Marketing: Product Loyalty

Marketing:

Product Loyalty

Kamaria Gammon

Unit 3 Individual Project

Product & Price

Inst. Alan Mandel

December 2, 2006

The American Heritage Dictionary states the definition of loyalty is, "A feeling or attitude of devoted attachment and affection." (American Heritage Dictionary, 2006). People are loyal to their jobs, their friends, a football team, or even their hair stylist. Some people have particular brands that they purchase from and will not stray to try other brands. This is considered consumer loyalty. For the reasons of affordability, great quality, diverse products and an excessive user of the products, I find my consumer loyalty to be with Kodak.

My father is a photographer but I was never allowed to touch his camera equipment growing up and was too young to have my own, plus there was no way I would be allowed to carry it to school. So, at the age of 10, I received my first disposable or single use camera by Kodak. From that point on, all through high school, I became obsessed with capturing moments on film, being able to drop them off at the local pharmacy and have the pictures to show to classmates by lunchtime Monday. I received a monthly allowance and since the cameras were relatively inexpensive, I bought two a month. As I got older, I didn't need as many; however I never went anywhere without it. I tried Fujifilm, Walgreen's brand, and even a regular 35mm camera, but always preferred Kodak. In the beginning, there was indoor/outdoor flash and outdoor use only. The advantage to the single use was that most of them came with 27 exposures instead of the 24 standard exposures on a roll of 35 mm film. Three extra pictures can make or break a phenomenal scrap book! Also, you didn't have to worry about the battery dying as with other cameras. Through the years, Kodak began offering more options for capturing great moments, all in the single-use in addition to their other products and services.

Kodak, professionally known as Eastman Kodak Company, named after the founder George Eastman, was established in 1888. This company has been ranked and has led the photography industry in making the photography process simpler to use and providing the services of photography to other industries, such as "medical, business, entertainment, and scientific applications" (History of Kodak, 2006). The company ranks as a premier multinational corporation, with a brand recognized in virtually every country around the world. (History of Kodak, 2006). The first KODAK camera was priced at $25 and held nearly 100 exposures per roll of film. Once film was used up, it was sent off and developed, then sent back to the user with a new roll of film all for $10. (Building the Foundation, 2006) To this day, this is one of the reasons that Eastman Kodak has been so successful. There are four basic principles in which Kodak conducts business including, mass production at a low cost, international distribution, effective and extensive advertising, and of course, customer knowledge. (Building the Foundation). Tied in with these principles were policies regarding development through research, proper treatment of employees, and reinvesting profits to extend the business and its needs. Here is what this foundation produced over the years:

In 1896, mass production at low cost wasn't just a principle, it was a fact as the 100,000th Kodak camera was sold for $5; however in keeping with the principle, the price was lowered to $1 as in 1900 the BROWNIE box cameras were introduced. (Building the Foundation, 2006). During this time, Kodak developed and introduced the first x-ray image capture less than a year after Wihelm Roentgen discovered the x-ray in 1895. This would eventually lead to radiology experts being employed by the early 1900's.(Impacting, 2006) Crossing over from capturing moments of historic or sentimental value to the medical field was a huge milestone for Kodak and would set the bar for other photograph companies as Kodak continued to press forward. Eastman managed to meet his expectations in mass production at a low cost, and by 1900, had established the company in international distribution with countries such as France, Germany, and Italy. (Building the Foundation). Through strong marketing and advertising, Eastman Kodak embodied all the principles in which the company was founded on. Had the company had weak or inferior advertising and marketing, international business would either be slow to progress or not be in existence at all. Eastman Kodak always focused on the customer. Mostly professional photographers and thanks to Thomas Edison, movie companies as well, Kodak made sure that their products met the needs and criteria that the consumer needed through extensive research and understanding. In 1929, Kodak was able to market its first film that was developed for making some of the first "sound" motion pictures. (Impacting, 2006). Twenty years later, 1949, the safety hazard of the highly flammable nitrate film base was replaced by Kodak's new formula of tri-acetate safety film base for motion picture film. This earned Kodak one of their future eight Academy Awards. Another was later earned in 1950 for Eastman Kodak's helping in popularizing negative and color print films for theater and television. (Impacting, 2006).

Kodak's growth in the health field produced films that targeted cardiology, dentistry, mammography, and oncology in the radiation treatment and monitoring of cancer. These developments allow medical practices from hospitals, dentist offices, and clinics to be able to archive, view, share, manage, analyze and consult with other doctors using the variety of digital medical images. This has broadened diagnosis decision and assisted in developing other medical breakthroughs allowing doctors to review things that they once could not. (Impacting, 2006). Other developments of Kodak include microfilming, in which was designed to simplify viewing and filing of bank records by reducing the size of the document onto film. By 1931 this process was conducted in a machine and the film was fed over a large drum with documents of various lengths. Other companies, as would be expected with Kodak's reputation for customer understanding, invested in microfilming and libraries, insurance companies, and transportation agencies all made microfilm a standard