Could Kodak still access a different future?

On our recent trip to South Korea, we popped in at one of the many Kodak pop-up shops in Seoul.

The Kodak brand has been licensed out to a rights holder in the region, and as a result, you can buy an assortment of Kodak branded merch; from caps to bags and t-shirts.

Brand licensing is a popular, and often times, lucrative way for brands that are past their prime to milk the last vestiges of commercial value of of the mark before its inevitable death.

The tactic makes shareholders happy... for a short while, but seeing a once proud brand like Kodak simply slapped onto random bags and shorts and sold in a dark corner of a multi-level mall is rather sad.

The future trajectory of the brand seems like a destiny, but we can't help but wonder if Kodak still has access to a different future.

Yes the business is still active in stills and motion picture film production, but it's consumer division is a feint shadow of what it once was. And yet the iconic brand is strong and clearly still holds value in the minds of people.

Obviously we have very little insight into the complexities that management of the company are currently needing to attend to, but surely brand licensing is just one alternative in the sea of possibilities that could be explored?

There are no doubt teams of very clever people who have spent endless hours meticulously weighing up the pros and cons of imaginatively reviving the Kodak brand back into a new era.

We struggle to believe that this is it.