Kodak made photography cheap and simple with cameras like the 1888 Brownie and 1903 folding pocket camera, then marketed them as fun in an 1908 campaign. Before Kodak, people rarely smiled for photos. The company's strategy of affordable, easy cameras and ads that promised joy changed how the world posed.
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Ever wonder why we smile in photos? Well, you can probably thank kodak and their 1908 product campaign for it. In this video, I'm going to talk to you about how Kodak mastered positioning to drive sales of 150,000 camera units in its first year of product launch. I'm going to dig into how their unique messaging, pricing and positioning changed the way people took pictures and how brands approach marketing strategies to this very day. Hey everyone, my name is Tory and this Kodak ad is why we smile in pictures. Back in 1900, smiling in pictures wasn't very cool. You may think this was because life was just so hard in black and white, but it's actually for two other reasons. Long photo exposure times meant the person in the picture had to stay still while the picture was being taken. So that meant a blank expression was easier to hold than a smile. And big smiles were considered silly and unsophisticated. Even prolific writer Mark Twain once shared his hate for people smiling in photos back in the day. Now let's take it a little further back to 1888. This was when Kodak released the first mass marketed camera with the debut of of the Brownie. Essentially what the ipod was the music, the Brownie was the pictures. But they had a problem. It sounds funny, but back in the day people didn't really know what they were supposed to do in photos. At that point, the only frame of reference society really had for photos were paintings of portraits. And no one really smiled in portraits because just like exposure times, they have to hold it for a really long time. But Kodak knew they had to figure out a way to boost sales. They strategized that if they could get more people, specifically, specifically the middle class to take more pictures, then it could help them sell more cameras, film and services to develop that film. So how'd they do it? They reached their target audience by making the picture taking process seem less complicated and more accessible to beginners. And they boosted sales by offering a great price and marketing fun over frowns. Kodak legitimately would ask customers to take what they were calling snapshots at the time whenever a good time was about to go down. Thus capturing naturally smiling moments. In it's believed the thought was if people were taking more snapshots of everyday happy moments, then they'd take more pics, more pics, more money, but still stuck with the label of silly. Those smiles didn't hit the masses or any photo ads yet. This of course was only until 1903 when Kodak released a game changing $20 folding pocket camera the product was convenient and the price point was affordable for their target audience. Few years later Kodak released this ad in 1908. This at the time revolutionary picture showed a woman with a beaming smile holding her brand spanking new Kodak camera. The image is amazing but can please give a special shout out to this 1908 copy. More pleasure at the moment and afterwards the added charm of pictures that tell the vacation story and it is all made so simple by the Kodak system that the merest novice can make good pictures. From the start, Kodak has removed most of the opportunities from making mistakes. Tell me that is not how you speak directly to your audience in terms of impact. By the 1920s other companies started using their version of smiling models and ads too to sell everything from cars to food. Kodak took a major risk in their marketing campaign and it led to other companies pretty much following suit. So what did this teach us? Back in the day, marketing and advertising focused on the four Ps Kodak created an innovative product. They released it at an affordable price point for the middle class and they created strong advertising that promoted the use of the product by positioning it as easy to use during life's everyday moments. Combination of these four P's drove up sales and led to the creation of one of the most culturally influential campaigns of all time. Astro Kodak. Today. They actually went bankrupt in 2012. Why? That is for another video. But if hearing about this iconic ad campaign made you start to, you know, think about your own ideas, click the link in the description to get started on your very own. We've put together an amazing guide to help you go from plan all the way to launch. As always, if you like what you heard and you want to hear more, comment like and subscribe down below to hear more. Bye bye.
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