Strategic Marketing Analysis of Amazon: MBA Marketing Report

This report provides a strategic marketing analysis of Amazon, focusing on its marketing mix (9Ps) and customer journey. It evaluates Amazon's product strategy, highlighting its wide range of offerings and innovations like Kindle and Alexa. The pricing strategy, including competitive pricing and value-added services like Amazon Prime, is examined. The report also discusses Amazon's strong global presence, efficient warehouse system, and promotional efforts through traditional and digital channels, including personalized promotions. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of Amazon's workforce and training programs in delivering excellent customer service. The analysis also covers Amazon's robust operational processes and strategic divisions, ensuring efficient business operations and customer satisfaction. This document is available on Desklib, a platform offering study tools and solved assignments for students.

Running head: STRATEGIC MARKETING ANALYSIS
STRATEGIC MARKETING ANALYSIS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1STRATEGIC MARKETING ANALYSIS
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Product.............................................................................................................................................2
Price.................................................................................................................................................3
Place.................................................................................................................................................4
Promotion........................................................................................................................................6
People..............................................................................................................................................7
Process.............................................................................................................................................9
Partners..........................................................................................................................................10
Physical Environment....................................................................................................................10
Performance...................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
Reference.......................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Marketing mix is referred to the set of tactics and actions that a company uses in order to
promote their product or brand in the market. A marketing mix usually includes various or
multiple areas of focus as a part of a comprehensive marketing plan for a company (Datta,
Ailawadi and Van Heerde 2017). The marketing mix is important and detrimental to a business
as it helps a business in determining the suitability of a service or a product for a specific
consumer base.
Amazon.com, Inc is an American multinational technology company. The company is
currently headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. Amazon focuses on cloud
computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence and digital streaming and is considered to be one
of the Big Four tech companies with Apple, Facebook and Google (US About Amazon 2019).
This paper is going to evaluate the marketing mix of the company, Amazon aligning with the
customer journey map of Amazon which will help in understanding the effectiveness of the
marketing strategies of Amazon.
Product
Amazon is considered to be one of the biggest international e-commerce companies in
the world. Amazon has come a long way and has successfully managed to attract the potential
customers and has been successful in creating an interest among the customers to try and make a
purchase from the brand of the customers. Amazon initially started off with selling books online
and still now is considered to be one of the highest and most popular sellers of books online.
Kindle is said to be one of the most popular product that has been introduced by Amazon which

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is an e-book reader where people who love reading books can find several books of different
genres on the device and read it through the gadget. There are many things that Amazon has
introduced to their target customers like Alexa which is a virtual assistant that has been
developed by the company and which is used in devices like Amazon Echo which helps in
getting connected to the virtual assistant which helps in playing music, controlling smart homes,
acquire information about the weather, news and many more (Cui, Zhang and Bassamboo 2016).
These products developed and introduced by Amazon have helped the company in attracting
customers and has also helped in arousing interest among the people and the customers to look
out for new innovations by Amazon.
The main strategy which has helped the company in attracting most of the customers is
the wide range of products that they offer through their website at a reasonable price. The
company provides people with products from groceries to electronics to fashion which give the
customers a huge option which is one of the major reasons that has helped the company in
building interest of the customers in the company.

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Price
The pricing strategy of Amazon has been created in such a way that it caters to the need
of different people who belong from different income groups. Amazon is considered to be very
competitive with their prices and have few ways of stating ahead of their contemporaries or their
competitors in the market. According to scholars, Amazon adjusts the price of their products
at frequent a interval which is often based on the categories of the products that usually
helps the company in gaining profits from the customers (Gorodnichenko and Talavera
2017). Amazon provides huge deals to the customers making the price comparatively low which
attracts the customers to make a purchase from the website. Amazon is also seen to be
instrumental in giving the customers value added services like Amazon Prime where the
customers pay subscription charges for the daily delivery of the products.
It has been seen that Amazon uses the differential pricing strategy as it has been seen that
the company uses different prices every time based on the demand of the products in the market.
Cavallo (2018) states one major reason why Amazon keeps the prices of their products in a
competitive manner is because of the use of the staff. Limited numbers however well trained
staffs ensure the consumer benefits from the lack of overheads which reflects on the prices
displayed online.
Place
Amazon is considered to be one of the largest global brands which have a very strong
presence in the word. It has been seen that the customers of the company not only buy products
but also extensively use their services by shopping from their official apps and the website. The
company has established very big warehouses within strategic locations that help the company in

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delivering the products to the customers even in the remotest of areas. The company also uses
local postal with courier services that helps in facilitating the process of transporting the
packages successfully to their customers.
The process of Amazon is very simple however, highly effective. The process starts when
the customers place an order. The order shows a cue which is a red light to the worker in the
warehouse where the products are mentioned. After this the bar code is matched with the placed
order. The placed orders are placed in the crates on the conveyor which then goes through the
distribution centre before the products are divided by bar codes of the products. The crates then
arrive at a central point and the bar codes of the products are matched with he placed order and
again sorted into one of the chutes before the order getting into a box. Later the boxes are taped,
packed and then weighed and finally shipped by UPS or US postal service and later arrives at the
doorsteps of the customer within 1-7 business days.
Chakraborty and Bhat (2018) states not only the services but the brand image of the
company,. Amazon is also seen to have a positive customer base in various countries where the
company has a huge online presence, with majority of their bases located in various states.

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Image: Warehouse of Aamazon.com, Inc
Promotion
Amazon highly focuses and puts emphasis on promoting their brand in the world. The
company markets their products and their brand intensively to their customers and is seen to
have used marketing campaigns that are aggressive. The company highly emphasizes on
promoting their brand via advertising through traditional media channels like newspapers
and television which is one of the biggest factors which is responsible for their popularity in
recent times. The company also promotes and advertises their products through billboards and
also uses various small methods in order to advertise their brand in the market. Chaudhari and
Byers (2015) states Amazon promotes and markets their brand in every platform in order to
attract and spread awareness to a wide range of audience belonging from different age groups.
Amazon creates attractive and creative commercials for television and also uses the social
media platform in order to reach out to as much as people possible which helps in growing their
business.
According to scholars, discounts are one of the major promotional aspects that help in
attracting the customers and influence them to purchasing products (Lin et al 2017). Thus, it has
been seen that Amazon mainly encashes on major events and festivals and provide heave
discounts which contribute in bringing massive visits to the website and the application of the
company. This has helped the company in satisfying the needs and demand of the customers
which has contributed to the company in generating high revenues and profits in the market.
Amazon also uses personalized promotion methods to advertise as well as market their brand by
providing discount codes specifically for the customer alone. According to scholars, most e-

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commerce companies have been using personalized promotional methods in order to make the
customers feel special and valued which make the customers loyal towards the companies and
also make the customers talk positively about the company to other people (Zhao et al 2015).
Thus, Amazon provides personalized promotion to their customers which makes customers
happy and recommend the brand to their closed ones which paves way for marketing through
word of mouth.
The public relation of the company has also helped the company immensely as it has
helped the company in creating a positive brand image. Amazon is indulges in many charitable
and philanthropic work which has increased the appeal of the organisation before their customers
in the market.
One of the strategies that have been used by Amazon is the advertising networks online.
When customers check some product online, the customers later view the ad of the same product
on some other website which entices the customers to make a purchase. Amazon also uses search
engine marketing which helps the name of the company come high up in the results of the search
engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and many more. The search engine marketing is one of the
smartest promotional strategies that is used by the company to spread brand awareness and also
to attract the customers to buy the products from the website.
People
Amazon is seen to have put a lot of importance and emphasis on the workforce of the
company. The company ensures and makes it a point to keep the employees of the organisation
happy in order to deliver fruitful performances from them for their productivity in the
organisation. The employees working for the company gets different kinds of benefits which

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makes Amazon a highly desirable employer. The benefits that the company provides to their
employees have a wide range from health benefits to financial programs that help in satisfying
the employees of the organisation. According to reports, the company has employed many
employees and there are around 647,500 employees working for the company currently
across the globe which has contributed in providing the customers with exemplary and
impeccable experience (Statista 2019).
Amazon highly believes in perfection and thus have created training and development
programs and activities for the employees of the organisation so that they can enhance their skills
and knowledge and also develop new knowledge and skills in order to be productive for the
organisation and enhance their performance which will help in the better functioning of the
company. The employees working under the sales division of the company play an important
role in the marketing efforts of the company. The people have been highly trained in persuasive
techniques along with showing respect the customers by considering the preferences of the
customers. Thorough and proper training is provided to the employees of the customer service
department where they develop communication skills and also learn to handle different situations
and how those situations are resolved to attain full customer satisfaction. Amazon has also
unveiled Delivery Service Partners, which is a new program that has been designed by the
company to give the entrepreneurs an opportunity to run their local delivery networks for up to
40 vans (Reagan 2019).
Amazon appoints employees who work with suppliers in order to acquire raw materials
and this plays a huge role in improving and maintaining the quality of the produced final
product.

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Process
Amazon has been growing successfully and has emerged to become one of the word
leaders in the e-commerce market along with web services. It can be witnessed that Amazon has
got a pretty robust process leaning or oriented business. The company is seen to have
successfully and strategically made divisions in the organisation by making warehouses along
with fulfillment centers in order to carry out smooth operations of the business in an effective
and efficient manner. Once the packaged boxes are labeled, they are then sent to a waiting trailer
on the basis of the location, speed of delivery and shipping method. There are many ways in
which the products are delivered to the doorstep. One of them is via trucks.
The trailer trucks by Amazon carry around 2,000 boxes at one go and after sorting out the
products or the packages on the basis of the delivery speed and location. After that the packages
are loaded onto various modes of transportation. Later from the planes and trucks, the products
are put to carriers like FedEx and US Postal Service.
For the customers with prime membership, there are Amazon Air planes that take off
flight from more than 20 airports all across the country. The packaged products are placed on
metal containers which are known as Unit Load Devices which is basically used to hold many
boxes in slotted stacks. The planes have the capacity of carrying around 30 and more than 30
containers.
As Amazon has become one of the most well-known organisations, the volume of the
orders received is continuously growing which has led the company to recruit many Delivery
Service Partners for faster delivery services. The partners recruit and develop teams of their own

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that operate around 20 to 40 vans and also have around 100 employees. Amazon is also seen to
have independent contractor through Amazon Flex.
The company makes best use of the latest and advanced business technologies that helps
Amazon in offering major support to the on-going and the daily activities. The services of the
company and the website are one of the major reasons that have helped the company gain
competitive advantage in the market. The customers are provides all the necessary information
about the location of their packages and through the website they can even track where their
package is which helps in engaging the customers with the brand as well as the website
(Kristensen et al 2017).
Partners
Amazon has many partners which has helped the company in contributing to their success. AWS
Partner Network (APN) is said to be a global partner program for technology and also for
consulting businesses that leverage wed services of Amazon in order to create solutions and also
services for customers. The APN helps the company in building, marketing and selling their
AWS offerings by giving technical, marketing and valuable business support.
Amazon also owns around 40 subsidiares like Diapers,com, Shopbop, Goodreads and Zappos
that sell their products through this website which has helped in the growth and development of
the business.
Physical Environment
The website and the application of the company are considered to be one of the major
and the largest physical presence provided by Amazon. The website and the application of the

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company is user-friendly and can be used by people belonging from different age groups as it is
easy and highly customizable. According to scholars, the design of the application and the
website of Amazon are used by many people because of their multiple options of customization
that help people in choosing the exact product they have in mind (Canter and Gomez 2017).
Amazon does not only provide their services to customers online but also have physical
stores present where they sell the products. The company has around 18 stores that are open and
also plans on opening more stores in other locations like San Francisco, New York City, Chicago
and Seattle.
Performance
Amazon highly focuses on the performance of the employees and ensures that the
company provides high performance to the customers that will ensure customer satisfaction.
They also ensure the fact that their suppliers and their delivery partners perform properly so that
they can be more productive and satisfy the needs of the customers. According to reports, due to
the poor delivery service of FedEx, Amazon blocked the usage of FedEx mainly for prime
products (Forbes.com, 2019). This shows that how Amazon focuses on their service and their
performance as well that help them in gaining a positive reputation in the market.
Conclusion
Amazon is one of the largest and noteworthy country in the world because of their high
quality products and services that they provide to their customers. The brand is positioned in
such a way that it has helped in attracting people from all over the world and of different ages
and has encouraged them to use the website extensively. The wide range of products, the
promotion strategies, the competent employees, the easy usage of the application, the stores and