Re-energising Amazon Alexa in the Global Market

This report focuses on re-energising Amazon Alexa in the global market. It covers customer and market analysis, competitor identification, and marketing mix. The report suggests using digital media mix and traditional media mix for promotion. It also recommends using the AIDA model and 4Cs marketing model. The report is relevant for marketing and business students.

Running Head: Strategic Marketing Management
Amazon Alexa
Strategic Marketing Management

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Customer Analysis...........................................................................................................................2
Market Analysis...............................................................................................................................2
Competitor Identification.................................................................................................................3
Re-energising Proposal....................................................................................................................4
Digital media mix.........................................................................................................................4
Television, newspaper, magazine, bill boards.............................................................................4
Strategies and tactics........................................................................................................................5
Marketing mix..............................................................................................................................5
Competitive Reaction and Responses..............................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
In this competitive business environment, every organization is required to take unique, creative
and innovative steps for the objective of standing aside from its competitors. With regards to
this, this report will focus over the Amazon which is a giant player of e-commerce industry. It is
engaged in various other industries and with regards to this; they have acquired a huge market
share in the global market. Organization introduces innovative and creative products regularly in
order to retain their existing and potential customers’ interest along with targeting new customer
segments. Recently, organization has launched Alexa in the form of smart speakers i.e. Echo and
Echo Dot, these speakers act as virtual assistant and it is launched at the international level
(Alexa.com, 2018c).
Every product or service requires re-branding after a certain time period in order to re-energise
the product in the target market. With regards to this, this report will focus over re-energising
Alexa in the global market with the objective of enhancing its demand in the global market along
with retaining the acquired position.
Customer Analysis
Primary customer segments for Alexa are millennials, youngsters and tech-enthusiasts. This is
because it is an innovative and tech-influenced product and the demand and curiosity level
regarding virtual assistant is more in the selected customer segments in comparison to other
segments. The major reason behind this is their huge social media interaction where people could
easily stay connected with the trends followed by different nations, recent innovations in other
countries, etc.
In order to approach to the target customer segments, organization uses personalised content
which is directly linked with their needs and requirements. With the help of personalised content,
organization generates demand amongst their target customer segments. In order to motivate
them, key features, KRAs, USPs and the major attractions are being highlighted in the
promotional campaigns for the objective of motivating customers (Slayton & Slayton, 2017).

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With respect to the creation of an effective brand strategy, Amazon will use AIDA model and
marketing mix strategy. In relation to this, organization could easily be able to approach to their
target audience. Apart from this, organization will implement relevant marketing principles and
terminologies as per the outcomes of market research activity. With regards to approaching
target audience, organization will implement 4Cs marketing model. This model includes clients,
costs, communications and convenience. All these aspects will be considered while rebranding
Alexa in the global market for the objective of enhancing its demand (Alexa.com, 2018b).
Market Analysis
Virtual assistant market I growing at fast pace and in order to set up an effective brand image in
this market, companies are stepping into virtual industry by introducing private assistant devices
and software in order to provide an easy option to the customers for managing their daily tasks,
making to-do-lists, etc. In relation to this, Amazon stepped into the virtual industry in 2014 by
introducing Alexa. The global Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA) market size was estimated at
USD 1005.2 million in 2016 and it is expected to grow at CAGR of 36.7% in the forecast period.
IVA is a software assistant that uses artificial intelligence to model the human interaction to
perform multiple tasks such as customer services. IVA software is essential for artificial
intelligence which acts as human interaction and executes multiple tasks in order to render
customer services (Alexa.com, 2018a). Key players in the market are Google Home, Apple Siri,
Microsoft Cortana, Amazon Echo and other companies like Sony are also planning to introduce
their devices (D'Agostini, et. al., 2018).

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Figure 1: Growth of virtual assistant
Primary attractions of Amazon Alexa are its capability of doing various tasks for its users. It is
capable enough to make to-do-list for its users, playing music and videos on big screen and
available options, giving updates for traffic, weather, etc. Virtual industry is growing at fast pace,
thus, the companies like Amazon, Google, Apple, etc. have adopted unique set of strategies in
terms of originating demand amongst the millennials, young age group and tech-enthusiasts as
these are primary customer segments for the organization. With the help of these unique
promotional campaigns and advertisement strategies, Amazon has been able to set up its
effective brand image in the global virtual industry (Hart & Proctor, 2016).
Competitor Identification
Amazon is engaged in sundry industries and recently, organization has stepped into virtual
industry by introducing Alexa in the market in smart speakers. These speakers are capable
enough to handle numerous queries of their users along with providing various other services
like playing music, helping users in scheduling the appointments, etc. (Alexa.com, 2018b).
Google’s Home, Microsoft’s Cortana, Apple’s Siri are considered as the big players of virtual
industry and these are also meant to be primary competitors of Amazon’s Alexa. Every company
has adopted certain effective measures in order to make their separate image from their
competitors for enhancing their market share along with gaining competitive advantage. In

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relation to this, Amazon has made their advertisement and promotional campaign bit unique and
according to the target audience’s requirements. With regards to this, Amazon Alexa has been
introduced in the 38 countries across the globe till the beginning of 2018 and by the end of this
year; it will be introduced in several other countries also. Thus, it could be said that Alexa’s
reachability is much high than its competitors’ and in order to retain its position in the global
market, organization is regularly updating Alexa by introducing it in local languages along with
enhancing its efficiency to uplift customer experience (Limaye, et. al., 2017).
Re-energising Proposal
In order to re-energising the Alexa in the global market, it is recommended to the organization to
consider all internal as well as external factors with the objective of building appropriate and
relevant advertisement and promotional campaigns. All the marketing tactics, strategies as well
as all the relevant aspects of promotion will be designed in such a manner which could make the
consumers feels the need for the product. This strategy is one of the best alternatives for re-
energising the brand in the global market along with gaining competitive advantage. As Alexa is
a new product in the market because before Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana and Apple’s Siri were
fitted in their smartphones, there is no separate device. With the introduction of Alexa in smart
speakers, trend as well as demand for the virtual assistant has been increased rapidly (Jucks,
Linnemann, Thon & Zimmermann, 2016). In relation to this, following tactics will be used for
the objective of accomplishing desired goals and objectives:
Digital media mix
The major focus of Amazon in terms of promoting and re-energising the brand positioning the
global market will be over digital mediums. This is because primary target audience for Alexa is
millennials and tech-enthusiasts and to approach them, digital media mix is the best option as
their interaction with these platforms are much high in comparison to other promotional
platforms. Main elements of digital media mix are social media, email, third party website
promotions, website marketing, big data analytics, etc. As organization is already using these
platforms for promoting Alexa but now these platforms will be used with effective and unique
content of advertisement which could directly hit the target audience’s mind-set’s along with
generating demand amongst them (Pantano, Priporas, Sorace & Iazzolino, 2017).

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Television, newspaper, magazine, bill boards
Apart from digital media platforms, organization will also focus over certain traditional media
mix in order to re-energise the brand’s position in the market. Television is one of the most
effective platforms in traditional media mix category and this platform will also be included in
the advertisement and promotional campaign of Alexa with the objective of enhancing the
presence in the global market along with retaining the leading position in the virtual assistant
industry. Along with television, bill boards, magazine and newspaper will also be used for
setting effective position of the Alexa in the target market (Shakhovska, Vysotska & Chyrun,
2016).
Strategies and tactics
Marketing mix
Product: Alexa is a smart device fitted in speakers named Echo with sufficient microphones to
hear their users in order to serve them in an appropriate manner. Alexa is a highly efficient and
effective in terms of setting and booking to-do-lists for the day and appointments respectively for
their users.
Price: Currently, Alexa has been launched with fair pricing strategy which will soon be
transformed to the price skimming strategy in order to target upper-middle and high income class
segments. Alexa falls under luxurious product category, thus, its price will be set on the basis of
price skimming strategy for the objective of enhancing organizational revenues, profitability and
market share in the global virtual assistant market.
Place: Alexa was introduced in November 2014 in US and till February 2018, it was present in
38 countries across the globe. Company is planning to introduce in some other countries by the
end of 2018 along with their re-energising campaigns (Hoy, 2018).
Promotion: Integration of effective mediums of both non-traditional and traditional forms of
marketing will be used. This will help the organization to boost up its performance along with
the objective of generating demand amongst their target customer segments.

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Competitive Reaction and Responses
Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 with a mission of selling everything over internet
one day. Slowly and gradually, Jeff Bezos has been able to reach to his mission through his
unique leadership style. Organization has also been able to expand its operations in numerous
industries along with setting an effective brand image (López, Quesada & Guerrero, 2017).
Recently, organization has entered into Virtual Assistant industry by introducing Alexa. It has
received positive response in the market and in order to expand its market share, organization is
continuously improving its effectiveness by launching it in local languages in order to make it as
per country’s norms, culture, behaviour, etc. Apart from this, organization also updates their
advertisement and promotional campaigns regularly with the objective of making their
promotional and advertisement fit for their target audience.
References
Alexa.com (2018a). Alexa’s Marketing Stack. Retrieved from: https://www.alexa.com/
Alexa.com (2018b). Competitive Analysis. Retrieved from: https://www.alexa.com/
Alexa.com (2018c). About Us. Retrieved from: https://www.alexa.com/about
D'Agostini, J., Bonetti, L., Salee, A., Passerini, L., Fiacco, G., Lavanda, P., & Alemu, S. M.
(2018). An Augmented Reality Virtual Assistant to Help Mild Cognitive Impaired Users
in Cooking a System Able to Recognize the User Status and Personalize the Support.
In 2018 Workshop on Metrology for Industry 4.0 and IoT (pp. 12-17). IEEE.
Hart, J. L., & Proctor, M. D. (2016). Framework and Assessment of Conversational Virtual
Humans as Role-players in Simulated Social Encounters with People. Journal of the
International Association of Advanced Technology and Science. 68(2), 56-89.
Hoy, M. B. (2018). Alexa, Siri, Cortana, and More: An Introduction to Voice Assistants. Medical
reference services quarterly, 37(1), 81-88.

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Jucks, R., Linnemann, G. A., Thon, F. M., & Zimmermann, M. (2016). Trust the words: insights
into the role of language in trust building in a digitalized world. In Trust and
Communication in a Digitized World (pp. 225-237). Springer, Cham.
Limaye, T., Kumaran, K., Joglekar, C., Bhat, D., Kulkarni, R., Nanivadekar, A., & Yajnik, C.
(2017). Efficacy of a virtual assistance‐based lifestyle intervention in reducing risk
factors for Type 2 diabetes in young employees in the information technology industry in
India: LIMIT, a randomized controlled trial. Diabetic Medicine, 34(4), 563-568.
López, G., Quesada, L., & Guerrero, L. A. (2017). Alexa vs. Siri vs. Cortana vs. Google
Assistant: a comparison of speech-based natural user interfaces. In International
Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (pp. 241-250). Springer, Cham.
Pantano, E., Priporas, C. V., Sorace, S., & Iazzolino, G. (2017). Does innovation-orientation lead
to retail industry growth? Empirical evidence from patent analysis. Journal of Retailing
and Consumer Services, 34(5), 88-94.
Shakhovska, N., Vysotska, V., & Chyrun, L. (2016). Features of E-learning realization using
virtual research laboratory. In Scientific and Technical Conference “Computer Sciences
and Information Technologies (CSIT), 2016 XIth International (pp. 143-148). IEEE.
Slayton, M. H., & Kouklev, V. (2017). U.S. Patent No. 9,729,592. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent
and Trademark Office.