Kodak and Fujifilm

Kodak and Fujifilm are well known companies in the households in the United States and across the world. Few people know the actual history of both companies and the competition they have been in over the years. It’s an interesting history on how both companies started and how they have developed and challenged each other over the years.

George Eastman, who was the founder of Kodak, started his business career as a 14-year old boy when he had to quit school and work to support his mother and two sisters. Mr. Eastman had a gift for organization and management while his lively and inventive mind made him a successful entrepreneur by his mid-twenties. What sparked the idea of a simple camera was that his coworker …show more content…

In 1969 all of their films, photo paper and chemicals completely matched the processing systems. They saw a significant upsurge in their exports. The other challenge was going head to head with Kodak which they took on full-force. When Fuji entered the US market, it introduced a cartridge-film eight-millimeter home movie system. Kodak retaliated with introducing their system which swept Fuji aside and took control of the world market. The market started to notice that Fuji’s film was faster than Kodak’s and produced warmer tones. Fuji advertised making sure amateurs and professionals knew the difference while Kodak continued to concentrate on the beginner/amateur consumers. In 1972, Fuji marketed a film in the US with their name on it. Fuji gained its first significant market share with this product. To try and stay ahead of Kodak, Fuji had to develop, manufacture and market equivalent products quickly before Kodak released new products. By 1980, Fuji was the third largest film producer and stayed competitive by increasing its prices a lot less than the other manufactures. The also took advantage of the growing consumer demand for audio and videotapes. Their early marketing to amateur and professionals paid off since many amateurs wanted to shoot pictures with high quality film. This boosted Fuji’s status to the second largest film manufacturer. A major advantage Fuji had was researching electronic