Polaroid case: the importance of knowing your customers

Photography lovers will surely remember the Polaroid brand. Perhaps it was not a great competitor of companies like Kodak or Agfa, but it knew how to position itself in the market based on a revolutionary invention at the time and that seemed to respond to the greatest desire of fans of taking photographs at the time: the instant camera.

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At a time when the idea of digital cameras was far away and consumers had to wait too long to develop their photos, suddenly there was a visionary who took the opportunity to launch a truly innovative camera that captured photos and developed them instantly on the matter of a minute.

In this new case study, we tell you about the Polaroid case, the company that created the instant camera that revolutionized the photographic industry during the second half of the 20th century. What were its origins? Why couldn't it reinvent itself at present? Here we reveal it to you in an instant.

History of Polaroid: the instant camera

Polaroid is an American company founded in 1935 by Edwin H. Land, specializing in the manufacture and distribution of cameras and instant film. In those years, Land was already known for inventing the polarizing filter. However, the commercialization of his products would come two years later. His great initial success led to the first photographic films arousing military interest.

So much so that Polaroid became a major supplier during World War II. Fortunately, his most notable invention was post-war, in peacetime, and to the delight of amateur photographers. It was in 1948, and it was an instant camera, which revealed the image in just 60 seconds.

The inspiration for this creative genius was given by his daughter when one day she told him that she would like to save the waiting time to see the photos. Her father got down to work and dedicated several years of research and work to create a machine that would fulfill his daughter's dream. And in 1948 he got it.

Polaroid's first still camera was the Land Camera Model 95 and it went on sale at a very high price for only 60 units made. This low number of parts for a release was due to a lack of confidence in such a competitive market, divided between Kodak and Agfa.

But instead of being relegated to the background, the invention was a success, so not only did they sell all 60 units in one day, but they had to manufacture many more to meet the high demand. As a result of these efforts, in the device's first year on the market, the company had $5 million in sales.

Later, emboldened by success, the company launched another of the most profitable products in its entire history: Polacolor film which allowed for instant color photography. This great invention would become the company's flagship until the advent of digital photography.

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The decline of Polaroid

After decades of success, Polaroid understands that its business is beginning to unravel, due to the rise of digital photography, which threatened the permanence of instant photography. Edwin Land's great invention was slowly losing interest and would soon become more of a collector's item rather than a functional gadget.

In addition, those 60 seconds of waiting for the photo can be considered eternal when compared to the real immediacy of the digital system. On the other hand, the film was too expensive compared to investing in a digital photography device.

During these events, in 2001 Polaroid goes bankrupt for the first time. However, they resisted for a few years until in 2005 Polaroid was acquired by Peters Group Worldwide, an investment company. But a new setback caused it to go bankrupt when the company that bought it was accused of fraud in 2008.

From that circumstance, the company adopts the name Polaroid / PLR IP Holdings, LLC. A year later, Impossible Project appears, an attempt to revive the company, taking advantage of the films that stopped being manufactured. But unfortunately, they did not achieve with their new films the original quality of yesteryear.

Finally, after PLR IP Holdings, LLC stopped investing in Polaroid, the Impossible Project has bought the company. Although it is not an ideal situation and it is far from being the photographic company that it was thanks to its important technological contributions, it is undergoing a kind of repositioning in the market that we hope will be positive in the future.

Polaroid's main mistake

The main mistake Polaroid made is getting stuck on ideas. At the time, the invention of the instant camera was groundbreaking and revolutionized the photography industry, but it was not destined to endure as more experienced competitors adapted to market changes.

Instant photography undoubtedly marked a before and after in the industry, because the innovation responded to a keen need of consumers to eliminate waiting times to obtain a developed photograph. The inventor's daughter let him know and listened to his needs.

In this lies the importance of knowing customers, but it must be done as a constant practice because needs change, and companies, if they want to remain in the market, must adapt to these changes and new consumer needs. Otherwise, they tend to stagnate and be overtaken by the competition, as Polaroid ultimately did.

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In final words, the Polaroid case, like others that we have analyzed, highlights a company with innovative ideas that it knew how to put into practice successfully, almost unexpectedly, far exceeding its expectations at the time. However, the success was perhaps so overwhelming that they did not detect when it began to fade little by little.

That naive mistake of not anticipating people's needs while remaining indifferent to the main market trends in the photographic industry was what caused Polaroid to be practically not talked about today. Although the company is still active and has managed to adapt its brand to basic photographic and technological requirements for the digital age, it still has a long way to go to learn more about its customers and keep them satisfied.