Background of the company
Marketing is a critical aspect for the success of any business. Marketing strategies adopted by the firm largely guide how a business reaches out to customers as well as the perception about the product in the minds of its consumers. In order for a business to be successful, it is essential to identify customer’s needs, demands and preferences. Gaining a deeper insight about consumer behaviour can help organizations in moulding their offerings to suit customer needs (Solomon et. al., 2014). The efficient marketing strategies adopted by the firm leads to long term customer satisfaction and retention.
Ecommerce giant Amazon was founded in 1994 in the United States of America. Since then the brand has marked its significant presence across 188 countries (Bauman et. al., 2013). In the year 2013, Amazon entered the Australian market. The company was brought to inception by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos. At present, Amazon has reported over 300 million active customers. The aim of the brand is to make sure that every need and demand of its customers can be fulfilled through a single click. Amazon is well known for the diversity of products offered by the brand. This reports highlights upon the marketing strategies currently adopted by the business as well as future recommendations upon the same.
Nature of Amazon Australia’s marketing strategy
Amazon’s primary aim is to offer an Ecommerce platform that sells everything. Therefore the predominant strategy of the brand is to gain a large number of sellers across the country and build long term sustainable relationships with them. Amazon as a business has always adopted effective marketing strategies throughout the world.
Marketing activities are essential for a business before and after entering a new country (Wang & Pizam, 2011). The high level of brand awareness and proficient promotional strategies adopted by Amazon garnered attention from Australian customers. Retailers were willing to associate with the strong brand name of Amazon and that forms the base of Amazon’s business. However strong brand name may a business have, while moving into another country, it is essential that the business puts additional efforts to specifically target people from that country.
Amazon adopted various traditional as well as digital marketing approaches in order to establish itself successfully in the Australian subcontinent. The foremost strategy adopted by Amazon is television advertising. Television ads are competent enough to target a large audience within a span of a few minutes (Lee & Carter, 2011). Therefore Amazon creatively curated several interesting advertisements which are being broadcasted on leading Australian channels. The television advertisements were predominantly aimed at informing customers that anything they need (from A to Z) is available at Amazon. Television advertisements are visual in nature and hence have a deep impact on the viewers. The level of creativity and innovation from the brand’s advertisement depicts the level of brand awareness and recognition that the advertisement can induce in the minds of its customers (Hutt & Speh, 2012).
Marketing analysis
Besides television advertisements, Amazon also promoted its brand and offerings through newspaper advertisements. Hoardings and banners across the country was another marketing strategy adopted by the brand. In order for billboards to have a strong impact, it is essential that they are creatively designed in a manner that gains attention (Liu et. al., 2012). Traditional forms of marketing are highly effective in nature and continue to target a large audience. Amazon’s strategies had generated curiosity and excitement in the minds of customers before launching in Australia. All leading news channels and newspapers were writing about the brand’s entry into the country.
From Amazon’s experience in other countries, the brand also adopts several digital marketing strategies in order to reach out to its target market. Digital marketing strategies by Amazon included having a highly optimized search engine, efficient marketing through digital channels and competent social media marketing across all leading social media channels (Ryan, 2016). The advent of globalization and technology has made it easier for brands to connect with a much larger audience through a single click. The brand has been largely active across all social media channels including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Social media marketing refers to the process of marketing a product or a service across social media platforms including Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook (Tuten & Solomon, 2017). These platforms have a massive audience and the large reach of these brands makes it easier for businesses to use these channels as proficient platforms to reach out to their target market. Amazon has hit the bull’s eye through its social media marketing strategies and ensured a large following among users.
Amazon’s targeting and positioning strategy are highly effective. The marketing team of the brand impeccably designs and curates several strategies for various occasions like Father’s day, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, New Year’s Eve and many more such events. There are special discounts and offers given to customers who shop in lieu of the recent event. All these strategies make Amazon an Ecommerce retail giant that has been dominating the global market. The efforts put in by the team in Australia too are highly effective and have led to a strong brand position in the industry.
Strategic marketing options for Amazon Australia moving forward
This part of the report highlights upon several strategies that can be adopted by Amazon in order to sustain the market and ensure continued customers. Australia has been an extremely critical market for Ecommerce retailers. Over the span of last five years, the Ecommerce sector in the country has witnessed a growth of 10%. This number is expected to increase to a significant 11.7% by the end of the current year. The growth in the sector is owing to large scale entry of several players in the industry. This signifies that competition for Amazon Inc. is also consistently on a rise. In order to combat this competition and survive the industry, it is imperative for the brand to adopt excellent and unique marketing strategies. This will not only lead to improved brand image but will also ensure continued sales.
Nature of Amazon Australia’s marketing strategy
Filter retailers
The foremost step that the brand needs to take is filter the retailers and sellers that are associated with the firm. The primary rule to ensure customer satisfaction is to deliver quality (Hill & Alexander, 2017). For Amazon to deliver quality, it is essential that the retailers associated with the brand have quality products to offer. Amazon must identify retailers who are not entirely profitable or have a poor brand image in the local market and do away with them.
Deliver in 2-3 hours
Amazon can also improve upon its operational efficiency and offer customers 2-3 hour delivery. This would be a unique concept and many customers would be able to take advantage of this. The biggest disadvantage of online shopping is the wait time between ordering a product and receiving it. If Amazon offers 2-3 hour delivery then this problem would be solved and hence would lead to a substantial increase in orders placed per customer.
Customer engagement
Customer engagement efforts by any organization lead to improved brand image and a higher level of association that customers feel with the brand (Sashi, 2012). Amazon could introduce social media contests or organize online events. Either of them would have to be effectively marketed in order to encourage customer engagement with the brand. The aim should be to clearly set a positive brand image of Amazon and to gain a deeper insight regarding customer’s needs and wants.
Event marketing
Australia is a hub of several leading international level events. These events range from sporting events to music concerts or business conferences. Amazon can associate with these events and market itself to a massive audience under a single roof. Event marketing is known to be highly effective especially if the event resonates well with the brand image and personality of business associating with it (Zarantonello & Schmitt, 2013).
Conclusion
Amazon entered the Australian market in 2013 and has gained a massive customer base since then. Marketing strategies are important to ensure a positive brand image, customer attention and level of brand awareness. At present Amazon has resorted to several traditional as well as digital marketing strategies including newspaper advertisements, television advertisements, advertisments through billboards and hoardings as well as digital ads on leading online platforms. Amazon is also highly effective with its social media marketing strategy and ensure high level of customer retention and effective targeting of customers across the globe.
In order to survive the highly competitive Ecommerce industry, it is imperative that the brand takes immediate measures in order to successfully gain and retain a large number of customers. Event marketing can help Amazon target a large audience within a short time and under a single roof. Level of customer engagement can be increased through online contests and events. Innovative introductions must be done like offering delivery within hours of placing the order. Filtering out retailers and retaining profitable ones will lead to improved brand image derived from enhanced quality products sold to customers. All these strategies will not only help the brand in ensuring continued sales but will also lead to improved brand image, increased brand association and enhanced customer loyalty
References
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Hill, N. and Alexander, J., 2017. The handbook of customer satisfaction and loyalty measurement. Routledge. United Kingdom.
Hutt, M.D. and Speh, T.W., 2012. Business marketing management: B2B. Cengage learning. United States.
Lee, K. and Carter, S., 2011. Global marketing management. Strategic Direction, 27(1).
Liu, D., Kumar, S. and Mookerjee, V.S., 2012. Advertising strategies in electronic retailing: A differential games approach. Information Systems Research, 23(3-part-2), pp.903-917.
Ryan, D., 2016. Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation. Kogan Page Publishers. United Kingdom.
Sashi, C.M., 2012. Customer engagement, buyer-seller relationships, and social media. Management decision, 50(2), pp.253-272.
Solomon, M.R., Dahl, D.W., White, K., Zaichkowsky, J.L. and Polegato, R., 2014. Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). London: Pearson.
Tuten, T.L. and Solomon, M.R., 2017. Social media marketing. Sage. United States.
Wang, Y. and Pizam, A. eds., 2011. Destination marketing and management: Theories and applications. Cabi. United States.
Wilson, R.M. and Gilligan, C., 2012. Strategic marketing management. Routledge. United Kingdom.
Zarantonello, L. and Schmitt, B.H., 2013. The impact of event marketing on brand equity: The mediating roles of brand experience and brand attitude. International Journal of Advertising, 32(2), pp.255-280.
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