Well Peter, nice thoughts but only partially correct. It only partially had
something to do with what the consummers were willing to pay for film.
The question is which consummers. What you say is truer of the mass market
consummers more than the professional and technical consummers.
EK in an attempt to maintain a monopoly on the mass consummer market did
lower prices of films so as to compete with the likes of Fuji and others and
meet the lower pricing demands of the general public; but at the same time,
it was the professional and technical consummers, who were willing to pay
for a quality product and knowledgable technical support, that EK was slowly
abandoning and cutting R&D resources from. It was never general mass market
consummer customer care that was provided to any great extent or at any
great cost (although what served as general public customer care was mostly
in the form of PR and advertising which the company would have spent and
still spends anyway as a cost fo doing business); and it was not the general
public customer care that was cut back or eliminated (what little there
actually ever was). It was the professional and technical divisions that got
hurt. it was the technical, specialty, and professional product lines that
were cut back and the technical and professional customer care that was
drastically cut to the point of being useless and almost non-existent
despite the fact that it was these customers who not only were willing to
pay more for their products but actually did pay more for those products.
This change in organizational attitude and culture began around the time
that EK started to lose its monolpoly in the market due in part to the
sluggishness and featherbedding in the company organization resulting is a
slowness to change and adapt to new situations and implement decisions and
policies regarding the production and marketing of new innovations in
products. It was also due in part to the turnover in company executives and
management with more and more of them being drawn from the MBA ranks rather
than from those who actually grew up in the industry and had a love for and
understanding of the industry and the crafts that it serviced. The new
executives and managers were accountant types who were only concerned
withthe bottom line and the next quarterly stockowners report. They tended
to get caught up in what were the current fad and fashion in the marketplace
which had proven to have some short term success; but by the time they made
decisions and acted, the bubble had burst and/or the fad or fashion was
over. A day late and a dollar short. Even when they made timely decisions,
their focus on the short term successes or to current fads and fashions
resulted in their engaging in a lot of hair-brained get-rich-quick types of
enterprises that would show a quick profit or produce a lot of publicity to
illustrate that the company was doing something and staying fresh and new
even if it was a flash in the pan.
filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk wrote:
> Subject: [filmscanners] Re: Kodak dropping 35mm and APS cameras in
> N.A.
>
>
>> You know, back when Great Yellow Father was a (virtual) monopoly,
>> they were a wonderful company. They actually CARED about their
>> professional customers, and made wonderful products like the
>> Electric Brush, which I wish I could still find. It makes dust fall
>> off film. And they maintained production on amateur film stocks for
>> YEARS after significant demand was gone. But then came Fuji and
>> Ilford and Ciba and there was serious competition, and anything that
>> wasn't immediately profitable had to go.
>
> In real terms (accounting for inflation) what was the price of a roll
> of Kodachrome back then? I'm guessing it was something like 10x what
> it is now - I know I couldn't afford much :-(
>
> If EK (or whatever company you'd care to mention) could still sell at
> the equivalent price today they would have no problems in keeping
> their care for the customer going.
>
> It's us, the customers, that have always demanded lower and lower
> prices regardless of quality and forced the manufacturers to cut
> costs (and customer care).
>
> In the car world, if you want customer care go buy a Rolls Royce, if
> you want cheapness, buy a Ford (chosen for illustration only :-)
>
> Peter
>
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