A marketing strategy refers to a business’s overall game plan to facilitate the buying and selling

of its products or services. A marketing strategy determines how to reach prospective consumers
and turn them into customers. It contains the company’s value proposition, key brand messaging,
data on target customer demographics, and other high-level elements.

A thorough marketing strategy covers the four Ps of marketing: product, price, place, and
promotion.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
A marketing strategy is a business’s game plan for reaching prospective consumers and turning
them into customers of their products or services.
Marketing strategies should revolve around a company’s value proposition.
The ultimate goal of a marketing strategy is to achieve and communicate a sustainable
competitive advantage over rival companies.
Understanding Marketing Strategies
A clear marketing strategy should revolve around the company’s value proposition, which
communicates to consumers what the company stands for, how it operates, and why it deserves
its business.

This provides marketing teams with a template that should inform their initiatives across all of
the company’s products and services. For example, Walmart (WMT) is widely known as a
discount retailer with “everyday low prices,” whose business operations and marketing efforts
are rooted in that idea.1

Marketing Strategies vs. Marketing Plans

The marketing strategy is outlined in the marketing plan—a document that details the specific
types of marketing activities that a company conducts and contains timetables for rolling out
various marketing initiatives.

Marketing strategies should ideally have longer life spans than individual marketing plans
because they contain value propositions and other key elements of a company’s brand, which
generally hold constant over the long haul. In other words, marketing strategies cover big-picture
messaging, while marketing plans delineate the logistical details of specific campaigns.
For example, a marketing strategy might say that a company aims to increase authority in niche
circles where their clients visit. The marketing plan puts that into action by commissioning
thought leadership pieces on LinkedIn.

Benefits of a Marketing Strategy

The ultimate goal of a marketing strategy is to achieve and communicate a sustainable
competitive advantage over rival companies by understanding the needs and wants of its
consumers. Whether it’s a print ad design, mass customization, or a social media campaign, a
marketing asset can be judged based on how effectively it communicates a company’s core value
proposition.

Market research can help chart the efficacy of a given campaign and can help identify untapped
audiences to achieve bottom-line goals and increase sales.

How to Create a Marketing Strategy

Creating a marketing strategy requires a few steps. Here are some of the steps you should
consider when creating your marketing strategy.

Identify your goals: While sales are the ultimate goal for every company, you should have more
short-term goals such as establishing authority, increasing customer engagement, or generating
leads. These smaller goals offer measurable benchmarks for the progress of your marketing plan.
Think of strategy as the high-level ideology and planning as how you accomplish your goals.
Know your clients: Every product or service has an ideal customer, and you should know who
they are and where they hang out. If you sell power tools, you’ll choose marketing channels
where general contractors may see your messaging. Establish who your client is and how your
product will improve their lives.
Create your message: Now that you know your goals and who you’re pitching to, it’s time to
create your message. This is your opportunity to show your potential clients how your product or
service will benefit them and why you’re the only company that can provide it.
Define your budget: How you disperse your messaging may depend on how much you can
afford. Will you be purchasing advertising? Hoping for a viral moment on social media
organically? Sending out press releases to the media to try to gain coverage? Your budget will
dictate what you can afford to do.
Determine your channels: Even the best message needs the appropriate venue. Some companies
may find more value in creating blog posts for their website. Others may find success with paid
ads on social media channels. Find the most appropriate venue for your content.
Measure your success: To target your marketing, you need to know whether it is reaching its
audience. Determine your metrics and how you’ll judge the success of your marketing efforts.
Why Does a Company Need a Marketing Strategy?
A marketing strategy helps a company direct its advertising dollars to where it will have the most
impact. Compared with the data from 2018, the correlation between organization and success in
marketers jumped from being almost four times more likely to almost seven times more likely in
2022.2

What Do the Four Ps Mean in a Marketing Strategy?

The four Ps are product, price, promotion, and place. These are the key factors that are involved
in the marketing of a good or service. The four Ps can be used when planning a new business
venture, evaluating an existing offer, or trying to optimize sales with a target audience. It also
can be used to test a current marketing strategy on a new audience.

What Does a Marketing Strategy Look Like?

A marketing strategy will detail the advertising, outreach, and public relations campaigns to be
carried out by a firm, including how the company will measure the effect of these initiatives.

They will typically follow the four Ps. The functions and components of a marketing plan
include market research to support pricing decisions and new market entries, tailored messaging
that targets certain demographics and geographic areas, and platform selection for product and
service promotion—digital, radio, Internet, trade magazines, and the mix of those platforms for
each campaign, and metrics that measure the results of marketing efforts and their reporting
timelines.

Is a Marketing Strategy the Same as a Marketing Plan?

The terms “marketing plan” and “marketing strategy” are often used interchangeably because a
marketing plan is developed based on an overarching strategic framework. In some cases, the
strategy and the plan may be incorporated into one document, particularly for smaller companies
that may only run one or two major campaigns in a year. The plan outlines marketing activities
on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis, while the marketing strategy outlines the overall value
proposition.
The Bottom Line
Companies need to sell their products and services to generate revenue and put them on the path
of being a successful business. To sell their products or services, they have to let consumers
know of them. They must also convince consumers to buy them as well as convert consumers
from competitors. Having a marketing strategy that outlines this process and more is a crucial
step in converting consumers into customers.
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Purpose of strategic marketing
Strategic Marketing is the use of marketing disciplines to achieve organizational goals by
developing and maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage. It helps in assessing the
positioning and performance of an organization. Strategic marketing addresses high-level
considerations such as what markets to target, which services to offer, and how to price and
promote them. Having a strategic marketing plan in place helps in establishing achievable
marketing objectives. The objectives should have a specific time frame and should be
measurable.

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Marketing planning process
The marketing planning process outlines the plan of a company as to how they will make their
product successful. It comprises the five main steps: The first step is to set the goal for
marketing, defined by the vision and mission. In the second step, data is collected to define the
current internal and external market position based on a SWOT analysis and PESTLE analysis.
Then the firm develops marketing strategies and objectives to gain its overall objective. The final
step is to allocate the resources, design the budget for the implementation of the discussed
processes and design some action plans.

Marketing concepts
The production marketing concept argues that consumers will buy readily available products at a
reasonable price. The product concept is a perception or image of how consumers imagine and
understand their experiences with a product or service when making purchasing decisions. The
selling concept is based on persuasion. It takes place when businesses persuade customers to buy
their products instead of those of their competitors. The aim is to convince customers that they
need your product, rather than your competitor’s. The marketing concept focuses on both needs
and wants, which enables you to understand how the market sees your product, what they want
out of it, and how they want it to serve their needs better than competitors’ products do or can do
in the future. The societal marketing concept proposes that businesses are, or should be,
motivated by more than just profit. They should also be concerned with the well-being of society
as a whole, including their employees and consumers, as well as the environment and other
stakeholders. This marketing mindset argues that corporations should act in the best interests of
society to survive.
Significance of branding for Amazon
Branding makes a memorable impression on consumers but it allows your customers and clients
to know what to expect from your company. It is a way of distinguishing yourself from the
competitors and clarifying what it is you offer that makes you the better choice. Branding not
only creates loyal customers, but it also creates loyal employees. A quality brand gives people
something to believe in and something to stand behind. When a company professionally presents
itself, and when there is social proof that its products and service are quality, prospects will trust
that company and feel more comfortable giving it their hard-earned money.

Brand concepts
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A brand pyramid is a framework or tool that answers the fundamental questions related to the
brand and its operations in the market. It is one of the most crucial and integral aspects when the
brand is on the verge to embark on the journey in the market.

Brand positioning is the process of positioning a brand in the mind of the customers. More than a
tagline or a fancy logo, brand positioning is the strategy used to set a business apart from the rest.

Brand management involves maintaining and bettering products, services, and brand perception.
Brand management, when practiced correctly, gives cost leverage, increases customer loyalty,
and establishes meaningful brand awareness.

Integrated marketing planning

It is important to integrate branding and marketing to be able to create visibility and entice more
sales. This can start by tweaking existing strategies, assets, and brand features to produce a more
comprehensive and effective plan. A thorough marketing analysis is conducted to set priorities
for the overall marketing operation. When this analysis is complete, it helps to have a clearer
understanding of the marketing tactics that are likely to produce the highest ROI. Align vision,
branding, and marketing efforts helps to identify with the ideal buyers.
Marketing success can often feel like navigating through a storm. Whether you’re a CMO or a
marketing operations manager, building a strategic marketing planning process that hits your
targets and makes the most of your marketing budget is critical to ensure success.

But when you’re operating on a slim budget, it takes time to decide where to invest, especially
when you can’t afford to waste resources to achieve business goals.

That’s why a good marketing plan isn’t just a plan—it’s a crucial guide. It’s carefully designed
to steer your team, focus your efforts, and achieve genuine results.

This article is here to light your way, with a nine-step plan to a data-informed, goal-focused, and
ROI-driven marketing plan.

What is a Marketing Plan?

Simply put, the definition of a marketing plan is a roadmap that outlines a business’s specific
marketing strategy and the actions to be taken to achieve goals.

The marketing planning process takes that idea one step further, providing a thoughtful, step-by-
step approach to address how to create a marketing plan. When executed properly, this process is
the foundation of success for your marketing plan development.

There are plenty of benefits that establishing a marketing plan process can bring to an
organization or business:

Increased accountability. Each team member has a clear understanding of who is responsible for
what.
Team collaboration. Break down traditional silos and work together on common goals.
Resource allocation. Ensure you know exactly how much time, money, and energy needed to
achieve those goals.
Performance management. Effectively measure marketing’s performance and understand its
value to your organization.
9 Steps of the Marketing Planning Process
Marketing plan development doesn’t happen by chance. It takes a dedicated, ongoing effort to do
well.

Planful’s Marketing Plan Builder follows a hierarchical method that keeps all your marketing in
alignment.

Here are the nine most important steps in any marketing planning process:

Conduct a marketing audit – A marketing audit provides a foundation for planning decisions.
Collect market research – Research external trends and the overall market landscape can help
you understand your company’s current situation.
Understand your audience– Get a full understanding of your audience’s behavior, motivations,
and interests by building out personas, conducting consumer interviews, and gathering audience
qualitative and quantitative data.
Develop your positioning and messaging – Understand your brand against the market and how
you compare to competitors.
Set company and marketing goals – Develop marketing goals that are aligned with business
goals.
Determine your budget – Determine the budget needed to achieve the goals of your marketing
plan.
Develop marketing campaigns – Allocate your budget toward marketing campaigns within your
marketing plan.
Develop an implementation timeline – Before you deploy your marketing plan, set realistic
milestones with stakeholders.
Evaluate and make improvements – Evaluate the performance of your marketing plan and
campaigns and make changes accordingly.
A critical review of at least three marketing concepts/models/theories and how they relate to the
marketing planning process.

Step 1: Understand Both the Marketplace and Customers

Before you can start the marketing process, you need to have a good idea of what your
marketplace looks like. This means answering some basic questions about your customers, like
who they are, their income and purchasing power, and how much they’re likely to spend
(particularly on your products or services). If you decide to sell at lower prices in order to attain
higher unit sales volume, your marketing strategy would look very different than if you decided
to sell fewer products at a higher price.

Another way to approach this is to create separate brands and compete in both arenas. Consider
Volkswagen. You might immediately think of the VW Beetle or the Jetta, but the company’s
brand portfolio extends beyond VW passenger cars and SUVs. It’s also the parent company for
Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Porsche, and others, and these vehicles sell at very different price
points than VW passenger cars.12

Step 2: Develop a Customer-Driven Marketing Strategy

Marketing strategy refers to a business’s overall “game plan” to focus its limited resources in
order to reach prospective customers and turn them into paying customers, hopefully for the long
run.

It’s said that there are two basic types of marketing strategy: a product-driven, “build-it-and-
they-will-come” strategy and a customer-driven strategy, in which you analyze prospective
consumers and then—and only then—create something that they want or need. We’re going to
focus on the latter strategy. What happens in a customer-driven marketing strategy is that the
company shifts the focus from the product or service itself to its users. Customers’ needs are the
central focus and the point of beginning, not an afterthought. Your primary goal in a customer-
driven marketing strategy is to determine what users want and/or need and then satisfy those
users. Instead of being product-centric, it’s about being customer-centric and developing a
mutually beneficial relationship with customers.13

In a nutshell, it’s about establishing a connection and a relationship. It’s about understanding
who your customers are, what their needs and wants are, and how you can best meet those needs
and wants. It’s about knowing your target market better than your competitors do and creating a
strong value proposition for those users—a promise of value that communicates the benefits of
your company’s products or services. In short, it’s what makes your product or service desirable
to potential customers, helps them understand why they should buy it, how your company’s
product or service differs from those of its competitors, and how your offerings are superior to
similar offerings from your competitors. 14

Step 3: Deliver High Customer Value

Customers have myriad buying options and alternatives today. Given that, how can a company
attract and—even more importantly—retain its customers? The answer is relatively simple: you
give them value for their money. By definition, customer value is the ratio between the perceived
benefits and costs incurred by the customer in acquiring your products or services.

The mathematical formula is simple:

Value =BenefitsPrice(V=B/P)
But “value” from the customer’s perspective is a complex term, because we’re really considering
four different values types:

Functional value: what the product “does” for the customer in terms of solving a particular want
or need
Monetary value: what the product actually costs relative to its perceived worth
Social value: how much owning the product allows the customer to connect with others
Psychological value: how much that product allows the customer to “feel better”15
Value is increased by boosting the benefits (in the form of product, place, or promotion) or
minimizing the price.

Step 4: Grow Profitable Customer Relations

The bottom line is that profitable customer relationships are the “secret sauce” of any business.
This step in the marketing process is where marketers acquire, keep, and grow customer
relationships. Successful marketers know that acquiring customers is one of the hardest (not to
mention one of the most expensive) elements of marketing. However, when you know clearly
who those potential customers are, you can more effectively determine how to reach them, thus
maximizing your marketing dollars.
It isn’t enough to have a one-and-done sale. You want repeat buyers, so marketers need to
remind customers about the company’s products and/or services and how those products and
services have met their needs and improved their lives so they make repeat purchases. Marketers
need to consider how to reach customers about their offerings and make it easy and convenient
for those customers to make continued purchases.

When customers have a positive relationship with a company or its products or services, they’re
more likely to become repeat buyers. Satisfied customers are also more likely to be interested in
buying additional products or services from your company, and they tend to recommend
products to others, further reducing the company’s costs of getting new customers.16

Step 5: Capture Customer Value in the Form of Profits

The goal of successful customer relationship management (CRM) is creating high customer
equity—the potential profits a company earns from its current and potential customers. It’s a
relatively simple concept: increasing customer loyalty results in higher customer equity.

Increasing customer equity is the goal of marketers because it’s a bellwether for financial
success. Think about it in simple terms: the higher a company’s customer equity, the more profit
the company generates, and the more valuable that company (and its products or services)
becomes on the market.17

Amazon marketing strategy

In their 2008 SEC filing, Amazon describes the vision of their business as to:

“Relentlessly focus on customer experience by offering our customers low prices, convenience,
and a wide selection of merchandise.”

The vision is still to consider how the core Amazon marketing strategy value proposition is
communicated both on-site and through offline communications.

Of course, achieving customer loyalty and repeat purchases has been key to Amazon’s success.
Many dot-coms failed because they succeeded in achieving awareness, but not loyalty. Amazon
achieved both. In their SEC filing they stress how they seek to achieve this. They say:
"We work to earn repeat purchases by providing easy-to-use functionality, fast and reliable
fulfillment, timely customer service, feature-rich content, and a trusted transaction environment.

Key features of Amazon include:

editorial and customer reviews;

manufacturer product information;
web pages tailored to individual preferences, such as recommendations and notifications; 1-
Click® technology;
secure payment systems;
image uploads;
searching on our websites as well as the Internet;
browsing; and the ability to view selected interior pages and citations, and search the entire
contents of many of the books we offer with our “Look Inside the Book” and “Search Inside the
Book” features.
The community of online customers also creates feature-rich content, including product reviews,
online recommendation lists, wish lists, buying guides, and wedding and baby registries."

In practice, as is the practice for many online retailers, the lowest prices are for the most popular
products, with less popular products commanding higher prices and a greater margin for
Amazon.

Free shipping offers are used to encourage increase in basket size since customers have to spend
over a certain amount to receive free shipping. The level at which free shipping is set is critical
to profitability and Amazon has changed it as competition has changed and for promotional
reasons.

Amazon communicates the fulfillment promise in several ways including the presentation of the
latest inventory availability information, delivery date estimates, and options for expedited
delivery, as well as delivery shipment notifications and update facilities.
Amazon marketing strategy

This focus on customer has translated to excellence in service with the 2004 American Customer
Satisfaction Index giving Amazon.com a score of 88 which was at the time, the highest customer
satisfaction score ever recorded in any service industry, online or offline.

Round (2004) notes that Amazon focuses on customer satisfaction metrics. Each site is closely
monitored with standard service availability monitoring (for example, using Keynote or Mercury
Interactive) site availability and download speed. Interestingly it also monitors per minute site
revenue upper/lower bounds – Round describes an alarm system rather like a power plant where
if revenue on a site falls below $10,000 per minute, alarms go off! There are also internal
performance service-level-agreements for web services where T% of the time, different pages
must return in X seconds.

Amazon marketing strategy

Whilst it does not reveal much about the Amazon marketing strategy approach in its annual
reports, but there seems to be a focus on online marketing channels. Amazon (2011) states “we
direct customers to our websites primarily through a number of targeted online marketing
channels, such as our Associates program, sponsored search, portal advertising, email marketing
campaigns, and other initiatives”.

These other initiatives may include outdoor and TV advertising, but they are not mentioned
specifically. In this statement they also highlight the importance of customer loyalty tools. They
say: “while costs associated with free shipping are not included in marketing expense, we view
free shipping offers and Amazon Prime as effective worldwide marketing tools, and intend to
continue offering them indefinitely”.

Amazon marketing strategy experiments!

Amazon have created their own internal experimentation platform called a “Weblab” that they
use to evaluate improvements to our websites and products. In 2013, they ran 1,976 Weblabs
worldwide, up from 1,092 in 2012, and 546 in 2011. Now many companies use AB testing, but
this shows the scale of testing at Amazon.
One example of how these are applied is a new feature called “Ask an owner”. From a product
page, customers can ask any question related to the product, Amazon then route these questions
to owners of the product who answer.

Amazon.com technology marketing strategy

It follows that the Amazon technology infrastructure must readily support this culture of
experimentation and this can be difficult to achieved with standardised content management.
Amazon has achieved its competitive advantage through developing its technology internally and
with a significant investment in this which may not be available to other organisations without
the right focus on the online channels.

As Amazon explains in SEC (2005) ‘using primarily our own proprietary technologies, as well
as technology licensed from third parties, we have implemented numerous features and
functionality that simplify and improve the customer shopping experience, enable third parties to
sell on our platform, and facilitate our fulfillment and customer service operations. Our current
strategy is to focus our development efforts on continuous innovation by creating and enhancing
the specialized, proprietary software that is unique to our business, and to license or acquire
commercially-developed technology for other applications where available and appropriate. We
continually invest in several areas of technology, including our seller platform; A9.com, our
wholly-owned subsidiary focused on search technology on www.A9.com and other Amazon
sites; web services; and digital initiatives.’

Round (2004) describes the technology approach as ‘distributed development and deployment’.
Pages such as the home page have a number of content ‘pods’ or ‘slots’ which call web services
for features. This makes it relatively easy to change the content in these pods and even change
the location of the pods on-screen. Amazon uses a flowable or fluid page design unlike many
sites which enables it to make the most of real-estate on-screen.

Technology also supports more standard e-retail facilities. SEC (2005) states: ‘We use a set of
applications for accepting and validating customer orders, placing and tracking orders with
suppliers, managing and assigning inventory to customer orders, and ensuring proper shipment
of products to customers. Our transaction-processing systems handle millions of items, a number
of different status inquiries, multiple shipping addresses, gift-wrapping requests, and multiple
shipment methods. These systems allow the customer to choose whether to receive single or
several shipments based on availability and to track the progress of each order. These
applications also manage the process of accepting, authorizing, and charging customer credit
cards.’
Amazon marketing strategy for partnerships
As Amazon grew, its share price growth enabled partnership or acquisition with a range of
companies in different sectors. Marcus (2004) describes how Amazon partnered with
Drugstore.com (pharmacy), Living.com (furniture), Pets.com (pet supplies), Wineshopper.com
(wines), HomeGrocer.com (groceries), Sothebys.com (auctions) and Kozmo.com (urban home
delivery). In most cases, Amazon purchased an equity stake in these partners, so that it would
share in their prosperity. It also charged them fees for placements on the Amazon site to promote
and drive traffic to their sites.

Similarly, Amazon marketing strategy was to charge publishers for prime-position to promote
books on its site which caused an initial hue-and-cry, but this abated when it was realised that
paying for prominent placements was widespread in traditional booksellers and supermarkets.
Many of these new online companies failed in 1999 and 2000, but Amazon had covered the
potential for growth and was not pulled down by these partners, even though for some such as
Pets.com it had an investment of 50%.

Analysts sometimes refer to ‘Amazoning a sector’ meaning that one company becomes dominant
in an online sector such as book retail such that it becomes very difficult for others to achieve
market share. In addition to developing, communicating and delivering a very strong proposition,
Amazon has been able to consolidate its strength in different sectors through its partnership
arrangements and through using technology to facilitate product promotion and distribution via
these partnerships. The Amazon retail platform enables other retailers to sell products online
using the Amazon user interface and infrastructure through their ‘Syndicated Stores’ programme.

For example, in the UK, Waterstones (www.waterstones.co.uk) is one of the largest traditional
bookstores. It found competition with online so expensive and challenging, that eventually it
entered a partnership arrangement where Amazon markets and distributes its books online in
return for a commission online. Similarly, in the US, Borders a large book retailer uses the
Amazon merchant platform for distributing its products.

Toy retailer Toys R’ Us have a similar arrangement. Such partnerships help Amazon extends its
reach into the customer-base of other suppliers, and of course, customers who buy in one
category such as books can be encouraged to purchase into other areas such as clothing or
electronics.

Another form of partnership referred to above is the Amazon Marketplace which enables
Amazon customers and other retailers to sell their new and used books and other goods alongside
the regular retail listings. A similar partnership approach is the Amazon ‘Merchants@’ program
which enables third party merchants (typically larger than those who sell via the Amazon
Marketplace) to sell their products via Amazon. Amazon earn fees either through fixed fees or
sales commissions per-unit. This arrangement can help customers who get a wider choice of
products from a range of suppliers with the convenience of purchasing them through a single
checkout process.

Finally, Amazon marketing strategy has also facilitated formation of partnerships with smaller
companies through its affiliates programme. Internet legend records that Jeff Bezos, the creator
of Amazon was chatting to someone at a cocktail party who wanted to sell books about divorce
via her web site. Subsequently, Amazon.com launched its Associates Program in July 1996 and
it is still going strong.

Here, the Amazon marketing strategy has created a tiered performance-based incentives to
encourage affiliates to sell more Amazon products.

Amazon Marketing strategy communications

In their SEC filings Amazon state that the aims of their communications strategy are
(unsurprisingly) to:

Increase customer traffic to our websites

Create awareness of our products and services
Promote repeat purchases
Develop incremental product and service revenue opportunities
Strengthen and broaden the Amazon.com brand name.
Amazon also believes that its most effective marketing communications are a consequence of
their focus on continuously improving the customer experience. This then creates word-of-mouth
promotion which is effective in acquiring new customers and may also encourage repeat
customer visits.

As well as this Marcus (2004) describes how Amazon used the personalisation enabled through
technology to reach out to a difficult to reach market which Bezos originally called ‘the hard
middle’. Bezos’s view was that it was easy to reach 10 people (you called them on the phone) or
the ten million people who bought the most popular products (you placed a superbowl ad), but
more difficult to reach those in between. The search facilities in the search engine and on the
Amazon site, together with its product recommendation features meant that Amazon could
connect its products with the interests of these people.

Online advertising techniques include paid search marketing, interactive ads on portals, e-mail
campaigns and search engine optimisation. These are automated as far as possible as described
earlier in the case study. As previously mentioned, the affiliate programme is also important in
driving visitors to Amazon and Amazon offers a wide range of methods of linking to its site to
help improve conversion.

For example, affiliates can use straight text links leading direct to a product page and they also
offer a range of dynamic banners which feature different content such as books about Internet
marketing or a search box.
Amazon also use cooperative advertising arrangements, better known as ‘contra-deals’ with
some vendors and other third parties. For example, a print advertisement in 2005 for a particular
product such as a wireless router with a free wireless laptop card promotion will feature a
specific Amazon URL in the ad. In product fulfilment packs, Amazon may include a leaflet for a
non-competing online company such as Figleaves.com (lingerie) or Expedia (travel). In return,
Amazon leaflets may be included in customer communications from the partner brands.

Our Associates program directs customers to our websites by enabling independent websites to
make millions of products available to their audiences with fulfillment performed by us or third
parties. We pay commissions to hundreds of thousands of participants in our Associates program
when their customer referrals result in product sales.

In addition, we offer everyday free shipping options worldwide and recently announced
Amazon.com Prime in the U.S., our first membership program in which members receive free
two-day shipping and discounted overnight shipping. Although marketing expenses do not
include the costs of our free shipping or promotional offers, we view such offers as effective
marketing tools.
a critical discussion of the significance of branding using amazon as an example。

Amazon is one of the most recognizable companies in the world, occupying and serving more
global regions than any other organization. And while it may seem hard to imagine branding a
store that sells “everything,” the world’s largest ecommerce store has managed quite well! In
fact, the name Amazon has practically become synonymous with online shopping.

While your company may not have the reach and capabilities of Amazon just yet, there are still
several branding lessons you can take away from the mega-store’s strategies, positioning and
brand management.

Amazon Logo
Image via www.amazon.com

1. Root Your Brand Identity Through Your Business Story

The humble start of Amazon is among the best-known business origin stories in the world and
this story has been a tremendous asset in establishing the company’s customer-centric brand
positioning. Millions of people know that founder Jeff Bezos left a high-paying career to found a
startup bookselling company, which at first he operated out of a garage. The company’s
unusually rapid ascension from selling books to U.S. customers, to selling everything to the
whole world, completes the Cinderella story, even with its ups and downs along the way.

With this powerful brand story firmly established, Amazon is able to maintain its image as an
organization that will always care about its customers, no matter how unimaginably large it
becomes. Amazon’s story is a differentiator, setting the brand apart from other mega-
corporations through its entrepreneurial grass-root beginnings. Their customer centric approach
still is one of their highest brand values and drives the whole focus of the business in terms of
their business model, brand strategy and customer experience.

Your brand story is a really important part of your whole brand strategy and any business
seeking to strengthen its brand leverage should consider amplifying it appropriately in a way
that’s relevant to your customers.

People buy with emotion and your story helps build that emotional connection. That said, your
story needs to be worth talking about so you really must craft and communicate it in a way that
your core target audience finds truly compelling, memorable and referable using a systemized
approach like our ‘Story Selling System™’. Develop your brand story by revisiting the reasons
you launched your business in the first place. This can help you pinpoint the areas worth
leveraging to increase your brand recognition in the market. What was and still is your big
‘Why?’ To quote Simon Sinek, ‘People don’t buy what you do, they buy ‘why’ you do it.’

2. Highlight Your Brand Differentiation at Every Opportunity

Ask anyone what sets Amazon apart from other online retailers, and they’re likely to answer in a
number of ways: the product selection, the customer centric approach and the prices. Regarding
the selection, the original tagline for the company when it only sold books was “Earth’s biggest
book store.” As the organization experienced exponential growth and added product line after
product line, it became known as “the world’s largest online retailer.” Today’s Amazon
customers can expect to find anything they’d like to buy—and some things they would never buy
—available for sale on Amazon. This enormous selection of products is a crucial part of
Amazon’s brand differentiation.

The second prong, regarding the lowest prices, has been part of Amazon’s branding strategy
from the beginning. In fact, the company is so dedicated to under-pricing its competitors that part
of Bezos’ business plan was not to make any profits for the first four to five years of operation,
in order to keep prices low for customers. Other money-saving features have been added to the
retail site in addition to low pricing—the most notable being the Amazon Prime program, which
offers customers free two-day shipping, unlimited movie streaming, and now unlimited music
streaming for a yearly subscription fee of under $100—amounting to around $8.25 per month.

Amazon’s huge selection and low prices figure prominently into their branding, marketing and
positioning. Then their customer centric approach means they are constantly innovating on ways
to enhance the customer shopping experience. Customers are continually informed of money-
saving opportunities through onsite callouts, email notifications, and public announcements.
Every customer’s online experience is bespoke and tailored according to their browsing interests.

3. Remain Flawlessly Consistent with Your Brand Promise

Above all other factors Amazon’s brand promise has driven the company’s explosive growth,
worldwide expansion and enduring popularity among customers from every walk of life. It is a
simple promise, though from a business standpoint it’s not so simple to keep: consistently deliver
an exceptional customer experience.
Everything about Amazon is engineered to serve the customer in the best possible way. From the
unmatched product selection, to the powerful search engine that allows shoppers to find exactly
what they’re looking for in seconds, to the customer review system that supports shoppers
research products from trusted sources (other consumers) as well as an opportunity to voice their
own opinions and experiences with products, to low prices and highly responsive customer
service communication. When you shop with Amazon, you’re guaranteed a flawless experience
with as little hindrance as possible. And if you don’t get what you expect, Amazon will make it
right.

In addition to setting the standards for the online customer experience, Amazon has built in
several innovative customer features that enhance the overall environment. The company’s
popular 1-Click ordering feature, which saves shoppers’ preferred payment and shipping
information and lets them complete purchases with a single click, not only improves the
customer experience but also increased impulse buying. And along with the extensive customer
review system is a massive online community, with forums and message boards that allow
Amazon customers and vendors to interact, discuss products and more.

The key to successful branding is, amongst other things, absolute consistency in everything you
do combined with an unshakable brand promise. When your brand promise is reflected in every
facet of your business, from customer-facing features to employee actions, to your products or
services themselves, you create a customer experience which engenders lasting loyalty, high
profile brand recognition and a much more powerful market position.

And in case you’re thinking otherwise, you don’t have to be Amazon to apply these brand
strategies. All of this is very doable at a micro local business or national level and when done
well, with absolute commitment, significantly contributes to your abilities to achieve brand
success, sustained growth and increased profitability.

What do you think?

• Is your brand story really well developed and most importantly, known to your customers and
resonating with them? If not ask about our Story Selling System™

• Have you identified the best way to integrate your brand story into your brand positioning?

• Is your brand really different, distinctive and memorable and are you capitalizing on your brand
differentiators effectively?

• How can you draw attention to the unique aspects of your brand?

• Where is your brand promise being fulfilled properly and which areas of your business are
weak and could benefit from reinforcing your brand promise more effectively?
What is brand positioning?
Brand positioning refers to the unique value that a brand presents to its customer. It is a
marketing strategy brands create to establish their brand identity while conveying their value
proposition, which is the reason why a customer would prefer their brand over others.
Additionally, brand positioning is used when a company wants to position themselves in a
certain way to their audiences in order for customers to create associations between the brand
and its value proposition.

Brand positioning
What is a brand positioning statement?
A brand positioning statement is an internal positioning summary that companies use to
articulate and promote the value their brand brings to a target market and their customers. It is
used as a way to articulate a brand’s value proposition in a succinct way. Typically, brand
positioning statements are part of a brand’s larger marketing strategy - and these statements
should be a balance of both aspiration and reality.

When creating a brand positioning statement, it is important to consider the following:

Who is the target market or customer?

What is your product or service category?
What is the greatest benefit and impact of your product or service?
What is the proof of that benefit and impact?
By answering these questions within a brand positioning statement, companies are distributing a
clear value proposition that sets them apart from competitors, but more importantly provides
their brand’s value to customers.

Why is brand positioning important?

Brand positioning is important for a company to have a clear way to share the value their brand
brings to customers. This happens both internally through a brand positioning statement and
externally through various marketing strategies to which a brand positioning statement ladders
up. Brands should address who their customer is and their value proposition within their brand
positioning statement to maintain relevancy while being realistic.

With Sponsored Display audiences on Amazon, advertisers can share their unique brand insights
in order to connect their display advertising strategy with their brand positioning.
How do you create a brand positioning strategy?
There are various ways through which companies can create and scale out a brand positioning
strategy, depending on the size, mission, and segment of the brand.

Understand how your brand is currently positioning itself.

Determine your unique value proposition.
Identify your competitors and their positioning.
Create your positioning statement.
Evaluate and test whether your positioning works.
Reinforce your brand’s differentiating qualities.
The above steps are intended to help brands dive deep into what differentiates their brand while
illustrating the unique value customers will gain from the brand’s product or service. By
focusing on what brands can offer to their target market, they can create an impactful brand
positioning strategy that resonates with customers.

Examples of brand positioning

Let’s take a look at some iconic brands that have effectively leveraged brand positioning as part
of their larger brand strategy to reach their target market.

McDonald’s brand positioning

McDonald’s sets itself apart by promoting its customers both exceptional service and consistency
among its food products, across its many locations. The company’s dedication to delighting its
customers through subliminal customer satisfaction and dedication to improving its operations is
received through the way the brand positions itself.

Dove’s brand positioning

Through its personal care products, Dove sets itself apart by focusing on the natural and real
beauty of women. Their brand positioning strategy emphasizes the way in which all women can
embrace their authentic self through the use of their products. Dove utilizes brand campaigns and
other marketing tactics to position themselves in an impactful way while resonating with their
customers.
Disha Publication’s brand positioning
Disha Publication is a dominant player in the publication world and has positioned their brand on
Amazon, through sponsored ads, to become a trusted name for a wide range of academic
disciplines. With sponsored ads, Disha Publication’s sales skyrocketed, ultimately, strengthening
their brand positioning on Amazon.