people come to photography for many things. they stay for many other things. For some, it is because they don’t have anything else. For some others it is everything else.

Making products is complex; even more so in an age of hard supply and quick change consumer — the amateur has little drive to commit long term. Such a real-world makes manufacturers jumpy. Often they jump the wrong way.

Kodak failed the market. Kodak lost the market. Polaroid wobbled Kodak’s amateur market dominance, not by packaging, but by product. It was the product, not the package that gave Polaroid their position in stores and studios. Polaroid was founded on research and continued that dominance until they closed. They made mistakes, but it wasn’t mistaking the package for the product.

Branding review: Kodak, Polaroid —

Tip: when you call it Xerox, they’ve won. When ‘computer’ is spelled IBM, they’ve won.

Nothing says out of date more than a middle aged woman clinging to her girlish 20 something mannerisms.