Case Study Analysis of Polaroid Corporation

INTRODUCTION: Polaroid Corporation is an American-based international consumer electronics and eyewear company, originally founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land. It is most famous for its instant film cameras, which reached the market in 1948, and continued t o be the company's flagship product line until the February 2008 decision to cea se all production in favor of digital photography products. Polaroid developed an instant movie system, Polavision, based on the Dufaycolor process. The product arrived on the market when videotape-based systems were rap idly gaining popularity. As a result, Polavision was unsuccessful and most of th e manufactured product was sold off as a job lot at immense cost to the company. Its underlying technology was later improved for use in the Polachrome instant slide film system. The company also was one of the early manufacturers of digital cameras, with the PDC-2000 in 1996; however, they failed to capture a large market share in that segment. They also made 35 mm and multi format scanners, such as Polaroid SpiritScan 4000 35 mm scanner (the first scanner with a 4000 DPI CCD) in 1999, and the Polaroid PrintScan 120 in 2000, the scanners had mixed reception and had heavy competiti on with Nikon and Minolta. All the line was discontinued after the firm went ban krupt. On October 11, 2001, Polaroid Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protec tion. Almost all the company's assets (including the "Polaroid" name itself, whi ch had become almost synonymous with instant photographs) were sold to a subsidi ary of Bank One. They went on to form a new company, which also operates under t he name "Polaroid Corporation". It stopped making Polaroid cameras in 2007 and s topped selling Polaroid film after 2009, to the consternation of many users. The renamed "old" Polaroid now exists solely as an administrative shell. Its ban kruptcy was widely believed to be the result of the failure of its senior manage ment to anticipate the effect of digital cameras on its film business. On December 18, 2008, the post-reorganization Polaroid Corp. filed for Chapter 1 1 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota. The bankruptcy filing came shortly after the criminal investigation of its paren t company, Petters Group Worldwide, and the parent company founder, Tom Petters. On January 5, 2010, Polaroid partnered with Lady Gaga, appointing her as Creativ e Director for the company. A press release stated that she would be the "new fa ce" of Polaroid. Since March 2010, instant film materials for vintage Polaroid cameras have again become available on the market, developed and manufactured by a group called Th e Impossible Project, at the former Polaroid production plant in Enschede, The N etherlands. REFERENCES http://www.studymode.com/essays/Polaroid-Case-Study-312376.html http://zaipul.wikispaces.com/file/view/Polaroid+Case+Study.pdf http://college.cengage.com/business/resources/casestudies/students/writing.htm http://negocios.udd.cl/files/2012/09/POLAROID-COMPLETE.pdf