Amazon.

com – Marketing
Mix
Under the guidance of

Erika Evans

Unit 5
 Amazon.com – Marketing Mix & Business Idea

Contents
1. INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................................2
2. BUSINESS IDEA................................................................................................................................2
3. MARKETING MIX OF AMAZON (4Ps)...........................................................................................3
4. COUNTRIES WHERE AMAZON.COM HAS REACHED...............................................................4
5. USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN BUSINESS IDEA....................................................4
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................................6

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 Amazon.com – Marketing Mix & Business Idea

1. INTRODUCTION

Amazon.com is an American based multinational cooperation (MNC) indulged into e-commerce

activities headquartered in Seattle, Washington. The company was founded by Jeff Bezos in

1994 but went online in 1995 by starting as an online bookstore. With the implementation of

information technology application, Amazon.com diversified into online selling of DVDs or

MP3 downloads as well as computer software and video games too. With the course of time,

Amazon.com also started selling electronics along with apparels and furniture online through e-

commerce or online transaction activity.

2. BUSINESS IDEA

Amazon.com is in the business of buying and selling of products and services over the use of

Information Technology through internet or other computer networks or devices. Here, the buyer

is directly online to the seller rather than going to the showroom and purchasing the product. The

buyer is online through the Internet and the sale and purchase activities are done interactively

electronically in real time. Hence we see that the electronic commerce is useful or seen as the

sales aspect of e-business where the exchange of data facilitating the financing and payment

aspects activities of the business transactions takes place. For instance, if a person wants to

purchase the book “Marketing Management” authored by Philip Kotler Keller through

amazon.com, he has to go online via the internet and register as a user. Then he has to select the

above book and make the payment via online transaction. To make the payment, he has to have a

bank account as online transaction will be done through credit cards, debit cards or net banking

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online. In this way we see how information technology applications in e-commerce in

Amazon.com.

3. MARKETING MIX OF AMAZON (4Ps)

The marketing mix strategy in Amazon was a reformulation of the earlier strategies implemented

and described the role of the manager efficiently. Basically the marketing mix known as the 4Ps

is said to have four components – Product, Price, Promotion and Place (Distribution). The

product of Amazon is a tangible product or an intangible service that has been over the years

noticed to be in production in mass quantities. This is evident from the fact that Amazon.com

which even survived when the dot com bubble crashed is seen to offer and provide the customers

over the web a large variety of products. The product varied from e-books to journals to novels

to various other items. There were various categories of books available at Amazon.com

diversifying from financial management to logistic management to marketing management by

Philip Kotler. We get books from all fields such as medical science, engineering, management or

arm force books. Moreover, various versions of these books are available at Amazon.com which

makes it very convenient and easier for customers to determine which version they are looking

forward to. These products are available at a decent price to the customers which is very

affordable for the customers. The prices are not at all negotiable and are hence fixed at a certain

price. If a customer needs to purchase the book at the desired price, he / she needs to log in on

Amazon.com and purchase the book through online transaction. For this he needs to have an

online account with either a Debit Card or a Credit Card or Net Banking Facility provided by the

bank. This has all been possible through the effective use of Information Technology which is

explained in the next section.

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 Amazon.com – Marketing Mix & Business Idea

Amazon.com has also been observed to pioneer in the marketing channels which shows or

demonstrates the promotional strategy of Amazon. Amazon.com collaborated with various

organizations and hence had pop ups to market their company initially. The marketing channels

were most noticeably being attributed with affiliate marketing. Moreover it was observed

Amazon has developed Amazon Coupon Codes which was an influential strategy to drive the

sales of their organization effectively. For the Place or Distribution strategy it is seen that

Amazon has translated themselves into digital distribution which is seen not only in the area of

music but also in the fields of books. The Kindle was observed to showcase their initial or first

attempt into hardware. It allowed the users to read the literature as well as the news. Amazon has

also been seen to follow aggressive marketing and strategic plans for the success of the

organization. They believe in the amalgamation of market development and product

development strategy simultaneously with new products such as books or music

4. COUNTRIES WHERE AMAZON.COM HAS REACHED

Amazon.com has reached almost all the parts of the world and is a well known brand now. It is

reachable in countries like India, U.S, U.K. & Australia

5. USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN BUSINESS IDEA

The use of Information Technology in Amazon.com has lead to a competitive advantage for

Amazon.com which can be seen today. Firstly, it has helped Amazon.com to gain customer

loyalty by better customer experience which has strengthened or enhanced its customer

relationship management i.e. the bonding with the customers has improved. It gives customers

better experience and is a multi channel platform that provides the employees and the

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management access to the same customer information which allows them to serve the customers

effectively. Customers can check information about a product online on Amazon.com which is

very convenient to them and is guaranteed to be a trusted experience. Hence this improved

customer satisfaction leads to world class service. Through Information Technology

implementation, Amazon.com has got better control over the business as it leads to

 Access to web analytics through Google and Omniture integration

 Success of Marketing through the optimization of built in Search Engines

 The search results have improved through integration of Customized Search Engine

 Unified Seller Central Reporting for all your channels.

Secondly, Amazon.com through the use of Information Technology has moved quickly and

allows the employees to configure the site and upload products faster than before and even offers

a complete package for the management activities such as updating of data, promotions or any

other activity. The Amazon.com Web Store gives full control over the design of the site by

applying a powerful set of tools to operate the site. It provides

 Quick Set up application

 Inventory Management Package

 Library

 Personalized Shopping Experience

 Promotions Engine

 Future Release Management

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Thirdly, with more use of Information Technology, Amazon.com will be able to grow its

business and add new sales channels in a quicker and effective manner. They will have unified

sales channels management activities for reporting in a better aspect which enhances visibility of

information. It can provide access to customer information or reviews of the customer which can

determine the rating of the products. The customers on the other hand will have access to product

feeds easily and will also be able to compare the prices of the products based on their

preferences. Moreover, there will be a library of powerful and configurable merchandising

widgets and provision for full control over the layout and design. Hence, it is seen that

Information Technology in e-commerce makes it easier for customers with built in search engine

optimization as well as automatic submissions to “Google Base” and automated site map

generation.

REFERENCES

(1) Bill Briggs. (2008). Amazon weaves Fabric.com into its e commerce quilt. Internet Retailer.

(2) Siklos, Richard. (2006). Amazon considering downloads. New York Times.

(3) Miller, Roger. (2002). the E-Commerce Environment Today. Thomson Learning.

(4) Tedeschi, Bob. (2005). Amazon Expands Into Book Printing. New York Times.

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