Corporate Brand Building Of Amazon Samples †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Corporate Brand Building Of Amazon. Answer: Brief Introduction Amazon.com was found in the year 1994 by Jeff Bezos at back of his garage, since then, the company has reached at the pinnacle of success and is redefining the e-commerce industry. Amazon is one of the largest valued brands in terms of value and by volume of good sold. The journey of Amazon was not easy, however it was steady and the entire team at Amazon was standing resolute behind its founder-Jeff Bezos. Amazon was started as an online bookstore in the year 1994 and then quickly diversified its product offering to other items such as DVD, music, video games, electronics and clothing items. The company with its headquarter at Seattle employs more than 500,000 people and is always looking forward to improve its services to better fit the customer needs and preferences. The company is operating in more than 16 countries and ships products to over 185 countries; it earned revenue of US $ 177.86 in the year 2017, an increase by a 20% margin than the previous year. Present day, Amazon s ells almost anything to everything on its portal and is the largest e-commerce company in the world. Amazon is a bigger brand than the brands whose products are sold on its website (Sayyed, 2016) The purpose of the report here is to understand the importance of corporate branding in marketing, evaluate the approaches to build a corporate brand, understanding the role of culture in corporate brands and finally evaluating the co-creation and stakeholder engagement in the context of corporate brands. Hence, for the purpose of analysing the above mentioned points, Amazon is selected as the organization for analysis. By the end of report, the importance of corporate branding will be established and other modules will be covered alongside. Brand- An understanding of the concept A brand can be understood as a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature which distinguishes it from the competition and makes it easier for the people to recognize and resonate with the brand. A brand can also be seen as a promise to its customer, it tells the consumers what they can expect from the brand and how the offering will be different from other competitors. The foundation store for a brand is its Logo, rest all other packaging material, promotional material, website andmarketing collateral integrate with the logo to create a formidable brand. Some examples of largest brands are; Apple, Nike, Marriott, Samsung, Amazon, McDonald, Google and many more (Marsden, 2016) Corporate Branding-Understanding the concept As the name speaks out in volume, corporate branding can be understood as promoting the companys name in lieu of the product it sells, the corporate entitys name overshadows the product and service offering of the company (Punjaisri Wilson, 2017). The purpose of corporate branding is to link the name of the company with the entire advertising efforts of IMC in the mind of consumer. Amazon is an example of successful corporate branding, as the name is synonymous with customer centric, assured timely delivery, quality products, great customer service and many more. People form a positive mind map when they hear of Amazon thus creating brand recognition with its consumers. Amazon has a much more powerful corporate brand than the products it sells on the website, giving air to the corporate branding (Tam, 2016) Importance of corporate branding in Marketing In the past as well in the present, many Brand names have been rolling onto the tongue of the consumers; the simple reason is because of a strong branding done by that organization. A company brand is something which combines the logo, slogan, colour, texture and with the right branding the company could be recognized without the name even being visible (Jukic, 2017) such is the extent of corporate branding. Corporate branding is useful to both small and large businesses; experts have classified the importance and reason for strong branding in 5 parameters: Identity Corporate branding is important as the logo and slogan of the company marks the identity of the business, and people can easily recognize the face of the company seeing the logo and the slogan. Strong corporate branding makes it possible for people to recognize the brand without the name being visible (Merrilees, 2016) Customer relations Customers find it really easy to relate with the brand, the brand recall is higher and also the brand advocacy. It is really easy building a loyal relationship with the customer if the company has a strong brand identity. Strong brand identity lays down the pillar for sustained growth (Keller, 2016) Professionalism Although the concept of brand is clear to all the organization, but at times companies find it hard to convey the purpose, meaning, mission, vision and values of the organization across people, thus unable to create a strong brand identity in front of the consumers. On the other hand, having a well created branding campaign will showcase the business as highly professional in its approach and create positive image in the mind of consumers. Professionalism does not limit itself to the consumers but it also applies to other companies with which the brand wants to engage in business. Signature of quality This is what Amazon has been doing since its inception, the company offers superior quality product with assured delivery and focus on its customers, and this in turn translates into Amazon being a brand which provides high quality product and reliable service to its customers. Thus, the brand name becomes a sign of quality for the consumers. Increasing valuation Strong corporate branding not only adds to the existing revenue of a business, but it also adds to the valuation of the company. Successful corporate branding ensures the valuation of the company rises, and if the company has to go forward with MA, the amount it will extract due to its corporate branding will be really huge. Helps in ROI Amazon is a perfect example of a company which has positioned its brand identity as a company which provides quality product and services and keeps its customers at the forefront of any business practise. Thus a strong corporate branding combined with equally great service and product offering helps in generating a good return on Investment. Thus, it can be said that corporate branding help the business by not just creating brand awareness, but it also helps the business in achieving a momentum, a momentum which is caused by the strength of its corporate image. Amazon has been doing this successfully over the last 24 odd years and people strongly relate to the brand. The company has surpassed all of its competitors in almost all the markets and is consistently doing service innovation so that people can remember Amazon as the biggest innovator and disrupter in the market. Avoids Misinterpretation A company which has established a strong corporate brand identity leaves no room whatever possible for vagueness. The employees of the company breathe in and out the companys values, vision, mission and its goals and thus project them confidently in any of the public or press interaction. Hence, corporate branding additionally helps in generate confidence among the workforce. Mind Map for Amazon As explained earlier, Amazon has created a strong brand name for itself and across the globe the company is recognized as the largest e-commerce service provider of quality goods and services. Mind map is a comprehensive tool, which permits the individual to map the brand according to his mind set. On hearing the brand name Amazon, people mostly recognize the company as: E-commerce company Largest provider of all the goods imagined Fastest delivery Customer centricity Low cost Jeff Bezos Excellent customer service Fast refunds Assured delivery These are some of the points which pop up in the mind of consumers on hearing the name Amazon. It can be thus said that corporate branding is a bigger umbrella under which the product branding takes shelter. For a product to sell in the market, the company has to ensure that the brand is already established for increased sales. Brand building is not an easy process, it takes lot of time, effort, strategy and the right mind set to create a brand. Corporate brand building-Different approaches of building a brand According to the management experts there are 7 schools of thoughts to build a brand, they are: The economic approach In this approach, the brand can be seen as a part of traditional marketing mix. According to the economic model approach, 4Ps of marketing mix are used in building the brand strategy. It can thus be seen as the most basic, functional and economic marketing type where the companies are competing against the product, price, place and promotion. In this approach of building a brand, social and economic points of view play a balancing role (Balmer Wang, 2016) The identity approach This can be seen as the most prevalent approach which the brand managers use while building corporate brand. According to this approach the brand is aligned with the mission, vision and business objectives of the organization and the same is reflected in its marketing strategy and promotions. It has a dual role to play, on one hand, consumer gets to know about the values, vision, mission and goals of the company and on the other hand, a corporate brand is being created on the side-lines of it.Amazon.com uses identity approach in building its brand image and keeps the product branding separate from the product branding. Amazon is riding high on its created image of customer centric firm in the market (Balmer, 2017) The consumer based approach In this type of brand building exercise, the brand is linked to the association it has with its customers. According to this approach, brand observes how the consumer interact with the brand, what are their requirement, what are the pain points, what excites them, what delights them, based on all these factors the corporate branding is done to have a better relevancy with the customers. The Personality based approach In this type of approach the brand is a human like character. This type of branding is done on product placements in movies, music, videos and other sport. A consumer when looks at his favourite human character interacting with a particular brand, he himself gets attracted towards that brand in a bid to resonate with their celebrity. The relational Approach This is an approach in which the brand is seen as the viable relationship partner. Companies due to the advent of digital marketing have been using personalized communication tools to interact with the audience. Audience gets easily connected through E-mail, highly targeted campaign and the events conducted for them. In this approach the brands also extract a lot of relevant information about the behaviour of the customer and thus further improve the marketing efforts to better suit the customer taste. The community approach As the name suggest, here the brand is built by focussing on the community. The brand in this case wants to be a part of a community or a social event. Audience on seeing a company interacting with society and doing something for the community automatically gets registered in their head, thus helping in creation of a brand The cultural approach As the name suggest this approach shows the brand as part of a broader cultural fabric. The approach here contains aspects of cultural consumption, it takes into consideration the leanings of the people in the past, as to what they have been wearing, which brands or shops do they visit to buy some particular thing and so on. But as an individual grows up, he does not wears the same clothes or visits the same store, because now his culture has changed. Hence, in the cultural approach of creating a brand, the brand focuses the attention on the changing world and the driving factors of the change. It also takes into consideration the trends which are influencing the change and accordingly sets the tone for brand building (Bargenda, 2015) These days though companies do not focus on one method of brand creation, they use a variety of approaches to target the customers. The pattern these days is shifting from economy and identity model to more radical cultural model of approach; however Amazon is still relying on the identity approach for brand creation. Co creation and stakeholder engagement Stakeholders of any business refer to all the people who are directly or indirectly associated with the business. This ideally involves employees, customers, and board of directors, management groups, media personnel, government bodies, advertising agencies, recruitment agencies and suppliers (Jones, Harrison Felps, 2018). Therefore, stakeholder engagement is very crucial for the success of any business and especially for the brand development of any organization. Stakeholders have a vital role to play in the success of any brand. The organization naturally puts efforts to ensure a high brand value for the firm but very often it is the efforts of the stakeholders that strengthen the brand value and reach (Mok, Shen Yang, 2015). The steps taken by the stakeholders in co creating the brand of Amazon are as below: Media Media channels and leading newspapers make a larger set of audience aware of the brand. Any recent development with the brand gets immediate media attention and the same news is spread across the different customers (Kohli, Suri Kapoor, 2015). Had the media not played an active role in building Amazon, it would have been very difficult for Amazon to have such a massive reach. This is an example of stakeholder co creating the brand with the organization Social media User generated content There are various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and recently even Snapchat. These platforms are fantastic tool for consumer s and the brand to connect with one another (Tuten Solomon, 2017). The companys brand image largely depends on what the company posts on these social media channels. However, the content posted by the users of the brand also has a massive reach and is often considered a more trustworthy source of information. Positive inputs from loyal Amazon customers help in co creating and enhancing the brand value of amazon. Stakeholder engagement theory Stakeholder theory or stakeholder engagement theory is an approach to understanding, identifying and dealing with all the stakeholders of the company. Stakeholder theory understands that all the people who are related to the business will be directly or indirectly affected by the decisions made in the business (Armstrong, Kotler, Harker Brennan, 2015). Stakeholders of the business have a crucial role to play in the success of any brand. Therefore for the success of any brand, it is important that stakeholders of the brand are engaged and take an active part in making the brand a success. There are several ways in which Amazon has ensured a high level of customer engagement Social media Social media marketing refers to the promotion of any product or service through social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and recently even Snapchat (Chaffey, 2016). Amazon has actively pursued social media marketing in order to reach out to its customers. Amazon has adopted effective social listening skills which makes the brand aware about what is being spoken about the brand across all the social media platforms. Amazon team also takes the efforts to reply to certain people who post their grievances on their social media accounts. Customer feedback Customer feedback is another way of ensuring stakeholder engagement. Amazon has a mobile application, a website and a customer helpline contact number. All three sources can be used by the consumers at any point of time in order to provide a positive or a negative feedback (Wang, Cavusoglu Deng, 2016). Amazon has worked at ensuring that the customers can reach them in a convenient manner and this is why all their online portals are very user friendly. Product reviews All the products that are sold on Amazon have customer reviews. This allows customers to make a better decision about their purchasing. If any product has severe negative reviews then the company even takes the product off completely. These reviews help customers engage with the brand as well as other customers of the brand. Event sponsorships Amazon also sponsors various events which often take place for charity which helps people connect with the brand. Sponsoring events where a large number of people gather help the brand convey its values to those people through a single space (Addis, Miniero Soscia, 2018). Training to delivery executives Amazon provides exclusive training to its delivery executives so that their behaviour, attitude, use of language and efficiency of service connects with the customers. A well spoken delivery executive quickly forms a connection with the customer he or she is delivering to. Therefore, all the Amazon delivery executives are mandated to be on their best behaviour while conducting deliveries of products across the world. Conclusion Branding is a highly important part of any business that exists today. Creating a brand involves patience, time, perseverance, innovation, hard work and stakeholder support. Businesses work towards ensuring that their brand name has a high reach and a positive positioning in the minds of the consumers (Wheeler, 2017). There are various strategies adopted by the leading companies of the world to ensure that their brand is well known as and has a wide reach of customers. Amazon, as a brand, has worked immensely hard in ensuring that the customers are truly satisfied and the brand is renowned across the globe. Amazons tactics have turned out well as the brand has a wide customer reach through different parts of the world. At the same time, Amazons positioning in the minds of its customers is very positive. Stakeholder engagement plays a crucial part in building a brand and ensuring that the brand has a high customer base through the globe. Stakeholders of the brand can contribute towards increasing brand reach and awareness through different sources. At the same time, Amazon continues to put various efforts to ensure that its stakeholders are engaged with the brand. Few of these strategies include social media marketing, getting user generated content on media, developing effective means of communications with customers and enabling flow of information. 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