Have your marketing plans become a list of "this is what we have always done before”? What used to work in your business marketing efforts has a life. Do you recognize when they have run their course?

In January 2012, Eastman Kodak sought bankruptcy protection as the one time leader of industry tried to reorganize its business to stave off elimination. Kodak had been an American success story, dating back to 1888 when George Eastman first started marketing a hand-held camera equipped with a roll of film for amateur photographers. Before this, anyone wanting to take a photo was relegated to bulky shutter boxes with emulsion-coated plates. Eastman made photography easy and commonplace in our society. He made photography so much a part of typical life, people associated "Kodak” moments with the very best events of their lives. Eastman Kodak was listed as one of the 30 companies followed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average that defined the New York Stock Exchange. For 100 years, they owned the camera and film market. At the height of their glory in the mid-1970s, Kodak sold 90% of the film and 85% of the cameras in the U.S. market. What happened in the next two decades brought the once proud leader of industry back down to earth. First, Kodak did not adjust marketing strategies when Japanese rival, Fujifilm began to eat into the U.S. film market share. Kodak thought that Americans would remain loyal to its brand even if Fujifilm was undercutting Kodak’s price. Then came the launch of the digital camera. Kodak had developed its own digital camera technology back in the mid-1970s, but did not put the camera on the market for fear it would further eat into its film sales. Seeing the future of cameras moving away from film, they decided to stay the course. However, this left the door open for other camera manufacturers (Canon, Nikon, Sony) to convert from film to digital and make the old film cameras obsolete. Sticking with the same old marketing message, Kodak watched the remainder of their market share turn to dust. When they finally did get into the digital camera game, they were trailing behind the new leaders. In 2004, they were de-listed from the Dow 30 after a 74 year stint on the index. In 2011, they began to sell off their patents. In 2012, they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This past week, they announced they had received the bankruptcy judge’s approval to sell what remains of their camera, film and copier business.

There is a challenge that faces any marketing group within a business. Ideas can become stale, predictable and ineffective. There is a tendency to think that what has worked in the past will always work. That marketing siren song can lull you to sleep and crash your business. This is where an outside marketing source can become a great help. There is a time to change up the tactics. That is hard to see from the inside. It takes an outside source to help you see where you may have gaps. It also helps you to understand what your greatest challenges are and how to change tactics to combat them.

Every company is dependent upon effective marketing to stay in business. If you are not drawing customers in the front door, your doors will not stay open for long. Adapt or die should be the watchword of your marketing plans. Yesterday’s successes don’t mean a thing if you cannot maneuver around tomorrow’s challenges.

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Eastman Kodak, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastman_Kodak

Kodak gets court OK to sell film business, by Matthew Daneman, USA TODAY, June 20, 2013

Photo by Syldavia