Detailed SWOT Analysis of Kodak | IIDE

About Kodak

The American brand, Eastman Kodak Company was founded by George Eastman and Henry Strong on May 23, 1892. Kodak is famous for its production of various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. It has its headquarters in Rochester, New York, US.

Kodak used a very unique business strategy called the razor and blade business model i.e selling inexpensive cameras and making large margins from consumables. In the late ’90s, Kodak commanded around 90% of film sales and 85% of camera sales in the U.S.

From one of the most profitable brands to bankruptcy in 2011 and trying to come back in 2013 Kodak has been through everything.

Let us now start with the SWOT analysis of Kodak.

SWOT Analysis of Kodak

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that can be used by Eastman Kodak Company managers to try to do a situational analysis of the corporate. It is one of the main techniques to know the Strengths (S), Weaknesses (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) that Eastman Kodak Company is facing in its current business environment.

This helps the company to know where it stands in the market, where it needs to improve, and what it needs to be aware of.

Let us first look at the Strengths of Kodak.

1. Strengths of Kodak

As one of the leading brands in its industry, Eastman Kodak Company has numerous strengths that enable it to thrive within the marketplace. Though the company filed for bankruptcy in 2011, the company made a loyal customer base through its quality products. So let’s dive in and know about the strengths of Kodak in detail.

• Product portfolio – Kodak has a wide range of products in the market. It has products for industrial, personal and commercial use like photographic photo-finishing services, paper and chemicals, graphic arts, medical/X-ray films, and microfilming equipment.

• Reliable suppliers – Quality supply of raw material is the need of every business and Kodak has a strong base of reliable suppliers of raw materials thus enabling the company to overcome any supply chain bottlenecks.

• After-sale service – The company’s dedicated customer service department has a high level of satisfaction among its existing and potential customers. This department has been able to achieve this level due to its dedicated staff members.

• Trained workforce – Successful training and development programs help develop a highly skilled workforce. Through effective training and learning programs, the company’s highly skilled workforce is motivated to achieve more.

Let us now see the weaknesses of Kodak.

2. Weaknesses of Kodak

• Virtual stores – Even though Kodak had such goodwill they didn’t try to go digital, while others were selling their products on the internet, this affected their sales. Later on, they started adopting digital methods but it was too late.
• Lack of Vision – Due to its slow transmission from analogue to digital, Optical & imaging technology has suffered huge losses in terms of decreasing market share. They didn’t adapt to the new marketing trends and eventually had to suffer losses.
• Market Knowledge – Being one of the biggest market brands Kodak was unable to see the needs of people and changes in the market for their products and due to technology, they didn’t adapt to the current situation resulting in a huge market loss.

The generation of photoholic people brings many opportunities to companies like Kodak, let’s find them out.

3. Opportunities of Kodak

In the era of best camera selling phones, companies like kodak still have a chance to survive and make a comeback in the market keeping different things in mind like:

• Adapting –  It is time for Kodak to move from photo films to the digital camera and other quality stuff. The shift in the technology & easy transmission to the platforms which will turn around the company is essential which they realized and are now coming up with their smartphones with fantastic imaging technology.

• Market and Lifestyle – With the changing time and technology, smartphones have become an essential part of the lifestyle Kodak must work on developing cameras for mobiles and sell them to different mobile producers.

• Broad product category – Kodak provides many products but it doesn’t have enough products for the growing needs of people in the market. They need to focus more on mobile telephony.

• 3D printing – The world is now looking at an increase in interest in the 3D printing industry, Kodak should work on creating 3D printing machines and introduce technology in that category.

Let us now see the threats for Kodak.

4. Threats of Kodak

Threats are the negative external factors of the company that can thwart the progress and success of any company. Following are the threats to Kodak:

• Competition – Since Kodak was out of the market trend for many years it has a disadvantage in the market. The competitors are coming with new technology and ideas that Kodak is lacking in the innovation process.

• Substitute products – With the change in lifestyle, people are more into handy devices like mobile phones or GoPro which are easy to carry and provide good quality images.

• People’s Approach – Due to no significant switching cost companies are finding it hard to retain their customers while in the case of Kodak this switching is high due to the low acceptability of their products and aggressive branding by its competitors.

These were some of the threats which can block Kodaks way from making a successful comeback. Now all these things depend on the Board and management team of the company. To sort things out in a summary let’s put an eye on the conclusion.

Conclusion

Kodak is one of the only companies that cared about its users but lacked a vision for their future business. In this case study, SWOT Analysis of Kodak we saw the Strengths of the company like its Goodwill, Quality products, advanced technology, and being socially responsible. Some of the strengths of Kodak are the quality of after-sales service that they provide, reliable suppliers, and the people who work are well trained with the latest technology. Some weaknesses to list were they didn’t evolve with the digital era and started their digital stores late, they also had a lack of vision of what was happening in the market. There are opportunities like Adapting to the new preferences, Market & Lifestyle, and Broad Products. Due to inactivity, there were some threats in front of the film company like Competition evolving and introducing new and advanced technology that it cannot advance yet, setbacks, there are substitute products coming in the market which are handier for the customers which they prefer for most of the travelling, and people’s approaches.

Wasn’t it interesting to know the SWOT analysis of Kodak? Learn how to grow your business using digital marketing, check out our website for more information.

Do check out our Free Digital Marketing Masterclass by IIDE to understand what digital marketing is all about.

Let us know your thoughts on this within the comment section and let us know if we have missed out any points.