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Kodak on Asia, social media and printers

By Leonard Goh on Feb 4, 2010

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Bangkok, Thailand--"You press the button, we do the rest." This was Kodak's mantra when the company was founded by George Eastman in 1892. That effectively makes Kodak one of the oldest imaging brands on the market today. While the company didn't invent photography (the first photograph was taken in 1827 by Joseph Nicephore Niepce), Kodak made picture-taking more accessible to the masses. Today, the US company is still operating by that mantra, and it hopes this can be integrated into the lifestyle of consumers.


John Blake, general manager and vice president of the Digital Capture and Devices in Kodak.
While Kodak has a strong presence in the US and Europe, its position in Asia has been seriously challenged by rivals such as Canon, Nikon and Sony. But this year, John Blake, general manager and vice president of the Digital Capture and Devices in Kodak, said the firm has an opportunity to do better in Asia. Kodak is now the number two camera brand in India and will continue to concentrate its marketing efforts on that region. Another emerging market that the firm is targeting is China.

Blake said he feels very good about Kodak's 2010 portfolio. Its recent announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas showed off the Slice touchscreen compact, the rugged PlaySport mini camcorder and the Pulse digital photo frame.

The company's target audience for its point-and-shoots is what it labels as the Chief Memory Officer in the household. Blake said this responsibility usually falls on the mother who has young children and is often constrained by time. Hence, Kodak wants to appeal to this segment by making its cameras smarter and easier to share snaps.

This is where the EasyShare function comes in. This feature has been in Kodak's shooters for a while and it has been improved over the years. But some consumers may not understand what the latest version is capable of.You can designate social media accounts and email addresses within the camera, plug the point-and-shoot to a Web-enabled PC, and the snapper will automatically send out the selected images to the relevant people and/or sites. According to Blake, this process requires only three steps, whereas competitor products may need more than 10 steps. He also said Kodak will be ruthlessly aggressive in making this experience even more intuitive for users in the coming years.

Also, Kodak is making use of social media to interact more with its customers. Peter M. Palermo, director of Product Marketing in the Consumer Digital Group, shared with us that the name "PlaySport" for its mini videocam was submitted by two users via Twitter. It recognizes the impact of social media networks such as Facebook, and Blake said the firm cannot ignore the enormous amount of pictures being uploaded everyday to the Web. So, it will make efforts to better integrate sharing functions on its cameras.


While Kodak's cameras and digital photo frames can be found in some parts of Asia, the same cannot be said for its consumer inkjet printers. Blake said the company has no current plans to launch its inkboxes in Asia, but rather will focus on US and Europe first, then study the market and scale the marketing effort accordingly for new entry points.

The imaging industry is now seeing a new breed of small, interchangeable lens cameras like the Olympus E-P1 Micro Four Thirds shooter and Samsung NX10 hybrid system. Blake claims that Kodak helped develop a lot of the technology such snappers use. But before the US firm jumps onto this bandwagon, it wants to study the unmet needs of consumers first. If the company feels it can fill the void between what users want and what isn't available, then it would participate in this segment. Kodak, however, did not elaborate on what those unmet needs were.

Kodak may have started off as a 35mm film maker, but in this digital age, Blake acknowledges that its film business is in a secular decline. But given the relative size of this division in the firm, it is in no way consequential to the company. That said, he believes that film will always have a demand, albeit a small one.

As for what consumers can expect from Kodak in the coming years, Blake smiled enigmatically and replied: "You press the button, we do the rest."

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