter consumer market. It was estimated that in 2006 forecast would peak with 63% penetration rate for digital cameras in the US. After 2006, the growth rate was expected to fall negative.

Competition heats up, sales decline, Sony and others move into digital, Kodak panics and thinks it can slow competitive pressures through aggressive marketing.

Through the years, Canon has demonstrated several core competencies that have enabled them to propel themselves to the top of the market. First and foremost, Canon has employed a pool of extremely talented engineers who made up Canon’s Research and Development team. Through their research, Canon was able to uncover new and innovative products. This varied product line, which included cameras, calculators, and photocopiers, demonstrates Canon’s diversified product line. This diverse line of merchandise is integral to the company’s survival and has enabled Canon to take a multifaceted approach to technological competition. The more diverse type of products that are offered, the more chances there are