Evaluating Amazon's Corporate Communication Strategies

Amazon's success is significantly attributed to its adept use of strategic communication and public relations. The company has effectively engaged with both internal and external stakeholders through personalized and innovative approaches, such as customized home pages and direct CEO interactions. While these methods have driven growth, the essay suggests a shift towards more traditional advertising and community-focused campaigns to address contemporary business concepts: price, people, and planet. By aligning with bloggers and vloggers globally, Amazon can enhance its brand image, focusing on diversity and social responsibility, thereby transitioning from pure sales maximization to becoming a socially conscious enterprise.

Running head: CORPORATE COMMUNICATION
CORPORATE COMMUNICATION
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Introduction
Communication is the process by which a sender and a receiver can exchange messages
among each other in order to exchange thought, ideas, perceptions, feelings, emotions,
knowledge etc. communication is a two way process where sometimes there is a one on one
communication, while sometimes there is one sender and many receiver of information it is
called mass communication it can also be two ways by which many sender can send message to
one receiver. Corporate communication is a methods and tools by which a corporate entity
communicates with the stakeholders, employees internally or with the end consumers of the
product or services that the company is selling. Corporate communication is a relatively new
concept in management some companies recognizes the importance while some still do not
(Cornelissen & Cornelissen, 2017).
Strategies adopted to address various stakeholders
In order to develop and grow efficiently companies carry out several strategies and
planning process. Amazon is one of the most significant examples of new economy. In this
report a brief discussion of the corporate communication strategies of Amazon will be discussed.
Internal communication for the smooth and high performance efficiency of the day to day
operation of the company it is very important to have a well coordinated communication system
as well. For example if the employees of the company are not well connected with the
management and each other as well it is be difficult to process any business. External
communication of the corporate would include communicating and sharing information with the
business partners, industry, government of the country where the business operates, general
public media and lastly and most importantly the consumers of the business (Parente &

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Strausbaugh-Hutchinson, 2014). For a company like Amazon who has a global presence on the
basis of the service they offer as a e-commerce platform have a wide range of communication
medium to choose form in order to make sure that their message is being received and decoded
by the right receiver at the right time. Relevance is crucial in the concept of communicating it is
very important to communicate the right message at the right time using the right medium to the
right person. For internal communication a company uses technology, Human resource strategies
and traditional verbal or oral methods of communication. Whereas, public relation and marketing
communication are two main methods of communicating with the external environment of the
business to reach the target audience and in order for Amazon to grow its business the emphasis
will be on the external communication. Marketing is a part of corporate communication and all
the concepts are linked to one another.
One of the marketing communication strategies that have been encourage by Amazon is
that the user interface of both the application or the website is designed in such a way that it will
offer the consumers who log in to browse through the products a customized homepage, which
will display the prices and the products that are related or relevant to the purchase made from the
account previously. Furthermore, the company sends the customers personalized e-mails for new
deals on products that are related or similar to previous items that are purchased by the person.
Amazon also offers bloggers an opportunity to put up a list of the book that they want to be
reviews etc. this is a very smart marketing strategy and communication process to accelerate the
sales and growth of the profit of the company. As Amazon offers a plethora of choice it is
important for the customers to sort from the right item from the thousands that are available on
the site. This way the website makes it easy for the customers to make a decision. Sometimes
these mails and also influence an individual to buy an item which he or she would not have

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thought is necessary but the personalized advertise helps change that mind frame. In this way the
company can also communicate the deals the company has to offer to the consumers in a more
personal and one on one way.
Another significant method of communication that is used by Amazon is public relation;
it is regarded as the most successful case of public relations. Public relation does not only mean
press release and dealing with crisis situation, it also means having a close up communication
and feedback option from the end consumers. A process of communication is complete only
when the message is received and a feedback of the message has been posted. As a business
organization it is difficult to communicate and receive feedback as well. In this case Amazon has
developed a review column for the customers to post their views on the product. Both the mobile
device application and the website allow every user to post reviews on products they’ve bought.
This not only give the company a large database of feedbacks it also builds a sense of credibility.
The psychological influence factor works in case as If a person views 50 positive feedbacks on
an item he or she will be inclined towards buying it as e-commerce works on the basis of
credibility and trust (Hunt, 2014). The person will invest the money in Amazon as he or she is
assured other people has used that product from Amazon and will be assured that their money
will not be wasted. There are two outcomes in this process the Amazon platform is used instead
of others and also the product which the individual was speculating upon might be purchased on
the basis of these. Sometimes bloggers and vloggers also review a book or a product and leave a
link to Amazon. This increases the goodwill and the reputation of the site as well. Of course, the
company cannot control what people say about them on their personal sites, but most references
to Amazon.com are simply links to products, thus generating traffic without an opinion on the
site itself. The company must address three stakeholders in the communication process first is

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the customers, then the suppliers or the vendors in the case of Amazon and thirdly the
shareholders of the company. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a concept that has emerged
with people extensively using Google to find information and data this concept will ensure that
users can easily find the portal, while searching for a book or a product (Bacile, Ye & Swilley,
2014).
Internal communication and investors relation
Communication with the shareholders should be in a proper set procedure stating
the amount of shares that the holders own and the equivalent amount receivable by the
individual.
In order to communicate with the employee Amazon uses a software such as outlook
communicator, internal e-mail backed by exchange servers list and chat options usually used for
the purpose of the updates and changes that the company has in corporate, status updates of a
project or a piece of work, to participate in a discussion groups, this all done to efficiently
regulate and monitor the day to day operations of the business. Internal websites and modules are
used to give the employee information and data that is required to perform the designated tasks.
Internal communication channels are used to communicate with the employees in any business
organization (Mishra, Boynton & Mishra, 2014). Apart from that traditional methods of
communication like the verbal communication are also conducted through conferences and
meetings where the management can directly communicate with the employees. In a very
dramatic approach to an article that was publish in The New York Times, founder and CEO of
Amazon has urged employees to reach out to him personally if they experienced situations like
which are serious and needs the intervention of the CEO (nytimes.com, 2017). This is a both

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communication approach with the internal stakeholders and also a part of public relation where a
message is being subtly disclosed how considerate and how Amazon is willing to help the
employees of the company by sharing the contacts of the CEO. This in turn adds to the goodwill
and welfare of the company as well.
Future plan of action
Amazon has a strong backup of public relation activities which not only deal with the
external but also deals with the internal communication process. To modify the situation Amazon
should also focus in the marketing communication as well, the customized home page and the e-
mail are option that has been adapted by many other e-commerce platform hence a new strategy
like changing the approach to the mainstream and traditional advertising should be adopted.
Podcasts, video teleconferencing, RSS feed etc should be approached. Amazon can derive public
relation stunts that are real than being on the internet (Kim, 2014). The entity of the company is
only in the internet and the trust is the only key factor that the stakeholders have to back upon the
company. To get a more real approach the company can derive inspiration from the PR
campaigns of Coco-Cola. Amazon, in a very short period of time has established a significant
footprint in the global market and that is one of the main advantages of the company. It caters to
a diverse group of people and that can be used as a core essence of the company’s marketing
policies. Amazon can team up with bloggers and vloggers around the world to undertake a
worldwide campaign to promote diversity and tolerance. This will change the outlook of the
company from a sales maximization point of view to a more companionate and thoughtful
institution (Eberle, Berens & Li 2013).

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Conclusion
Communication is a planned procedure and the past strategies of the company have
worked perfectly for the growth and development of the company and it continues to work. But
price, people and planet are the three contemporary concepts of business and the previous
campaigns and communication just focused on price hence it is a good idea to change the focus
of approach towards people and plant more.
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Reference list:
Bacile, T. J., Ye, C., & Swilley, E. (2014). From firm-controlled to consumer-contributed:
Consumer co-production of personal media marketing communication. Journal of
Interactive Marketing, 28(2), 117-133.
Cornelissen, J., & Cornelissen, J. P. (2017). Corporate communication: A guide to theory and
practice. Sage.
Eberle, D., Berens, G., & Li, T. (2013). The impact of interactive corporate social responsibility
communication on corporate reputation. Journal of Business Ethics, 118(4), 731-746.
Hunt, S. D. (2014). Marketing theory: foundations, controversy, strategy, and resource-
advantage theory. Routledge.
Kim, Y. (2014). Strategic communication of corporate social responsibility (CSR): Effects of
stated motives and corporate reputation on stakeholder responses. Public Relations
Review, 40(5), 838-840.
Mishra, K., Boynton, L., & Mishra, A. (2014). Driving employee engagement: The expanded
role of internal communications. International Journal of Business
Communication, 51(2), 183-202.
nytimes.com. (2017). Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace. Retrieved 20
September 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-
wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html

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Parente, D., & Strausbaugh-Hutchinson, K. (2014). Advertising campaign strategy: A guide to
marketing communication plans. Cengage Learning.