Kodak Competitor - Fujifilm

Kodak competitors

Competitor 1- Fujifilm

Similarity: Fujifilm is one of the biggest competitors of Kodak in the world. Fujifilm was a Japanese multinational photography and imaging company with headquarters in Japan. They became established in the U.S. in 1965. Overtimes, they gaining a considerable market share in the United States and became one of the main competitors of Kodak. Both Kodak and Fujifilm are companies that focused on photography and imaging as their core businesses. Back to 80th, both Kodak and Fujifilm producing photosensitive materials such as photographic film, print paper, dry plates as core business. Fujifilm made its first digital camera DS-1P in 1988, it is also the first digital camera on the market. Today both companies producing digital cameras as their core business.

Difference: There are servile differences between Kodak and Fujifilm.  After the Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Kodak sold many of its business to reduce costs, employee and the size of the company. The new Kodak only focus on its two main business area, graphics and digital printing, while Fujifilm still maintained it’s originally based business and stretched its interests beyond just film development. Now Fujifilm’s business includes photography, medical instrument, even personal care products. Kodak’s business strategy is to strengthen their relationship with commercial customers such as the US Government, small businesses and Universities. Fujifilm has chosen a different way than Kodak. It has developed a strategy to promote growth for businesses and to accelerate its global expansion.

Competitor 2- HP

Similarity: In general, HP and Kodak’s core business are not overlap, but there is a strong competition between these two companies in Digital printer industry. According to Kodak’s annual report, the sales from Digital printing and enterprise accounted for a third of all sales of Kodak. While HP is the number one company in digital printer industry, the company holds over 50% of market share for more than a decade. Which made HP the major competitor of Kodak’s digital printer business.

Difference: The main different between the two companies are their pricing strategies. Kodak’s strategy is selling its printers for higher price than the competitors but its printer cartridges for less than half the price. Kodak claims that the lower cartridges price save the customers’ money in the long run (Mitchell). HP adopting a strategy that selling their printer machine at a very low profits, but marking up the printing supplies, specifically the replacement printer cartridges.

Potential competitor-Go Pro

Similarity: Go pro is a producer of action cameras such as sports cameras and wearable cameras. So far the Go pro do not have direct competition with Kodak. But the wearable cameras become a trend in recent years. Many traditional camera producers are trying to enter this market, such as Sony, Nikon and Kodak. Many people believe that the Kodak Sp360 is a trial in this market. If Kodak decided enter the wearable camera market in the future, Go pro will be a stronger competitor.

Difference: The key different between Go pro and Kodak is their marketing strategy. Go pro don’t just sell the cameras, they are selling the experience of using the camera. This is a typically emotion branding marketing. In fact, Go pro has no competitive advantage at hardware compare to Kodak. Go pro gain their competitive advantage by becoming a media empire, the user experience became extremely important for Go pro (Lapowsky). At this point, Go pro is considering themselves as a media company rather than a camera producer.