Entrepreneurship & Marketing: GoPro Camera Company Case Study

This case study examines the entrepreneurial journey of GoPro, from its inception as Woodman Labs to its current status as a leading camera company. It highlights Nick Woodman's role, the dark sides of entrepreneurship, and the company's competitive advantages. The analysis covers GoPro's effective marketing strategies, including business-to-community approaches, social media presence, and celebrity endorsements. The study also includes a SWOT analysis, focusing on potential future threats such as new market entrants and substitute products like smartphones with advanced cameras. Recommendations are provided for GoPro to maintain its competitive edge by expanding its target market, partnering with other manufacturers, and exploring new territories. The case study concludes that GoPro's success is rooted in the founder's passion, dedication, and strategic marketing efforts.

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THE GOPRO CAMERA COMPANY
By Name
Course
Instructor
Institution
Location
Date

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This is a report concerning the structure of marketing approaches the GoPro Company
employs in selling its cameras. A detailed analysis based on the SWOT approached has also been
touched. The report also includes characteristics of entrepreneurship and the recommendations
that will aid the company stay in the market according to its weaknesses and threats from the
SWOT analysis.
INTRODUCTION
Individuals especially several sports persons would want to capture some of their
exploits. Athletes would always want to show their friends some of the moments during a
specific event. This necessitated the need to invent super cameras that would capture such
moments of action. GoPro, a camera company, initially known as Woodman Labs was founded
in 2002 by Nick Woodman an athlete and a surfer (Mac 2013). While in Australia, the
photographers had poor and cheap equipment that could not capture Woodman surfing
(Hamamura, Pentax Corp, 2006).
Starting as Woodman Labs, GoPro has grown into a big company manufacturing digital
cameras, developing apps and building software. Its progress is growing annually with its gross
revenues increasing each year. Currently, Nick Woodman is a proud founder and a billionaire
joining other billionaires in the globe having started as a small company. At first, Nick
Woodman was not sure whether his innovation could grow into such a big company. It took him
four years to develop the idea. GoPro cameras can be attached helmets, surfboards, bicycles, etc.
PART A
Question 1
Entrepreneurship does not require light-hearted individuals. A person with an idea of a
particular business has to consider both the negative and the positive side of the company. Will
the business grow? Will it realize profits with time? How will the idea be welcomed in the
market? What will other people say about the business? These are some of the questions that run
in the mind of any entrepreneur. Clearly, entrepreneurship has ups and downs. Therefore, dark

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sides to entrepreneurship exist and some people are associated with this. The dark traits of
entrepreneurship are as follows; -
Self-Belief.
As mentioned earlier, entrepreneurship has both positive and the negative part of it. One has
to possess a self-belief personality. One needs a lot of self-confidence and must be willing to
take the risk. A successful business does not achieve instant success (McGee, Peterson, Mueller,
and Sequeira, 2009). The entrepreneurs behind the company must be patient, take the risk to
undertake the business no matter the outcome. Nick Woodman was well aware that any business
may either fail or succeed. Therefore, with this trait, he was confident that in the long run, the
business idea could be successful. He, therefore, gave himself four years to develop the concept.
 The Desire for Applause.
Every person would wish to be applauded for any achievement made. Entrepreneurs also
would want to be praised for their rise to prominence through a successful business idea.
However, they have an enormous amount of tension that may be their breakthrough would not
last. From the GoPro case study, Nick Woodman took 4 years to ensure that he achieves lasting
success. He wanted to show other entrepreneurs that they also mean something, and they cannot
be ignored.
When an entrepreneur does not receive any applause, they tend to feel insignificant. Such a
feeling is an inner voice that tries to convince them that they will not mount anything. But one
who becomes defiant to such voice will never retire. They will fight through the feeling and
prove to the world that indeed they amount to something. In the end, the entrepreneur will find a
way to overcome their fears and ride to the top to receive applause.
 Sense of Distrust
Sense of distrust is a trait which can be linked to the dark side of entrepreneurship. There is
always a sense of suspicion towards other people and the world around them. This is one trait
that many entrepreneurs possess. Entrepreneurs live in panic of being abused for their business
ideas; thereby they want to be ready if anything happens. Most of them have a great feeling when

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they work with their fortunes are the lowest. This trait helps entrepreneurs become aware of all
the forces that may affect the business such the competitors.
Question 2
An entrepreneur is anyone who takes the responsibility to undertake any kind of business
either small or big business. Entrepreneurship is the act of transforming a business idea into a
real business. According to Merriam Webster, a successful entrepreneur possess the following
factors; management, risk, and opportunity.
Peter Drucker asserts that entrepreneurship is not genetic nor is it luck. It is a skill that
can be acquired or learnt. In our case study, we see that due to Nick’s passion, he was able to
transform the idea of cameras and build GoPro.
states that entrepreneurship is neither magic nor mystery and has nothing to do with
genes. It’s a discipline that can be learnt. According to the GoPro case study, Nick Woodman
transformed his idea of action cameras into reality which he was passionate about. Through self-
belief and hard-work the idea has turned into a big company (Drucker, 2014).
Additionally, the case study shows that Woodman did not learn about entrepreneurship
anywhere in his life. His past failures and experiences motivated him so much that he feared to
fail anymore. This led to his success. At school, Woodman was an average student; he states that
he was not that good in engineering classes, but with his passion and dedication to developing
action cameras led to his innovation. This conflicts with Drucker’s statement that
entrepreneurship can learnt. Some characteristics can be learnt, but some like passion, dedication
and self-belief comes from within the person.
PART B
Question 1
How GoPro has gained a Competitive Advantage in the Market
There exists competition in any business around the world. With the presence of several
players in the business industry, there are competitors all over. For a business to stand out among

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its competitors, it must do an extra job that will ensure it has gained a competitive advantage
(Akdeniz, 2015). GoPro is no exceptional from the competition, there is a stiff competition
especially due to the emergence of new technologies. Among its competitors like Sony and
Samsung, GoPro has been rated number one with huge sales annually (Pisani, and van den
Dolder, 2018). This competitive advantage over its competitors is related to its effective
marketing strategies.
GoPro dominates the market with its big sales compared to its competitors, (Samsung
Electronics 2015. GoPro cameras have evolved from the original version of 35mm film camera
to a panoramic HD 3+ high definition that is well-known for capturing sporting activities
(Graves, Shenaq, Langerman, & Song, 2015). The company has aggressive marketing strategies
that have led to its success. According to (Semenik&O’Guinn, 2012), out of the total digital
camcorder shipments in the U.S, 21.5% are from GoPro.
GoPro receives high demand of its cameras from its customers (Miller, and Lammas,
2010). Since its establishment, it has been able to meet this massive demand in the market
making its customers satisfied. This way of promoting the brand creates an emotional
relationship with its customer which has led to its prolonged stay in the market (Peterson, 2013).
Business-to-Community approach is another marketing strategy the company employs.
The strategy is a user-generated content that links the GoPro products with what the market
requires such as what satisfies the customers most. For instance, the company’s marketing
department looks for videos and images captured by some of its customers then share them on its
official fan page. This creates a lasting mutual relationship with its consumers (Romero, 2013).
The presence of the company’s slogans has seen its growth over time among social media
users. Many people have come to know of the existence of the GoPro Company through social
media where some of the users share its slogans in the social media pages and sites. Slogans such
as “Pick your location, your passion, record your life, and share with the world” and “You in
HD” shared widely in the social media has successfully promoted the company’s products. This
strategy has seen the company receive high demands from new users and targeted consumers
(Rose, 2013).

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The use of celebrities to advertise and market its products is another strategy used by
GoPro Company. Athletes, surfers, snow boarders, and rally drivers are some individual that
may want to capture there moments of actions. Therefore the GoPro Company has endorsed
some celebrities for instance: professional surfer; Kelly Slater and Ken Block a professional car
driver to make the brand strong in the market. The company in its advertising campaigns uses
celebrities, sports personnel, and its brand users to attract more customers (Mangold, and Faulds,
2009).
Question 2
Future Threats and Recommendations
As a way of accessing the position of every company, there is a need to conduct a SWOT
analysis. The analysis provides the company with its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
threats.
GoPro just like any other company has its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
weaknesses. Below is a summary of the SWOT analysis but a much focus will be to the threats
that GoPro may likely face in the future.
Strengths
 High-quality camera
 Water proof
 Social Media Marketing
Weaknesses
 Limited accessories
 Wide lens
 Small target market
Opportunities
 Diversification to other products
 More accessories
 Implementation of new technologies

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 Increasing the target market
 Creating awareness
Threats
 The new entrance into the markets
 New Substitutes
 Government regulation
Since the publication of the case study in 2014, there were threats to the case study specified.
However, the market is expanding gradually with the emergence of new technologies. The
following are some of the threats GoPro Company will continue to face.
Threats to New Entrance in the Market
Recently, there is a great increase in the entrance of new players in the camera industry
since 2014. According to PR News wire (2015) the rate of growth in the industry is expected to
go up to 22.2% in 2019.The entrance of new players in the market is attributed to the success of
GoPro which started the manufacture of action camera (Luis 2015).
With such an entrance, there will be a stiff competition among the players. This will tend
to reduce the market price of the GoPro cameras. The fact that GoPro has secured the most
extensive fan base and serve as the top-class product technology, small companies will find it
hard to out power it in the market.
Threats of New Substitutes
The phone industry is growing at a very high rate. According to (Yim, Sanwa
Technologies Ltd, 2011) Smart phones manufacturers are currently manufacturing phones with
greater power cameras that pose a threat to GoPro. Companies like HTC, Huawei and Tecno, are
manufacturing have been developing which are water resistant and can be worn on the wrist
according to (Luis 2015). Also, the likes of a 360-degree revolution camera that is compatible
with other devices like the drones can be a substitute for smartphones and the GoPro.

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Recommendations
Due to the presence of competition in the market, go pro has to do its best to remain
competitive in the market. The future threats should be avoided, and the company should exploit
the opportunities present. The following are the recommendations:
 Expand its target market not only the sports person but the entire type of people.
 Consider partnering with other camera manufacturers like the phone manufacturers to
suppress its entrance in the market
 Expand its territories to other areas like China, India, and Asia.
Conclusion
From the discussion, the founder of Go Pro, Nick Woodman’s is enthusiastic and
passionate which will see the company achieve greater success. Passion and dedication is evident
as key factors to achieving success. That is why the GoPro camera company is enjoying success.
Additionally, there are strengths weaknesses, opportunities and threats that every company
should look into.in order to remain in the market.

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