Marketing Case Study Reoport - Canon
The report analyses the success factors of Canon's business during their globalization in 1960s and 1970s, then next discusses the recommendation for Xerox to combat Canon. The report consists of the following sections.
? Background of the Company ? history / products
? Canon Strategy
? Strengths of Canon
? Weaknesses of Canon
? Introduction to Xerox
? Xerox Strategy
? Recommendations for Xerox
Background of the Company
Canon started its business as a camera company in 1933 and began exporting the products after World War II. Since 1950s, Canon globalised its business. It established a N.Y. branch in 1955, an agent in Switzerland in 1955, built a camera assembly in Taiwan in 1971. Also, the diversification into business machines and industrial optical products was occurred aggressively during 1960s. Especially, the sales of business machine incredibly grown during 1970s and became accounting for over 70% in 1980s.
After the crisis in 1970s, Canon created the "premier company plan" and established interlinked functional organizations known as CDS, CPS, and CMS. Each organization has a clear responsibility so that they can respond quickly. This system resulted development time reduction and product efficiency improvement. Those features are a part of core competency of Canon.
Canon Strategy
During its globalization, Canon strategically diversified, invested in R&D, enhanced production and contracted OEM agreement. Firstly, the strategy in diversification was the key element of this case. As the figure 1, Ansoff's matrix shows, Canon has diversified into business machines, such as copier, and optical products, TV camera lenses etc. When Canon entered the copier ...