Background
Amazon is a well-known online retail giant that provides products and services to customers and third-party sellers across the globe. It was established in 1995 by Jeff Bezos as an online book retailer (Bidkar, 2019). However, the company now sells various products and provides a platform for sellers. Amazon’s goal is to become the best place to purchase and find products and services online. Its strength is to provide quality products and services at a price lower than its competitors in the market. In addition, the company uses a focus strategy on customer experience. The company is also using social responsibility to foster a positive relationship with the community. For example, Amazon is donating to welfare programs to solve social problems like poverty. In marketing, the company is investing a lot of money in advertisement to communicate with its customers.
The Relationship Between the Marketing Plan and Strategic Objectives
Amazon uses focus strategy to target customers which in turn serves the market.
Table 1: The Impact of Marketing Techniques On Strategy and Marketing Plan
Amazon uses content, diversity, relationship and mass marketing to make its marketing plan effective.
Table 2: The Impacts of Marketing Techniques On Marketing Plan
Determine Marketing Methodologies and Approaches That Contribute to A Marketing Plan
There are several marketing methodologies that play an integral role in the development of a marketing plan. The methodologies include marketing research approach, societal research and selling approach.
Marketing Research Approach
Marketing research approach provide insights used in the development of marketing plan. The approach brings to the forefront the principle of having the upper hand and making unrivaled contributions (McDaniel Jr and Gates, 2018). In this manner, organizations invest in procedures that provide them with information about what the purchaser requires prior to developing a product. As a result, Amazon conducts market research to understand its customers’ needs and desires better. As the world’s most successful online retailer, Amazon uses its brand name to attract potential customers’ attention. Aside from that, to better meet the needs of their customers than their competitors, they offer competitive prices to their customers and run various marketing campaigns that aid in capturing their attention.
Societal Approach
The societal approach ensures that marketing plan covers aspects that directly benefits the society. In this approach, an organization is supposed to develop a marketing strategy that provides value to customers to maintain and improve both the customers’ and society’s well-being better than competitors (Bala and Verma, 2018). For example, Amazon has been giving back to the community in various ways since its inception. The company’s philanthropic involvement is divided into computer science and STEM education, hunger and homelessness assistance, and disaster relief. For example, as shown in the figure below, Amazon donates $10,000 to Tarrant area food bank to fight hunger (Local News Only, 2018). Therefore, the societal marking approach enables Amazon to foster a good relationship with the community.
Selling Approach
The selling approach enables marketing plan to address the needs of sellers. The selling approach is a concept that majors on the sellers’ needs and impacts a marketing plan. The approach affirms that purchasers should be influenced to purchase the items on offer through special promotions (Wall and Spinuzzi, 2018). The focal point of this concept is geared toward converting products into money for the organization. Because Amazon’s customers are from across the globe, it is making efforts to increase overall sales, which directly impacts the organization’s marketing planning. The approach’s main objective is to get the customers to what the company is selling. It pushes the products to customers and ensures that they purchase them. For example, its customers can visit the website and purchase any products. As a result, the selling approach promotes the sales of products to customers.
The Risk Associated with The Marketing Plan
The risks associated with the marketing plan are pricing, trends and regulations, target market, and promotion.
Table 3: The Assessment of Risks
The risks identified and assessed can be addressed using various strategies. To mitigate the impact of the risks, the company should consider the following plan.
Table 4: Contingency plan to address the risks
A Strategic Marketing Plan
The Components of a Marketing Plan
The marketing plan consist of a marketing goals, market research, analysis of competitors and marketing plan strategies.
Market Research
Market research is the foundation of the marketing plan because the marketing strategies to be used relies on its accuracy. Performing market research is crucial, whether when it comes to running a business (McDaniel Jr and Gates, 2018). This helps determine consumer purchasing behaviors in the sector, market size, market growth or decline, and any current business trends. It also assists in determining business opportunities, create relevant promotions and business objectives. With a perfect information of the market, marketing managers and the team can come up with strategies to improve sales. Therefore, market research plays an integral role in the development of a marketing plan.
Competitors
A good understanding of competitors in the market is essential for developing a marketing plan. Amazon’s main competitors in the e-business sector are Wal-Mart, eBay, and Alibaba (Wu and Gereffi, 2018). Although Walmart is best known for its physical department stores and is the undisputed king of brick-and-mortar retail, Amazon is the undisputed king of the internet. As shown in the figure below, eBay is second to Amazon in terms of market share. Amazon leads with a market share of 56%, eBay has 29%, and Wal-Mart has 10% (Inci, 2022). Therefore, while analyzing the competition, the organization can exploit any competitors’ flaws in the market.
Market Plan Strategies
Marketing strategy is an important component of marketing plan because it shows how the organization delivers products to customers. The marketing strategies used by Amazon was found to be effective in achieving its goals (Jain, 2019). A marketing strategy is an important plan developed specifically for the purpose of achieving an organization’s marketing objectives (Kotler et al., 2019). It lays out a strategy for achieving these marketing objectives. It is the foundation of a marketing strategy. It is the result of extensive market research. Therefore, a marketing strategy enables Amazon to focus its limited resources on the most lucrative opportunities in order to increase sales.
Marketing Goals
Marketing goals are like a guide to the marketing plan used by an organization. According to Chaffey and Smith (2017), a marketing plan provides detailed goals that a company wants to achieve through its marketing strategy and efforts. It includes making people aware of your brand, establishing thought leadership, getting marketing qualified leads, enhancing brand involvement, and increasing the quality and quantity of leads. For example, as shown in the figure below, Amazon wants to keep improving its brand, customer base, and e-commerce skills to become the world’s favorite online shopping site (Buckland, 2019). As a result, marketing goals are a crucial component of marketing because they provide the purpose of marketing.
Mitigation Strategies for High-Risk Components of the Plan
Some of the high-risk components of the plan that should be mitigated are marketing research, competition and market budget.
Marketing Research
Marketing research is one of the high-risk components of a marketing plan because it affects the reliability of the result. For example, the company may fail to take advantage of growing economy of Saudi Arabia. The increased business activities and added value of oil is likely to boast the economy of the country (Esmail, 2018). As a result, the failure to conduct market research has an adverse impact on an organization’s performance. It makes the organization perform poorly in the market (McDaniel Jr and Gates, 2018). The risk can be reduced by comparing the result of research conducted by RTi Research and Edelman Intelligence on Saudi Arabia. Therefore, the organization should ensure that marketing is performed effectively in the market by a reliable team.
Competition
Competition is a possible risk because the operations of a competitor in the market can adversely affect the operations of Amazon. The competitors can use prices of products to make the market unfavorable to Amazon. To mitigate this risk, if a rival lowers the prices of their products, the marketing and finance managers have a room to devise a new pricing policy to address the issue without incurring a loss to the company. The organization should use the information obtained from market research to make effective pricing decision (McDaniel Jr and Gates, 2018). Thus, to overcome the impact of competitors in the market, the organization should focus on maximizing its strengths.
Market Plan Strategy
The market plan strategy should achieve marking goals such as Amazon maintain its position as a market leader in e-business. This is a techniques used to achieve the marking goals of Amazon. The success of the organization and marketing department depends on the effectiveness of the strategy (Nwabueze and Mileski, 2018). However, it becomes an issue when the market plan strategy fails to achieve the intended purpose. This risk can be mitigated by making sure that only appropriate strategies are adopted. As a result, marketing managers should strive to ensure that marketing plan strategy are effectively developed.
A Marketing Plan
The marketing plan determines the marketing goals, target market, price, competitors, and how the company will measure its effort.
Marketing Goals
Amazon’s success is attributed to its singular focus and mission. The founder of the company, Jeff Bezos, has maintained that the company’s mission statement is what drives him when he makes decisions as a leader (Bidkar, 2019). This means that Amazon’s success as the world’s top online retailer is due to their constant focus on this mission and how they carry it out every day, making them the best. The company’s mission statement is “to serve consumers through online and physical stores and focus on selection, price, and convenience” (Rashid, 2022). The statement provides direction to everyone in the organization to achieve its objectives. For example, Amazon has focused its operations on adding value to customers. Therefore, one of the goals of Amazon is to ensure that the needs of customers are considered.
Amazon wants to be the best place to buy, find, and learn about any product or service. The firm intends to keep improving and expanding its brand, customer base, and expertise in online shopping to become the world’s favorite place to shop online (Bidkar, 2019). Amazon has used many different ways to reach this goal. Tests in Seattle, Washington, have been going on for five years, and now Amazon Fresh has been added to cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco. In addition, the company has teamed up with local businesses to offer the same easy home delivery on a wide range of ready-to-eat foods. Thus, the main purpose of Amazon is to provide a conducive platform for its customers.
Marketing Research
SWOT analysis is one of the tools used to understand the internal and external environment of a business.
Table 5: Amazon’s SWOT Analysis
Amazon will use the information from SWOT to improve its operations and achieve a competitive advantage. Firstly, the company should maximize its strengths and use the existing opportunities. For instance, it should use its strong brand image to attract more customers to the market (Alshmrani, 2021). They should also consider expanding their stores to attract customers who prefer shopping through physical stores. Secondly, the company should eliminate the weaknesses and threats they experience in the market. For example, they should address issues of unfavorable working environment because it adversely impacts its reputation. They should also assure customers that their personal information such as card numbers to purchase products is safe. As a result, acting on the information from SWOT analysis is integral in achieving the marketing goal.
Marketing strategy
Executive Summary: this market plan is consistent with Amazon’s strategic goal of increasing the current market share from 50% to 60% in two years.
Aim: by implementing this market plan, Amazon intends to tap into market segments like Saudi Arabia and incoming markets.
Marketing Objectives: increase the number of customers served from 300 to 400 in the first year, followed by an additional 400 in the second year to reach 440 million.
Strategy: maintain focused strategy to ensure that customer needs are met.
The key points of marketing action plan
The online sales’ visits on Amazon websites should be used to determine its performance.
Understand competitors
Competition is the rivalry between organizations operating in the same industry to attain revenue, profit, and market share growth. For Amazon to do well in the market, they should try to learn more about their competitors, like their strengths and weaknesses. The best way to stay competitive in the market is to know their competitors and stay updated on their products and services. This is important for any business to remain relevant in the market. For example, Alibaba is one of the competitors in the e-business sector (Erne, 2019). The competitor integrates new technologies through mobile applications to reach out to more customers. To counter rivals’ impact in the market, Amazon should increase its customer experience. Therefore, Amazon understands the intense competition in e-commerce.
Competitor analysis plays an integral role in marketing plan. It provides vital information about competitors in the market.
Table 6: Competitors’ Analysis
Marketing mix is an important aspect in marketing plan as it provides information on the product, price, promotion and place.
Table 7: Amazon’s Marketing Mix
Target Market
Amazon wants to sell to individuals who have internet access and money to pay for things, like a credit card, debit card, and more. The company does not just work with people in the US it has expanded its reach to include people who shop online across the globe. Research indicates that people over the age of 40 are more likely to use the company’s Prime service than people under 40 years of age. Because younger people do not have as much money as older people, they do not have as much power to buy things. In addition, younger people may be busy at work, while older people are more relaxed and have more time to do other things. As a result, people who are older like to use Amazon Prime more than young people like to use it more.
Market segmentation helps an organization to understand the target market.
Figure 8: Amazon’s Market Segmentation
Budget projection
The proposed plan for year 1:
- Amazon’s projected global market share: 60%
- The projected number of active customers served: 400 million
- The projected number of active sellers: 1.5 million
Revenue projected shows what revenue Amazon is expected to collect.
Table 9: Revenue Projected
Expenses projected covers areas where Amazon is likely to spend when marketing its products in the market.
Table 10: Expenses Projected
The proposed plan for year 2:
- Revenue projected shows what revenue Amazon is expected to collect.
Table 11: Revenue Projected
Expenses projected covers areas where Amazon is likely to spend when marketing its products in the market.
Table 12: Expenses Projected
Monitoring of The Marketing Plan Results
Promote The Marketing Plan in Support of Strategic Objectives
The Plan Supports Strategic Objectives
The company’s marketing plan is designed to attain a market share of 60%. The strategy is to target potential customers in the market, which Amazon was not serving. Currently, the company’s target market is middle and upper-class consumers with computers or smart devices aged between 25 to 50 years. However, the marketing plan proposes a target market of 18 to 60 years. In addition, the plan extended the age bracket by six years to make sure that the company maximizes the old population. Due to the advancement of technology, the number of the elderly using smart devices has increased tremendously. Therefore, with the adjustment in the age limit of target customers, the organization will be able to increase the number of customers being served.
The marketing plan also proposes a focus on social media marketing to reach customers. Social media networks are open to the public, enabling companies to monitor their customers’ or prospective buyers’ operations. This enables marketers to understand better their target audience’s preferences, dislikes, and interests, enabling them to craft a more effective marketing strategy to attract such consumers. In addition, learning these patterns allows Amazon to focus on the things they are not paying attention to when designing content for the page, assisting them in becoming better at digital marketing strategies for attracting the right customers and meeting their demands. As a result, social media use helps achieve the strategic objective of increasing customer experience.
Moreover, the marketing plan also intends to ensure that the organization performs effectively in the market. From the SWOT analysis, Amazon’s strengths and weaknesses were identified. The proposes maximization of strengths and reduction of weaknesses. They will consider expanding their store locations to attract customers who prefer to shop in person. Second, the company will eliminate the market’s vulnerabilities and threats. They will address issues of an unfavorable working environment because they have a negative impact on the company’s reputation. Customers will also be assured that their personal information is secure, such as credit card numbers used to purchase products. The purpose of the marketing plan is to increase the organization’s reputation.
The Approach to Gain Agreement for The Marketing Plan
Stakeholder agreement is integral in the adoption of a marketing plan. An agreement for the marketing plan can be reached to aid in changing the firm’s methods and actions to achieve its strategic objectives. For example, the marketing head of Amazon initiates the company’s market plan with additional input from the company’s stakeholders. In addition, the marketing manager incorporates feedback from stakeholders. The manager can take feedback from stakeholders are the CEO, general manager, research and development manager, finance manager, human resource manager, information technology manager, customer care support manager, and project manager. An agreement with these stakeholders impacts the implementation of the marketing plan.
The stakeholders are classified in the order of priority based on their interests and influence. The first classification area of the stakeholder is a high priority. The stakeholders in this category have high interest and influence. The second classification is of the stakeholders is a medium priority. The stakeholder in this group has low interest and high interest in implementing the plan. The third category of stakeholder is a low priority in adopting the plan. The stakeholders in this group have low interest and low priority. Therefore, the classification of the stakeholders according to their interests and influence has an impact on the adoption of the marketing plan.
For the market plan to be accepted, the stakeholders should be involved effectively through regular communication depending on their priority and interest.
Table 13: Stakeholder Engagement
Monitoring of The Marketing Plan Results
The marketing plan’s success necessitates a more sophisticated and detailed business analysis. The performance indicators and metrics must be defined and evaluated. Feedback, data acquisition and analysis, and results assessment will evaluate the marketing plan. Firstly, the market share is expected to increase from 50% to 60%. This will ensure the achievement of Amazon’s financial objectives and high reputation in the market. The second measure for the agreed plan is customer satisfaction. Customer feedback about customer service offered and the quality of products should be positive. In addition, the number of active customers is expected to increase to 400 million in the first year of implementing the marketing plan. The third measure is employee satisfaction level. A survey will be conducted to measure the satisfaction level of employees. Therefore, the different performance measures determine the marketing plan’s effectiveness.
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