But, they sit in the warehouses, IMO because Kodak is not interested in promoting K14, which (I'm shocked! I'm shocked!) results in low volume, which translates into insufficient demand to warrant investing in a K-Lab, which itself contributes to less demand for the film (because it takes longer than E6 to get back from the lab when you have to mail it to Fairlawn).
Maybe I'm missing something but I see all of the above as "management issues" rather than "technical" or even "marketing" issues.
If someone with sufficient rank was to start kicking ass, I think some amazing stuff could happen. [fire up the cloud machine, start the woo woo music, enter Don Joe's Dream World...] If I was in charge, I'd make a standing offer to any lab in the US that met minimal qualifications (i.e., it's solvent, and it's located in a region with a minimum population density yet to be determined).
The offer would be this: I give you a K-Lab, and a six month supply of chemistry, with the following terms. I run national ads and give you co-op for regional ads that you are required to run. You are required to commit to running the machine for a minimum of two years. If you run it for five years, you own it. I would also require rigorous QC requirements, and put the labs on notice that I'd be putting anonymous "spot check" rolls through on a constant basis.
I'd then turn to our ad agency, and start barking out orders.
Then I'd start sending out bricks of my new, improved K14 emulsions to magazine editors, newspaper columnists, and prominent photography clubs.
I'd cut deals with all the slide scanner manufacturers to include a few free rolls with every scanner sold. I'd cut deals with camera manufacturers to include free Kodachrome with all their mid-range and up cameras.
Each roll would be distributed "European style", i.e., processing included in the price of the film, no mailer needed, but one included for convenience. (If it's lost, just send the film.)
The mailers would only be good at the K-Lab dealers, or, existing private K14 labs. (there are two or three, and I would not want to alienate them, but, in the interest of goodwill, I'd offer them the same free K-Lab machine offer the others got).
Inside of a year, when people thought "slide film", they'd think "Kodachrome" -- which is how it was for the longest time, until Kodak dropped the ball.
Chromogenic films have gotten better and better over the years, but the fact is that how ever good a chromogenic film is, a "comparable" (speed) Kodachrome type film will always be better. Instead of "dye clouds" that form in the proximity of a developing grain of silver salt, Kodachrome images are made of dye that replaces a grain of metalic silver. Kodachrome will always be sharper. And, the lack of dye-coupler migration issues means it'll always have better color purity too.
People who've never seen a good Kodachrome image are frequently shocked, not because the colors are so bright (i.e., "velviaesque"), but because they don't feel like they're looking at a picture, they feel like they're looking at the actual scene itself. There's something life-like about a good Kodachrome that nothing else can match. And as far as resolution is concerned, I've looked at Kodachromes with a 20X textile microscope, and there was still more detail in the image than my eye could resolve. Unbelievably sharp.
Seeing this amazing product languishing, while "Max Zoom!" and gaudy teenybopper hippityhop packaging and "speed speed speed!" is pushed... it's sad.
I suppose that was their intent, but as you pointed out, they failed to market them properly. The R&D and production costs on those machines must have been enormous, and to fail to promote them at all should have been a criminal act. I have no doubt that the marketing scheme that you outlined would work and even make a profit, but I fear that the bean counters at Kodak would not see it that way.
Kodachrome will always have a quality advantage over the chromogenic films out there for the reasons that you explained, and it is a real shame to see it fall by the wayside due to mass market preferences. My favorite film of all time was Kodachrome II; virtually grainless and amazingly sharp, with fantastic color fidelity. I never found a K-14 film that could compare to it, even though they are excellent as well.
Sorry for the delay in my response here, my FR pager failed to alert me to your replies. Must be a problem with the new software, and I'm not even sure if the pager works with general interest topics.