AMAZON's DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY DECODED

In my last blog, FLIPKART's DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY DECODED, I mentioned that 21st century belongs to India and yes, when we see  Seattle-based Nasdaq-listed e-commerce company Amazon entering India by launching its market place model immediate after India allows 100 per cent FDI only in Business to Business (B2B) e-commerce and not in retail trading online and this shows how important it is for global leaders and investors to explore India as an business opportunity keeping one fact in mind that is E-commerce is at a very nascent stage in India.

So this is in continuation to my earlier blog on FLIPKART, here I come with my study specific to Amazon's Digital Marketing Strategy.

eCommerce Giant		Amazon India
Founders		Jeff Bezos
eCommerce Drivers		Mobile and Internet for location-based marketing , Personalization and Customization to meet the needs of each customer, User friendly shopping experience, Easy accessibility and availability, Wide range of products, Competitive price through offers and discounts
Started in		2013
Headquarters		Seattle, Washington US
Business Model		Online Inventory and Market Place
Revenue Model of eCommerce Industry Comprise of		Pricing, Packaging, Shipping, VAS etc. Selling goods it stocked to consumers at prices lower than traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Working with min. profit and gaining from economic of scale is how it works. Selling Inhouse branded services and products to customers.
Size of the Market Place		No of Sellers - 4000 plus Unique Visitors per day - 18mn(Oct'14) Registered Users - 18mn Product Categories - 28 Products Listed(Catalog) - 17mn Total Sales FY 12-13
Financial Scenario		1) Recently announced $2bn investment 2) Market Cap - $148bn 3) Global Annual Revenue - $75bn
Top Investors		Capital world investors, vanguard group inc, Price T Row assoc, Capital research global investors, State Street Corp
VAS		Free return pickup, Guaranteed 1 day delivery, cash on delivery, Gift Wrap, Fulfilled By Aamzon (Free shipping), AtoZ Guarantee, Delivery Tracking to the doorstep,
Inhouse Products/Service		1) Amazon Pick up Service 2) Amazon Studios - online social movie studio 3) Amazon Kindle - eBook, digital service 4) Klickpay - Amazon's preferred payment solution 5) Amazon Prime($99/year) - Prime membership service, 6) Amazon fulfillment centres - fulfilled by amazon/seller 7) AmazonBasics - amazon branded electonic products 8) Amazon Cloud Drive - Cloud computing 9) Amazon Instant Video - Video on demand service 10) Amazon web services - collection of web services giving cloud computing platform 11) Amazon MP3 - online music store 12) Amazon appstore - interactive venue for developers and buyers 13) Amazon Cloud Player - sync music and playlists
Payment Options		1) Internet Banking (Tie up with 22 banks) 2) EMI (HDFC, ICICI, Citi bank credit catd) min. value of Rs.3000/- 3) Cash on Delivery (max order value of Rs 50,000) 4) Credit card/Debit card - Visa, Master Card 5) Mobile payment
Sales Promotion Techniques		Deals, Coupans, Rebate, Qunatity Deals/gifts,
Advertising budget 2014-15		Rs. 100-150cr
Ad Agencies		Taproot Inida, Initiative Media
Digital Marketing Startegy Focus		1) Increase brand reach to Tier II and Tier III cities 2) Communicate Brand promises 3) Offering unique and global service 4) Interactive and one class above Experience
Website Rank		Google Page Rank - 8/10 Alexa Website world Rank - #221 Daily Page Views - 5mn
SEO		Load Speed - 2.2 sec Backlinks - 6562 User Interface - very Good Alexa Site Navigation Rating - 4.5/5 Keywords - Amazon, Online Shopping, Buy books online, online book store, online shopping India, online shopping website, online shopping store Organic SEO Rank - 4 or 5
Consumer Search Trends of Past 12 Months (Google) Part1		Web Search - 32 Image Search - 45 News Search  -17 YouTube Search - 35
Consumer Search Trends of Past 12 Months (Google) Part2		Top Web Searches - Goa, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur Top Image Searches -Kerala, Karnataka, Tamilnadu,WB, AP Top News Searches - Haryana, kerala, karnataka, Tamilnadu,AP Top YouTube Searches - karnataka, Tamilnadu, AP, WB, Kerala
Google Adwords		PPC Search ad- Category/Product based text ads Display - Product's offers based ad images Gmail - Content/Topic based Text ads Keyword Targeted - All products/category based keywords Paid ad rank - 1 or 2 Overall Paid Search Performance - excellent
Remarketing		Remarekting activates if customer visits site and clicks any display/search ad
Successgul Brand Campaigns		Service specific Campaigns i.e. Gigantic Amazon Box, Guaranteed 1 Day Delivery, Easy Return Policy,
TV Commercial Strategy		1) Objective is to Introduce brand and connect with an audience 2) Target biggest event of the year i.e. IPL T20  2014 to increase amazon brand awareness. 3) Ads targeted to offline shoppers who don’t use internet 4) Ads aimed at increasing awareness of their VAS and products 5) Creative ad depicting chemistry of husband and wife 6) Ad of guaranteed 1 day service depicting quick family solution 7) Drive the purchase using preemtive occassions
Facebook Strategy		1) only one official Facebook Page 2) Likes - 3.6mn 3) Interactive questions based Facebook ads 4) Seasons to Festives to Product launch based cover photos 5) Updates on new products and offers 6) Avg posts per day - 3 or 4 7) Response on customer complaint is below average 8) Runing contest to ensure user engagement 9) Avg response rate per post - 20-25 10) Focus is on customer enagagement 11) Customer Service is huge area of improv. 12) Social Listening/Emotional Connect - Below Average
Twitter Strategy		Engagement Based Marketing 1) Followers - 23K 2) Updates on new product, offers and discounts using interactive title, good quality videos and images 3) Other Inhhouse Products/Services focused twitter channel i.e. AmazonCloudDrive, Amazon Prime,AmazonMusic etc. 5) Avg. 4-5 product offer/launch based posts per day basis 8) 24*7 customer service channel - AmazonHelp 9) Real time connect 10) response on customer query is on real time 11) Focus is on customer service and engagement 12) Social Listening/Emotional Connect - Good
Linkedin Strategy		1) uodate on company info, news, technology updates 2) Followers - 860K 3) Interaction with followers is zero
Youtube Strategy		1) Exclusive channel on youtube 2) Subscribers Base- 37K 3) Total Video Views - 24mn 4) Other channels i.e. FBA by Amazon, Amazon Kindle, AmazonFashion, AmazonWebServices 5) Service/Product/Brand/Performace specific video 6) Good Partcipation from viewers on Amazon channel platform
Pinterest Strategy		1) Followers - 8.5K 2) Theme based 23 boards i.e. lifestyle, tech, gadget, party 3) Each Pin is redirected to its official webpage 4) Each board and image is very appealing
Google+ Strategy		1) Followers - 5.9K 2) 1 Posts on fortnightly basis 3) Deals/offer specific posts 4) The whole strategy is lacking 5) Interaction and participation level is very poor
Content Marketing Strategy		1) PR Release page exists 2)  PR release about company info, events, exclusive product/service updates 3) Amazon has various blog pages i.e. Amazon Associates blog, Amazon web services
Integrated Channel Across social media platforms		1) No of offers post varies across social platforms 2) No of post per day per platform also varies 3) quality of experience management/query response /service also varies across all platforms. 4) Level of engagement with users/followers also varies across platforms
Email Marketing Strategy		1) One promotional mail in every 2-3 days 2) Emails with subject line is not that appealing 3) All categories offers in one mail 4) Email ad/text image quality is average 5) Product launch and deals based email 6) Deals, upto % off, flat % off 7) End of season sale, festival sale, season based sale
Mobile Marketing Strategy		1) Mobile optimized website is available 2) Mobile app on all platforms(iOS, Android) 3) 20% sales via mobile 4) Inbound Targeted Marketing 5) Campaigns - Product launch, Engagement and Retention 6) Mob App Distribution Portal 7) Product offers, Order Tracking, Reviews, Recommendations, Search scaning, Secure payments are mobile apps specific features
Affiliate Marketing Straetgy		1) Earn upto 20% for each purchase on website 2) Payment via EFT options 3) Referral Payout for each month/category is communicated 4) Payments made 60days after the month of sale 5) offer higher commission compared to competition 6) various reports are released to help Affiliates 7) very transparent and accurate program 8) Amazon Associates Mobile Policy is in place
Brand Association and Acquisition		1) Junglee.com, audible.com,zappos.com, fabric.com, askville.com, lovefilm.com, dpreview.com, lexcycle.com, pets.com, diapers.com 2) Tie ups for Exclusive Electronic Launches i.e. Lenovo tablets,  Microsoft Entertainment products 3) Recently, company has tied up with Micromax for exlcusive launch of Android one based low cost phone.

It would be very interesting if I get to know more about from you guyz. As they say, everybody has different and unique takes for the same situation so keeping learning agility as one of the strengths into consideration, I would love to welcome all inputs from all of you.

Please share this article as it may reach out to others and probably, that is how we can maximize our learning.

And yes, I would request to read my next 2 blogs which would be on Snapdeal's Digital Marketing Decoded and Ofcourse my common observations and recommendations in order to make out unique brand image.