More Kodak Express Stores On Cards  ( April '12,2004, FE)

Kodak India Ltd is planning to set up 100 exclusive ‘Kodak Express’ stores—which is into branded photo processing network—across the country within a year. At present, there are 30,000 Kodak Express stores worldwide and 1,200 such stores in India.

The objective behind the move is to spur more volumes of Kodak cameras and widen its reach of photographic services to customers during the period, Kodak India Ltd (Kodak Consumer & Professional Imaging Group South Asia) business manager Richard Fleming told FE.

As part of the company’s new volume growth strategy, explained Mr Fleming: “A consumer buys Kodak cameras every 40 seconds. And by setting up additional 100 Kodak Express stores, our aim is to enable consumers to buy Kodak cameras at the speed of 20 seconds. We hope to contribute an additional 10 per cent to our overall sales turnover within a year.”

Further, in an effort to woo photographers and provide consumers access to Kodak accredited professional photographers, Kodak India Ltd has recently launched an innovative marketing service called ‘Photographer On Call Program’ in 32 cities. As part of the strategy, consumers can avail of contact details of four photographers located in the vicinity of their residential areas on dialling a toll-free number. The consumer is free to contact and select the photographer who suits his/her requirements and decide on the monetary transactions without any intervention from Kodak.

The new program is part of Kodak’s strategy to provide solutions that are specific to the needs of professional photographers, he explained.

According to Mr Fleming: “The ‘Photographer On Call Program’ is based on market research that identified consumer need for reliable photographers during occasions such as weddings, birthdays, Griha Pravesh and festivals.” For the purpose, photographers need to go through a special training program conducted for Kodak by reputed photographers, he added.

In the three million units camera market, Kodak is a market leader with a market share of 60 per cent, at present.