Viewpoint: Polaroid’s president and chief executive
In 2009 Polaroid was acquired by a group of private equity investors. We shifted the business model so that we went from being a vertical operating company into an intellectual property holding company that focuses on brand marketing and licensing.
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Scott Hardy
President and chief executive Polaroid
That means we identify best-in-class third party companies that are experts in specific product categories and regions around the world and enter into exclusive strategic partnerships with them to bring products to market.
We have a curator role where we have a strong brand name and asset that has had billions of dollars spent on it in marketing over the past 75 years and an incredible history of innovation. Our job is to choose these best-in-class partners, overlay that brand DNA and ensure products go to market under this brand that we carefully control.
We believe that we’re blazing a trail for the future of how brands in the consumer electronics space will operate. This business model is something that in the apparel industry is very normal – where brands and the intellectual property are controlled at a very top level and the actual distribution, production, logistics and sales is handled through third-party companies.
We’ve looked at the key attributes that the Polaroid brand stands for. There are functionality attributes: things such as instant, capture, image and sharing as well as key design attributes that people associate with the brand. That includes heritage designs like the classic border logo on photos or the rainbow spectrum that features on a lot of our iconic cameras.
We looked at those attributes and decided to infuse that DNA into everything we do. When we look at all the products we can go to market with, we have a very diligent and disciplined focus on infusing those elements. We’re finding that our products sell very strongly and we’re able to move the needle in getting consumers’ attention.
