I was doing some reading on the Amazon brand strategy and came across a nice piece by Shah Mohammed. Using Shah’s piece, here’s what I’ve come up with related to the Amazon value proposition. I have organized things into my own framework.
Amazon’s claim is the “Everything Store.” And the three proof planks are: extraordinary convenience, comprehensive selections, and low prices.
Reverse engineering in brand strategy is not a fool’s errand but it isn’t really fair; especially since brand strategy is best designed for nascent brands. That said, let’s look at how the proof planks support the Everything Store. Certainly comprehensive selections is perfectly linked. Extraordinary convenience can be assumed since it’s the only store you will have to visit for all your shopping. Mental imagery might suggest there will be a lot of hunting around for things, but since part of the Amazon’s Is-Does is that it’s an online store, we assume convenience so long as usability is good. (Remember, we are looking at this from Amazon’s beginnings as a brand. The last proof plank is low price. One might infer low price because of the store’s scale. One might also infer low price because the only physical footprint is warehousing and shipping. But assumption and inference are not a brand strategy’s best friend so they may have left some brand bank on the table
Looking at the brand strategy construct I would have to say Everything Store, though apt and simple, underdelivers as a brand claim. Tune in tomorrow and we’ll see if we can find one a little richer and more exciting.
Peace.