GoPro’s Case Analysis

The report through the examination of GoPro’s case study looks at the entrepreneurship as a discipline that can be learned and acquired. The traits of an entrepreneur can also be in the positive side but as well in the dark side and these are the attributes that makes an entrepreneur.

GoPro’s Case Analysis
Student’s Name:
Institution:

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Executive Summary
The report through the examination of GoPro’s case study looks at the entrepreneurship as a
discipline that can be learned and acquired. The traits of an entrepreneur can also be in the positive
side but as well in the dark side and these are the attributes that makes an entrepreneur. GoPro has
gained a large market and is commanding huge customer base; however the challenge is enormous
threats from the competitors. It is recommended that the company redesign their products, lower the
prices and adopt sustainable leadership in order for the company to stay and compete favorably in the
market.

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary............................................................................................................................2
Table of Contents.................................................................................................................................3
1.0 Introduction...................................................................................................................................4
2.0 Major Traits associated with Dark Side of Entrepreneurship..................................................4
2.1 Passion............................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Resilience........................................................................................................................................4
2.3 Strong Sense of Self........................................................................................................................5
3.0 Entrepreneurship as a Field Learned..........................................................................................5
4.0 GoPro’s Marketing Strategies and planning..............................................................................5
4.1 GoPro’s Competitive-Advantage....................................................................................................5
4.2 GoPro's Success in Relation to Marketing Strategy.....................................................................8
5.0 GoPro’s Possible Future Threats.................................................................................................9
6.0 Recommendation to Mitigate Looming Threats in the Market................................................9
6.1 Use of Budget Action Cameras-Lowering Prices..........................................................................9
6.2 Product Redesigning....................................................................................................................10
6.3 Leadership Strategy......................................................................................................................10
Conclusion..........................................................................................................................................10
References..........................................................................................................................................11

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1.0 Introduction
In the analysis of the case study, the report examines the major traits related with shady side
of free enterprise in relation to the case, supports the claim that free enterprise is a field like any field
and can be learned, analyses GoPro’s economical benefit, the possible future threats, give
recommendations needed to mitigate the looming threats in the market and give conclusion.
2.0 Major Traits associated with Dark Side of Entrepreneurship
2.1 Passion
This is the urge to carry on in doing something relentlessly without giving up. The trait is
attributed to an inner motive of wanting to achieve a conceived idea. The GoPro’s founder had the
passion of creating a gadget that will give an experience while surfing. This was borne while he was
surfing and developed the urge to push the idea forward (Bolys et al., 2017). These people use most
of their time in an insane manner forging for the idea to a reality. The sacrifice a lot of time because
they have a driving force to solve a situation. As per Cropley (2017), these types of personalities have
a steadfast intelligence of perseverance. They pass through all the tribulations and get reward through
the realization that is on a venture of a better cause. Irrespective of the tribulations and difficulties
they pass through they derive the motivation through passion despite many discouragements to quite
(Cropley, 2017).
2.1 Resilience
This is the ability to withstand all the obstacles on the way of success by soldering on without
losing focus. It is the ability to go through failure one after the other until the path of success without
giving up (Von Bergen and Bressler, 2017). The GoPro founder illustrated resilience in his idea
despite the many attempts of failure. Even after going to the forces, his idea never died. He came back
and picked from where he left and soldiers on. In the process of success, sets backs are prone to

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appear on the way. Resilient people will not let it go, but they remain determined for on the course
(Bolys, Kotobi, and Furnham, 2017).
2.3 Strong Sense of Self
This is the ability to believe in oneself on one’s ideas. The entrepreneur is cognizant with the
fact that there are problems to overcome. It might be funds, or competition and all these do not make
it rosy for an entrepreneur. One has to recognize the values, the goals as well as ideals (Kozubíková,
Dvorský, Cepel, and Balcerzak, 2017). GoPro founder has a strong sense of self in that he never let
his idea die away. He was focused on attaining his goals of getting a product that will capture are
record memories as one was surfing. He took a lot of time in his room doing all trying all types of
possibilities with available material until he obtained a prototype.
3.0 Entrepreneurship as a Field Learned
Entrepreneurship in the corporate world is an actor creating and managing a venture with the
purpose of getting profits by taking a number of risks. This has played an important role in the
expansion of the global market. On the other hand, free enterprise is a field like any other disciple and
can be educated on the field. However, there are entrepreneurs that have inborn entrepreneurship skill
(Davidsson, 2016). However, it the present advanced world entrepreneurial skills ought to be learned
so that one can come up with unique and innovative ideas that change the globe. Entrepreneurs are
innovators; they have the abilities to create, generate new ideas for businesses, and have leadership
qualities (Kusmintarti et al., 2018).
Woodman had to try all types of available materials to make his first prototype and this was in
his bedroom over by himself. He stayed away from his friends and family so that he can concentrate
and come up with the idea to fruition.
4.0 GoPro’s Marketing Strategies and planning
4.1 GoPro’s Competitive-Advantage

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In order to get an insight into the organizations’ competitive advantage, SWOT analysis is
conducted in which the marketing strategies get analyzed. GoPro’s main brand is compared with that
of its competitors.
GoPro’s SWOT Analysis
Strength Weaknesses
 The Business model employed by the
company is unique
 The company have a large market share
 There is easy access
 The brand is durable and of quality-hence
brand equity
 Crowd-sourcing
 The company is affected by financial
issues
 The price of the product is high
 The retailers for the company are few and
small scale
Opportunities Threats
 The technology that uses virtual reality is
on the increase
 The potentiality of drone market
 The strong need and use of action camera
 There is large social media presence

 The market experiences high competition
 Saturation of the market with various
cameras especially the mobile phone
cameras
 The global market for cameras is reducing
 The emergence of cheap brands from
China
Strengths: Exceptional business Strategy enables competitive advantage
The business model adopted by the organization act as the main competitive advantage that
permits brand equity, gain dominance in the market and hence a large market share. The ability to
modify the manner in which consumers capture, share and manage content instills a lasting experience.
GoPro is employing experiences that have created a lot of impact on its customers beyond the product
itself. The technique has led to the creation of a positive image as well as encouraging content to be
generated by the users. Additionally, this gets employed as a promotional tool where the crowd
themselves market the product for the company which is attributed to the amazing experiences while

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using the products. As a result of this, the organization had created dominance and huge presence in
the market (Mainwaring, 2014).
Weaknesses: Monetary issues and Sales
The issues which the company faces are lying off of the employees. This is attributed to the
reduction in sales. Another problem is the pricing strategy employed by the organization. The pricing
is high such that this becomes a hindrance to customers and the company will not be able to sell
enough stock and compete with other companies with low priced products. Moreover, the reliance on
small scale retailers who are few in number is other issues since the small number of retailers will have
little impact on the bargaining power in the market. The absence of technical capabilities, absence of
scale and financial abilities make the company unable to compete with the likes of Sony in the industry
(Mainwaring, 2014).
Threats
The market curved by the organization is now affected by the shrinking of the business owing
to the emergence of many products that become alternative to the GoPro's products. This is as a result
of high competition from other firms with the same products as that of GoPro. Additionally, there is
the introduction of cheap brands of cameras from China. All these possess a threat to the organization
and thus call for strategies to counteract the forces (Pisani, and van den Dolder, 2018).
Opportunities
There is a high potential for marketplace growth, especially in the action camera. With the
company commanding a market share of over 40%, there is the potential for growth and to increase the
market share by expanding to other segments not entered. The introduction of drones and VR give an
opportunity to the organization to expand and diversify its product mix. However, this remains to be
seen especially when the drone product is still under development (Pisani, and van den Dolder, 2018).

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On top of this, social media give the establishment a great opportunity to sell and promote its
products. The reason is that the users share video via social media platforms and hence there is a great
potential of reaching a large number of audience. This can be enhanced further if the company actively
interact with the customers through social media platforms and to ask for feedback to compliment or
correct for the improvement of the product (Mainwaring, 2014).
4.2 GoPro's Success in Relation to Marketing Strategy
Initial Public Offer
This is a strategy that has never been done by any other electronic companies. The company
gave out IPO worth $189 million in 2011. The reason of doing this is because there is stiff competition
in the market and companies that build these products can make almost everything-and that the
smartphones presently can do almost everything and taking the risky of venturing into one product was
a bold step for the founder. This initiative permitted the company to raise $427 million valued at $2.96
billion. The Flip-video the creator of camcorder rendered their product obsolete and this is attributed to
the changing trends in the market (Hong, 2014).
The Experience
Besides the product, GoPro has been able to ride on the experience that comes with the use of
the product. This is the reason as to why competitors are going off the road while GoPro is hitting on
the runaway. The experience of employing the camera cannot be replaced by any other brand-the
memory of the surf (Foster, 2018).
The Reputation
The reputation enjoyed by the company gets attributed to the customers. The users of GoPro
flood the internet with intriguing images of their adventures. It is established that customers uploaded
nearly 2.8 years of the video showing GoPro brand name. In 2014, 50 million hours were employed

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watching GoPro’s and featured in the tag, the title, or the explanation. These numbers become enough
to catapult the company’s name to greater heights (Hong, 2014).
The Brand
In the establishment of the reputation, the customer based has widened and created a base for
awareness where everyone gets to know the GoPro brand name. The company utilizes the brand name
as a selling proposition to its potential customers (Foster, 2018).
Diversification
In order to eliminate the saturation seen in the market, the organization is going to establish the
GoPro Channel in Xbox and thus setting its foot into the media industry. It entered a contract Virgin
America warrant videos in-air show business. The company anticipates getting revenue through
advertising on YouTube, Virgin America and Xbox channels (Hong, 2014).
5.0 GoPro’s Possible Future Threats
The competition in the market is increasingly becoming competitive and new companies are
emerging with high-end products that are finer and cheap. The likes of Eken, Fuji, Sony, Xiaomi,
SJCAM among others are introducing products that are comparable to GoPro’s products but are
cheaper and produce quality images. When customers make a comparison on these features they find
alternatives in other options besides GoPro’s products (Staply, 2017). Additionally, the newest camera
introduced is DJLOsmo which cames with prominent and more pronounced features than GoPro
(Kelion, 2019).
6.0 Recommendation to Mitigate Looming Threats in the Market
6.1 Use of Budget Action Cameras-Lowering Prices
The company in a view of surviving in the market has to redesign and modify the prices of its
cameras so that they can create a balance of volume and margin. The price of the three cameras that
initially ranges $199-$499 which was reduced so that the prices ranges from$199 to $399 can further is

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reviewed downwards.This is an endeavor to salvage the fading price power. The lowering of prices is
going to assist the organization to compete with products from companies like SJCAM whose prices
are favorable to the customers. The action is likely to see the company increase the sales volume and
margins, accelerate and sustain upward momentum.
6.2 Product Redesigning
Even though the company has introduced new product-Fusion 360 in 2017 with the purpose of
having 360 degrees capturing and zooming power, this is not enough. This is because the market for
Fusion360 is small and this will not contribute largely to the company’s strategic move. The
organization has to redesign most of its products on offer so that it suits a number of its customers in
the market. The reason is to penetrate into and retains the earlier market with a variety of products that
no competitor can merge.
6.3 Leadership Strategy
There are not many highlights on the leadership model adopted by the organization. This might
be another cause of stiff competition and online products development. In view of this, it is
recommended that the organization adopt a sustainable leadership strategy. This is going to engage all
the stakeholders in the market and ensures that there is the sustainability of the business strategies and
product in the competitive market. Additionally, sustainable leadership strategy encompasses the
sharing of ideas and knowledge for the betterment of the organization as well as society.
Conclusion
GoPro created a huge presence in the market and have for a long time been enjoying this
presence. However, the market presence is waning away to the competitors. GoPro has to relook at its
strategies and adopt the recommendations given in order to regain back the lost glory in the market.
The redesign of the product, lowering prices and leadership strategies are essentials that are going to
give the company another turnaround.

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References
Bolys, M., Kotobi, L. and Furnham, A., 2017. How “Dark Side” Personality Traits Affect Social
Network Position. Psychology, 8(04), p.550.
Cropley, D.H., 2017. The dark side of creativity: Previous research and new avenues.
Davidsson, P., 2016. What Is Entrepreneurship?. In Researching Entrepreneurship (pp. 1-19).
Springer, Cham.
Foster, T. 2018. The Untold Story of How Massive Success Made GoPro's CEO Lose His Way. Can
He Recover?. Retrieved from: https://www.inc.com/magazine/201802/tom-foster/gopro-camera-
drone-challenges.html
Honh, J. C. 2014. Why GoPro's Success Isn't Really About the Cameras. Available from:
https://www.wired.com/2014/06/gopro/
Kelion, L. 2019. DJI Osmo Action camera poses threat to GoPro. Retrieved from:
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48279408
Kozubíková, L., Dvorský, J., Cepel, M. and Balcerzak, A.P., 2017. Important characteristics of an
entrepreneur in relation to risk taking: Czech Republic case study. Journal of International Studies,
10(3), pp.220-233.
Kusmintarti, A., Anshori, M.A., Sulasari, A. and Ismanu, S., 2018. Student's Entrepreneur Profile: A
Cluster of Student's Entrepreneurial Characteristics. Journal of Entrepreneurship Education.
Mainwaring, S. 2014. Why Restraint Was The Key To GoPro's Success. Available from:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonmainwaring/2014/07/01/why-restraint-was-the-key-to-gopros-
success/#2b3979b76a04
Pisani, N. and van den Dolder, P., 2018. GoPro, Inc.: Will Entry into the Drone Market Help its
Comeback?. SAGE Publications: SAGE Business Cases Originals.
Staply, J. 2017. GoPro's time as king of the action cams is under threat. Available from:
https://www.wareable.com/cameras/gopro-launches-in-2017-review-430
Von Bergen, C.W. and Bressler, M.S., 2017. Impulsivity and Entrepreneurship: Can a negative trait
produce positive results?. Global Journal of Entrepreneurship, 1(2), p.1.