The amazing rise of Kodak was due to innovation after innovation and you'll never guess why George Eastman called it Kodak. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom-and-pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So here's one of those. [Tommy Cool Air Ad] Dave Young: Hey, welcome back to the Empire Builders podcast. Dave Young here, and Stephen Semple's right there. Well, you probably can't see him, but I can see them. How you doing this morning? Because we record these in the morning. If you're listening in the evening, I felt the need to say that in case you were confused. Stephen Semple: Especially since before we started the recording, you were slurping your coffee. Dave Young: Right, in case you've never listened to a podcast before, and you didn't know they weren't live. So just before we started, yes, I was slurping my coffee, and yes, Stephen whispered into my ear today's topic. And I tell you, it is funny how words do this. This brand has sort of defined its own... It became the word for its product. It became the word for an industry almost. And when you told me the name, I had a Kodak moment. Stephen Semple: There you go. Yes. Dave Young: Right? But we're going to talk about Kodak, Eastman Kodak company, and when you said Kodak, I'm like, "Oh, man." I remember my first little Instamatic Kodak camera. And the pictures that, I think it was the 110 film that took a picture and- Stephen Semple: Oh yeah, the little film? Yeah. Dave Young: ... when you developed it, you got a four-by-four picture and a little smaller version of the same picture, wallet sized, right next to it. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: I thought that was the coolest thing. I would carry those little photos around. And I had a picture, I don't know if I still have it. It's probably tucked away somewhere. It's probably in a box somewhere. But there was a picture of me on my grandfather's horse. He had passed away already, and I was like maybe four or five, and I'm on this horse, and the horse's name was Euchre Bill. Stephen Semple: Euchre Bill. Dave Young: I can't explain that. Grandpa was gone. Stephen Semple: Card-playing horse, Euchre Bill. Dave Young: Maybe. I don't know. So that was the Kodak moment. Instantly, as soon as you said Kodak, it took me to that picture, which was still attached with its little picture next to it. Stephen Semple: I think we forget how big Kodak was. And lots of things led... Well, we even did an episode, back episode 77, where we actually looked at what we felt was the decline of Kodak that I did with Gary Bernier. At its peak, in 1996, Kodak was two-thirds of the global film market. In '76, it was 90% of all film sales in the United States, 85% of camera sales. In '96, it was the fifth most valuable business in the world, which is really quite remarkable. Dave Young: We tell our local clients that, man, if you can get to 35%, 40% market share in your category, you're a rock star. Here these guys were worldwide. Stephen Semple: Worldwide, 66%. Yeah. So today we're going to talk about what made Kodak amazing, and then the decline. We've sort of done this backwards. The decline we talked about back in 77. They were founded on May 23rd, 1892 in Rochester, New York by George Eastman. And George became the breadwinner of his family at age 14 when his father died, and he took a job as a messenger boy at an insurance company, and he was making three bucks a week. And then he became an office boy at another insurance company.
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May 15 202420 mins
19 mins