Eastman Kodak, commonly known as Kodak, is an American multinational imaging and photography company. Kodak has been well known for their film products and during the 20th century. Kodak was one of the most dominants brands in the US market by having a 90% market share and was consider one of the world’s most valuable brands. One of the remarkable question is how a multinational company having the majority of market share in their market ended bankrupt?
Some consider that Kodak failed because they did not anticipate how fast these digital cameras became commodities, with low profit margins, as more companies entered this market in the mid-2000 but this is a lie because Kodak ended up inventing the first digital camera in 1975.
Others argue that their marketing strategy was not the correct one. The marketing failure was that Kodak did not invested in new technology, instead they held back because they thought that their revenues could be affected even though they new that the digital camera market was increasing exponentially.
“Kodak thought that its new digital technology would cannibalize its film business.” (Dan).
Companies like Sony and Canon saw an opportunity in this market and went ahead with their digital cameras. By the time Kodak wanted to enter the market it was too late. Kodak market share was declined and the digital imaging was dominating the market (Zwick, and Mui).
One of the key factors of marketing is to determine “what business are we in?” and not “How do we sell products”? (Dan). This was one of the main reasons why Kodak failed, simply because they were asking the wrong question.
Taken From:
Dan, Avi. “Kodak Failed By Asking The Wrong Marketing Question.” CMO Network. (2012): n. page. Web. 27 Feb. 2013. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/avidan/2012/01/23/kodak-failed-by-asking- the-wrong-marketing-question/>.
Zwick, Steve, and Chunka Mui. “How Kodak Failed.” Forbes Leadership. (2012): n. page. Print. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/chunkamui/2012/01/18/how- kodak-failed/3/>.