Kodak Brand Audit Presentation
Attached here is the presentation for the kodak brand audit project.
Kodak Brand Audit Report
Kodak Brand Audit Requirement
This research is being performed to dig deep in to consumer insights and get important answers to the following questions. This would determine if the assumptions about certain products are true and if so, what are the chances that a customer would prefer Kodak's product over the competitors.
Critical Questions
Today, more and more multi-function devices are becoming available. More functionality is being added to the mobile phone, and it is difficult to find a new mobile phone without some capability to take a picture.
How many consumers have their choice of phone influenced by the camera capability/features for the phone?
How many consumers regularly use the camera feature on their phone?
Are there different image management/handling requirements for digital cameras and mobile phones?
What type of pictures do consumers take with camera phones versus digital cameras?
Do consumer envision a time in which camera phones replace "traditional" digital cameras?
How much would current camera capability in mobile phones need to improve before the camera phone was the primary picture taking device?
How important is the ability to capture video as a feature in a digital camera (or mobile phone)?
Kodak just announced its entry into the inkjet printer market. Are there other product categories where the Kodak brand might be leveraged for entry into a new market space?
Purpose of this project is to gain direct exposure to analysis of a brand using secondary data in completing a brand inventory.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the nature of a comprehensive brand audit
- Gain experience with secondary data sources
- Use secondary data to demonstrate knowledge and understanding about a focal brand by completing a brand inventory
- Use secondary data (as available) to learn customer/marketplace perceptions about the focal brand
- To understand the early stages of the marketing research process in which a researcher must immerse him/herself in the client’s world to gain insight for problem definition.
Background
Brand Inventory
Using secondary data (news articles, annual reports, etc.) develop a current profile of how Kodak digital cameras are marketed and branded. In other words, how is this brand promoted? How are Kodak digital cameras represented in the marketplace? In addition to cameras, explore the new Easy Share printer system. To get started, look in the Investor Relations (Corporate) section of the Kodak website and scan news releases. Additional information and links are in the Innovations section in this area of the website.
The outcome of the brand inventory should be an accurate, comprehensive, and timely profile of how Kodak digital cameras (and printers) and the assigned competitor are branded. This includes marketing communication and other supporting marketing programs” (see Keller, p. 163).
Profiling one or several competing brands may be helpful in this exercise to illustrate similarities and differences across the brandsBrand Inventory Report - Introduction
Kodak is a multi dimensional provider of products and services to the photographic, graphic communications and healthcare markets. Consumers use Kodak’s system of digital and traditional capture products and services to take print, store and share their pictures anytime, anywhere. This report takes a deep dive in to the brand auditing of Kodak brand. We will look at the brand inventory of Kodak digital cameras and printers. We will also stack up Kodak products against a competitor to understand the brand portfolio positioning grid.
Brand Audit
Brand audit is the process where companies estimate their brand awareness among the customers; estimate the current valuation of the brand and the proposition of the brand.
The purpose of the brand inventory is to provide the current profile of how all the products and services sold by the company are marketed and branded. Scope of this report would be restricted to Kodak digital cameras and printers.
Kodak Cameras
Kodak Cameras are very widely used. Their easyshare series of cameras are very popular among customers. One of the important attribute of Kodak cameras are the affordable price points. If you look at the below illustration, a 10.0 Megapixel camera is priced at 249.05, which is considered a very low price.
- Point and shoot
- High Zoom
- Performance
- Easy-Share One
In 2004 Kodak had a market-share of 20.1%. Due to increased competition they have dropped considerably. IDC has predicted by 2009 worldwide digital camera sales would slow down. Kodak cameras have many features which many companies didn’t offer. For example their pictbridge printing technology is so powerful that their products where selling just for the pictbridge feature.
Kodak Printers
Printer business has been very lucrative with a huge opportunity for growth. Kodak has been a late entrant in this market, but they have arrived with a solid concept of saving 50% of price on ink. This is a huge revolution in the printer market as it breaks the conventional wisdom. As per the norms printer companies make money of printer accessories instead of the actual printer. But Kodak with its revolutionary design and development knowledge, they have come out with a printer which can guarantee a life time quality of picture. Price of ink is so low that it beats the market by 50%. Only downside is price of printer is high comparing the competitor prices.
Kodak EasyShare 5100
Marketing efforts has been a great success for Kodak. All major syndications carried the news of the release of revolutionary printers.
Kodak Cameras Vs HP Cameras
HP entered digital camera market in 1998. They have released consistent models, but haven’t been able to make a dent in the Kodak marketshare. Please see appendix for information relating to the difference in the current models of Kodak and HP cameras.
Kodak Printers Vs HP Printers
Kodak has 3 new lines of All-In-One printers. HP has only one printer Deskjet F380 which can be compared in this range. Following is the comparison of the performance between a Kodak and HP printer.
Kodak Marketing Efforts
Kodak has aggressively started marking of their new revolutionary printers. They have used the word “think” to infer this product is all about saving the cost on ink.
Kodak in the News
KODAK: Kodak Revolutionizes the Inkjet Industry New Line of All-In-One Inkjet Printers Produces Durable, High-Quality Documents and Photos; Low-cost premium inks save customers up to 50 percent on everything they print, M2 Presswire,
Kodak Wins Three CES Innovations Awards and Receives Prestigious Honors from Popular Science and PC Magazine; Honors Include "Best of Innovations" Award for the KODAK EASYSHARE V610 Dual Lens Digital Camera, Business Wire,
Summary
This article has taken an effort to collect the current profile of Kodak. It assessed the profile against HP to compare the various specifications of HP and Kodak. This information should be used for brand exploratory and further study.
Appendix
Question PRO - Survey Software
If you need to conduct survey for doing consumer research, market research, service analysis or any other form surveys, use this software service QuestionPro. You can login to their website at http://www.questionpro.com
What is CE Marking (CE mark)?
CE Marking is the symbol as shown on the top of this page. The letters "CE" are the abbreviation of French phrase "Conformité Européene" which literally means "European Conformity". The term initially used was "EC Mark" and it was officially replaced by "CE Marking" in the Directive 93/68/EEC in 1993. "CE Marking" is now used in all EU official documents. "CE Mark" is also in use, but it is NOT the official term.
1. CE Marking on a product is a manufacturer's declaration that the product complies with the essential requirements of the relevant European health, safety and environmental protection legislation, in practice by many of the so-called Product Directives.*
*Product Directives contains the "essential requirements" and/or "performance levels" and "Harmonized Standards" to which the products must conform. Harmonized Standards are the technical specifications (European Standards or Harmonization Documents) which are established by several European standards agencies (CEN, CENELEC, etc).
2. CEN stands for European Committee for Standardization.
CENELEC stands for European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization.
CE Marking on a product indicates to governmental officials that the product may be legally placed on the market in their country.
3. CE Marking on a product ensures the free movement of the product within the EFTA & European Union (EU) single market (total 28 countries), and
4. CE Marking on a product permits the withdrawal of the non-conforming products by customs and enforcement/vigilance authorities.
Along with more directives' becoming effective, more and more products are required to bear the CE Marking for gaining access to the EFTA & European Union market. However, many non-EU exporters are still unaware of or unsure about this fact and its impact on their business.
Good bye Microsoft IE. Welcome Safari !
Apple Safari for Windows
Microsoft IE MarketShare
In the late 90's Microsoft killed Netscape by its shear power of Marketing, Strategic product positioning and in a way poor counter efforts from Netscape themselves. Microsoft amazed everyone by capturing 95% of marketshare by 2003. Then in 2004 came Mozilla Firefox which surprised everyone by taking a sizable marketshare away from Microsoft within 2 years. Now there is even bigger threat coming for Microsoft, and that is Safari for Windows. It was announced by Steve Jobs that Apple Safari browser would be available for Windows and currently it is available for beta.
Impact of Apple Safari over Microsoft IE
Currently Apple Safari has a marketshare of 3.5% in the Internet browser market. I personally think this number is going to rise in next 5 years. My estimate is at the least 10 - 15%. This would cause grave impact to the position of Microsoft Internet Explorer. If we combine the marketing power of iPod/iTunes and the new iPhone along with AppleTV, Apple Mac and may be one day a Apple Leopard OS for Intel. I don't see a reason why the marketshare numbers wouldn't go even further higher.
Where is Apple leading us all
Apple is taking baby steps to recapture its lost glory days of 80's. I think they are probably positioning themselves to increase their market-share in the high profit equipments such as Wireless, Digital Entertainment, and Second PC Market.
I think Apple's strategic partnership with Google may take them towards their goals.
Some interesting facts on Internet Browser Trends .....
Internet Browser Trends
In 1997 Netscape had a marketshare of 81% and they went down to 10% in 2001. During the same period Microsoft's marketshare went up to 89%. In 2004 Microsoft had a market share of 95.48% as per WebSideStory(Wiki Reference). This is an era when Microsoft got very complacent and didn't care releasing any new upgrades to IE 6.0, it turned out to be a disaster for Microsoft as open source developers took it upon themselves to create a rival Internet browser with new features. Competitors started introducing features such as Tabbed window, pop-up blocks. Microsoft was forced to follow innovate or mimic strategy. Within 2 years of Mozilla FireFox existence they captured an amazing 9.95% of marketshare.
Latest Trends
What's New in June - Welcome iPhone
Apple has scheduled its release of iPhone in the next few weeks. Now most important question in everyones mind is "Can iPhone become the phone of the decade?" In my opinion it has all the juice to become an innovative product of this decade. iPhone might even catapult the success of Apple's own iPod.
I believe Apple is entering an upward trend in digital entertainment with iPhone. Following are the traits I think would be an instant success
1. One touch call
2. Visual voicemail
3. New SMS functionality
4. Complete Internet browsing(Safari)
5. Google Maps, Google Widgest
6. All your Google extras
7. Built in sensors
8. Multi touch & Intelligent keyboard
Challenges facing iPhone
Currently iPhone is tied to AT&T Wireless which is a bottleneck. Not many customers have a great opinion about AT&T when it comes to signal strength and customer service. This issue is similar to DRM problems faced by iTunes customers. Wireless spectrum in US has to change in order to accomodate the growing need for independent wireless equipment sellers and carriers. This model has been time tested in Europe and Asia. It has lead to booming equipment design and innovation in cellphones. Customers are free to use their desired models wrather than tied to a single model for more than 1 or 2 years.
Already there is a drop in iPod sales, would iPhone become a competitor to iPod?
How to outsmart the big guys like Sony and Microsoft
As we all know Nintendo's Wii has become the hottest selling video game player than Microsoft's XBox and Sony's PS3. I wanted to see what lead to the success of Wii. I was thinking what did Nintendo's marketing team did to achieve this success.
I came across an article in BusinessWeek related to Wii the most successful video game console from Nintendo. This article explains how a conservative company such as Nintendo learned to ease and let go the control, which eventually brought the huge success which it is enjoying today. One of the most notable and innovative marketing program is the Ambassador program in which friends and families were invited to play Wii. Nintendo conducted a massive sampling program by inviting people to play in 25 malls. Around 300 trained staff helped to yield 1.1 million physical interactions and 90 million impressions.
This is a great example of how social networking can be used effectively by a marketer to make inroads in to the league of big boys
How Nintendo Learned to Chill Out
