Introduction
Eastman Kodak Corporation is an American multinational public company that engages in production imaging as well as photographic tools and equipment. It is a renowned market leader that provides photographic products as well as services to customers around the globe either for fun purposes or commercial purposes. The company introduces innovative and up-to-date photography products to the market, hence allowing people to take photos, share them while enjoying the beauty of the picture. The company is among the leading in the world in the provision of the associated products and services, and the company’s management is always inclined towards providing the best products in a highly competitive industry. Over the years, Kodak has continued to provide digital solutions while improving entertainment through expansion of how images can touch people’s lives (Hardy, 2015). The company is ever striving to develop competitive products to help its growth strategies and profitability. The following paper seeks to establish the marketing strategies that the firm has adopted to steer it to success. The marketing plan analyses the marketing objectives, target markets as well as the position of the business’s products.
Marketing & product objectives
Kodak has focused on the development of strategies to increase its sales volume and profits through various marketing activities and product design. Recently, the company has changed the traditional marketing slogans such as ‘you push the button, we do the rest’ and ‘share moments, share life’ to a new slogan titled ‘Print and Prosper’, as part of its new aggressive marketing plan. The new plan is more eye catching to the consumers as it explains how the company’s new print products offer the consumers with affordable printing solutions in a recession-hit economy.
Company chief marketing officer, Jeff Hayzlett, who has even taken to TV advertising to push the brand, has led the campaign. The newly introduced inkjet printers are expected to cost between 150 and 300 $, which represents a 50 % cut in price compared to the prices offered by the company’s competitors. Additionally, the company plans to introduce cheaper printing solutions for its target market. For instance, it plans to charge $ 9.99 for black ink cartridges and $ 14.99 for the colored ink jets. In so doing, the company will attain a larger share of the $ 50 billion print industry, therefore punishing it reducing profitability upwards (Hamm & Symonds, 2010). Currently, Kodak has nineteen products which have managed to market effectively such that each has found a top five place in their respective industries.
According to the plan, in the short run, the company seeks to reinforce its dominance in the market by developing relatively cheap products and at the same time cutting the cost of the existing products. This move will not only attract new customers to subscribe to the new and existing products, but also thrust the firm to increase profitability. For instance, the company enjoyed $1 billion dollars from these operations in 2010.
A company has to employ number strategies to achieve competitive advantage, . As such, this could include the use of cost leadership or diversification. Some companies choose to use a combination of the two, which is called the hybrid approach. Diversification takes two primary forms: Related Diversification and Unrelated Diversification. A company is said to have undertaken related diversification if it expands its operation in activities similar to its strategies. On the contrary, unrelated diversification occurs when a company chooses to expand its operations by engaging in business unrelated to its normal activities.Michael Porter devised a model which organizations can employ to undertake diversification.
Michael Porter's stipulated five forces as a framework to provide a ground for the managers to weigh the threats as well as openings to an organization from its competitors.Eastman Kodak started its diversification journey into commercial medical and pharmaceutical companies between the years 1983 and 1993.At that time and still, now the industries above were very profitable hence it was very prudent to undertake expansion in that direction.During the ten years, the company took over or acquired several pharmaceuticals as well as bio-related firms.The aim of this move was to increase the company’s medical photography range, enhance the company’s profitability and enhance Kodak’s brands at minimum risk possible. The anticipated results were not achieved. In that decade, the primary photography business for Kodak declined significantly to make customers run to other competitors such as Fuji (The Economist, 2012 ).These competitors were offering services at lower prices that Kodak.It is this reason that forced the company’s management to consider undertaking related diversification.
The company agreed to spend $5.1 billion to acquire Sterling Drug INC. As such, this can be said to have been a dream for the business for quite a long time. The move came as a surprise to many, but Kodak and its analyst stated that the cost of the takeover would soon be recovered, within a period of four years. The company described acquisitions of the Sterling Drug INC as the only section of the awaited policy aimed to create a foundation of Kodak into the drug industry. The second part of the diversification strategy had been to establish a pharmaceutical research as well as a development program.
Points of Difference and Positioning
In the modern business environment characterized by cut-throat competition practices, sustainability has become a challenging fit for companies to achieve. However, Kodak has a long history in the development of products that consider the needs of varying stakeholders such as customers, employees, and shareholders, among others. Although the practice of this approach leads to sustainability, the competitiveness of a company is always put to test because there are numerous competitors in the market. The demise of the company is significantly attributed to the inability to make changes in tandem with the increased use of new technology of digital photography and irresponsiveness to customer preferences. The fall of the company reflects how businesses should make seismic shifts regarding how they should undertake their activities.
With the increased competition in the global business environment, companies should focus on identifying the new opportunities in the market, exploit them and identify other trends. The concept of sustainable business should not be used solely as the organization’s competitive edge. For instance, the primary focus of Kodak in the 1980s and 1990s was in the production of film-based photography, which was slowly being eroded with the entry of digital technologies. On the other hand, competitors such as Fuji Film invested in digital technology, which made it achieve a competitive edge. As such, Kodak needs to adopt a transient approach where the leaders can identify the opportune time of investing in other strategies other than getting stuck in a competitive advantage that is about to get obsolete. The company established various strategies such as franchising and achievement of sustainable growth based on cross-sectional strategies that focus on material science and digital imaging science. The organization has invested heavily in digital printing, which has been identified as having promising growth prospects.
The modern business environment is characterized by assertive consumers, who require knowing in-depth details about a product. Additionally, these consumers are also characterized by increased use of digital technologies, which Kodak has to identify with to attain their loyalty. Kodak has digitized service provision through online stores, although there are customers who still prefer to visit stores for the services. The organization has opened numerous stores through franchising to meet the needs of the off-the-shelf consumers. The organization has established new approaches of b2c and B2B, through the creation of Consumer Digital Imaging Group and Graphic Communication Group. Through their B2C business approach, the company supplies digital photo frames, digital cameras, and videos, offering customers unique opportunities of sharing happiness and re-discovering beauty.
The organization should focus on utilizing new marketing channels such as social media, which has significantly been used by young people to share. Kodak acknowledges the significance of social media in marketing strategy, and there have been numerous discussions concerning Kodak. For instance, in early 2010 the company engaged in social media engagements through conversations with many people, where the company realized that many consumers had a vague idea about the business’s products. As such, it is essential to identify consumers and business customers because all require different treatment and content, especially when it comes to advertising (The Economist, 2012 ). As such, although the company experienced weak performance due to the adoption of non-innovative strategies, it has started adopting digital technologies, and it is just a matter of time for the organization to redeem its lost glory in the international market.
References
Hamm, S., & Symonds, W. C. (2010, November 27). Mistakes Made On The Road To Innovation. Retrieved 07 06, 2016, from Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2010-11-26/mistakes-made-on-the-road-to-innovation
HARDY, Q. (2015, MARCH 20). At Kodak, Clinging to a Future Beyond Film. Retrieved 07 06, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/business/at-kodak-clinging-to-a-future-beyond-film.html?_r=0
The Economist. (2012, January 14). The last Kodak moment? Retrieved 07 06, 2016, from Economist: http://www.economist.com/node/21542796
