In the previous century, Kodak was synonymous with ‘camera’. According to Van Dale, you can ‘kodak with a Kodak’: the company name became a generic name. (We call this brand dilution. ‘Bic’ instead of ballpoint pen and ‘pamper’ instead of diaper are other examples of this phenomenon.)
And yet, no one takes their pictures with a Kodak camera these days. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I saw a Kodak product in a store. Where’s Kodak?
You have to keep up with technical developments
Nokia is another brand that dominated a market in Your phone number library never has an error. Each week, we were rotating through a list of phone numbers. Bаѕе On W: | L р i w b є s it or vi з e d t ty. Though we type the information by way of pros human beings accordingly get a europe cell phone number list hundred% accurate consequences in our phone wide variety library Complete but up to dated till Aug 2024 Our smartphone range library come with man days n nights guide. the past but now only plays a role on the margins of world trade. The trendy phones of the late 90s and the beginning of the millennium were an indispensable part of the street scene. And yet no one uses a Nokia anymore.
There are 3 very important lessons to be learned from the demise of these (and other) companies. Read about them and learn from them.
The title of this paragraph might make you think, “Yeah, that’s pretty obvious,” but it’s not that obvious. At least not when we look at the demise of companies:
Seize opportunities when they arise
Nokia was the market leader in smartphones until 2007, but ultimately failed to make the right investments. This led to ‘substandard innovation performance’ . Who did have the focus in the right place? Their competitors, particularly Apple and Google.
Kodak saw no future in digital photography
Even though that company itself created the first digital camera in 1975. You guessed it: the competition saw the unprecedented opportunities of this technology and pushed Kodak out of the market.
Hyves was the largest social medium in the Low Countries in 2010, but did not invest in advanced technical features. Facebook did, and in doing so stole customers from Hyves.
Standing still leads to falling behind.
Read more about social media — then and now: Social media in 2019 — what to do with it (and what not to do)
Think carefully before you turn down an offer.
Take Blockbuster. At its peak in 2004, this video rental chain had 84,300 employees worldwide. They were the number one video and DVD rental company in the United States.
There came a time when Blockbuster saw the potential of a video-on-demand service, which the then much lesser-known Netflix already had. Blockbuster entered into a partnership with the American energy and services giant Enron to set up video-on-demand. The partnership was difficult and after only a year Enron pulled the plug on the project because they feared that Blockbuster would not be able to supply enough films for the service.
Around that time, Netflix approached the big boys at Blockbuster. “Do you want to buy us?” Netflix asked. “No,” Blockbuster said.
Thanks to this decision at the beginning of the millennium, you and I are watching Netflix tonight instead of Blockbuster.
A trusted name is worth money
The Dutch Videoland suffered the same fate as their industry colleague Blockbuster. Because yes, our northern neighbors also no longer rented videos the old-fashioned way.
But look what happened! Videoland was revived by TV giant RTL. The name Videoland was stuck on a video-on-demand service. Not a bad idea, because Videoland is still a trusted name in the Netherlands, even though it has been out of the public’s sights for a while.
Another example, also from north of our border: Melkunie. In 1990, this dairy company from the West of the Netherlands merged with Campina from the South of the Netherlands. Until 2001, the company was called Campina Melkunie, after which the name Melkunie was dropped. The famous brand name disappeared from the shops. But it turned out that there was still a future for Melkunie. In 2009, the Danish Arla Foods bought part of Campina, which gave them the brand name Melkunie. Knowing that Melkunie was still a well-known concept among the Dutch, they revived the name .
When a brand disappears, it does not mean the end of that name. A trusted name is worth money.
Are there Belgian companies in the danger zone?
There you have it, those were the three wise lessons. Now the question remains: are there Belgian companies in the danger zone?
Always. Too many to mention, actually, although most companies will never get the attention of the media because they lack name recognition.
A large company that comes to mind is Colruyt. Don’t fall off why copywriters don’t like Ilyakhov your chair; I’m not saying that Colruyt is about to go bankrupt. The opposite is true: in the 2017/2018 financial year, the supermarket chain managed to increase its market share to 32.4% . But there is a threat lurking for Colruyt: the Dutch supermarkets of Jumbo are coming to Belgium. And Jumbo’s USP is, just like that of Colruyt, that they offer a lowest price guarantee. For the stripped-down (I’ll say: uninviting) stores of Colruyt, the atmospheric, beautiful Jumbo will pose a threat. Colruyt may have to change its business strategy to remain a major player in the long term.
The right choice: to innovate or not?
What should Colruyt do? Stick to their age-old concept or change course and give their stores more cachet?
Some would argue for the former. After all, if a proven concept agb directory works, why change it?
But that reasoning only applies if the market stays the same. The market will not stay the same. Jumbo is going to turn the market upside down.
Think back to Nokia. Nokia also thought that their old concept would be successful forever. And then the competitors came with their fancy smartphones to shake up the market.
I think Colruyt is going to have to thoroughly revise its strategy.
RetailDetail also came to that conclusion. If Colruyt does not do that, the company will be mentioned in a rewritten version of this article in fifteen years: “What we can learn from the downfall of Colruyt”.
Motionmill to the rescue!
Making the right choice as a company is always difficult. A wrong choice can cost you a lot of money as an entrepreneur.
That’s why it might be nice to know that you can get help. From us, if you want. No, we’re not going to advise you on every area.
