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MARKETING MANAGEMENT (MBA-BA-201)

REPORT ON

COMPANY- KODAK CAMERA

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

Asst. Prof. Brahmmanand Sharma Nidhi Kukreja

Devi Yoganand Balaji

Ishika Saini

Kartikeya Kumar Awasthi

Rajeev Prajapati

MBA-BA(A) IInd Sem

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DECLARATION
We hereby declare that the Marketing Management report entitled, “Rebranding
Strategies for Kodak Camera” submitted by me to Prestige Institute of
Management, Gwalior in fulfillment of the requirement for the award of masters of
Business Administration is a record of my original work carried out by me under the
guidance of Asst. Prof. Brahmmanand Sharma. We, further declare that the work
reported in this report has not been submitted, and will not be submitted, either in
part or in full, for the award of any other degree or diploma of this University or to
any other institute or university.

NIDHI KUKREJA
ISHIKA SAINI
DEVI YOGANAND BALAJI
KARTIKEYA KUMAR AWASTHI
RAJEEV PRAJAPATI

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TOPIC PAGE CONTRIBUTION


NO. BY
HISTORY OF KODAK CAMERA 4-9 NIDHI
EVOLUTION OF PHOTOGRAPHY 9-10 NIDHI
INNOVATION 10-11 KARTIKEYA
ENTERING IN DIGTAL PHOTOGRAPHY 11 RAJEEV
MOTION PICTURES 12 RAJEEV
ACHIEVEMENTS 12-13 ISHIKA
SUCCESS PERIOD OF KODAK IN INDIA 13 ISHIKA
SHORT TIMELINE OF KODAK’s LANDMARK 13-15 BALAJI
CLOSING OF OPERATIONS 15 BALAJI
MARKET SHARE OF KODAK CAMERA 16 KARTIKEYA
SWOT ANALYSIS OF KODAK 17 RAJEEV
REASONS FOR FAILURE 18-22 ISHIKA
REBRANDING STRATEGIES 22-24 EVERYONE
CONCLUSION 25 EVERYONE

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HISTORY OF KODAK CAMERA

With the slogan "you press the button, we do the rest," George Eastman put the first
simple camera into the hands of a world of consumers in 1888. In so doing, he made
a cumbersome and complicated process easy to use and accessible to nearly
everyone.

Just as Eastman had a goal to make photography "as convenient as the pencil,"
Kodak continues to expand the ways images touch people's daily lives.

In 1880, George Eastman, a young hobbyist photographer and school dropout,


became one of the first to successfully manufacture dry plates commercially in the
United States. One year later Eastman and Henry Strong formed a partnership called
the Eastman Dry Plate Company.

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Eastman Kodak USA is one of the largest imaging products manufacturing
companies in the world. Headquartered in Rochester, it has manufacturing
operations spread across Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the United Kingdom, France,
Germany, Australia and the USA. Kodak products are marketed by subsidiary
companies to people in more than 150 countries. It had a turnover of US$ 13.3 billion
in 2003 and it employs over 63900 people. With a turnover of over US$ 250 million,
Kodak India Ltd. is one of the largest players in the photographic products industry
in the country. It started its operations in 1913 as a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak
USA and employs over 650 people today. Kodak India operates in consumer and
commercial segments. Consumer Segment: Films, Cameras and Digital Products.
Commercial Segment: Professional Imaging, Health Imaging, Documents and
Entertainment.

In 1879, London was the center of the photographic and business world. George
Eastman went there to obtain a patent on his plate-coating machine. An American
patent was granted the following year.

In April 1880, Eastman leased the third floor of a building on State Street in
Rochester, and began to manufacture dry plates for sale. One of his first purchases
was a second-hand engine priced at $125.

"I really needed only a one horse-power," he later recalled. "This was a two horse-
power, but I thought perhaps business would grow up to it. It was worth a chance,
so I took it."

"I really needed only a one horse-power," he later recalled. "This was a two horse-
power, but I thought perhaps business would grow up to it. It was worth a chance,
so I took it."

Success of the dry plate venture so impressed businessman Henry A. Strong, that he
invested some money in the infant concern.

On January 1, 1881, Eastman and Strong formed a partnership called the Eastman
Dry Plate Company. Late that year, Eastman resigned from his position at the
Rochester Savings Bank to devote all his time to the new company and its business.
While actively managing all phases of the firm's activities, he continued research in
an effort to simplify photography.
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In 1884, the Eastman-Strong partnership had given way to a new firm -- the Eastman
Dry Plate and Film Company -- with 14 shareowners. A successive concern -- the
Eastman Company, was formed in 1889.

The company has been called Eastman Kodak Company since 1892, when Eastman
Kodak Company of New York was organized. In 1901, the Eastman Kodak
Company of New Jersey was formed under the laws of that state.

Eastman built his business on four basic principles:

• a focus on the customer


• mass production at low cost
• worldwide distribution
• extensive advertising
He saw all four as being closely related. Mass production could not be justified
without wide distribution. Distribution, in turn, needed the support of strong
advertising. From the beginning, he imbued the company with the conviction that
fulfilling customer needs and desires is the only road to corporate success.

As Eastman’s young company grew, it faced total collapse at least once when dry
plates in the hands of dealers went bad. Eastman recalled them and replaced them
with a good product. "Making good on those plates took our last dollar," he said.
"But what we had left was more important -- reputation."

"The idea gradually dawned on me," he later said, "that what we were doing was not
merely making dry plates, but that we were starting out to make photography an
everyday affair." Or as he described it more succinctly "to make the camera as
convenient as the pencil."

Eastman's experiments were directed to the use of a lighter and more flexible support
than glass. His first approach was to coat the photographic emulsion on paper and
then load the paper in a roll holder. The holder was used in view cameras in place of
the holders for glass plates.

In 1883, Eastman startled the trade with the announcement of film in rolls, with the
roll holder adaptable to nearly every plate Camera on the market.

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The first film advertisements in 1885 stated that "shortly there will be introduced a
new sensitive film which it is believed will prove an economical and convenient
substitute for glass dry plates both for outdoor and studio work."

This system of photography using roll holders was immediately successful.


However, paper was not entirely satisfactory as a carrier for the emulsion because
the grain of the paper was likely to be reproduced in the photo.

Eastman's solution was to coat the paper with a layer of plain, soluble gelatin, and
then with a layer of insoluble light-sensitive gelatin. After exposure and
development, the gelatin bearing the image was stripped from the paper, transferred
to a sheet of clear gelatin, and varnished with collodion -- a cellulose solution that
forms a tough, flexible film.

As he perfected transparent roll film and the roll holder, Eastman changed the whole
direction of his work and established the base on which his success in amateur
photography would be built.

He later said: "When we started out with our scheme of film photography, we
expected that everybody who used glass plates would take up films. But we found
that the number which did so was relatively small. In order to make a large business
we would have to reach the general public."

With the KODAK Camera in 1888, Eastman put down the foundation for making
photography available to everyone. Pre-loaded with enough film for 100 exposures,
the camera could be easily carried and handheld during operation. It was priced at
$25. After exposure, the whole camera was returned to Rochester. There the film
was developed, prints were made and new film was inserted -- all for $10.

Eastman's faith in the importance of advertising, both to the company and to the
public, was unbounded. The very first Kodak products were advertised in leading
papers and periodicals of the day -- with ads written by Eastman himself.

Eastman introduced the Kodak camera in 1888. Thanks to his inventive genius,
anyone could now take pictures with a handheld camera simply by pressing a button.
He coined the slogan, "you press the button, we do the rest," and within a year it
became a well-known phrase. Later, with advertising managers and agencies
carrying out his ideas, magazines, newspapers, displays and billboards bore the
Kodak banner.

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Space was taken at world expositions, and the "Kodak Girl," with the style of her
clothes and the camera she carried changing every year, smiled engagingly at
photographers everywhere. In 1897, the word "Kodak" sparkled from an electric
sign on London's Trafalgar Square -- one of the first such signs to be used in
advertising.

The word "Kodak" was first registered as a trademark in 1888. There has been some
fanciful speculation, from time to time, on how the name was originated. But the
plain truth is that Eastman invented it out of thin air.

He explained: "I devised the name myself. The letter 'K' had been a favorite with me
-- it seems a strong, incisive sort of letter. It became a question of trying out a great
number of combinations of letters that made words starting and ending with 'K.' The
word 'Kodak' is the result." Eastman also selected Kodak's distinctive yellow trade
dress, which is widely known throughout the world.

EASTMAN- A PRINCIPLED LEADER


To his basic principles of business, Eastman added these policies:

• foster growth and development through continuing research


• reinvest profits to build and extend the business, and
• treat employees in a fair, self-respecting way
In regards to his employees and in building his business, Eastman blended human
and democratic qualities, with remarkable foresight. He believed employees should
have more than just good wages -- a way of thinking that was far ahead of
management people of his era.

Early in his business, Eastman began planning for "dividends on wages" for
employees. His first act, in 1899, was the distribution of a substantial sum of his own
money -- an outright gift -- to each person who worked for him

Later he set up a "Wage Dividend" – an innovation for its time – in which each
employee benefited above his or her wages in proportion to the yearly dividend on
the company stock.

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Eastman felt that the prosperity of an organization was not necessarily due to
inventions and patents, but more to workers' goodwill and loyalty, which in turn
were enhanced by forms of profit sharing.

In 1919, Eastman gave one-third of his own holdings of company stock – then worth
$10 million – to his employees. Still later came the fulfillment of what he felt was a
responsibility to employees with the establishment of retirement annuity, life
insurance, and disability benefit plans.

Carl W. Ackerman, a biographer writing in 1932, said: "Mr. Eastman was a giant in
his day. The social philosophy, which he practiced in building his company, was not
only far in advance of the thinking during his lifetime, but it will be years before it
is generally recognized and accepted."

EVOLUTION OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Bringing photography to the masses

No name has been more closely tied to pictures than Kodak. The keys to George
Eastman's success in making photography a popular leisure-time activity for the
masses were his development of roll film and the inexpensive box camera.
Throughout his life, Eastman pursued his goal to make photography “as convenient
as the pencil.” Not surprisingly, the company he founded has been at the center of
most milestones in photography and imaging ever since.

In the early era of photography

• Kodak introduced the first commercial transparent roll film in 1889.


• In 1900, the KODAK BROWNIE Camera brought photography within
financial reach of consumers. The camera sold for $1 and film was 15 cents
a roll.

Imaging grew rapidly from the 1920s through the 1960s, and Kodak helped expand
its popularity through color.

• Introduced in 1935, KODACHROME Film became the first commercially


successful amateur color film. Initially offered in 16 mm format for motion
pictures, formats for 35 mm slides and 8 mm home movies followed in
1936.
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• In 1942, KODACOLOR Film the world's first true color negative film for
still photography, was announced
• One unique form of publicity, introduced in 1950, was the long-running
series of KODAK COLORAMA Display transparencies. Overlooking the
main terminal floor of Grand Central Station in New York City, the 18-
foot-high by 60-foot-wide displays were viewed by an estimated 650,000
commuters and tourists every business day until the exhibit was closed as
part of Grand Central’s restoration in 1989. Many of the dramatic
photographs displayed over the years were the subject of widespread
newspaper and magazine coverage.

INNOVATION
Kodak consistently introduced products that made it easier to take and enjoy photos.
Two important examples were:
Kodak Caraousel Projectors ( Introduced in 1961)

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Kodak Instamatic Cameras (Introduced in 1963)
1.

2.

ENTERING IN DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY


Entering in the digital age, Kodak invented the world's first digital camera in 1975,
and the first practical megapixel charge-couple device (CCD) image sensor in 1986.
This enabled other innovations to follow:

• In 1988, the KODAK CREATE-A-PRINT 35 mm Enlargement Center


was an early retail kiosk solution that enabled consumers to crop and print
their own enlargements in a few minutes
• The KODAK Professional Digital Camera System (a Nikon F-3 camera
equipped by Kodak with a 1.3 megapixel sensor) for photojournalists was
introduced in 1991.
• The KODAK DC40 Point-and-Shoot Digital Camera for consumers was
launched in 1995. Six years later, the company introduced its KODAK
EASYSHARE System, a line of digital cameras and docking systems that
improved ease of use in digital photography.

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Motion Pictures
A Pioneer in Motion Pictures

When George Eastman marketed the first commercial transparent roll film in 1889,
it enabled inventor Thomas Edison to develop the first motion picture camera in
1891. By 1896, Kodak was marketing film specially coated for motion picture use.

Even with today’s digital technologies, a faction of filmmakers continue to use


Kodak film to record the action on movie sets, and in some countries, those movies
are still distributed to theaters as printed copies on film.

Achievements

Since the inception of the Academy Awards, more than 80 Oscar-winning "Best
Pictures" have been shot on Kodak film. The company even has nine Oscar statuettes
of its own -- for scientific and technical excellence.

That's more than any non-studio company – not surprising given that Kodak has
been involved in technological innovations throughout the industry's history. Kodak:

• marketed its first film designed for making then-new "sound" motion
pictures in 1929.
• earned a 1949 Academy Award for a tri-acetate safety film base
(introduced in 1948) for motion picture film. This eliminated a significant
safety hazard posed by the flammable nitrate film base it replaced, and also
helped ensure the long-term integrity of the films.
• earned another Academy Award for EASTMAN Color Negative and Color
Print Films (introduced in 1950), which helped popularize color movies
for theaters and television.
• improved emulsion technology with its EASTMAN EXR Color Negative
Film products in 1989. These gave cinematographers significant creative
flexibility, providing more underexposure latitude; truer colors in
fluorescent light, and greater sharpness.
In 2002, KODAK VISION2 Motion Picture Films became first in a series of
products designed to work with both film and digital post-production systems. In
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fact, the technology incorporated in these films earned Kodak its ninth Oscar
statuette. Further building on that technology, a family of KODAK VISION3 Films
was launched in 2007.

With digital capture and distribution more the norm in today’s motion picture
industry, Kodak still provides high-quality products for “film worthy” productions.

Success Period of Kodak in India


Kodak was a leading player in the Indian imaging products market Kodak was one
of the oldest players in the photographic film and camera markets in India. Kodak
has successfully changed the perception of photography in the minds of consumers
from being marriage-centric to a dayto-day usage commodity. Kodak has witnessed
increased market penetration with products that have built a reputation for quality
and consistent performance. Kodak was a market leader with a market share of 60
per cent in the three million units camera market of India. Kodak had 47 per cent
market share in digital cameras in 2003.
In 1996, Kodak reached the peak of its success. Revenues touched $16 billion and
market capitalisation crossed $31 billion. With a 65% global share of film sales ,
Kodak became the fifth most valuable brand in the world empolying 145,000 people.
It was also the year when the Kodak introduced the world’s first digital camera- the
DC20 with all of 0.2 megapixels . Despite helping invent digital photography ,
Kodak gradually cost-cut its way to oblivion shedding 47,000 jobs, 13
manufacturing plants and 130 processing labs. It never made profit after 2004.

Short Timeline of Kodak’s Landmarks

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1889 — George Eastman founded the Eastman Kodak Company and introduced the
first Kodak camera; a few years later the Kodak camera becomes wildly successful.

1935 — The company introduced Kodachrome, the first successful colour materials
and was used for both cinematography and still photography.

1962 — Kodak sales surpassed $1 billion.

1963 — The Kodak Instamatic cameras and cartridge loading films made the process
easy for amateurs. The company sold 50 million Instamatic cameras in their first
seven years.

1966 — Sales surpassed $2 billion.

1972 — Kodak’s worldwide sales passed $3 billion.

1975 — Steve Sasson, an engineer at Kodak invented the digital camera.

1976 — Kodak became so dominant, they practically pushed their competitors off
the market –

Cameras: 85% market share, Film: 90% market share

1981 — Sales top $10 billion.

The late 1980s — The rise of digital photography with analogue cameras sales
decreasing and digital camera sales increasing.
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1984 — Customers switched from Kodak to Fuji because the Japanese colour film
was 20% cheaper than Kodak’s.

1991- Kodak’s first digital camera.

1991–2011- Kodak released various digital products, but sales kept falling.

2012 — Kodak filed for bankruptcy.

Closing of Operations
In 2012-13, Kodak closed, sold or spun off parts of its consumer imaging portfolio
at that time. This included:

• The online photo site KODAK Gallery, which Kodak had acquired in 2001
as Ofoto, Inc.
• Direct manufacturing and sales of digital capture products, including
cameras, video cameras and picture frames.
• Sales of consumer films, papers and kiosks, which were spun off and now
operate independently under the name Kodak Alaris.
While today’s Kodak is mainly focused on business solutions, the company
continues to manufacture films and chemicals, and participates in consumer markets
through a variety of marketing and partnership agreements.

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MARKET SHARE OF KODAK CAMERA

In India – Kodak was the market leader which holded 60 per cent
of the camera market and 47 per cent of the digital camera market
in 2003. Factors for success: Bringing in the latest technology and
tapping new market segments like digital cameras and mobile
subscribers with camera phones

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SWOT ANALYSIS OF KODAK :

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REASONS FOR FAILURE
After the digital camera became popular, Kodak spent almost 10 years arguing with

Fuji Films, its biggest competitor, that the process of viewing an image captured by
the digital camera was a typical process and people loved the touch and feel of a
printed image. Kodak believed that the citizens of the United States of America
would always choose it over Fuji Films, a foreign company. Kodak also lost the
external funding it had during that time. People also realized that digital photography
was way ahead of traditional film photography. It was cheaper than film
photography and the image quality was better. Kodak failed to realize that its
strategy which was effective at one point was now depriving it of success. Rapidly
changing technology and market needs negated the strategy. Kodak invested its
funds in acquiring many small companies, depleting the money it could have used
to promote the sales of digital cameras.
When Kodak finally understood and started the sales and the production of digital
cameras, it was too late. Many big companies had already established themselves in
the market by then and Kodak couldn't keep pace with the big shots. In the year
2004, Kodak finally announced it would stop the sales of traditional film cameras.
This decision made around 15,000 employees (about one-fifth of the company’s
workforce at that time) redundant. Before the start of the year 2011, Kodak lost its
place on the S&P 500 index which lists the 500 largest companies in the United
States on the basis of stock performance. In September 2011, the stock prices of
Kodak hit an all-time low of $0.54 per share. The shares lost more than 50% of their
value throughout that year. Kodak management’s inability to see digital photography

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as a disruptive technology, even as its researchers extended the boundaries of the
technology, would continue for decades. As late as 2007, a Kodak marketing video
felt the need to trumpet that “Kodak is back “ and that Kodak “wasn’t going to play
grab ass anymore” with digital.The problem is that, during its 10-year window of
opportunity, Kodak did little to prepare for the later disruption. In fact, Kodak made
exactly the mistake that George Eastman, its founder, avoided twice before, when
he gave up a profitable dry-plate business to move to film and when he invested in
color film even though it was demonstrably inferior to black and white film (which
Kodak dominated). Since the formation of Kodak, the company has remained the
world’s leading film provider. Its revenue peaked at nearly $16 billion in 1996 and
its profits reached at $2.5 billion in 1999.

However, since the turn of the century, the fortunes of the once world’s leading
photographic firm has plummeted. Kodak reacted the digital revolution slowly,
therefore its experienced revenues plummet from $ 15 billion to $9.4 billion
in 2009. According to the Economist, the revenue wasdown to $6.2 billion in 2011.
The recorded revenues were $4,114 million in December, 2012, adrop by 20.1%
compared to 2011.The firm which employed over 145,000 workers worldwide,also
announced cuts of thousands of jobs and by early 2012, its shares were just trading
at around40 cents dropped from $40-45.

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Kodak’s difficult time arose in 1984, when the Japanese firm Fuji Photo Film Co.
entered in the Kodak’s market. Customers switched to the new products and kodak
did not expect that theircustomers will switch to a new one.
Kodak’s first challenge had to do with technology but theyrespond to it very slowly.
Declining scale was also a big problem for Kodak in its retail distributionnetwork.
Once the volume of film sales at retail stores started to drop, surviving in the
market became harder. This is not a unique problem. It happens in other
markets that are being affected by low-cost imports, market fragmentation, or more
sophisticated products are introduced. But in Kodak’s case, the category was
disappearing. For many years, Kodak management was careful not to talk about the
problem publicly.Kodak was in trouble for the nine months ended 30 September
2005, Kodak’s revenues increased by only 3% to US$10.07bn and the net-loss from
continuing operations totaled US$1.32bn, versusan income of US$139m. During
that time film sales for Kodak fell 37% for rolls and 13% in single-use cameras and
despite similar situation affecting the rest of the industry. But Kodak’s declines were
the steepest.Kodak and its rival, Fujifilm, saw their traditional business would
become obsolete. But Kodak failed to adapt new technology adequately. Kodak’s
unwillingness to change its efficient ability tomake and sell film in developing
digital technologies lost the chance that could have maintainedthe leading position
in digital image processing.Disruptive innovation caused a huge impact on Kodak.
George Fisher, who was a CEO of Kodakfrom 1993 until 1999, decided to produce
digital cameras and offered customers the ability to post and share the pictures
online. Although Kodak made a large amount of business out of digitalcameras with
revenue reaching $5.7 billion in 2005, it lasted only for few years before
camera phones entered the market. Kodak had great opportunities to offer innovati
ve and advanced products to its customers and retain their large market share. But it
did not realize the importanceof changing world to film and film related
technologies.The strategy of the company changed with each of several CEOs.
Kodak went through numerousrestructuring whenever there was a change in the
leader in the organization. Every new CEOs brought new priorities and the pursuit
of the company goal was also easily changed. The CEO,Antonio Perez, had started
focusing more on printing business, which was already dominated byHewlett
Packard, rather than manufacturing camera capability. The above reasons caused
the brandintoafailure. Now Kodak is in far better shape with a thriving brand licens
ing business worth $3m and aconsumer division which generated $48m in revenue
during the third quarter of 2018. Now they are developing their business beyond
the traditions.

“Kodak acted like a stereotypical change-resistant Japanese firm, while Fujifilm acted
like a flexible American one”.
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Vince Barabba argues that four interrelated capabilities are necessary to enable
effective enterprise-wide decision-making—none of which were particularly well-
represented during pivotal decisions at Kodak:

1. Having an enterprise mindset that is open to change.

Unless those at the top are sufficiently open and willing to consider all options, the
decision-making process soon gets distorted. Unlike its founder, George Eastman,
who twice adopted disruptive photographic technology, Kodak’s management in the
80’s and 90’s were unwilling to consider digital as a replacement for film. This
limited them to a fundamentally flawed path.

2. Thinking and acting holistically.

Separating out and then optimizing different functions usually reduces the
effectiveness of the whole. In Kodak’s case, management did a reasonable job of
understanding how the parts of the enterprise (including its photo finishing partners)
interacted within the framework of the existing technology. There was, however,
little appreciation for the effort being conducted in the Kodak Research Labs with
digital technology.

3. Being able to adapt the business design to changing conditions.

Barabba offers three different business designs along a mechanistic to organismic


continuum—make-and-sell, sense-and-respond and anticipate-and-lead. The right
design depends on the predictability of the market. Kodak’s unwillingness to change
its large and highly efficient ability to make-and-sell film in the face of developing
digital technologies lost it the chance to adopt an anticipate-and-lead design that
could have secured the it a leading position in digital image processing.

4. Making decisions interactively using a variety of methods.

This refers to the ability to incorporate a range of sophisticated decision


supporttools when tackling complex business problems. Kodak had a very effect
decision support process in place but failed to use that information effectively.

5. Failed to reinvent itself . The right lessons from Kodak are subtle. Companies
often see the disruptive forces affecting their industry. They frequently divert
sufficient resources to participate in emerging markets. Their failure is usually an

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inability to truly embrace the new business models the disruptive change opens up.
Kodak created a digital camera, invested in the technology, and even understood that
photos would be shared online. Where they failed was in realizing that online photo
sharing was the new business, not just a way to expand the printing business.

6. Complacency. The organization overflowed with complacency. I saw it, maybe in


the late 1980s. Kodak was failing to keep up even before the digital revolution when
Fuji started doing a better job with the old technology, the roll-film business. With the
complacency so rock-solid, and no one at the top even devoting their priorities toward
turning that problem into a huge urgency around a huge opportunity, of course they
went nowhere.

7. Lack of organisational agility. Kodak’s lack of strategic creativity led it to


misinterpret the very line of work and type of industry that it was operating in which
was later devastated with a fundamental shift towards the digital age. Strategic problems
were tackled through rigid means, and as mistakes in the manufacturing process were
costly, and profitability was high, Kodak avoided risky decisions, and instead
developed procedures and policies to maintain the quo.

REBRANDING STRATEGIES FOR THE KODAK


CAMERA TO ENTER IN THE MARKET
“The Kodak brand has always been really inclusive, it was previously a huge mass
consumer brand. Our brand has traditionally been with film, that was a mass
commodity whereas now it’s more of a premium product, but I think the interesting
thing for the brand is it stretches across both”. For chief brand officer Dany Atkins,
the ambition is for people to know and love the Kodak brand like they did in the
past. While the business is currently 80% focused on commercial print technologies,
a key part of her role over the past three years has been to bring the consumer brand
back in a “big way”.

Now Kodak is in far better shape, with a thriving brand licensing business worth
$3m and a consumer division which generated $48m in revenue during the third
quarter of 2018.

Whether they are working on the B2B or consumer side of the business, Atkins and
her team want to find pockets of space where the Kodak brand can shine, either
through new tech, in-house digital businesses or licensee agreements. The future

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strategy will see Kodak look for more brand relevant categories within which it can
develop new startup businesses.

“Essentially its about leveraging the brand and our marketing muscle to create
completely new businesses. That’s something quite focused on at the moment.” One
such emerging digital business is Kodakit, a platform used by brands like Uber and
Deliveroo to commission photographers for shoots. Photographers register on the
platform and then once selected businesses send over the specs for the photoshoot
they wish to commission. Once the bespoke shoot is finished the photographer edits
the images and uploads them to the Kodakit platform, from where the client
downloads the photos.

Kodak manages and processes all the payments and licensing on behalf of the
photographer, who has the fee paid straight into their account. The platform also has
a back-end AI system which checks all the images before they pass to the client to
ensure they are up to standard.

Developed entirely in-house, the platform was launched two years ago in Singapore
and has to-date commissioned more than 20,000 individual jobs and shared 300,000
images across 30 countries globally. Kodak it is run as a startup separate to the rest
of the company but still wholly owned by Kodak.

The brand’s support of the photographic community extends to collaborating with a


host of young, emerging photographers including the likes of Rosie Matheson and
Krissy Saleh. Discovering them via Instagram, Kodak supports these photographers
through their personal projects, as well as working with them on creating content for
the brand.

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Differentiation strategies with New innovation with Digital

Differentiation involves making products or services different from and more


attractive than competitors.

To make a success of a Differentiation strategy

Good research, development and innovation.

The ability to deliver high-quality products or services.

Effective sales and marketing, so that the market understands the benefits offered
by the differentiated offerings.

According to this Kodak may find the new way to create strong position with new
strategy that will push the brand into new era of brand.

As branding is a process of differentiation, Kodak must still preserve a unique


identity in order to stand out from its competitors. At the same time, it must be able
to form a brand image that is as cutting-edge as the technology it is starting to
promote.

Product Innovation for establish Differentiation strategy

The Product or Service Innovation refers to the case when an enterprise introduces
a new product in the market or provides a new service. (E.G. Carayannis et al, 2015)
Technology has never failed to amaze us with its continuous advancements. It has
been applied to many different fields including the field of photography.
Photography has been improved dramatically through time and more photography
advancements are still being developed till present. Therefore, through research and
development (R&D) Kodak should mitigate its risk and identify customer centric
product of photographic industry. Whilst following marketing segment strategies
and Brand extension strategies through the Brand Architecture model.

To become successful in the industry, it must have the ability to adapt to its consumer
tastes. If a company fails to offer the products and services that consumers demand,
there is a high probability that they will alter their allegiance to a better product.
Consumer buying habits, new products and services are things that must be
constantly be reviewed, analyzed and modified as needed through R&D. Since the
world has been dramatically changed by technology, the Kodak needs to constantly
innovate, develop the ideas and avoid complacency.

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CONCLUSION
Kodak brand failure study was an eye-opener that provides a great deal of insights
into running the business with technology. In order to maintain the company success,
the company should have moved into the digital world well enough and fast enough.
topics discussed throughout this study, we find Kodak guilty of effectively
determining its own fateful extinction, or in the very least, the business’ current
dilemmas. Kodak is an example of repeat strategic failure – it was unable to grasp
the future of digital quickly enough, and even when it did so, it was implemented
too slowly under a continuous change strategy and ultimately it did not fit coherently
as a core competency. Every time a technology makes a major advance, entirely new
brands emerge on the scene. In here former successes will be enough to carry the
brand through claiming, ‘the Kodak brand is likely to survive in one form or another.
As branding is a process of differentiation, Kodak must still preserve a unique
identity in order to stand out from its competitors. At the same time, it must be able
to form a brand image through the rebranding strategy with innovation in form of
Porter’s Differentiation strategy that is as cutting-edge as the technology it is starting
to promote. This is by no means impossible

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