Kodak Company Digital Marketing Audit Research Paper
Introduction
The modern business environment includes stiff competition and regular changes that could impact operations. Kodak Company is among the companies that have struggled to remain successful because of the disruptions in the business environment. However, the Company has leveraged its marketing capabilities over the past five years to get back on its feet. Its past mistakes have shaped Kodak’s marketing capabilities. The Company began by being successful in marketing by using appealing television commercials and marketing campaigns, but the success of its marketing strategy was short-lived because of technological disruptions. It was reluctant to market new technology to avoid reducing the profitability of its filming business. It also assumed that it would be more successful in the film business instead of focusing on telling memorable stories through its images. However, after facing bankruptcy, it discovered that it would not be successful without embracing new technology and embracing it and copying what competitors do. Since then, the Company has developed its marketing strategy to grow its customer base and increase revenue. This report will review Kodak’s marketing strategy and brand elements.
The Brand History
Kodak is a global American company that produces different products related to photography. The Company has created a reputation as one of the world’s largest camera and film manufacturers because it had a large market share in the photography industry in the 20th century. The Company joined the market as the leading producer of photographic film. It was established as a partnership between Henry Strong and George Eastman in 1881 as the Eastman Dry Plate Company. Henry Strong was the president, and George Eastman was the treasurer during its establishment. Eastman Dry Plate Company sold camera dry plates, but George wanted to replace glass plates with a roll film. The Company was re-incorporated as the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company in 1884. The Company patented its first practical film roll holder in 1885 with the help of William Walker. The role holder allowed dry plate cameras to store different exposures in a camera simultaneously. The Company also patented a paper film in 1885 called “American Film.” In 1889, the Company issued its shares for $100 after renaming it the Eastman Company. In 1892, the Company was renamed Eastman Kodak, and in 1901, Eastman Kodak was introduced in New Jersey and operated alongside Eastman Kodak. In 1936, Eastman Kodak in New York was dissolved, and all the assets were transferred to Eastman Kodak in New Jersey. The Company operated successfully until the beginning of the 21st century when it began facing a major decline in its consumer market for photography-related products and cameras. It began emphasizing digital photography products. The strategy enabled it to continue being a leading supplier of photographic chemicals, papers, and films for professional photographers. It also established dominance in manufacturing single-use motion-picture film and other consumer digital cameras, visual communications equipment, and aerial surveillance films. In January 2012, the Company filed for bankruptcy and later announced that it would not manufacture digital and other digital cameras anymore.
Kodak’s type of business is manufacturing. The Company focuses on digital and traditional print, chemicals used in print and photography, and advanced materials. The Company provides software, hardware, services, and consumables to customers in commercial packaging, print, entertainment, manufacturing, publishing, and other industries. Traditional print products include computer-to-plate imaging solutions and digital offset plate offerings. Digital printing solutions include production press systems, electrically charged toner-based technology services and software, inkjet components, and consumables. Kodak also offers advanced chemicals and materials to help businesses implement new ideas. It also conducts research, develops new products and functions for known chemistries and materials, and files patent applications for innovations and inventions. Kodak’s business ownership is the partnership business ownership. According to Hillman & Loewenstein (2015), a partnership is a business where two or more people combine resources and agree to share losses, profits, and risks. Kodak has established a partnership with 13 companies. Kodak provides its products through customers or by leveraging its partners’ strengths. The partners include VMware Inc., BigCommerce, SAP, Intel, CDW Canada, GlobalVision, Bloomfire, Animoto, OSG, Forever 21, ImageTech Systems, High Plains Technology, and Telic Digital Limited.
VMware Inc. is an American virtualization and cloud computing Technology Company. The Company has established dominance in cloud infrastructures and digital workspace technology by speeding up digital transformation and creating flexibility and freedom in how customers evolve and build IT environments. Kodak uses VMware services to modernize its data centers and integrate the public cloud. BigCommerce is an e-commerce company that offers software services to retailers by creating online stores, hosting search engine optimization, security, and marketing to enable businesses to increase online sales with 80% less time, cost, and complexity. SAP is a European global company that develops enterprise software to manage customer relations and business operations. Intel is an American multinational company that manufactures semiconductor chips. The Company also manufactures and supplies network interface controllers, integrated flash memory, motherboard chipsets, circuits, graphic chips, embedded processors, and other devices related to computing and communications.CDW Canada is a multinational company that provides technology services and products for the government and businesses. GlobalVision is a global company that instantly identifies critical errors to help companies in regulated industries reach the market faster without reducing quality.
Bloomfire creates software applications to help companies search and share information, research, and insights on a web-based application platform that allows people to ask questions, create or add new content, and browse or search existing content. Animoto is a cloud-based company that produces video from video clips, photos, and music into slideshows and web-based presentations that can be customized.OSG is a company that manufactures and sells precision machine tools. Forever 21 is a fashion retailer that sells beauty products, accessories, clothing, and home goods for children, men, and women. Kodak partnered with Forever 21 to offer clothes branded with Kodak color schemes and logos from the 1990s.ImageTech Systems is a multinational company that eliminates cost-intensive and manual processes. Kodak partnered with ImageTech to facilitate the distribution of printing material, lamination systems, mini-labs, and dye-sublimation equipment. High Plains Technology is a technology solutions company that offers integrated support in designing technology solutions using software, hardware, and services to meet business requirements. Telic Digital Limited is a multinational company that helps organizations simplify the digital automation of processes and digital transformation.
Brand Elements
According to Omoruyi & Chinomona (2019), a brand element is a verbal or visual information used to differentiate and identify a product. The main brand elements are symbols, characters, logos, names, slogans, and packaging. The elements can be chosen to increase brand awareness or facilitate the development of a good, solid, and unique brand association. Brands focus on what customers think about them if they only know the brand name when selecting brand elements. Most brands emphasize visual brand elements that are used to build equity, which is essential for maintaining and establishing a presence in the market. The emphasis of brand visual elements is to ensure that the brand will be easily recognizable and memorable. Kodak’s brand elements include its logo, style, design, jingle, and brand image. A brand logo is a symbol that customers use to identify the brand. Logos comprise colors, images, and words. Style includes how a brand operates to distinguish itself from competitors. The design consists of the designs used to make a brand recognizable to customers. It may include the brand’s typography and color scheme. A jingle is a short tune or song used in an advertisement.
Brand image is a broad concept. According to Mazloomi et al. (2015), brand image is customers’ overall feeling and perception of a brand. Brands communicate their value through their brand image. The value may be based on the financial success of the brand and brand equity, which is how customers feel about a brand. One of the elements of a brand image is awareness, which includes the customer’s ability to remember basic information about a brand. Brand awareness includes brand recognition and recall. According to Gerber et al. (2014), brand recognition is the level of consumer ability to correctly identify a particular service or product by seeing the brand logo, marketing campaign, packaging, and tagline. On the other hand, brand recall is the likelihood of customers remembering the brand’s services and products. The second element is a brand concept, which includes the idea behind a brand’s products and services. The brand concept may also include the brand’s values.
The third element is reputation. A brand’s reputation plays a vital role in its success. It defines how customers perceive a brand and feel about its products and services. The fourth element is culture. Every Company has its unique business culture that defines how they operate. Business culture is a company’s procedural and behavioral norms, including ethics, policies, values, procedures, goals, employee behaviors, and code of conduct. Business culture is mainly used to create a relationship with customers by aligning the Company’s culture with the values and beliefs of its customers. The fifth element is the quality of the products and services offered by a company. Quality includes how well a service or a product satisfies its customer’s needs, meets industry standards, and serves the purpose outlined in its mission and vision. The sixth element is the brand’s legacy, which is the history that a brand retains in the customers’ minds. The seventh element is status, which includes the perceived rank at which customers place a company. A brand can establish status as a luxury brand to justify setting high prices. Brand image is gradually developed by improving the brand image elements that matter most to a brand, such as value, reputation, and legacy.
Kodak uses its logo to distinguish itself from competitors and create a memorable image for the audience who view it. Kodak’s logo has changed over the years since the Company was established. The first logo was created in 1907 using a simple design. The design included a letter mark with the Company’s initials, ECK. The letters were written in a circle to symbolize completeness and authority (Ray, 2021). The circular enclosure was standard at that time and was also used by government agencies. However, the design was unsatisfactory because it seemed the Company only showed the brand’s name instead of impressing the audience. Therefore, a new design was established in 1935. The new design had colors that caught the audience’s attention. The Company used yellow as the background color, and the name Kodak was written in red. The aim of selecting the colors is that they express feelings of passion, love, happiness, and warmth (Ray, 2021). The purpose of the colors was to connect the photography business with the customers based on the assumption that people take pictures during happy occasions. The new logo also had a different shape. The new shape was a landscape. The logo was changed in 1960 when the Company introduced the triangular-shaped logo. The new shape was aimed at giving the Company a unique and new shape. The red and yellow colors were, however, retained. The logo also included a curl at the corner to create a distinct look for the identity of the company. The curl was retained for a long time because it made the brand stand out.
In 1971, a more stylish logo was created. The Company changed the triangular shape to a square, which is still used today. According to Ray (2021), the shape was selected because it created a feeling of honesty and stability. The shape included a small red square with yellow borders. A yellow arrow was carved in the square to create a stylish look, and the letters of the Kodak name were written in Serif fonts. The letter K was also added to the box as the Company’s symbol. In 1987, another logo was created. The main changes were in the design. The Company removed the serif font to create a simpler appearance. The square was also redesigned to make it look more appealing. A more elegant design was created in 2006. It removed the square and rectangular shapes. The new design only included the Company’s name and a distinctive typeface that was custom-made. The Company’s full name was written in red, and the letters were positioned in yellow bars. The final logo was created in 2016. The old Kodak logo was reintroduced.
Kodak has always maintained its style of emphasizing meeting customers’ needs and appealing to their emotions by expressing love, happiness, and possession through its logo. The Company also constantly improves its products to meet customers’ needs. According to Patel (2020), the Company operates under a growth strategy characterized by providing timely customized solutions with limited service disruption and a lower budget. It also offers solutions to increase business efficiency through the value chain and capability analysis, marketing and sales, human resource management, and technological development functions. The company’s technology department gives leverage to exploring different fields with 3D printers. The Company’s style is influenced by the current organizational status, which is determined by predicting future changes in the business environment and how to deal with the changes. The Company also uses a crafting strategy to compete with competitors, attract customers, and adjust to changes. Crafting includes designing products that meet specific customer needs and preferences.
Kodak’s style includes dividing operations into different industries. The primary industries are the imaging and photographic sector and the international imaging industry. The photographic industry aims to facilitate imaging activities. It brings together partners who have invested in the photography and imaging industry to ensure that the proper imaging standards are met. The International Imaging Industry Association is considered the global imaging framework meant to facilitate the production and creation of visual images and ensure that it is easier and simpler. The Company has changed its structure regularly to align its activities with the geographic formation of the department based on culture and organizational structure. The Company also uses segmentation to meet customer needs and preferences. The main segments are digital and traditional printing segmentation. The Company also uses its jingle to appeal to customers. Kodak’s jingle is the “Times of Your Life” song. The song is emotional and aims to appeal to the audience’s emotions of happiness and love. The song was later recorded and shared across the United States to the point that it became a hit.
Developing Kodak’s brand image has been a long process characterized by success and failure. Since 1884, Kodak has been considered a brand associated with the highest quality of imaging products. The Company also has a long history of meeting customers’ needs to create trust and transparency. The Company maintained a good brand image until its stock value and finances began declining. In 2009, the Company sold various divisions to repay its debts from previous investments. The Kodak Health Group, initially one of the Company’s most profitable units, was sold, and some of the money from the sale was used to repay debts. The Company also lost many employees because it could not pay them on time. The Company could not sustain itself financially and turned to patent litigation to increase its revenue. It received $838 million in 2010 from patent licensing. By 2011, the Company was using most of its revenues to repay debts, leading to bankruptcy risk. The cash revenues had decreased from $1.6 billion to $957 million between 2011 and 2001. Later, in 2011, the Company considered licensing or selling off most of its portfolio to prevent bankruptcy. In January 2012, the Company filed for bankruptcy protection and acquired a $950 million loan to sustain operations. During the bankruptcy period, the Company sold most of its patents to companies such as Facebook, Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung, Microsoft, HTC, and Adobe for approximately $525 million.
The Company also announced that it would stop producing various products, including digital picture frames, pocket video cameras, digital cameras, and inject printers. The Company also sold its commercial scanners, photographic film, and photo kiosk operations. The kiosks were reorganized and integrated into Kodak Alaris. The Company recovered from bankruptcy in 2013 and began operating as a technology company focusing on imaging services. It began focusing on entertainment and commercial films, graphics, digital printing, and enterprise management. Since recovering from bankruptcy, the Company has made various efforts to improve its brand image. Since 2014, it has licensed its brand to multiple companies. It also founded a spinoff company called eApeiron in 2016 to eliminate counterfeit products and promote originality. This move enabled the Company to continue generating revenue, thus enabling it to maintain operations and develop a competitive advantage.
Although the company has taken various steps towards redeeming its reputation since the bankruptcy, it has a legacy of being among the giant companies that have failed because of poor planning. According to Gershon (2013), the leading cause of Kodak’s decline was the failure to embrace new technology and adapt to the changes in marketing needs. The Company also used most of its revenue to acquire small companies instead of investing in innovation that could distinguish its products from competitors such as Fuji Films. The Company also spent a lot of time promoting the use of film cameras instead of embracing the ideas that competitors were implementing. The Company also ignored feedback from the market and media and insisted on convincing customers that film cameras were better than digital cameras. Failure to adjust to the changes in the business environment also caused the Company to lose the external funding it was getting from investors, leading to bankruptcy. Kodak also has a legacy of producing the best cameras and using emotional commercials that remain in the audience’s memory for a long time.
Key Aspects of Digital Marketing
Kodak uses an Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) strategy to market its products and communicate with existing and potential customers. According to Ang (2018), Integrated Marketing Communication involves coordinating various communication methods to send a brand’s message. One of the tools of IMC is advertising. Advertising aims to improve a brand’s personality and spread the brand’s message convincingly and quickly to a wide range of consumers. It includes television and radio advertisements, posters, and print advertisements. The second tool is direct marketing. Direct marketing focuses on passing a brand message only to the people interested in the products and services the Company offers (Abraham & Joseph, 2019). The main direct marketing methods used by most brands include EDM marketing, telemarketing, online targeted display ads, and brochures. The third tool is the internet or digital marketing. It consists of using online platforms to pass a brand’s message. The fourth tool is sales promotion, which is divided into two categories.
The first category is a consumer-oriented promotion, which focuses on increasing the sale of products and services to existing customers and trying to reach new customers. The second category is a trade-oriented promotion that focuses on selling more products and services from a brand than competitors, forcing the competitors to order more from one seller. The fifth tool is public relations. According to Carney & Lymer (2015), public relations is a calculated communication practice that emphasizes building mutually beneficial interactions between a brand and its customers. One of the main types of public relations is social media and online communications. It includes communicating with customers through online social media platforms by replying to their feedback and informing them about new products, services, and product modifications. The second type of public relations is media relations. It focuses on reports and news. The goal of media relations is to give brands a lasting influence on their customers by making the brand hit headlines that boost its views and popularity. The third type is crisis communications, including damage control when a company’s brand reputation is threatened. The fourth type is public affairs, which includes the engagement of brands and customers through constant communication. The fifth type is strategic communications, which includes sharing the brand’s long-term plan and goals with the customers.
Kodak’s IMC focuses on connecting with its customers. One of the components of Kodak’s IMC is advertising. The Company advertises its products through various television, radio, and newspaper channels. Advertising has been one of the main contributors to the Company’s growth since it was established (Patel, 2020). The second component is sales promotion. The Company uses various sales promotions to attract customers and inform them about new products. The Company’s campaigns include media relations, advertising, and online initiatives. For example, the Company initiated a Kodak Moments campaign that captured eight different groups of friends and families uninterrupted, douc-styling in daily unscripted moments. The campaign’s goal was to communicate those moments that matter most to people, which are supposed to be appreciated and spontaneous instead of voyeuristic and planned. The third component is electronic media advertisements.
Kodak has embraced the use of electronic media to advertise its products and communicate with customers through emails and social media platforms over the past five years. The fourth component is customer relationship management. Kodak ensures that its products meet specific customer needs and preferences. The Company has also maintained a legacy of trust, honesty, and transparency over the years, including transparency about its bankruptcy, thus creating customer trust. The fifth component is public relations. Kodak uses public relations by using movie-themed promotions to appeal to the customers’ emotions and connect with them. The Company also offers gifts to customers to retain them. For example, it provided customers free movie tickets to customers who made a purchase worth $20 at the Kodak EasyShare Gallery website to watch the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest movie. The Company also uses different media adversaries to communicate effectively with its customers. The main targets of its digital technology photography are photography enthusiasts and youth. For example, it used its “So Kodak” campaign to engage hip-hop artists with many followers. The company also used “Its Tie for You and Kodak” to appeal to youth and photography enthusiasts. The campaign was successful and enabled the Company to attract many customers.
Kodak has maintained a history of using emotional television commercials to attract customers. Television advertising is designed to influence the behavior of potential and existing customers by encouraging them to purchase, switch from another brand, or remain loyal to one brand. Kodak’s television commercials include storytelling. The Company uses storytelling to connect customers emotionally to the brand and support the family ideal. In the years after the Company was established, the television commercial included middle-class, white Americans who were by that time considered the ideal customers (Josephson, 2018). However, the diversity of people in television commercials has increased over the past five years. The Company currently embraces gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation diversity in its television commercials. Recent television commercials also emphasize suggesting that customers should use their cameras to capture special moments to maintain ideal happiness even when the family is not physically together. The Company intends to convey that it is committed to supporting American ideals of freedom of choice and family values. For example, in a television commercial titled “Understanding,” which was created in 2012, the Company tells the story of a teenage homosexual teenager and his father. In the commercial, the Company demonstrates how the Kodak camera captured the family’s reaction when they discovered their child was homosexual. The commercial’s slogan, The moments that capture your love, was aimed at encouraging people to capture the most important memories of their lives. The commercial was also aimed at being a starting point in the modern advertising world for the American brand and being able to continue growing to develop a place in the new era of photography (Josephson, 2018). The Company’s focus on family is evident in past commercials such as “The Adventures Ozzie and Harriet” commercial aired in the 1950s, demonstrating how the Company and its products are suitable for families (Josephson, 2018). Another advertisement was created in 1956 showing a mother and a son filming home movies and taking captions at home using a Kodak camera. The commercial emphasized the convenience of using Kodak cameras to document family memories. The ending of the commercial stated that the company is familiar and dependable, thus emphasizing that the company understands what matters to customers and that customers know what to trust.
Kodak uses newspaper advertisements to reach customers within the same region. Newspaper advertisements are classified into text, display, and classified display advertisements. Text classified advertisements include texts that appear in the classified section of newspapers. Classified display advertisements have an image that appears in the advertisement to make it more appealing. Display newspaper advertisements include advertisements that appear alongside regular newspaper content. The advertisements may be traditional, remarketing, responsive, social, discovery, and native. Traditional display advertisements include skyscraper, square, and landscape image sizes, including images with some texts. Traditional advertisements are mainly placed on company websites. Responsive display advertisements include various text headlines, images, and descriptions that the advertisement platform uses to orient, size, and place an advertisement in different combinations. The platform picks the format that performs best for the target audience. Retargeting display advertisements include displaying advertisements to people who have visited the Company’s website in a specific timeframe but have not completed the desired action, such as completing a purchase or leaving a review. Social advertisements are advertisements placed on social networks such as Facebook. They include a combination of images and texts. Discovery advertisements use machine learning to show images in the most appropriate format. Native advertisements are placed and designed the same way as the content in emails and websites. Kodak’s newspaper advertisements are mainly infographics informing customers about the product’s features. The Company also uses newspaper advertisements to tell the Company’s story and appeal to customers’ emotions. The infographics include pictures of families or individuals to make them more appealing to the customers.
Kodak also uses radio advertising as part of its traditional marketing approach. Radio advertising has become a common advertising medium for many companies because it is convenient and cheap and enables the brand to reach many customers. Radio also offers substantial demographic coverage because of its ability to appeal to a wide range of audiences through different programs such as education, news, music, and entertainment programs. Kodak airs a narrative of its commercials on popular radio stations and uses a unique tune to make the advertisement memorable to listeners. One of the popular radio advertisements the Company has used in the past is the advertisement titled “Kodak,” released in 2002. OMD, a media communications company offering communications and media planning services, created the advertisement. Most radio advertisements focus on telling a brief story that appeals to the audience’s emotions and mentions the products’ features and prices. The Company also uses radio advertisements to inform customers where they can find more information about the Company’s products. For example, Kodak uses its annual reports and trade journals to inform customers about its products.
Conclusion
Based on the information discussed in this report, it is evident that marketing plays a significant role in a company’s success. Kodak Company has come a long way in developing its brand over the years. The Company invests in its brand elements to connect with its customers. For example, the Company continuously improved its logo to include features that enabled it to communicate an emotional message to customers to build a connection. The Company’s Jingle also focuses on building an emotional connection with its customers. The Company’s choice of content in its television commercial also suggests that its main emphasis is creating an emotional connection with customers to create a long-term relationship. Currently, Kodak is facing stiff competition, hence the need to develop and maintain customer loyalty. The Company can use its Integrated Marketing Communications strategy to maintain constant communication with customers and reach many customers, thus creating a competitive advantage. The Company should also consider investing in digital marketing to reach more customers since digital marketing is one of the most effective ways of quickly reaching a diverse group of customers.
References
Abraham, V., & Joseph, J. (2019). An Empirical Study on Direct Marketing as the Most Effective Form of Marketing in the Digitalized Marketing Environment. International Journal of Research Science & Management, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2536255
Ang, L. (2018). Integrated marketing communications. Communication. https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199756841-0204
Carney, W. W., & Lymer, L. (2015). Fundamentals of public relations and marketing communications in Canada. University of Alberta.
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Gershon, R. A. (2013). Innovation failure: A case study analysis of Eastman Kodak and Blockbuster Inc. Media Management and Economics Research in a Transmedia Environment, 62-84. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203538326-13
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Patel, R. (2020). Eastman Kodak. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340939733_Eastman_Kodak
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Question 
Kodak Company Digital Marketing Audit Research Paper
THE COMPANY IS KODAK
The Brands History
Date Founded
Type of Business
Type of Ownership
The Brands Elements
Logo (if they have one) or Symbol
Style
Design
Jingle (if they have one)
Brand Image
Key Aspects of Digital Marketing (of your brand; a-n)
Marketing and Communications
Advertising
Television Ads
Newspaper Ads
Radio Advertising