On September 4, 1888 George Eastman registered the name Kodak, which he jointly developed with his mother. Later that year the first Kodak camera emerged on the market. The pictures it took were a scant 2 ½ inches in diameter, but as they say the rest is history. What the Kodak brand stood for over time was so powerful and globally ubiquitous that it became synonymous with American ingenuity and the popularization of complex technology for the common man. There were times when you could travel to the farthest reaches of the globe and easily spot the yellow and red Kodak film boxes at remote bodegas as well as the finest emporiums. It was most likely alongside a sign for Coca-Cola, the other principal American export to the world for most of the 20th Century.

In 1889, Eastman once again proved he was a great marketer as well as an industrialist when he came up with the legendary advertising slogan, “You push the button and we’ll do the rest,” which arguably deserves to be in the top ten of historical all time positioning lines – along with “Don’t leave home without it” for American Express, “You deserve a break today” for McDonalds and “We bring good things to life” for General Electric.

Now, it is with great sadness that Antonio Perez, Kodak CEO for the last 6 years, is presiding over what appears to be a fire sale of intellectual property assets, many of them in digital photography that others (not Kodak) have exploited for market share and profits. It is little known, but many of Kodak’s patents make digital photography possible, yet in a classic case of “milking the cash cow,” Kodak refused to accept the onset of digital photography and the disruptive effect it would have on the 70-80% operating margins they once enjoyed on the film (silver halite) business.  In the mid 1990’s, several of us recommended to Kodak that they adopt a new sub-brand, which we created called Kodak DS – Digital Science. The idea was that Kodak should take credit for the vast array of patents the company had across many digital platforms and applications including health imaging, commercial printing and of course digital photography. I always wonder to this day if things would be different if they had invested heavily behind this digital (future oriented) strategy – way back in 1993! Instead they sequestered the digital science brand logo and put it on a couple of low-end digital cameras and after a few years it disappeared mainly because no one was left who participated in the original strategy that was designed to position the company for the future.

As for the future, Eastman Kodak (NYSE:EK)  filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in the Southern District Court of New York, on January 19, 2012 – and will apparently emerge with a focus on inkjet printers. They have buttons, don’t they?

- Bob Kahn heads up the Aviation & Travel practice at MBLM and previously has been a brand strategy leader at Futurebrand, Landor, Brand Union and Ogilvy & Mather.