Kodak fans and the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Marketing Lessons

Hello.

Too often it seems to us that all the best and new things have been invented in modern times. Delusion

excusable due to information overload.We are fed with news, and they are often superficial, the people who create them live like squirrels in a wheel and do not have the opportunity to spend a little more time studying the issue. Hence the “news”, which is not news, the repetition of the past, as if the media is a goldfish, immediately forgetting what happened yesterday. I have long wanted to touch on the history of Kodak, as it is full of examples of smart marketing, curious advertising and unusual solutions. But it is impossible to outline even the first steps of the company in one or several materials, too long periods of time, and several books have been written about this, and not bad ones at that. I was motivated to read Eric Larson's book The Devil in the White City. The Story of the Serial Maniac Holmes. I love the way Larson writes non-fiction, finds documents and builds his narrative around them. There are several books by Larson in Russia: "In the Garden of Monsters", "Fear and Hope", "Dead Trail". It is a pity that other books are not translated into Russian, they also deserve attention.

The name attracts with the promise to tell about the firstAmerica's serial maniac, in fact, most of the book is about the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Which leaves many disappointed, but on the contrary, I was pleased. The translation is not bad, but the phrase “friends of Kodak” caught my eye, I met it several times in Russian literature. It is surprising that professional translators perceive Kodak fiends as Kodak friends and correct a non-existent typo without referring to the original source. In dozens of American museums I saw a lot of postcards of that time with the words Kodak fiends, which can be read as “Kodak fans”. Although it can be interpreted in a more negative sense - “Kodak demons”. Outside the understanding of the context of the end of the 19th century, this phrase does not sound at all. Where did the Kodak demons come from, what does this expression mean, and why did it even come into being?

At the end of the 19th century, cameras began to rapidlyevolve and spread, photography becomes a hobby of the wealthy public. Oddly enough, many young women become devoted fans of this new activity. The boom in cameras is limited by their cost, for most it is a very expensive pleasure that they cannot afford. But photography is like a miracle, you can capture any moment in time. Analogies are always lame, and to say that the same Kodak was Apple for its time means to say nothing. The perception of Kodak was on a different level, the possession of such a camera automatically showed your status in society. The penetration of cameras was noticeably less than that of the same iPhones when they first appeared.

That time is characterized by people's faith intechnological progress, fabulous units, impossible yesterday, suddenly became reality. Every year brought something new, and it seemed that development would never stop, people got used to the wonders of technology. World exhibitions appeared, in which each country boasted of its achievements. The Paris Exhibition of 1889 lasted almost half a year and left behind the Eiffel Tower.

The impression of the exhibition was so strongthat America decided to respond and host the exhibition. Several cities could have become the venue, but in the end, Chicago won, where a small city was erected for the 1893 Columbian Exposition.

Flipping through old black and white photographsyou are amazed how in such a short time they were able to create such beautiful buildings, fill them with exhibits from all over the world. Those who wish to be curious can read Larson's book, it is exactly about this. We are interested in the exhibition because it has become a center of attraction, an event that could and should have been used for marketing purposes. And Kodak took full advantage of this opportunity.

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The advent of portable cameras madepossible shooting on the streets of cities, including without the permission of other people. By the time of the exhibition in Chicago, irritation in society had reached its climax, photographers were considered people who poke their nose into someone else's life, unceremoniously invade it. Serious passions were running high, and in the newspapers there were constantly notes that described situations where photographers were drawn in a negative light.

Source: Los Angeles Herald (August 7, 1899)

Here is a translation of such a note in the Los Angeles Herald, it was written in 1899, but the phenomenon itself became noticeable a decade earlier.

Nasty Kodak Fans

One of the troubles of our civilization is a manor a woman armed with a Kodak and snapping anyone who walks by or who can be spied on. There seems to be something about Kodak that destroys every sense of propriety in its owner. As soon as he owns or rents this instrument, the common man often begins to trespass, poke his nose into things he has nothing to do with, and test the patience of polite people beyond their endurance.

In 1890, the Harvard Law Review published an articletwo lawyers, in which they propose to introduce the right to privacy (The right to privacy). Society is seething with the fact that unknown people can invade privacy, including taking photos at the most inopportune moments - on vacation, on the beach, in public places.

Source: brandeis.edu

When you get acquainted with the context of relationships insociety, it becomes clear that photographers were not very favored and loved. But at the same time, photographers were often people from high society, as a result, they did not pay attention to prohibitions and continued to photograph. In the 70s of the XIX century, special dark rooms began to appear in hotels, as the hobby captured many people and for hotels the presence of such a room became an advantage that attracted rich people. Draw parallels with modern hotels putting iPod and later iPhone compatible stereos, adding wireless chargers to desks and other items. Everything is aimed at attracting the target audience to you.

We have known the word Kodak since childhood, but we neverdid not exist, film inventor George Eastman came up with it in 1889. And it became a household name, something similar to what happened to Xerox in our time. It is extremely curious that the Kodak brand has turned its name into several terms, for example, today there is the word kodaked, which means the loss of all data on the storage medium (the term appeared due to the fact that Kodak Easyshare software killed memory cards). In the old days, the brand was turned into a verb, look at the photo for yourself.

Source: communitystories.ca

Let's take a look at the Kodak brochure, whichadvertised the capabilities of the camera at the time (it cost $25, which was a huge leap from the $60 price tag for most cameras a few years earlier). In addition, Kodak came up with film instead of glass plates, which also became a revolution. So let's read the brochure:

ANYONE who knows how to wind a watch canuse KODAK CAMERA. This is a magazine camera that will take 100 shots without rebooting. To take a photo, just point the camera and press the button. The image is instantly made on a strip of sensitive film, which is moved to the desired position by turning the key ... DIVISION OF LABOR. After 100 shots have been taken, the strip of film (wound on a spool) can be removed and mailed to the factory for final processing of the shots, freeing the buyer from all the hassle of fine-tuning the shots. Any amateur can finish their drawings, and any number of duplicates can be made from each drawing. A reel of film to reload the camera for 100 shots costs only two dollars ...

STAND IS NOT REQUIRED.No focus, no adjustment. Fast rectilinear lens. KODAK photographs anything, still or moving, indoors or outdoors... Scenic Diary Your trip to Europe, the mountains or the sea can be easily captured with a KODAK CAMERA that will pay for itself a hundredfold in a few years. BEAUTIFUL TOOL. Covered in dark Turkish morocco, nickel and lacquered brass finishes, the KODAK is housed in a neat leather carrying case with a shoulder strap and is the size of large binoculars…

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An excellent example of advertising, which highlights the main advantages of the camera. Especially for the exhibition, Kodak is renaming its camera number 4, it is called "Columbus".

Source: redbellows.co.uk

Organizers of the Chicago World's Fairthey try to present their offspring in the right light, the admission of independent photographers to the construction site is prohibited, all rights are given to the official photographer of the exhibition. Newspapers that want to use the photos are forced to turn to him. To quote a passage about this from Eric Larson's book:

"Burnham provided a single photographer,Charlie Dudley Arnold, exclusive right to sell photographs of the exhibition; this order even gave Burnham control of all the photographs distributed around the country, and also explained why neat, well-dressed people belonging to the upper strata of society tend to appear in every frame. The second contractor received the exclusive right to rent the Kodak to the visitors of the exhibition. The Kodak was a new type of handheld camera that had no lens, no shutter, and no need to focus."

Unfortunately, Eric Larson is mistaken, there was a lens in the camera, but everything else was really simplified as much as possible. Let's read further:

“The pictures that this new camera tookvery soon received the name “snap-shot”, which means “instant shot” - a term coined by English hunters and meaning a quick, aimless shot from a gun. Anyone who wanted to come to the exhibition with their Kodak had to pay two dollars for permission to use it - this amount discouraged most visitors from taking pictures at the exhibition with their cameras, besides, Midway's Cairo Street demanded an additional one dollar for shooting on its territory. An amateur photographer who came with his large-format camera and the necessary tripod for it had to pay ten dollars - almost as much as visiting visitors paid for a full day spent at the exhibition, including expenses for accommodation, food and admission ticket.

George Eastman was a born marketer,having agreed with the exhibition to rent his cameras, he not only introduced them to visitors, but taught them that it was not necessary to develop the pictures, it was enough to send the film to the laboratory. The lightweight camera bribed with its simplicity, it was then that the understanding of the concept of “point the camera and press the button” appeared. There was nothing more to be done.

Care was taken at the exhibition that no onephotographed without permission, thirty tickets were issued for carrying their cameras and thirty-seven tickets for filming without permission. The size of the fine is unknown, but I think it was a tidy sum.

One phrase about Kodak fiend made me rememberwhat techniques George Eastman used to promote his offspring and what role the Chicago World's Fair played in this. Eastman's genius was that he constantly tried to improve technology and make cameras cheaper and easier to use. The Kodak Brownie was a few years away, and it was this family of cameras that introduced photography to a huge number of people since 1900 - a simple and cheap camera that competitors spoke of contemptuously. Please note that all Kodak cameras of that time were numbered, analogies with modern smartphones are obvious here. Many more analogies and interesting finds can be found in the history of Kodak, it is important that they were used for the first time then, and today they are just rehashings of old ideas. Hopefully I'll have time to go back to Kodak's history, talk about the Kodak girls, color choices for camera bodies, and more.