GoPro Case Study: Entrepreneurship Traits, Marketing, and Threats

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of GoPro's entrepreneurial journey, examining both the positive and negative aspects of launching and sustaining a business. The report begins by exploring the "dark sides" of entrepreneurship, such as financial risk, potential for failure, and the impact on personal life, referencing relevant academic sources. It then delves into the key tools and concepts that contributed to GoPro's success, drawing parallels to Peter Drucker's theories on entrepreneurship and the company's use of a replicant approach. A significant portion of the report focuses on GoPro's marketing strategies, particularly its effective use of content marketing and social media to gain a competitive advantage. The report identifies potential future threats to GoPro, including competition from smartphones and cheaper alternatives, and proposes recommendations such as product diversification and market penetration pricing. The analysis provides valuable insights into the challenges and strategies involved in building a successful entrepreneurial venture.

Running head: ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Entrepreneurship
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Executive summary
The aim of this report is to discuss about the dark sides of entrepreneurship and how they can
affect in the process. In addition, the sources in terms of the marketing activities of GoPro
through which they are gaining competitive advantages are also identified and discussed. It is
identified that content marketing, proper utilization of the social media marketing and branding
activities are helping GoPro in gaining competitive advantages. Lastly, a few potential threats to
be faced by them in the coming years are also identified and based on these threats; a few
recommended steps are also stated. These recommended steps include product diversification
and market penetration pricing strategy.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Entrepreneurship traits and characteristics......................................................................................3
Entrepreneurship - key tools and concepts......................................................................................4
Gaining competitive advantages from marketing processes...........................................................5
Identification of the threats..............................................................................................................7
Recommendations............................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Reference.......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Entrepreneurship is a key concept being given major importance in the current time. This
is due to the reason that in the recent past, there are number of successful business stories got
emerged with the concept of entrepreneurship. One of the most popular and successful stories of
entrepreneurship is emergence of GoPro in the market. It changed the existing business trends in
the imaging industry and also changed the expectations of the customers from camera.
Moreover, the emergence and popularity of GoPro also changed the positioning of camera in the
market from being a leisurely product to getting associated with the active lifestyles of the
modern day customers. However, it should also be noted that there are number of factors to be
considered in initiating the concept of entrepreneurship and these factors are generally not get
discussed in general.
This report will discuss about these less discussed factors in the process of
entrepreneurship. In addition, the important factors being considered by GoPro in gaining
competitive advantages will also be discussed along with the identification of the future threats
for them. Based on the future threats of GoPro, a few recommended steps will also be discussed.
Entrepreneurship traits and characteristics
In the majority of the articles regarding the effectiveness of the entrepreneurship, only the
positive factors of entrepreneurship are being discussed while there are few dark factors also
evident. One of the major dark factors of entrepreneurship is no guaranteed return from the
investments in the initial days. This is due to the reason that huge investments are important
building the infrastructure and other business requirements and still there are no assurances of
making profits (Overall 2016). It is almost uncertain whether the value to be offered to the

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customers will get accepted or not. Thus, it is a myth that entrepreneurship will every time cause
profitability for the entrepreneurs. Another dark side of entrepreneurship is the higher probability
of getting failed in the business. Failure is inevitable in the initiation process of entrepreneurship
and there will be obvious minor or major failures in the process of entrepreneurship. For
example, Woodman also faced failure prior to GoPro when he failed in his first venture Funbug.
Thus, the future entrepreneurs should be capable and aware enough about the potential failures in
their entrepreneurship process. The last major dark side of entrepreneurship is adverse impact on
the personal and social life (Williams, Densil and Kadamawe 2012). This is due to the reason
that entrepreneurship will involve management of all the business elements by own. For
example, the entrepreneur will have to do the marketing, sales, operation and other daily based
jobs of this venture by own. This will involve no access to personal life and leisure time, which
will surely take a toll to the social life of the entrepreneurs. Thus, it can be concluded that these
three factors are most dark aspects of entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship - key tools and concepts
According to Peter Drucker, the concept of entrepreneurship is not magic and mysterious
but it can be learnt. This statement can be agreed on the basis of the practices of GoPro. This is
due to the reason that the founder of Go pro, Woodman is not born as entrepreneurship but got
his interests converted in to value proposition for others (Antonaci et al. 2015). In addition, it is
also identified that Woodman is following replicant approach as he is from the Silicon Valley
and he got the access to learn from the business process or models being initiated by the firms
there. The innovative business approaches followed by the firms in the Silicon Valley are being
followed by Woodman in creating the GoPro camera. Thus, as per the statement of Peter
Drucker, Woodman learnt about the innovative business approaches from other entities and

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leveraged in it in designing his own concept of entrepreneurship. Moreover, the above approach
being followed by Woodman states about the fact that the concept of entrepreneurship is not
mysterious. This is due to the reason that the idea that is being gathered by Woodman from the
companies in the Silicon Valley can be gathered by any others (Vannini and Stewart 2017). In
this case, Woodman got no added advantages over others. Moreover, it is also stated in the given
case study that Woodman in his early struggled in getting his idea initiated. It is stated that he
spent his night in the 1971 Volkswagen bus and driving trucks to attend different trade shows
with the required accessories. Thus, the struggle being faced by Woodman proved that
entrepreneurship is not magic and mysterious rather it is the learning power and capability of
him to learn new ideas and got it implemented in his entrepreneurship processes. In this case, the
trial and error concept of entrepreneurship is applicable due to the reason that there are number
of barriers and challenges being faced by Woodman prior to the success with GoPro (Lee et al.
2017). With the help of the trial and error process, he was able to learn the probable challenges to
be faced in the entrepreneurship process and mitigated them accordingly. Thus, it can be
concluded that trial and error technique of entrepreneurship helped Woodman to learn the ideas
rather got it by magic. It is proving the statement given by Peter Drucker.
Gaining competitive advantages from marketing processes
Other than their innovative products, GoPro is recently also getting hugely publicized for
the innovative marketing campaigns. This is due to the reason that they are one of the companies,
which have optimally and effectively utilized the advantages of content marketing. According to
the Porter generic strategies, market focus is one of major sources and ways of gaining
competitive advantages (Liu et al. 2018). This refers to the determination of trends and
preferences of the target market and offer products accordingly. Thus, in the case of GoPro, they

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got live portal in different social media platforms through which the most interesting and content
rich videos being by the users with their GoPro camera are promoted. This is offering dual
advantages for GoPro with one being the engagement with the users whom videos are getting
promoted. On the other hand, the potential customer bases are also gaining interest in the
features and quality of the camera. In this case, it should be noted that GoPro is selecting only
the videos that are different and distinctive and which can create a long term positive impression
among the customers. These videos majorly include the adventurous ones, which attracts the
target customers of GoPro (GoPro.com 2019). The target customers of GoPro are majorly the
adventurous people who tend to visit extreme locations and getting the experiences recorded.
Thus, with the worldwide promotion of these videos in the form of content, a certain kind of
story based marketing is being done to the customers. This is one of the major ways of gaining
competitive advantages by GoPro from their marketing activities. Promotion of these videos is
also enabling GoPro to communicate the sturdiness and capability of the GoPro cameras in the
extreme conditions.
GoPro is also gaining competitive advantages from their social media marketing as well
where they are actively engaging with the potential as well as the existing customers. Engaging
with the existing customers is helping them to gather the information for further improvement
while engaging with the potential new customers is helping GoPro to identify the potential trends
in the market and designing the future products accordingly (Plessis 2017). Thus, in his case, the
theory of relationship marketing can be aligned with the marketing approach of the GoPro.
According to the relationship marketing theory by Theodore Levitt, the more will be the
engagement between the customers and the brand, the more will be competitive advantages for
the organizations. In the case of GoPro, the concepts of awarding the video content makers for

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the best shot is actually the enriching the relationship between these two entities (GoPro.com
2019). This can also be concluded that leveraging more on the earned media over the paid media
is helping GoPro to have greater brand recall in the market over their competitors. According to
the brand equity model by Keller, the first step is the brand identity, which GoPro is managing
their innovative products and distinctive positioning in the market. The next factor is the brand
meaning, in which the performance of GoPro is getting communicated through the uploaded
videos by the existing users. The imagery factor is getting fulfilled by the content marketing
done by them. In terms of the brand response, the quality and credibility of GoPro as a brand is
helping them to ensure the positive response from the customers (Muller and Fabian 2019). The
alternative usages communicated through their official website and social media channels are
also contributing in gaining the positive brand response from the side of the customers. All these
factors coupled with the customer engagement activities of GoPro are contributing in gaining
brand resonance and competitive advantages in the market.
Identification of the threats
One of the major threats for GoPro is obviously the emergence of flagship smartphones.
In the recent time, different smartphones introduced in the market are specifically targeted
towards the camera quality. In addition, there are number of smartphones available in the market
that are as durable and sturdy as GoPro. Thus, in comparison between GoPro cameras and
smartphone, the utility for the later is more due to the added facilities. Already there are number
of smartphones introduced in the market, which records and supports 4K videos. In the coming
years, camera technologies in the smartphone will get further improved and will pose huge
challenges for GoPro. Another threat for GoPro is the emergence of cheaper and affordable
alternatives in the same sector. This is due to the reason that GoPro cameras are still positioned

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at the higher price level. In this case, the emergence of the new vendors majorly the Chinese
OEMs will pose threat by introducing the same value proposition in lower cost. For example,
Chinese smartphone vendors such as Hwauei and OnePlus are challenging the market leadership
position of Apple and Samsung by offering more value for money products. Thus, the more will
be the competition in the same industry; the lower will be the profitability for GoPro. Another
threat for GoPro will be in the forms of economical factors. This is due to the reason that
emergence of economic crisis will reduce the sales volume of them. GoPro cameras are not
necessity products and they are positioned as lifestyle gadgets. Thus, in the case of emergence of
global economic recession, the preferences for lifestyle products will get reduced along with
decrease in the sales volume and revenue.
Recommendations
It is recommended that GoPro should initiate market penetration pricing strategy over the
premium pricing. Initiation of the market penetration pricing will help GoPro to target the larger
customer segments across different price points. Thus, the more will be the target segments, the
more will be the potentiality of sales volume. Product diversification strategy is also
recommended for GoPro, which will complement the larger target segments. For example,
offering different gadgets such as camera based rugged smartphones for the travelers will be
effective. HTC introduced blockchain based smartphone and CAT introduced smartphones for
industrial purposed and got succeeded. Thus, introduction of the camera oriented smartphone
will help GoPro to cater to larger customer segments.
Conclusion

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Thus, it is concluded that the theory of entrepreneurship is well applicable for Woodman
in starting the venture of GoPro. In this report, the dark sides of entrepreneurship are identified
and concluded that it is not well assured that entrepreneurship will bring profit all time. In
addition, Woodman has not got any magical power or mystery in succeeding in his venture;
rather he learnt it from other successful stories and applied in his idea. There are number of ways
by which GoPro is gaining competitive advantages are identified and it is identified that content
marketing is effectively being done by them. A few threats are also identified and a few
recommendations are discussed, which will help GoPro in managing their future business
viability.

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Reference
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