Iomega Corporation Data Storage For The New

Mellenium Essay, Research Paper

IOMEGA CORPORATION: DATA STORAGE FOR THE NEW MILLENIUM

Introduction

The purpose of this report is to examine the Iomega Corporation, based in Roy, Utah, for the BA 201 Survey of Business course at Birmingham-Southern College. The company manufactures computer storage devices: the ZipTM and JazTM drives, the Clik! Storage device, and the BuzTM audio and video drive. 1

The leading supplier of data storage devices in Europe, and the third largest supplier in the world, Iomega has now strengthened its line of products with the Ditto tape backup device.2 The industry s enthusiasm and public satisfaction with which these products were received is unprecedented in the computer industry, making Iomega an innovator among innovators.

This report will discuss the following components of the Iomega Corporation:

· History of the corporation and its products

· Marketing strategies and product offerings

· Management structure

· Finances

History

Iomega was founded in 1980 with its flagship removable storage device, the Bernoulli drive. Though its original efforts are now more than antiquated, Bernoulli Optical Systems remains a subsidiary of Iomega. In 1983 Iomega was made public, and for the next twelve years, the company would see a period of experimentation and growth. While Iomega remained behind the major industry names of Apple and IBM, the late eighties and early nineties were integral to Iomega s current success. The technical bases for the Zip and Jaz drives were built upon, leading to these products 1995 release.2

Public response to the release of the portable data storage devices was enormous. Orders clogged the production component of Iomega before the disks were even released to the public, and by April 1996, barely one year after its introduction, Sony Pictures Entertainment entered into an exclusive agreement with Iomega for use of its Jaz disks.3 June of that same year would bring even greater response; Iomega entered into marketing agreements with IBM, NEC Technologies, Gateway, and Unisys.4 By the end of the summer of 1996, Iomega had formed partnerships with every major computer manufacturer in the United States.

The media frenzy surrounding the release of the drives was further fueled by honors awarded by computing magazines PC Computing and Gadget Guru. The Jaz drive was named 1996 s Innovation of the Year and Most Valuable Product by PC. Gadget Guru named the Jaz drive the Best Computer Accessory of 1996. These and other accolades pushed public familiarity of Iomega products higher and higher, boosting production and sales.5

In response to this domestic success, Iomega began a complete expansion of its foreign production and marketing in early 1997. European headquarters were set up in both the Netherlands and Switzerland, and their production site in Malaysia was expanded and modified. While the base of the company remained in Roy, Utah, Iomega s presence in both Europe and Asia was fortified with a larger number of production jobs for Asians and Europeans. Coupled with a greater concentration of foreign marketing and advertising, Iomega emerged as the third largest producer of data storage devices in the world.6

The end of the 1996 fiscal year showed a 272% increase in revenue from the previous year.7 The introduction of the Jaz and Zip drives in 1995 was undoubtedly responsible for this success, which was followed in 1997 by new partnerships with Motorola, Apple, Kinko s, and Hewlett Packard.4 By June of 1997, Iomega s Zip drive shipments reached six million; it was then a standard in new Sony personal computers, Micron notebook computers, and in all Kinko s store computers nationwide.8

The success of the Iomega drives remained rampant when the company announced the introduction of the Buz multimedia producer in late 1997. The Buz producer would allow consumers to capture movies, music, and photographs on their personal computers. While the success of the Buz drive still remains far behind that of the Zip and Jaz drives, this diversification allowed the company to remain on the cutting edge of computer technology. The Jaz drive was marketed as a companion piece to the Buz drive, lightly forcing consumers to purchase two products with one goal in mind.9 The approach was successful, leading to 1997 fiscal year earnings of 77%.10

May 1998, in the wake of the Buz release, brought about another important computer modernization, the Clik! drive. The Clik! drive revolutionized methods by which consumers could store digital information from handheld video cameras, computers, and cameras.11 Marketed with special Clik! disks, the drive itself brought the portable storage efforts of Iomega full circle, now having storage products for virtually every major computer product on the market.

Products and Marketing

Iomega advertises in many different places. The web site www.iomega.com provides a simple way to find out about the company. It provides potential customers with many different sections geared towards answering their questions about Iomega and its products. The site allows potential customers the opportunity to gather information through press releases and news articles related to the company, and gives customers a chance to win free products in contests. More importantly,

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