In my marketing strategy class, we were chatting about product life cycles, and I commented that being the ‘last guy standing’ in a declining market can be a profitable position since the last guy is by definition a monopolist, and momopolists are positioned to make beaucoup d’argent — that is, lots of money.
A student pointed out that might be true … until the declining market just flat out dies.
Good point … supported by an interesting story about the end of a photography era and an iconic brand:
A sign on the wall reads: “I took this to a drugstore and they didn’t even know what it was”.
Dwayne’s Photo, a small family business has through luck and persistence become the last processor in the world of Kodachrome, the first successful color film and still the most beloved.
Kodachrome … is noteworthy in no small part for how long it survived.
Created in 1935, Kodachrome was an instant hit as the first film to effectively render color.
Even when it stopped being the default film for chronicling everyday life — thanks in part to the move to prints from slides — it continued to be the film of choice for many hobbyists.
That celebrated 75-year run from mainstream to niche photography is scheduled to come to an end on Thursday when the last processing machine is shut down at Swayne’s — to be sold for scrap.
Kodachrome rewarded generations of skilled users with a richness of color and a unique treatment of light that many photographers described as incomparable even as they shifted to digital cameras.
Kodak stopped producing the film last year.
At the peak, there were about 25 labs worldwide that processed Kodachrome. That number got winnowed down to one – Dwayne’s.
Last year, Kodak stopped producing the chemicals needed to develop the film.
The last frame of the last roll to be processed: a picture of all Dwayne’s employees standing in front of the store wearing shirts with the epitaph: “The best slide and movie film in history is now officially retired. Kodachrome: 1935-2010.”
NYT, For Kodachrome Fans, Road Ends at Photo Lab in Kansas, December 29, 2010
Thanks to DM for feeding the lead
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