Eastman Kodak Company, commonly known as Kodak, is a global commercial and imaging company with technologies in materials science, digital imaging science and software, and deposition processes. Since its conception in the year 1892, the company has been a public figure in this industry because of its ability to match and to some extent, muscle out some of its major competitors in the market. Currently, Eastman Kodak is valued at 1.3 billion U.S dollars with over 5,000 employees in the market. The company generates a lot of revenue with the latest in the year 2019, standing at 291.0 million dollars, which comes at an estimate of about 40.0 million U.S dollars in gross profit. The company's most recent net income stands at 18.0 million U.S dollars. The company’s shares still stand at 15% and with a definite improvement as the company is looking forward to major in the digital camera industrial that has been thriving in the current market due to technology advancement ( Yuzawa, 2018). The bad news is that even though the statistic shows a strong and stable company, the competitors are also as strong as Kodak in this industry. In this article, therefore, the discussion is one of Kodak’s competitors and how they operate and challenge each other in the market concerning their positions. The competitors selected for this analysis are the current and potential competitors. The first is the current competitors, which include are Fujifilm, CollegeHumor, and Agfa-Gevaert. The second is the Potential competitors that include Photobucket and HP that are also venturing in this field.
Current Competitors
Kodak's main competitor is FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation. The company was founded in the year 1934 and had its headquarters at Shibuya City in Japan. FUJIFILM is a corporate company that develops produces, service, markets of the and sells imaging information and documentation solution. The company’s electronic imaging and photo include color film, single-use cameras, color negative film, instant films, color reversal, and photofinishing equipment. Also, the company provides some healthcare equipment such as x-rays, digital mammography system, medical use pictures archiving and diagnostic systems ( Ho & Chen, 2018). The company also introduced graphic systems including computer-to-plate plates and plate setters, industrial inkjet printers and inks, industrial inkjet printer heads, and flat panel display materials. It is one of the most thriving companies in this industry ( Yuzawa, 2018). Competitors with super products and product can disrupt the business (Tracy, 2015). In this case, this company provide a similar product to Kodak and is superior in many aspects, which is a threat. CollegeHumor is another serious of Kodak's competitors in the industry. CollegeHumor is a website producing and linking humorous content on the internet that appeals to college students. The site features daily original comedy videos and articles created by its in-house writing and production team, in addition to user-submitted videos, pictures, articles, and links. CollegeHumor also occasionally holds photo-based contests for its users. The com-nay came to existence in the year 1999, and its Headquarter is in New York USA. Its Parent Company is InterActiveCorp.
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Agfa-Gevaert, commonly known as Agfa, is another Kodak company’s competitor, which is a public company that dominates the market. Agfa was found in the year 1867 is a stable company with over 9,000 employees. The company develops, produce, and distribute a range of digital and InformationTechnology solutions. It majors mainly on printing industry where it has thrived in all corners. It has also ventured in the healthcare sectors and provides a range of health care equipment in the industry. It has three areas, which include the independent group sectors, where the firm offers graphics products, diagnostic images, and specialty sectors that offer film-based products. Consideration its competitive nature in this industry, this is also a company that Kodak has to be wary about in the market. It has a significant threat in controlling every aspect of this industry.
Kodak’s Competitors’ Analysis Table
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Agfa-Gevaert |
FUJIFILM |
CollegeHumor |
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Company Revenue (2019) |
The company is one of the most valuable in the industry. It is doing well in the industry with regards to revenue collection. The company has revenue of $539.0m. The gross profit was at $173 million. Its net profit value is $5 million. It is thus a stable company based on its earnings and revenue generation | The company's Total revenue stands at 2.4 Trillion Japanese Yen. The Total Net profit for the year 2019 stands at 28. 3 Billion Japanese Yen. It indicates that the company has a strong financial position in the market. |
CollegeHumor is still a young company with an inadequate financial threat to challenge big companies such as Kodak. However, its parent company (InterActiveCorp) Make it one of the best competitors to Kodak in the industry. It is only a sub-branch company, but it has already hit $ 20 million in profit. |
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Market Segments |
It has three segments. The first is Agfa Graphics, that contributes 48.9% of the total revenue to the company. It also has Agfa Healthcare that contributes a 43.1% of the revenue to the company. Lastly, there are Agfa unique products which contribute to 8.0% of the total revenue the company possess. |
It has three segments. The first is documents solution that has about 43.1%of total revenue collection. The second segment is Healthcare, and a material solution that has about 41.2%, and the last one is Imaging solution that has about 15.7%. | It market segments include application at 6.0% revenue, Home advisor at 24.4%, Video at 11.2%, publishing at 20.0%, others at 8.8% revenue. |
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Geographical segment |
It operates in Europe, NAFTA, Latin America, and Asia. From Europe, the revenue is 41.5% of the total revenue. From the NAFTA, there is 26/5% of the total revenue. From Latina America, the company gets 7.4% of its revenue, and from Asia, it gets 24.5%. |
It occupies America with revenue of (18.5%). In Europe, its revenue collection stands at 9.7% and Asia at 22.8% and lastly Japan at 49.0%. |
It is an online platform and thus mostly operates photographs exchange in an online platform, and this makes it a threat to Kodak. |
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Marketing |
There are different strategies this company uses for its marketing. The first one is the social media platform. It uses its website, which has whose followers have been increasing except in the year 2019, where there was a reduction in the followers. It also uses twitter handle, which has a total of 737,000 followers. It also uses a Facebook account for sales. Other than that, it uses offline marketing mostly on the mainstream media. |
The company market position is Negative. It has a total of 77,739 employees, and its growth rate is at -93% The marketing strategy is social media and offline marketing. |
Its partnership with Google drive boosted the company's growth, and this ensures its growth was positive at 1.2%. Other companies, mostly Google, do its marketing though. CollegeHumor uses Google application or network, the google custom search for its operation. However, it also carries out online platform adverts, where it has a vast number of twitter followers hitting over ten thousand followers. |
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Target customers |
Target customers are both male and female age 16-40 years. It also targets the healthcare organization and IT companies. | It targets IT industries, Healthcare firms, and 16-40 years individual whose interest hooks on photographs. | The target customers are youths between 18 to 40 years old |
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Competitive advantage |
The company's strength lies in its brand name. It is one of the known corporate companies in the world. It also has its technology in-depth and financial muscles as its competitive advantages. It has ventured in the healthcare sector, and the IT industry is some of the added benefits the company has over some of its competitors. It also boasts of some of the great leaders as well as its diverse portfolio that ensures that there is diversity in the market niche. | Research is its main strength as it has many research departments that have contributed to its innovative power. It also has reliable supplies in addition to its strong portfolio and financial advantages that propel it in the market ( Yuzawa, 2018). The company also boasts of a highly skilled workforce, advanced technology, and strong distributive network. Its geographical coverage is also another advantage in addition to a good return on the capital that the company enjoys | Its parent organization is a significant boost on its back. Further, it has positive growth, and this is also another factor to Worry about Kodak in the online platform. Further, its partnership with Giant companies such as Google is also a threat to its competitors. |
Cause of concern |
The high rate of competition, the growing concern on environmental and trade regulations are some of the concern. Further, a threat to entry as well as its unstable growth is other issues of concern. | The company, however, has some cause of concern that Kodak can use to outcompete it. Its investment in research is rated low below some of its powerful competitors and is position in the industry. The company also has some issues with its financial planning, and this has hindered its growth. Further, Its profits and net income are also below the industry pace. Lastly, it has a negative growth, which gives its competitors a chance to outshine it. | It is a young company, and financial issues, as well as a business strategy in the market, still gives it a challenge. |
Potential Competitors
The first potential competitor that Kodak has is Photobucket. Kodak is venturing into the online platform where it is using its Kodak Gallery for photo sharing. In this stage, it is facing off with Photobucket which has been in the industry for sometimes. P hotobucket is a web-based image hosting platform to print, store, edit, and share photos. The company has its headquarters at Denver, Colorado and its current CEO is Ted Leonard. It is a private organization found in the year 2003. It is majorly operating in the Application software industry, and Ted as the CEO has an approval rating of 82 over 100, which means it has a managerial threat to competitors.
The second organization that Kodak risks facing is Hewlett-Packard, one of the super brands in the world. Kodak may face off with such company because it is venturing into the printing industry. Kodak is also likely to face HP because of its interest in the digital world where the HP rules. It is a company that offers different technology-based resources, including different application printing machines, and this is the reason why Kodak must be careful in this industry. They will face off in two areas. The first one is an application for photographing, as HP also possesses some product rights in this area ( Yousef, 2015). HP further majors on its competitors by reducing the prices and valuing their customers. They believe that creating a right for the customers to follow is the best way to distinguish oneself from the competitors as asserted by Tracy, (2015). In this case, it will disturb Kodak if it majors in this industry. Further, they will face each other on digital printing machines, and this is an area which brings a lot of revenue to Kodak.
Kodak’s Potential Competitors’ Analysis Table
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HP |
Photobucket |
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Revenue |
HP is a giant company with US$58.47 billion in revenue . | It is valued at $50 million. |
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Strengths |
The company possesses all the threats that can make it out-compete Kodak. Its revenue and research are critical to its success. HP is one of the best brands in the technology and computer industry. Further, it has a quality product at affordable prices, and this is a potential threat to Kodak. Also, it has global coverage with proper brand positioning and marketing strength. As a result, it is a super competitor that Kodak must be wary of ( Yousef, 2015). | It boasts of a super manager in Ted with a high rating in the industry. It also has a firm Brand name in the industry in addition to having a large number of followers. |
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Segment |
HP mostly deals in Computer and its accessories. It also has different technology rights, and this includes printing machines | It is an online platform that major image hosting platform to print, store, edit, and share photos |
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Weakness |
Labor laws and environmental restrictions and laws are some of its potential vulnerabilities. | Its revenue can thwart competitiveness in this market. |
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Target customers |
It targets IT companies. It also targets 18-60 years with capabilities to purchase different electronics. | It targets youths and those who find pleasure in photographs to share their moments in life |
Opportunities in the Photograph industry |
Its technology power, marketing power, and financial power in addition to its brand name can cause the problem to competitors in the photo-printing g industry( Yousef, 2015). | Its massive number of followers is potential threats to Kodak. It has over one million Facebook followers with nearly a quarter-million twitter subscribers. |
In conclusion, Kodak must plan well to succeed in the market. The company has powerful competitors in the market and any single mistake my cost it a lot. Further, some potential competitors also have an interest in this market, and some such as HP are already venturing in the market. It means that Kodak has to review each of these companies' strengths and weaknesses, which is the best way to face competition in the market and do a robust analysis in the market to outcompete them (Zaharia, Musetescu & Chira, 2015). They will thus have to pick a strategy that will capitalize on the competitors'' weaknesses and try to neutralize the competitor's strengths in the market.
References
Tracy, B. (2015). Business strategy (the brianTracy success library). Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com (chapter 17 and 18)
Zaharia, V., Musetescu, A., & Chira, R. (2015). FACING COMPETITION ON A GLOBAL MARKET: ACCES LA SUCCESS. Calitatea, 16, 16-24. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.proxy1.ncu.edu/docview/1688279820?accountid=28180
Yousef, H. (2015). Studying the status of the components of the competitive advantage variable in the importer companies of the network products (HP Company) and its relation with demographic variables. Environment Conservation Journal , 16 (Special Edition), 79-87. Retrieved from: http://environcj.in/uploads/2016/SE/79-87%20yousef.pdf
Yuzawa, T. (2018). The digital revolution and business behavior: the case of Kodak versus Fujifilm. Entrepriseset Histoire , (1), 37-50. Retrieved from: https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.3917/eh.090.0037
Ho, J. C., & Chen, H. (2018). Managing the Disruptive and Sustaining the Disrupted: The Case of Kodak and Fujifilm in the Face of Digital Disruption. Review of Policy Research , 35 (3), 352-371. Retrieved: https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12278
