Kodak discussion questions File is attachedIncluding a Video Transcript and Multiple choices questions Video Transcript: [ Music ] >>Mark Weber: Okay. The

Kodak discussion questions File is attachedIncluding a Video Transcript and Multiple choices questions Video Transcript:
[ Music ]
>>Mark Weber: Okay.
The graphic communications group is one
of Kodak’s largest growing businesses.
It’s comprised of many former companies merged into one
to drive printing within both the commercial printing industry
as well as corporate and government areas.
And then our main segments and products are digital printing
or consumables or workflow
or services are the four main types of products we sell.
My name is Mark Weber.
I’m the vice president of Worldwide Sales Partnerships
for Kodak’s digital printing solutions group.
Most of our customers are printing to make money.
I mean, that is their business.
That’s what they bring home checks to their families for.
So it’s very important that we help them grow their businesses
from a full plate of solutions rather than just single boxes.
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Our product strategy is we have two portions of our business.
We have customers who are still using offset
or analogue equipment.
It’s a multibillion dollars industry.
And we have a portion of our business that is already
into digital printing.
The offset printing process is using traditional presses
that go all the way back to Gutenberg.
And what you’re doing is you’re putting on the press,
setting up the equipment, and generally needing to run tens
of thousands of images to be cost effective.
But customers are coming back and saying,
Now I need shorter run lengths and I need it today
or yesterday not three days from now.
Digital printing, it enables you to more quickly print on demand.
Our competition tends to be very specialized.
So we compete against Xerox who’s specialized
in digital printing.
We compete against -Agfa’s specialized in components for offset printing.
Compete against Heidelberg that makes printing presses.
We have a workflow now that ties all these capabilities together.
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Kodak has traditionally been a B2C type company dealing
directly with the consumers.
B2B is one step different and a different type of customer.
We focus on several segments of the industry.
Biggest is the commercial segment,
and that is commercial printers.
Then we have the packaging industry.
The packaging industry is about the same size
of the overall industry,
and that’s people producing your Kellogg’s corn flakes box.
They’re also in the publishing industry.
That’s our third of four segments.
And last but not least, we’re in the transactional printing part
of the world; and that’s printing checks,
printing documents.
So those are the four primary segments.
All of them are doing business with very large investments.
So if we’re selling a camera on the Kodak.com system,
I’m having to [inaudible] customer’s time trying
to sell them a $350 camera.
On the other hand, I might be trying
to sell them a $350,000 press or a $3.5 million solution.
It’s a different way of approaching that type
of customer that’s different from B2B than it is from a B2C.
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We depend on a direct sales force, both direct
and indirect sales force, people calling on those customers.
Generally people don’t put their credit card down for tens
and hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment.
So because we have to touch those customers differently
or multiple times before they’re really interested, we use a lot
of tools available to the B2C.
We just use them differently.
We also have hundreds of distributors,
dealers, and resellers.
Sometimes they are in a geography
where it’s not cost effective [inaudible].
Sometimes they are focused on better professionals
on a particular area where we are to get into,
but it would be difficult
to train our people to do the same thing.
So we don’t try with Kodak to do things
that are outside our normal experiences.
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There’s many different ways we promote graphic communications
group products.
First and foremost, there’s dozens of large trade shows
or industry showings and then many more smaller showings.
So you get hundreds of thousands of customers coming
to these shows, so that’s a large part of our promotion.
We do some trade advertising both in terms of Kodak’s theme
and then specific advertising depending on the four segments
that we’re speaking about.
We have one Web site, which is the graphics portion
of the Kodak.com Web site, that you can see all of our products.
We run electronic campaigns from that site,
so we can specifically send an electronic mailing to a customer
and get them to come to our site, maybe request a sales rep.
Services and solutions are the most difficult.
Our work flow is — you can’t show someone a book.
And sometimes — so you have to develop Flash elements and ways
of displaying how the workflow actually drives their business.
I mean, some of the commercial printers that I’ve dealt
with are still using Post-it Notes to track jobs.
And if that Post-it Note falls on the ground, what happens?
So we need to show the customer
that we have customer management printing systems
that allow them not only just to operate their shop
and track everything’s going through it
and run the finances too.
But that’s a very intangible thing for many customers,
so we try to use different ways of animating it
and showing customers and references along with it.
And what we’ve developed is a good customer relationship
management system.
So we know who our customers are, how they’re segmented,
where they are in the country, what some of their need are,
and then we can profile that CRM system
and develop a campaign specific for them.
So we may have tens and tens and thousands of customers,
but a specific campaign may be to just to hundreds of them.
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Consumer or end user may use what we call
Web-to-print capabilities.
They may have — like a local retailer might have several
outlets around the country, and they need to print brochures.
But they find the New England printer needs a different
background like a covered bridge,
and a Southwest person might have a pueblo-type building
or cactuses or something.
So with Web to print, they can choose the template
with the background that best meet their customers’ localized
needs and print them and distribute them in the area
where they need distributed.
So small or medium-large printers can now offer this
Web-to-print capability, saving time, paper,
cost, money, and so forth.
Papa John’s is, you know,
a large pizza manufacture — you know, retailer.
They keep really good track of what you and I buy.
You like sausage and I like anchovies, they know that
and they record that in their system.
So working with, in this case, Next Press,
they’ve developed a — ability to produce coupons
that are specifically personally designed for you.
They have the database.
We provide them a workflow, customize it to that database,
and then the equipment and the support goes along with it.
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I think we try very hard to probe our customers.
Again, we do the traditional way with surveys where someone picks
up the phone and calls you.
But we just did a Web-based survey as well.
So people coming to our Web site can fill out any question
about what they like and dislike.
So with the capabilities we’re selling, we’re using them
to better find out what their needs are.
We also have users associations;
like we have the graphic users association,
hundreds of different customers coming together twice a year
talking to our executives,
let them know what they like and dislike.
So we’re always probing because we’re
in a continuous improvement mode,
and that’s the only way we can grow is to find
out what we’re not doing as well, what we can improve.
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Questions:
Kodak’s Graphics Communication Group (GCG) is one of the company’s largest
growing businesses. On one hand, Kodak’s GCG serves customers using offset or
analog printing that requires long production runs to be cost efficient. On the
other hand, the company also serves customers that use digital printing to
provide quick, on demand, short production runs. The company markets four
types of products — digital printing, consumables, workflow, and services — to
commercial printing, corporate, and government customers. Most of the
customers are commercial printers, which is one of four market segments
targeted by the GCG. The other three market segments are the packaging
industry, publishers, and customers engaged in transactional printing (i.e.,
printing of checks and documents). In order to more precisely target customer
subsets within these different market segments, the company relies on a
customer relationship management (CRM) system that contains a variety of
detailed information about the needs, location, and characteristics of the
customers. The company also seeks lots of feedback from its customers in order
to better understand their needs and their perceptions of the company’s
operations vis-à-vis the customers. This feedback is used to foster continuous
improvement.
Kodak’s Graphics Communication Group produces and distributes goods and
services that provide various printing solutions for customers. The marketing of
these goods and services is an exchange relationship between Kodak and its
customers. Which of the following statements does not accurately describe the
exchange relationship between Kodak and its customers?
a.Kodak markets reliable printing equipment and supplies as well as software to
effectively assist customers in managing workflow.
b.Kodak’s customers tend to be loyal and are repeat purchasers, particularly for
supplies and support services.
c.Kodak invests significant resources into helping customers improve their
printing systems and processes.
d.Kodak’s long-term profitability makes it more attractive for investors.
Which one of the following statements accurately describes Kodak’s printing and
copying supplies with respect to the “Goods to Services” continuum?
a.The products are more intangible.
b.The products are manufactured and inventoried.
c.The products are more variable.
d.The products’ qualities are difficult to judge.
Which one of the following statements accurately describes Kodak’s equipment
maintenance and repair market offerings with respect to the “Goods to Services”
continuum?
a.The market offerings are more intangible.
b.The market offerings are manufactured and inventoried.
c.The market offerings are standardized.
d.The attributes of the market offerings may be evaluated effectively prior to
purchase.
Which of the following represent the core of the various product lines at Kodak’s
Graphics Communication Group?
a.Consulting services.
b.Workflow management systems.
c.Equipment maintenance and repair.
d.Printing and copying equipment.
Which of the following represent value-added services for the various product
lines of Kodak’s Graphics Communication Group?
a.Printing and copying equipment.
b.Printing and copying supplies.
c.Workflow management systems.
d.Imaging devices.
Given that Kodak’s Graphics Communication Group has numerous goods and
services that it markets to four primary market segments, the company’s product
line would best be described as:
a.Having neither breadth nor depth.
b.Having little breadth but a great deal of depth.
c.Having considerable breadth but little depth.
d.Having both considerable breadth and considerable depth.

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