How Amazon Demonstrates Its Effectiveness Of The Extended Marketing Mix

 Evolution of Digital Marketing

Task 1- 

Product - 

  

     

Fig 1 . Amazon provides a wide range of products. Selling a total of 119,928,851 products as of April 2019. To visually see the amount of product and what products are popular, this graph shows us that books are by far the most popular product sold on Amazon (Scrapehero, 2019).

Place -                     

Fig 2. The Amazon website is the original and definitely the most popular place for customers to shop. With the easily navigated website customers can search as well as browse product. Fast check out makes it even easier with the ‘Buy It Now’ feature reducing order time. (Topcashback.co.uk, 2018)  

Price -

                   

Fig 3. The price of Amazon prime, gives the customer multiple benefits. Prime gains the loyalty of customers, engaging them to return and repeatedly use their services. Instead of shopping around for a competitor, as they have paid extra to use the prime service. The attractive yearly cost also invites customers to commit to a year long subscription, making this the more appealing option in the long run. (Marco, 2020).   

Promotion-                      

 Fig 4. Another example of Amazon promotion- large billboards communicating to customers a simple yet effective message. To reach people walking on the street, or driving in their car, this is something to be noticed and can't be missed by potential consumers. (No Fear No Favour, 2018)

People -                                   

Fig 5. The photograph communicates the measures Amazon have in place to achieve a safe and secure workplace, by reducing the spread of COVID-19 to colleagues and customers (Day One Staff, 2020).  

 



 

Process -          

 Fig 6. Customer advisors are very much an important part in the Amazon process. This is because it achieves a communication between the business and customer, resolving any issues or problems, thereby creating a great customer service and experience (Smith, B. 2016).

Physical Evidence -                                    

Fig 7. Similar to ‘Amazon go’ books are paid for through the app. It also gives Amazon a chance to advertise their digital products like the ‘Echo’ and the ‘Kindle (Del Ray, 2016)

 

Task 2- Product 

Amazon is known for its vast range of product and services. Products include household goods, electricals, books, stationary, clothes, food and toys. As well as these products, Amazon offer several services with Amazon Prime being the main one, offering unlimited amount of free next day delivery. An added benefit of this subscription involves Amazon video, a service that provides T.V and film streaming for customers. Also in terms of service product, they offer Amazon Fresh for food and Amazon Wardrobe for clothing- fast delivery of fresh food to your door and clothing that you can try on, decide to purchase or send back.

The most profitable and popular product that Amazon sell are books, with large profit margins to gain (Dunne, 2020). This was how Amazon first began, opening up online in 1997. In 1998 Amazon music was introduced. This early and fast progression into an online and delivery service, meant that Amazon were able to get ahead of its competitors such as Barnesandnoble.com. Soon after with music, CDNOW and 2NK, were forced to join together, when Amazon emerged onto the market(Filson, D. 2004, 3-4). 

The unique selling point (USP) for Amazon would have to be the efficient service and the variety of product. Amazon have made it very easy for customers to shop online, it only takes a matter of seconds to order for delivery the next day. This provides customers with great service and convenience in today's busy lifestyle. Saved payment and address options, with the one-click to buy, encourages customers to impulse buy instead of having second thoughts about the product purchase. Amazon.com, is seen to be trustworthy for customers, as reviews are often available for every product listed (Bishop, A 2018). Amazon Fulfillment, is also unique in that small business are able to sell through the Amazon platform. Taking a percentage of the sale, this enables the customer to reach a wide variety of sellers that a lot of other retailers don't have.  

The progression of product and service run alongside each other, trying to keep one step ahead of competitors by thinking of new ideas to continually keep the company moving forward. There is a clear company progression to where Amazon is today. In 1999, the online click patent was introduced, in 2002 they started the sale of clothes. 2003, saw the release of Amazon Web Services meaning that customers could buy database storage. This remains the largest source of revenue today, as Amazon was one of the first to spot this new demand. 2005, Amazon Prime was created and in 2007 the kindle was released this was shortly followed by Amazon’s Audio in 2008. This increased demand for product, meant that Amazon introduced Kiva robotics systems into their distribution centres, allowing for  faster product selection. ‘Smart warehouses’ are a critical part in achieving the fast delivery of products, this can only be done with the new robotic technology. Relying on over 15,000 robots to select product and help to create an efficient customer experience (Techno Trends, 2020).  2015 saw the opening of the first physical Amazon book store and the release of the smart speaker, Amazon Echo. The Echo prove  to be a success with customers (Dephillis, L. Et al , 2018) . This shows how Amazon are continually meeting customer needs, evolving with new ideas and technology to produce a positive and exciting experience for customers. 

Amazon continually push to improve their service through advances in technology. This has meant Amazon are able to meet customer needs and competitor activity. For example ‘Amazon- Go’  is one step ahead of the self service store . The idea of ‘walk out technology’ used in all Amazon stores (Wankhede, K et al 2018) has created a new and unique shopping style for customers to engage with. 

“ If you look at why Amazon is so different than almost any other company that started early on the internet, its because Jeff approached it from the very beginning with that long-term vision’’ (Stone, B. 2013, 336) This quote shows that product progression and development for customers, is part of the long term goal for the company.

In conclusion, Amazon have effectively marketed their product to give a positive and efficient experience for customers. They have adapted to customer trends and demands for service and product range. New technology has helped Amazon meet the demand and to keep ahead of competitors so that today, there isn't a company that can compete at a similar level.

References Task 1-

Scrapehero (2019), ‘Top 10 categories in Amazon – April 2019’ [Graph] Available at: https://www.scrapehero.com/number-of-products-on-amazon-april-2019/ [Accessed 4th February 2021] 

Topcashback.co.uk(2018) ‘Top January Discount Deals and Cashback Deals’ [image] Available at: https://www.topcashback.co.uk/amazon/ [Accessed 10th February] 

Marco, A (2020) ‘How much does Amazon Prime cost?’ [Image] in Tech Advisor, Available at:  https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/feature/digital-home/amazon-prime-3506603/ [ Accessed 10th February 2021 ]

No Fear No Favour (2018)  ‘Billboard Sales —What We Can Do To Raise The Advertising Base For Outdoor Advertising’ in OOH Today, [Photograph] Available at: https://oohtoday.com/billboard-sales-what-we-can-do-to-raise-the-advertising-base-for-outdoor-advertising/ [ 10th February 2021] 

Day One Staff  (2020) ‘ Amazon’s actions to help employees, communities, and customers affected by COVID-19 ’ [photograph] 

Available at: https://blog.aboutamazon.eu/working-at-amazon/amazons-actions-to-help-employees-communities-and-customers-affected-by-covid-19 [Accessed 11th February 2021] 

Smith, B. (2016) ‘Customer advisors, building important relationships with customers’  [photograph] Available at: https://www.muo.com/tag/best-amazon-customer-service-tips-make-better-shopper/ [Accessed 11th February] 

Del Ray, J (2016). ‘Amazon’s project to create the retail stores of the future. And bookstores are just the beginning’.in Vox  [photograph] Available at: https://www.vox.com/2016/2/3/11587530/meet-the-guy-behind-amazons-secret-retail-store-plans [Accessed 11th February 2021] 

Task 2- 

Dunne, J.( 2020) ‘5 Most Profitable Product Categories for Amazon FBA Sellers’ Repricer Express [Online]. Available at https://www.repricerexpress.com/5-profitable-product-categories-amazon-fba/ [Accessed 7th February 2021] 

Filson, D. (2004) ‘The Impact of E‐Commerce Strategies on Firm Value: Lessons from Amazon.com and Its Early Competitors’ . The University of Chicago Press.

Bishop, A. (2018) ‘What is Amazon's unique value proposition?’ Quora [online] Avalible at https://www.quora.com/What-is-Amazons-unique-value-proposition [Accessed 7th February 2021] 

Dephillis, L . Sherman, I ( 2018) ‘Amazon’s Extraordinary Evolution’ [Online] Available at https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2018/10/business/amazon-history-timeline/index.html [Accessed 8th February 2021] 

 Palumbo, D (2021) ‘Amazon: The unstoppable rise of the internet giant [Online] Available at’, BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55927979 [Accessed 8th February 2021] 

Stone, B ( 2013) ‘the everything store’ . Little, Brown and Company

Wankhede, K. Wukkadada, B. Nadar, V. (2018) ‘Just Walk-Out Technology and its Challenges: A Case of Amazon Go’. International Conference on Inventive Research in Computing Applications (ICIRCA), Introduction 

Techno Trends (2020) ‘Inside Amazon's $5 Billion Smart Warehouse’ Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOwol9noLwc  [Accessed 8th February 2021]