Amazon Kindle Marketing Analysis

The assignment requires an in-depth analysis of Amazon Kindle's marketing efforts, customer behavior, and competitors. It also involves suggesting improvements to increase sales and reach a wider target market. The document provides relevant references from various studies and articles on marketing strategies and e-commerce.

Amazon Marketing Paper

Introduction
Amazon is the multinational e-commerce giant selling millions of the products worldwide. The
company deals in variety of products and assures its customers of high quality services. In the
following marketing paper of Amazon, the particular product considered is Amazon Kindle Fire.
Amazon Kindle Fire is one of the many products sold under the brand Amazon. It is one of the
most popular form of tablet which is being sold at the most minimum price as compared to most
of the competitors in the market. In the following marketing paper, the various marketing
strategies of Amazon in relation with Amazon Kindle will be discussed in detail.

Company Background
Amazon is one of the leading companies that sells goods and services over the internet. Initially,
Amazon started off as an online bookstore. But with the passage of the time the company gained
huge success and hence diversified itself into different product lines and services (Blake &
Berger, 2013). At present, Amazon is one of the leading multinational e-commerce giant and one
of the largest retailers in the world. The company deals in retail operations including books,
electronics, household items, sports, clothing, jewelry and others. The company is an American
origin which was founded by Jeff Bezoz in the year 1994. The company has it’s headquarter in
Seattle, US.
Product Information
Amazon Kindle Fire is one of the most popular product of Amazon that was introduced by the
company in the year 2011 after the huge popularity gained by the e-books in the last decade
(Rainie et.al, 2012). Kindle is a mobile electronic reader device which is designed especially for
reading books or other kind of literature such as magazines or journals. It is an Android-based
tablet. The product was designed based on the Jeff’s vision to create the best e-reader in the
world that can be accessed by everyone. The product’s first launch was a huge success as most of
the devices were sold within five and a half hours of its launch (Williams, 2020). The company
has been making continuous improvements and innovation in order to make it the best e-reader
in the world. The Amazon’s Kindle is currently the market leader among the e-readers. The
Amazon’s Kindle Fire runs on Android Gingerbread operating system. The additional features of
Amazon Kindle Fire includes Liquid Crystal Display, High Density Picture Resolution, and
Internal Memory Storage ranging from 8-16 GB, Stereo Audio Jack and Wi-Fi connectivity
(Williams, 2020). The product was designed in California. However, some of its parts are being
manufactured and assembled in China. The product comes in different colors with options like
Blue, Black, Magenta and Tangerine. Other than reading books, the tablet can also be used for
playing games, watching movies, internet browsing, listening to music, checking emails and
social media. The company is continuously working on its Fire Model in order to make it more
productive and beneficial in order to support the everyday needs of its consumers.

Target Market Group
Amazon Kindle Fire is a tablet that has been competitively priced and makes use of Google
Android in order to operate. The tablet has attracted a whole lot of people by its compact design
and easy to use contents (Camilleri, 2018). The company has been able to attract customers by
keeping the prices of their product low in the highly competitive market. The main competitors
of Amazon Kindle are Barnes and Noble, Sony and Kobo. Other than this the main competitor of
Amazon Kindle is Apple’s IPad.
When the product was initially launched, it brought a revolution in the e-readers market. The
way the consumers used to read books was changed from using 200 pages to storing the whole
book into a small compact device. During the initial launch of the product, the product was
viewed as the “IPad Killer” and the product was launched with the purpose of providing the
consumers with the opportunity to e-read their favorite books (Dolnicar et.al, 2018). However,
with the re-development of the device by the company, the consumers were able to watch
movies, play games, listen music and view photos on the device. All these features were made
available to the target group and the consumers at almost half the price of the Apple’s IPad and
this played an important role in attracting customers for this product.
The target market group of Amazon Kindle Fire consists of people who are interested in the
technology use but does not want to pay high amounts for the same. The product caters to the
needs of the book lovers and hence focus on them. It mostly targets the young people, students
and the already existing customers of the Amazon (Williams, 2020). However, the people
belonging to all groups are considered as potential customers by the Amazon Kindle Fire.
Accessibility and convenience are the two prime factors that have made Kindle particularly
popular among its target group.
Marketing Strategies
The various elements of marketing mix for Amazon Kindle Fire are explained in detail as
follows:

Product: Amazon Kindle is in itself a revolution. The improved and modified Kindle products
that followed the initial Amazon Kindle Fire shows the passion with which Amazon builds
Amazon Kindle. The product aims to replace the quality experience of reading paperbacks
(Moore & Tambini, 2018). For meeting the varying needs of its scattered base of readers, the
company has introduced different varieties of Kindle in the market. As a result, the consumers
have the option to choose the kind of Kindle based on their preference and its needs. The various
versions of Kindle available in the market are Kindle Paper White, Kindle Oasis, Kindle Touch
and Kindle Keyboard. The major reason behind its huge popularity is its innovative screens for
the people who are book lovers. The screen of the product looks exactly like a paper with hardly
any strain on the eyes of the readers. As a result, the reader can read a book on Kindle for hours
as compared to mobiles or other devices. It offers the perfect combination of memory with the
capacity to store more than 2000 novels or journals at a time (Pappas, 2016).
Place: Amazon is a huge brand and Kindle is one of the most popular product that is currently
being offered by Amazon. Because of its huge popularity, the product can be found at every
corner of the world where Amazon offers its services. The Kindle product is loved even more
than the Amazon Cloud Services (Hollensen, 2019). It is the perfect alternative for reading
paperback books that makes it even more desirable. Amazon also offers the international
delivery option for Amazon Kindle to its consumers across the globe. Although, the company
has started operating in the Asian countries in the last decade only, but then also the Kindle
product has been delivered to each and every consumer who has placed a request for the same.
The company has worked really hard in order to ensure efficient delivery to its consumers across
the world whosoever desires for it.
Initially, the delivery of the product was available through Amazon US market place and the
product was being delivered through Amazon US throughout the world (Bhasin, 2019).
However, with the increase in the popularity of the product, the product started selling on other
portals as well. Other than this, the product is also sold through the Croma stores and other
popular retail stores in various areas around the world.
Price: The popularity of the Amazon Kindle can be understood from its direct competition with
the Apple’s IPad. Although the product does not intend to give any competition to Apple’s IPad
as it targets only specific group of people but the reason that it is the key driver behind the huge

success of the Android in the tablet market makes it competitive. This is the reason why Amazon
sells Amazon Kindle Fire at a competitive rate as compared to other brands in the market
(Bhasin, 2019). But the various special functionalities and enhanced features attract anyone to go
for the product at its competitive price.
The Amazon Kindle Fire is known for providing “value for money” as it provides its consumers
with so much in very less. This is also communicated through their promotion line which states
“Tiny Price, Big Fun”. The price of the product in US starts at $99.99 which is very less as
compared to most of the competitors (Bhasin, 2019). However, the price of the product varies
from nation to nation depending upon the taxation. The higher versions of the product are
available at $399, $350 etc. These improved versions are smarter and they come with other
additional functionalities such as highlighting text, adjust lights etc. The company has adopted
competitive pricing strategy in order to attract customers while at the same time give tough
competition to its rivalries like Samsung, LG etc. The intense competition in the technology
markets calls for competitive pricing strategy.
Promotion: Amazon has marketed its product Kindle really well across the world based on the
need and taste of each region. The company makes effective use of its own website in order to
promote its product Kindle Fire. Also, Amazon promotes its Amazon Kindle Fire through
various impressive marketing campaigns as well as different online contests that let the people
explore the new reading options available in the market. Through its effective promotional
strategies, Amazon attracts thousands and lakhs of consumers from around the world and let
them take the experience of the e-reading through this product (Turnbull & Valla, 2013).
Amazon also promotes its Amazon Kindle Fire through other ways in order to ensure that its
target market gets aware of its offering. The company provides the option to buy Kindle online
as well as offline. Other than this, various promotional offers are also offered by the different
Amazon partners in order to attract customers (Rieberger et.al, 2016).
The company has been able to attract customers through it’s save paper initiative, an effective
marketing strategy applied by Amazon for marketing Kindle. Also, various authors around the
world have become the brand ambassadors of Amazon Kindle Fire. This helps in promoting the
product and also in increasing the brand outreach and enhancing the trust of the customers in the
product.

Both online and offline marketing strategies are employed by Amazon in order to promote its
Kindle Fire product. Moreover, the company also makes use of promotional pricing strategy in
order to offer several discounts so as to promote the product. The company also makes use of
social media marketing in order to promote Amazon Kindle Fire (Terry-Armstrong, 2013). Thus,
all the efficient sources of marketing are being used by Amazon in order to promote its Kindle
Fire.
Marketing Channels
Amazon is an online retail store selling millions of products online. However, the company
employs very limited distribution channels for its Amazon Kindle Fire product. Most of the
Kindle’s customers comes from the existing customers of the Amazon which on one hand
provides an infinite pool of customers for Kindle Fire and on the other hand limits the capability
to reach out to new customers. The limited availability of the customers interested in purchasing
a device without having a look of the device limits its distribution opportunities (Sawhney et.al,
2017). However, the trust of its customers in the brand somehow make them purchase the item
online. As a result, the company use online channels of distribution i.e. its own website in order
to sell its Amazon Kindle Fire. Limiting the source of distribution is also a strategy that is used
by the Amazon. The company makes use of its own website as a promotional tool in order to
have control on the sales of the device (Goldfayn, 2012). For instance, in case any buyback has
to be issued, the company can easily fetch the details of the device sold and the device can be
easily called off. The website of the company stores all the information related to the buyer so as
to contact in times of need. Moreover, using online website as a marketing channel has another
advantage for Amazon. The company can have the relevant information regarding whether its
products are being bought by the intended target market or other.
Segmentation
Amazon has always made use of the segmentation strategy in order to target its potential
customers. The company makes use of demographic segmentation as well as psychographic
segmentation in order to segment its markets. The segmentation strategy adopted by Amazon for
Kindle is based on the purchasing behavior of its consumers. The company’s micro-level
segmentation targets each customer of the Kindle individually (Ritala et.al, 2014).

The company enjoys huge brand loyalty which helps it in target large market segment for its
Kindle Fire. The first way of segmenting the target group employed by Amazon is by internet
use. For a consumer to purchase an e-book, it is important that the reader must be aware of using
internet. Other than this, the other segmentation strategy being used by the Amazon Kindle is to
break down the group based on books read per year. Also, the segmentation strategy is based on
the yearly income. The consumers making more than $75,000 are found to be reading more
books than other customer segments. The income in segmentation is important as research shows
that almost 65% of the consumers having income in this range owns a tablet or a similar e-reader
device (Williams, 2020). Also, the geographic segmentation used by Amazon Kindle enables it
to focus on areas that have more readers than others. The level of education also helps Amazon
to segment its market. Those studying in college or having a college degree are more fit for the
product.
Is the current strategy effective?
From the last few years there has been decline in the sales of e-books and tablets by Amazon
Kindle as well as other e-book sellers. According to the reports, Amazon has also faced an 7.8%
of decline in its Kindle sales. The reason being the combination of the competitive pricing and
inability to target one important segment of customers i.e. the silent generation. The silent
generation comprises of the people who were born between the years 1925-1945. These
consumers are somewhere between 70-90 years of age at present (Ritala et.al, 2014). The silent
generation has been able to take the advantage of strong economy throughout their lives and
hence are considered as financially well off.
Changes to the current marketing strategies and target group
Target group: The Company has limited its target group to just young people and college
students. By doing this, the company is compromising on its potential markets such as the
readers of daily newspapers. The company has missed on certain requirements of its target
market group and hence have made assumptions in the absence of proper evidence. The
company can achieve enhanced success by targeting the silent generation. The silent generation
has been using the internet and found to be reading an average of 8 books per year. Also they
have a yearly income of more than or equal to $75,000 and they live in suburban areas with

college degrees. Also, the use of the email by this group of people suggests that they are totally
comfortable with specialized advertisements of new releases.
Pricing: Amazon can also consider raising the price of its Amazon Kindle Fire. It would not
upset the customers but rather would help establishing higher value for the product in the market.
However, with the rise in price, Amazon also needs to ensure that the price of the book must be
in line with its worth else the price can upset the readers. Also, then company can keep the prices
low or same in some nations while consider increasing its prices for its US customers.
Increasing its visibility: The Company has been successful in achieving high sales due to its
brand loyalty and keeping its promise of providing the best e-reading experience. However, at
the same time the product has found to have very limited presence in social media, advertising
campaigns etc. As a result, it is required that Kindle works on increasing its presence in media in
order to increase the visibility of its product in the whole world. This would increase the chances
of Amazon Kindle to reach the target market before the competitors and hence in enhancing its
sales of the product.The company should made available its Amazon Kindle both on the online
retail store as well as in their physical retail outlets in order to reach wider target market.
Conclusion
Amazon is one of the most popular and leading online retail company in the whole world.
Amazon Kindle is one of its most popular product. Amazon Kindle seems to be a stronger
product than most of its competitors. However there are certain improvements in its product,
price, promotion and target group as discussed above that needs to be made in order to make it
more successful.

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