In 1880, Kodak was founded by “George Eastman” in America. The company is popular for manufacturing camera related products. The headquarter of the Kodak is located in New York.
Market Penetration
In 2012, the company had closed its 13 manufacturing plants in the U.S due to bankruptcy. But now, Kodak is under the process of change. The primary objective of this transformation is to bring back the company’s original vision of the 1880s by reinventing the product to discover new marketing methods. In this manner, the company is trying to make photography very simple.
The company aim’s to rebuild the brand image of the Kodak as it has in the past. Currently, 80% of the business is concerned about the involvement of commercial print technologies in photography. Since the past few years, Kodak has neglected its position of competitive business organization in the print market but, now the company is providing technologies to print market that’s the reason for massive market share.
However, the company is concerned about energy to redevelop the consumer market through the production of its goods and registering the brand with a certain policy to maintain its image in the economy. At this time, Kodak has improved its position with a developing brand image worth $3m and the customer market. In the third quarter of 2018, the company has generated $48m in revenues.
The manager of the Kodak Atkin and her team has stated that the company is trying to identify those markets where it can rise through new technologies like in house digital firm or licensee contracts (KMIA, 2018).
Product Development
For example, two years ago Kodak has launched its new technology platform in Singapore to commission photographers for shoots. The new platform is named as “Kodak Kit” and it is used by Uber and delivery. By using the Kodak kit, photographers inscribe on the channel and then deliver the specs for the photoshoot which they intend to commit. At the end of the bespoke photoshoot, the photographer modifies the pictures and transmits them to the Kodak platform. After that, the client may easily download the images.
All payments and licensing processes are managed by Kodak on the behalf of a photographer who has paid fees at the time of registration. There is also a back-end AI system that evaluates the standard and quality of the photos, before passing them to the client. This system ensures that images are up to the mark and can deliver to clients. The company has shared around 300,000 images across 30 nations of the world.
Market Development
Internationally, Kodak is focusing on the development of its business in emerging countries like China and India are the most significant emerging markets with a triple annual growth rate. After the U.S and Japan, China is considered as one of the biggest photographic industries. Moreover, it is anticipated that China is going to overtake both U.S and Japanese markets in the future. It has been observed that currently, an average Chinese family utilizes 0.4 reels of a film annually and in case this ratio increases by 1roll annually then it could be equal to one more U.S market.
At the beginning of 2017, Kodak has earned the largest foothold in China by acquiring the manufacturing rights of exclusive photographic items. This rapid growth ensures the shutdown of Fuji from China. At the start of 2017, three Chinese photographic companies have relocated their assets to two joint ventures controlled by Kodak that manufactures film, photo paper, and chemicals. Kodak is making an investment of $1million on its joint ventures through funds, technology, and organization. One joint venture is operating its activities while the other one will start its activities in the upcoming summer (Forbes, 2017).
Diversification
After the failure of 2012, the film company has decided to diversify its business to recover the incurred loss. As Kodak has decided to enter the Chinese market, it has further decided to collaborate with Swedish textile retailer H&M in Hong Kong. Through this collaboration, the company is planning to produce a capsule series of men’s winter wear. T
he management of the company has reported that there will be original film print design and modified logo of Kodak on H&M collections. The products that will have the logo and film print involves hoodies, sweaters, and printed caps. These diversified products will only be available at H&M shops in Hong Kong (Ali, 2018).
References
- Ali, F. (2018). Kodak collaborates with H&M on menswear collection.
- KMIA, O. (2017). Why Kodak Died and Fujifilm Thrived: A Tale of Two Film Companies.
- What’s developing at Kodak: emerging markets. (2017). Retrieved 5 February 2020, from