Introduction
The main idea of traditional photography is to create images from the film and use information obtained from the camera’s aperture. This field is characterized by regular innovations and technology to attract the customer’s attention and increase demand. At the end of the 1800s, George Eastman founded Kodak that quickly became one of the main competitors in the photography industry (Gavetti et al., 2005). This organization was known for its successful decisions, including user-friendly production and appropriate technological contributions. Quality, innovation, and customer are the three aspects of Kodak’s strategy. Kodak’s leadership was confident about the necessity to strengthen its marketing and manufacturing steps, despite the external environment.
Kodak’s Strategy: Why Has the Company Been so Successful Throughout the History of the Industry?
Kodak’s strategy in traditional photography was not complex, but it was always successful and effective. The company demonstrated good results in almost all decisions in the industry’s history. Leaders understood that it was necessary to choose a focus and follow the offered plan. Thus, five major components of Kodak’s strategy could explain its success, namely:
- Quality and cost combination (people did not want to pay more if they had a chance to save money and get a product at a lower cost offered by Kodak);
- Customer satisfaction (instead of complicating the sphere of technology, Kodak tried to make it as simple as possible. The example is its slogan, “You press the button, we do the rest” (Gavetti et al., 2005, p. 1);
- Distribution (new distribution channels were constantly identified to offer Kodak products internationally);
- Advertising (integrated marketing and attention to customers set the necessary tone);
- Research (the investigation of the field, the discovery of the razor blade model, and other photofinishing products were integral for Kodak).
Was Kodak’s Response to Sony’s Introduction of the Mavica in 1981 Appropriate?
In 1981, Sony became an author of a new idea that shaped traditional photography – a filmless digital camera, Mavica, to demonstrate pictures on screens. Kodak was unsure if the offered silver-halide technology could last long (Gavetti et al., 2005). Sony’s achievement was recognized as a threat to traditions or cannibalism of photography (Gavetti et al., 2005). In its turn, Kodak did not take a step to implement digital technologies at the end of the 1990s, which provoked many unwanted outcomes and failures. In 1997, Fisher (the current CEO) admitted that it was a serious mistake not to try digitalization after Sony’s attempt with Mavica (Gavetti et al., 2005). That is why it is correct to say that the response to Sony’s Mavica was inappropriate for Kodak at that moment.
Conclusion
In total, Kodak’s success could be explained in a variety of ways, including its effective marketing and customer orientation. In addition, the company’s strategy included high quality, reasonable prices, user-friendly designs and services, and innovation through research. Although wrong decisions were made from time to time, like Mavica’s inappropriate response, Kodak hired the best people to improve the situation and learn from mistakes to succeed as one of the most recognizable organizations in traditional and digitalized photography.
Reference
Gavetti, G., Henderson, R., & Giorgi, S. (2005). Kodak and the digital revolution (A). Web.