Entrepreneurship and Marketing: A Case Study on GoPro's Success

This case study examines GoPro, Inc., founded by Nick Woodman, focusing on its entrepreneurial journey, marketing strategies, and potential future threats. The paper analyzes the dark side of entrepreneurship, highlighting the sacrifices and challenges faced by Woodman. It explores how GoPro's marketing strategies, particularly its use of digital and social media marketing, have contributed to its success. The study also identifies potential future threats, such as increased competition and the need for continued innovation. The paper concludes with recommendations for GoPro to maintain its competitive advantage, including enhancing products, staying aware of market competition, introducing new accessories, and expanding its product offerings. The analysis underscores the importance of discipline, innovation, and strategic marketing in achieving entrepreneurial success. This document, contributed by a student, is available on Desklib, a platform offering AI-based study tools and resources for students.

Running head: ENTREPRENEURSHIP
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive summary
This paper talks about the article on GoPro and the CEO of GoPro, Nick Woodson. The
article was published in the Forbes magazine and sheds a light on the journey of the
entrepreneur and the business. Using this article this paper will reflect on the marketing
strategies of GoPro and provide recommendations so that the company can retain the
successful position the company is currently enjoying.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Dark side of entrepreneurship................................................................................................3
Entrepreneurship is a discipline.............................................................................................4
Marketing process of GoPro..................................................................................................5
Future threats of GoPro..........................................................................................................7
Recommendation....................................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
GoPro, Inc is an American technology company. GoPro was founded by Nick Woodman in
the year 2002 in San Mateo, California, United States of America. The company is famous
for manufacturing action cameras. The company also develops its very own software for
video editing and mobile apps. GoPro is one of the most popular ad versatile action cameras.
The popularity of the cameras has led the business to acquire revenue of $377 million
(gopro.com, 2019). This paper is a case study of the company GoPro that will shed light on
the aspects of entrepreneurship and the marketing and strategic planning of the company that
has paved way for the success of the company.
Discussion
Dark side of entrepreneurship
Nick Woodman is one of the most successful entrepreneurs and has garnered a lot of
appreciation for the evolution that he is brought to the world with action cameras. Passion of
surfing helped the entrepreneur come up with the idea of making wrist cameras where he
wanted to capture the waves of the ocean. Nick Woodman experimented by attaching a
Kodak camera with a rubber band to check how it works and later realized that he needed a
camera that would be able to take the rough waves of the sea. Nick Woodman had completely
isolated himself from the regular life from his family and friends in order to make prototypes
in order to sell durable wrist cameras in the market. This shows one of the dark sides of
entrepreneurship where people while following their passion lose their personal life while
getting engrossed in their work. In an interview to Forbes magazine, Woodman said that he
worked on this for four years to make things work properly and if he would have been unable
to succeed then he would have dropped the idea and would enter any workforce (Forbes.com,
2019). However Woodman managed to come up with the product he desired but in 2007 the

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company saw a great low as the revenue went down drastically. This made Woodman lose
confidence and made him think of a company turnover as he worried that he could not
develop and manage the company in the long run. This was the time when the investors of the
company wanted to subsidization of the valuation. This is a negative and a dark side that all
entrepreneurs need to understand that in a business failure is inevitable and unavoidable
(Amankwah-Amoah 2016). In business investors are going to see to their own business and
come up with decisions that may affect the company negatively. All businesses come to this
circumstance at some point in their business because of various factors like change in society,
changes in the needs and desires of people, new competitor in the market and many more.
After the success of GoPro the company has seen many competitors in the market. There are
many hardware companies like Android and Apple who come up with innovative ideas all the
time and enhance the quality of the features of their camera that may have a huge impact on
GoPro. The biggest competitor of GoPro, Sony has introduced their line of action cameras
that has features like stereo sound and image stabilization that GoPro currently lack.
Entrepreneurs constantly need to evolve and make changes in their products that will help
them to constantly gain competitive advantage (Zinovieva et al. 2016) GoPro was the first
company to come up with action cameras and then several companies followed this idea and
came up with their version of action cameras. This is the dark side of entrepreneurship that
other businesses try to make replicas and make some changes and introduce the products in
the market (Wilf 2015). Entrepreneur need to make effective and innovative changes in the
products in order to gain competitive advantage and retain their position in the market.
Entrepreneurship is a discipline
Eminent scholar Peter Ducker, who researches in the field of entrepreneurship and marketing,
has stated that entrepreneurship is a discipline that needs to be followed and anyone can learn
the discipline that will in running a successful company and entrepreneurship has nothing to

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do with magic (Abubakar and Bambale 2016). Aligning the views of the statement with the
entrepreneur Nick Woodman it can be agreed to the fact as discipline and hard work is the
key to the success of a business. Nick Woodman would not have been able to become one of
the most successful entrepreneurs in the recent times if he would not have been disciplined in
the way he approached his work. Nick Woodman has been disciplined and dedicated towards
building the product to establish a successful company. He had made sacrifices and has put
efforts in introducing the innovative products. Nick Woodman had also maintained a
discipline while working systematically in order to achieve the goals he had set for the
organization. Moreover there are scholars who have added that entrepreneurs are born and
not made stating that there are certain skills that people possess that have leadership qualities
that cannot be learnt (Kerr, Kerr and Xu 2018). It can be said that Nick Woodman possessed
the quality of being innovative that made him come up with the idea of introducing action
cameras. However without the hard work and discipline it would not have been possible for
the entrepreneur to establish a successful organization in the market.
Marketing process of GoPro
GoPro is one of the most popular brands and it is highly being used by people across the
globe. Since 2013, GoPro has managed to come up with innovative features and new designs
that have attracted people all over the world and every person wants to get their hands on
these products. The marketing of the products have helped in attracting many people to buy
action cameras. The company uses digital marketing in order to promote their brands. Digital
marketing is one of the most important methods of marketing in this age. Pro has managed to
understand and market their products efficiently specially through their social media handles
that has garnered a lot of appreciation. Though Nick Woodman does not have a twitter
account and is very inactive on other social media sites like Facebook but it has not stopped
GoPro to have millions of subscribers on YouTube that helps in the marketing of the

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company. The marketing team of GoPro searches the best videos on the internet that has been
shot by their cameras. They take out these videos in order to engage with their target
audience and build an emotional connect and share the videos with their fans on the internet
which paves way for an engaging content and shows the customers the different and
wonderful things that the camera can capture. It showcases the nature and other thins that
helps in appreciating the beautiful world. Their YouTube channel has well curated videos.
GoPro promotes their brand by sponsoring famous athletes like snowboarder Shaun White
and skateboarder Ryan Sheckler, this has helped the company create brand awareness among
the fan base of these athletes. GoPro aims at promoting their brand by providing the viewers
with experience rather than providing them with jus information (Calder, Hollebeek and
Malthouse 2018).
GoPro knows how to promote products in the new age of digitalization and how to attract
people. GoPro has millions of followers on almost all popular social media sites. Visual
content is one of the most successful content on social media. People these days are busy and
do not like to watch long advertisements full of information rather they would like to invest
time on short but engaging content. This is helpful and beneficial for the people as the brain
processes images faster than the time the brain takes to process words (Behrend 2018). GoPro
cashes on this and posts compelling videos and photos on their social media pages and also
encourages the fans to make and post their videos in order to boost engagement and build a
relationship with the company and the people. According to scholars it has been seen that
customers respond best to the marketing messages that connects with their target audience
(Kaptein 2018). Scholars have also stated that people prefer stories and find it easier to
remember in comparison to data’s, facts and figures.
The marketing team of GoPro is skilled at making engaging creative content that feel like
stories. The evolving landscape of marketing has paved way for creative opportunities. The

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unique and unforgettable content that the team has created for GoPro has played a huge
impact on the success of the company and for the brand awareness.
GoPro has managed to campaign and market their products in an innovative manner that has
lasted a long lasting positive impression on the mind of the audiences. This has helped GoPro
immensely and has helped the company gain a competitive advantage in the market.
Future threats of GoPro
GoPro is famous for introducing action cameras to the market. The innovation introduced by
Nick Woodman has paved way for many companies to come up with action cameras. GoPro
is one of the most successful companies and has acquired a positive position in the market.
However there are certain threats that the company may face which will negatively impact
the company. The biggest threat the company may face is the competition in the market.
There are many companies who have already come up with action cameras with new features
that have garnered the appreciation of the customers. The company has to come up with new
innovative ideas and enhance the features of the cameras in order to gain competitive
advantage in the market. According to scholars innovative ideas distinguish products from
other products and attract customers to buy those products because of the uniqueness. The
other threat is the lack of innovation and creative ideas.
Recommendation
 GoPro needs to enhance their products and come up with new ideas
 The company needs to be aware of the competition in the market
 Need to introduce new accessories
 Need to expand their products in the camera markets
 Make strategic changes in the operation

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Conclusion
GoPro has been one of the most successful camera companies because of the innovative
designs the company has provided. The vision and idea of Nick Woodman has helped in the
evolution of cameras. GoPro has become one of the biggest companies and has generated
profits. However there are some probable threats that the company faces that can have a
negative impact on the company. Despite of all the threats the company with its innovation
has gained a competitive advantage over the market and has become one of the most
successful companies in the world.

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Reference
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