Marketing Essentials: Amazon's Marketing Strategies Report

This report delves into the marketing strategies of Amazon, an e-commerce giant, examining the key roles and responsibilities within its marketing function, including setting market strategy, identifying customer needs, and developing marketing strategies. It explores the interrelationship between the marketing department and other organizational units like HR, Finance, IT, and Sales, highlighting their collaborative efforts to achieve business objectives. The report further analyzes the application of the marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion) by Amazon, comparing it with eBay's approach to highlight differences and similarities in their strategies. Finally, it produces and evaluates a basic marketing plan, offering insights into how Amazon aims to achieve its goals.

MARKETING
ESSENTIALS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Evaluate key roles and responsibilities of marketing function..............................................1
P2 Roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to wider organizational context....................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P3 Compare manner in which organisations apply marketing mix to attain business objectives
.....................................................................................................................................................3
TASK 3 ...........................................................................................................................................7
P4 Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation........................................7
CONCLSUION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is referred to the tactics which is adopted by business organisation to enhance
their brand awareness and promote their services or products within market. It is carried out to
gain attention of large number of people so that high revenues can be achieved without facing
much complexities. This assignment is based on Amazon which is an America based e-
commerce and cloud computing platform (Amri, 2017). Organisation was founded in 1994 and
its head office is situated in Washington, US. This assignment is going to cover responsibilities
and roles related with marketing function. Also, interrelation among marketing and other
functional units of company are carried out. Marketing mix is performed to acknowledge the
actual performance of business within marketplace. At last, a marketing plan is developed so that
organisation can attain its desired objectives and targets in a timely manner.
TASK 1
P1 Evaluate key roles and responsibilities of marketing function
In business organisations, manager of different departments are given specific roles and
responsibilities. Different roles and responsibilities related with marketing function of Amazon
are discussed below: Setting market strategy: It is the responsibility of marketing manager to set an
appropriate marketing strategy for business organisation so that objectives and targets of
company can be achieved in a timely manner (Bačík, Štefko and Gburová, 2014). This
strategy can either be related with entering a new market sector or offering new products
to existing customers. If marketing department will not set an appropriate market
strategy, products of company will not gain wide acceptance in front of customers. This
can limits the business growth of company. Appropriate setting of market strategy will
results in increased sales due to which high profits can be earned.
 Identifying customer needs: To achieve desired outcomes, it is important for a business
organisation to acknowledge the requirements and needs of its customers in a proper
manner. For this, it is essential for company to collect information about them after
regular time intervals. Carrying out research to identify the needs of customers is the role
of marketing department. If marketing unit in Amazon will not acknowledge the
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requirements of customers, it will be difficult for company to offer those products that
will be widely accepted by customers (Wirtz, Tuzovic and Kuppelwieser, 2014).
Roles and responsibilities of marketing in market environment
 Developing marketing strategies: It is the role of marketing department of Amazon to
develop various marketing strategies. This will benefits them in gaining high advantage
over competitors. By these strategies, products or services offered by Amazon can be
advertised in a proper manner. This will benefits in increasing revenues and sales of
company. If marketing department in Amazon will not formulate effective strategies then
activities will be performed in unorganized way that will results in revenue loss.
 Marketing in B2C and B2B
B2B marketing stands for business to business marketing where individuals wants to
emphasize on the logic of products and its features. In this marketing, other businesses or person
have no personal emotions while purchasing a product. They prefer to purchase products after
understanding their role and importance.
B2C stands for Business to consumer marketing in which decision making of people for
choosing a product is based on emotional aspect. Different customers have different demand due
to which business organisation is needed to manage variety of distribution channels.
Marketing Mix
It is defined as a set of tactics, action and strategies used by a business organisation so
that their products and brand can be advertised in a proper manner. There are 4ps of marketing
that makes a marketing mix but some other elements are not included in this process so that
effectiveness of business organisation in market place can be acknowledged more properly.
These new elements are people, process and physical evidence.
P2 Roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to wider organizational context
There are various departments which contributes mutually to achieve organisational goals
and objectives through performing allotted roles and responsibilities by taking support from each
other. In Amazon, several departments are contributing equally which includes marketing, sales,
finance, human resource etc. Here are the interrelationship between these departments to achieve
organisational goals and objectives.
HR and Marketing department: HR department of Amazon have responsibility to hire
experienced and knowledgeable candidates so that effective workforce can be maintained at
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workplace. apart from that, marketing division of Amazon have responsibility to promote or
advertise the vacant job positions through using different job portals i.e. offline or online.
therefore, head of HR division have responsibility to provide attractive job description to the
divisional head of marketing so as to inviting large number of eligible candidates for the vacant
positions of organisation (Blythe and Martin, 2019). Thus, these two departments of Amazon if
performed together then the possibilities of achieving organisational goals and objectives within
pre-determined time period are high.
Marketing and Finance department: Finance division of Amazon is responsible for
forming budget or allocating resources for funds so that all functions of organisation could be
carried out effectively. Whereas, marketing department of Amazon have duty to provide
assistance to finance division so as to determining ways of arranging funds. Coordination among
these divisions are beneficial as they supports the organisation in maintaining their brand image
and achieving desired goals (Brassington and Pettitt, 2013).
Marketing and IT department: IT department in Amazon is held responsible to manager
and implement IT equipments and machinery which makes easy for the employees to work with
more productivity and efficiency. On the other hand, Marketing is held responsible to market the
products and services in order to influence buying behaviour of customers in favourable manner.
Along with this, conducting market research by which they determines the latest technologies
which are more in trend so that the manager put efforts in proper implementation at workplace
with an objective of enhancing performance level of employees in Amazon (Desai, 2013). The
marketing department also provides the information regarding latest equipments and software to
the IT department so that the it would implement them at company for enhancing its the
productivity and performance in market.
Marketing and sales department: The sales department of a company is responsible for
selling the products and services to the right customers in a timely manner so that organisation
can achieve high revenues and profits. Marketing department of Amazon helps the sales
department in identifying which products are in high demand so that they can be stocked and
sold to people in large quantity. In this context, both department work together to enhance the
revenues and market shares. If both of these department do not work together, then it will be
difficult for company to achieve their sales target.
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Marketing and R&D department: Role of R&D department is to carry out research in
market so that new products and services can be offered to customers in a timely manner. In this
work, marketing department benefits R&D department by acknowledging the needs and
demands of customers in a proper way. This will allow the amazon to identify the needs and
expectations of customers in a proper manner so that high revenues and profits can be earned.
TASK 2
P3 Compare manner in which organisations apply marketing mix to attain business objectives
Marketing mix is defined as a strategic marketing tool which involves various marketing
tactics that results in rising of revenues and profits for an organisation. To measure their current
performance in market, Amazon is going to compare their market mix with eBay which is also
an online platform offering products at global context:
Basis Amazon eBay
Product Company is a renowned e-commerce
company uses internet connection as a
medium so that customers can get their
services or products in a easier manner.
Products of Amazon can be easily
ordered through phones, tablets, PC,
phones etc. Company has a large product
line that involves DVD's, books,
console, kindle, jewellery, mobile
phone, household products, wearables
for men, children and women.
Organisation has achieved the award of
highest book seller in worldwide. Kindle
which is a gadget to read e-books is also
a famous product of Amazon. This
product allow the customers to read
books in a digital manner. In the year of
ebay is a popular online and digital
platform for people to sold and buy
services or products in global process
by following simple procedures.
Organisation specialises in offering
unique and immediate selling
procedures to their customer base. It
provides a wide market for the sale of
good and services. Different products
which are offered at eBay sites are
Decor, furnishings, home and office
appliance, computers and other goods
of daily use. Also, company offers
services like bill me later so that a
secure payment can be made by
customers through web. Beside this,
Rent.com is a famous subsidiary of
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2014, company has shifted to new
product base i.e. mobile phones. Sellers
from worldwide are allowed to sell their
products via Amazon. Some of the basic
services offered by Amazon are
Amazon devices, AWS, Alexa, kindle
publishing, Amazon prime, prime video,
Fashion, Amazon music, whole Food
products etc.
eBay which is a rental site. Other than
this, other services which are offered by
this company are Half.com,
shopping.com, StubHub, Skype (Joshi,
2012).
price Main motive of Amazon is to convince
customers for their good quality
products. In context with other online
platforms which sells good via internet,
profit margins of Amazon are
considerably less but their sales are high.
In this context, company provide their
products at competitive pricing to give
tough competition to rivals. Also,
company uses cost leadership strategy to
price their products. In this strategy,
products are given at less rates. To target
high class people by offering branded
products, company uses premium
pricing strategies. Beside this, company
provides offer and discounts to their
customer base so that overall sales of
company can enhance considerably.
Main pricing strategy used by company
is cost leadership where low prices are
charged for products in comparison
with rivals. For some products,
organisation has a fix price format so
that buyers and sellers are able to close
financial transactions as per their
comfortableness. Beside this, company
is known for using Auction style format
where minimum prices for open biding
are chose by seller and products are
sold in accordance with that bid. Sellers
at eBay uses different pricing strategies
like promotional pricing, economic
pricing, psychological pricing.
Company do not have a fixed and
standardised shipping cost which is a
loss in context with company.
Place Company operates in a global context
due to which they have a big distribution
eBay is an e-commerce organisation
which uses digital media to achieve
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and fulfilment network. Other than
managing their business through
business and mobile Apps, company
have their warehouses to offer products
to customers. These warehouses are
called as fulfilment centres. In present
situation, company has more than 175
fulfilment centres globally. When
company has started working initially,
they do not have any physical stores and
organisation relies solely on online sales.
But in 2015 company opened up
convenience stores and book stores at
some locations. Services like prime free
one day and prime free same day are
available in more than 8000 cities.
their business targets. This is the reason
services of company are available in
any part of globe. By having link with
internet and some payment methods
like PayPal, customers can easily buy
products offered by company.
Population from more than 195
countries order products from mobile
app and online website i.e.
www.ebay.com of company. At present
firm has no online stores and goods are
available through online sources only.
Due to item description, delivery
preference format of listing company
easily provide products to their
customer base.
Promotion In order to promote their products in a
desired manner, organisation uses
various promotional strategies like
advertising, sales promotion, public
relation, direct marketing etc. Also,
organisation also advertise about online
mediums to pay so that customers can do
cashless transactions. Mainly company
use social media tools like Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram etc. so that more
number of customers can be
acknowledged about their products
without paying large amount.
This company uses various kind of
media to promote their products. This
helps the company in creating a strong
image in minds of customers and
company is able to acquire high sales.
Printing, online ads, TV, radio, internet
and social media are some of the
mediums through which company
promotes their products. Company also
change their organisational logo in
2012 so that attention of customers can
be grabbed more easily.
Process Amazon has a strong process system in This company has varied processes for
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context with managing business. As a
leader in e-commerce field, company
has adopted different processes. In
context with operational efficiencies,
organisation is strategically bifurcated
into warehouse and centres. Also,
company take help from advanced
technology to interact with their
customers and managing daily tasks of
company. Company has formed
associations with social media tools like
Twitter due to which products can be
added to cart without downloading
authentic application of company.
their business and customer base so that
only good quality products can be
delivered to the people and their
experience of online shopping can be
enhanced appropriately. From buyer
respective, company has an auction
format where goods are given to people
with highest bidding. From the
perspectives of seller, image of
products and their description are
uploaded so that customers can buy
them as per their needs
People Amazon gives a high consideration to
their customers due to this easy return
and replace polices are adopted by
company. Employees working in
Amazon at each level are given benefits
and discounts so that they can feel
motivated and give their best
performance (Khan and Adil, 2013).
At present firm has employed more
than 12,5000 people. As company have
access to multichannel inventory,
highest number of employees are
employed in logistics department.
There are 12 categories of job in eBay
departments. Due to this, company is
flexible and workforce of company is
highly satisfied from them.
Physical
evidence
Main physical evidence of organisation
is its mobile application and website
through which 90% of business of
company is managed. Other than that the
warehouses and fulfilment centres are
other kind of physical evidence for
companies. Revenue statements and
Company has their warehouses and
fulfilment centres which are their main
physical evidences. Also, official site of
their company acts as a main physical
evidence. Boxes, packaging sites,
locations where products are returned
or replaced, website of eBay are
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financial reports of company are some
other physical evidences.
physical evidence for company (Mihart,
2012).
Company can open up more stores at different prime locations so that their revenues and
sales can enhance in a considerable manner. Proper training to workforce will benefits in
satisfying the changing needs of consumers in a proper way due to this company will have a
strong brand image in market. All of these tactics will be beneficial for Amazon in achieving
their business targets and objectives.
TASK 3
P4 Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation
Marketing plan: It is a operational document of the business which outlines the
marketing strategy and tactics that a company is going to use in near future. Marketing plan is
the blueprint for executing marketing activities. The marketing plan for the amazon is as follow :
Executive summary - Amazon is a American based multinational company that focuses
on e-commerce , cloud computing, artificial intelligence and digital streaming (Long and Jerath,
2018). It is one of the big four companies along with Apple, Google and Facebook. Amazon uses
the tool marketing mix for new product development ,to increase product portfolio, to become
dynamic, to improve business and to become different from its competitors. IN the year 2015,
Amazon surpassed Wal-mart in terms of market capitalisation. The company is employing more
than 847,500 employees throughout the business operations in all over the world. Amazon has
decided to launch a new brands of grocery stores that will make amazon distinct from all its
retail giants (Muralidharan and Raval, 2017).
This appears that amazon want to grab a larger sector of the market by offering a wide
range of Organic coffee in these grocery stores by keeping the choices of customers in mind.
This retail giant has focused this sector as large portion of the economy is not comfortable now a
days in purchasing coffee they seeks to have some healthy brands of coffee by lunching this new
product Organic coffee Amazon can increase there profitability in the market. Marketing plan for
this is very essential. For this Amazon needs to focus on each and every sector such as SWOT
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analysis of the new product , segmentation , targeting and positioning of the product , marketing
mix and all those macro economical factors which would affect it.
SWOT ANALYSIS :
SWOT stands for strength , weakness , opportunities and threats .SWOT is a strategic
planning which is generally used by companies or person to know their strength and weaknesses
and what are the opportunities and threats available to them . This would help the company in
analysing its strength, all those areas that are weak and needs to be focused. The SWOT analysis
of amazon:
Strengths
 Amazon is a
global firm
having huge
customer base
due to which
company
enjoys the top
of the mind
recall from the
customers
which is not
easy for the
competitors
firms.
Weaknesses
 The business
model of
online retail
store is
imitable due to
which any firm
can enter in
this sector.
There are
various
suppliers in the
market which
exist in online
retailing such
as Flip-kart&
Noble,etc.
Opportunity
 Amazon have
the opportunity
to become the
first provider
of organic
coffee.
.
Threats
 the rapid
change in the
taste and
preference of
the customer
can decrease
the profit level
of the amazon .
 The company
is having
superior
logistics and
 The company
has recently
introduced the
free delivery
 company has
the opportunity
to grow as
there are few
 Low prices of
new entrants
can be a huge
threat to the
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distribution
systems for
providing their
products to the
customers in an
effective
manner which
has resulted in
Amazon
deriving
competitive
advantage over
its rivals.
due to which
the profit
margin of the
company is
reducing in
several
countries such
as India.
marketers of
the organic
coffee in the
market , it may
cover large
market
segment and
can increase
profitability
business of
amazon.
Situation:
PESTLE ANALYSIS
PESTLE stands for political, economical,social,technological,legal and environmental.
This is a techniques or we can say tool which is used by marketers to identify the external forces
that impact the businesses . These basically involves macro external forces . PESTLE analysis is
generally used by the new entrance or for trading with the foreign market.
Political : Amazon benefits from political stability,this will help the company in
expanding it business across UK with the help of government intervention . Amazon can survive
in UK online market and can earn higher profit as the government policies over UK does not
change rapidly (Nicholls and et. al., 2013).
Economical : The function of the company depends upon the situation of the economies.
If the economy is going through the war of inflation it will lead to increase in the growth rate
and profitability of the Amazon.
Social : These factors are those which involves customers belief , socio-culture and their
changing preferences. This also affects the Amazon as customer preferences changes over a
time due to which they may shift to other online business which may lower the goodwill of
Amazon. As it meet all the ethical changes and ensure smooth trade between suppliers and
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customers . Customers perceptions towards the products and services Amazon has higher the
development of company (Ogunmokun, and Hsin Tang, 2012).
Technological: It involves the rate of technological innovation and developments that
could affect a market and industry . It focuses on technology incentives ,the level of innovation ,
automation, research and development activities . The company like Amazon needs to focus on
what is going technology wise . If it works with the technology that is not favourable according
to the trend then its production level will be affected.
Legal : Getting registered for its patent and copyrights may help Amazon to increase
their sales and avoid the sale of fake products with their names which will help them in
maintaining the quality of products and services.
Environmental : Amazon business is also affected by the environmental factors it can
be either rising interest in environmental programmes , rising emphasis of business
sustainability.
OBJECTIVES :
Amazon needs to have smart objectives for the launch of new product that is organic
coffee. It should be specific,measurable,attainable,relevant and time bound.
Specific : The company aims to increase its relative market growth and share from 60%
to 80% by launching new product in the market .
Measurable : Here the company is planning to measure its performance by the standard that they
have set to its actual performance.
Attainable:This product will be developed by Amazon due to which company has
decided to hire employees for starting the production on large scale. Also leaders will follow
participative leadership style (Pappas, 2017).
Relevant: The company is aiming to enhance the market share of the company along
with the profit and sales so that company can sustain in the market for longer time duration.
Time bound :The company has estimated a time period for the success of this new
product in around 3 months.
STRATEGIES:
Segmentation : Amazon offers a wide range of products or services. Successfully
exploiting more than one sector . For new product it will consider the demographic factors which
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involves the age group , gender , occupation as to increase their profitability. Age group 18 – 25
are the one who will consume more organic coffee as to stay healthy and fit.
Targeting : The company is targeting the customer who are more conscious about their
fitness who only consumes organic product to keep themselves healthy (Pike, 2015). It also
focuses on the consumer who are gym freak as this coffee provides them with some kind of
energy and works as a protein to them.
Positioning: Amazon is positioned as a global market which facilitate shopping through
the customized experience. These are the tools of marketing plan which will help Amazon to
increase their business by evaluating the market conditions and would also help them to establish
a standard for their competitors to compete . By this amazon can also understand how to
advertise there product in the market which promotional tool should they adopt and which
marketing activity they should execute to carry out the operations.
Action plan
Marketing mix:
Amazon is a American based multinational company that focuses on e-commerce , cloud
computing, artificial intelligence and digital streaming . It is one of the big four companies along
with Apple, Google and Facebook. Amazon uses the tool marketing mix for new product
development ,to increase product portfolio, to become dynamic, to improve business and to
become different from its competitors (Pudaruth and Nursing, 2017).
Product : Amazon has built up a huge product base and sells almost everything . The
company has decided to launch a new product in the market that is organic coffee to cover up the
large market share.
Price : The company will try to adopt the cost leadership strategy in which the pricing at
the initial level will be low.
Place : Amazon will operate its organic coffee business in Myanmar, Iran, Cuba and
some part of North America.
Promotion : Amazon will use aggressive marketing campaigns ,online advertising and
direct marketing to promotes its products in the market.
Forecast
Cost: Cost for the production of new product is discussed below:
Particulars Amount (€)
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Marketing 100000
Workforce 100000
Equipments 150000
Raw materials 150000
Sales: The company is estimating increase of double digits in the sales of the products
provided by the company.
Profit: The company has also estimated increase of 20% in the profit which can be
achieved through this new product.
Market share: The company is forecasting that 10% of more market share will be
covered by launching this new product in the market.
Control
To control the operations of an organisation, the management of Amazon need to make
decision regarding adopting measurement tools such as KPI (Simkin and Dibb, 2013). This will
help in comparing the past performance level with the present performance level to achieve
growth and success for its new product.
CONCLSUION
From above mentioned report, it has been concluded that marketing department of a
company plays a vital role in the success and growth of an organization. There are different roles
such as promoting and advertising products, conducting market research etc. which are played by
marketing. With the help of appropriate interrelation among marketing and other department,
organizational work can be performed appropriately. With the help of marketing mix, an
organization can acknowledge its performance in marketplace and marketing plan benefits the
company in achieving desired sales.
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