Kodak And The First Digital Camera

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.

Companies across the world are determined to compete for the survival of their brands. The magnitude of success of the marketing and advertising strategies of a new or existing product is majorly depended upon the organization itself. As a matter of stated facts when an organization advertises its products in the market they first have to identify the relevant answers of some questions like what is the product aiming at? What benefits will the user seek by this product? How the organization plans to position itself within the market and what differential advantages will the product offer over the competitors. Because the bottom line of all marketing and advertising campaigns, is to provide the suitable collection of benefits to the end users of the product. Successful companies are usually recognized as iconic brands. Success of a

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.

1. Evaluate Kodak's strategy in traditional photography. Why has the company been so successful throughout the history of the industry?

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.

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.

Taking pictures with the Kodak camera was simpler than the earlier camera because first, it did not require a darkroom or chemicals and glass plates. It did not require any of these things because it was not only one person’s job to develop and take the photo. The photographer could send their camera in, and the Eastman Kodak Company would develop the pictures for them. “In the first year, 13,000 people paid $25 for a Kodak; they each took 100 pictures, returned the camera and within ten days, Kodak sent back the prints and camera with film for another 100 pictures,” (Buckland and Lefer 250). This opened up a whole new door for inexperienced photographers. All they had to do was take pictures, and send the camera

When Kodak began making changes to its organizational architecture in 1984, its current architecture did not fit the business environment for the industry. The largest factor that motivated Kodak to make this change was increased competition and decreased market share. Until the early 1980’s, Kodak owned the film production market with very little competition. This suddenly changed when Fuji Corporation and many other generic store brands began producing high quality film as well (Brickley, 2009, p. 358). Another factor in this change was technology advancements. As technology rapidly expanded in the 1980’s, other

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 general, Kodak has done well in the innovation implementation. This paper mainly discusses the innovation system within the group also influence the innovation

At your request, I have compiled information on Eastman Kodak Co., so that you may come to an investment decision. The report will consider the company’s background (including Kodak’s areas of production), a past obstacle Kodak has had to face and overcome, and a financial snapshot of Kodak over the past five years.

To be successful in business, "a consumer does not buy a whole of physical components of the product but it is usefulness, function, satisfaction of consumer's needs, solving the problem, etc" (Dubrouski, , p.1). "That is why the product is a whole of tangible and intangible components which means satisfaction of consumer's needs and desires, solving the problem"(Dubrouski, p.1). Companies and managers must learn to utilize marketing research, as well as, strategy skills to fulfill customers' satisfaction. Management has to focus on exclusive marketing challenges presented by the new era of the 21st century. Management has to be able to utilize inventive, dominant, and cost effective marketing techniques that will support the future success of the organization. Companies must meet,"the increasing importance of services as part of a product (offer, offering package) which cannot be neglected" (Dubrouski, p.1). Exploring the purpose of market research, as well as, evaluating the importance of such research, facilitates managers in realizing the importance of marketing to an organization's success and to be globally competitive.

Background Eastman Kodak Company, headquartered in Rochester New York, was founded in 1889. The corporation, now multinational and focusing on imaging and photographic equipment, posted revenues in excess of $6 billion in 2011. During most of the 20th century Kodak was dominant in the photographic film industry in 1976 it held 90% of the market but began a downward slide once the Internet, digital cameras and computer processing grew. By 2007, Kodak ceased making a profit and in January 2012 filed for bankruptcy protection and ceased making cameras, video cameras and began to focus on the corporate digital imaging market (De La Merced, 2012). In evaluating Kodak's corporate strategy from the mid-1980s onward, we find that there four major management paradigms in place during this transitional period:

The concept of marketing has evolved over time. Whilst in today’s business world “the customer is king”. In the past this was not the case, some businesses put factors other than the customer first. Product focused companies define themselves by their products. For example Kodak originally defined its self as being in the photo processing business. This definition impact the culture of the company in a way that hamstrings thinking and creates impediments for action. When the shift to digital cam Kodak resisted this because of the impact on its “products photo processing”.

In recent years, with the economy era full challenge, marketing theory and practice are accelerating the pace of innovation. Marketing not only has widely exploited in the economy and society field, but also more and more enterprises constantly innovate new performance, new competitive, new brilliance in unprecedented enthusiasm. Therefore, diverse strategies are adopted by most firms to discover and meet the needs and desires of its customers (Jobber & Fahy, 2009). Marketing orientation is one of the most successful strategies, such as the Apple company, it put to use and reap significant profit. Some specialists argue that product orientation can be used in all firms, while others debate that marketing orientation is more suitable for all products. However, several obstacles are faced by firms when they intend to move from a product to a marketing orientation. This essay will briefly describe that definition of the marketing orientation and product orientation, examples for some firms use marketing orientation and product orientation respectively as well. Furthermore, it mostly discusses key obstacles for if a firm moves from product to marketing orientation and give some reasonable solutions.