Chester Carlson a patent attorney in New York in October of 1937 invented a process called electrophotography renamed in 1938 to Xerography. The first known photocopy was the "10-22-38 Astoria". The Xerography copying process went on to become one of the most well known inventions of the 20th century. Carlson received world acclaim and became wealthy from the invention that created a billion dollar industry. It is estimated Carlson gave away almost $100 million to charity and foundations before his death in 1968.
But Xerography was at first not a popular invention , it was ten years before Carlson found a company to develop Xerography. The Haloid company a New York based photo-paper manufacturer took up the challenge. The Haloid company later went on to become Xerox Corporation.
In 1955 Haliod now Haloid Xerox produced Copyflo the first automated xerographic machine but it wasn?t until 1958 the first true office copier was produced. Twenty two years after the electrophotography had first been conceived saw the introduction of the first ever commercial push button photocopier machine the 914.
The 914 was a phenomenal success and in three years Haliod Xerox income went from 2 million in 1960 when the first 914 was sold to over 22 million by 1963.
In 1961 Haliod Xerox took the name Xerox and its stock was listed on the New York Stock exchange. The success grew from the 914 as Xerox introduced 24 new products over the next 20 years.
But Xerox domination was about to change. New manufacturers were about to challenge Xerox and re-brand what the world knew as a Xerox machine to a "photocopier". One of the greatest marketing battles of the 20th century was about to happen.
As early as 1955 Ricoh were emerging as a potential competitor for Xerox and developed the RiCopy 101 Diazo copier. By 1975 they had developed the prize winning RiCopy DT 1200 and were starting to challenge the Xerox market place. The next decade would see the cross over of companies traditionally known in photography into the office equipment market. Brands such as Minolta, Panasonic, Toshiba , Sharp, Konica and of course Canon started to produce small office copiers that were to challenge Xerox domination of the business copier market.
Meanwhile Xerox domination of the high volume photocopier market came under threat from Kodak and Oce.
Manufactures quickly found that Xerox held enormous customer loyalty. To break this down copier dealerships were founded. In each country small local dealerships were formed that offered a "local service" sold by local people, a classic guerrilla marketing move. It attacked Xerox in a way they couldn?t respond as Xerox were a Global Corporation but one thing they couldn?t be were a small local business.
Canon were probably the most successful copier company to employ this tactic. By 1985 Canon had become the leading photocopier company worldwide. Canon invested heavily in development and went on to produce the first Colour Copier.
The Xerox rivals coaxed there dealers to correct customers when they referred to their brand of photocopier as a Xerox machine. Terms such as "Xeroxing" were corrected to "Copying" the "Xerox Machine" to "Photocopier Machine". All this was done to dissolve the impact of the Xerox brand.
Xerox continue today to be one of the world leaders and a hugely influential and trusted brand name but they are no longer the copier market leaders. Whilst the battle in the photocopier market was largely fought between 1975 and 1985 Xerox at that time neglected development in their core business and invested millions into the computer market. The line extension for them was difficult and despite developing revolutionary technology such as a operating system that was a forerunner to Windows and inventing the computer mouse. Xerox were up against another entrenched brand name in the computer market between 1975 and 1985 "IBM". Had Xerox continued to defend their core business between 1975-85 the photocopier market today may have looked very different.
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