Question

Select a company of your choice that has significant involvement in B2B Organisation Marketing. Identify a challenge that this company is encountering. Conduct a marketing research exercise of your choice that would provide specific answers, which would help to solve the company’s problem. Your choice must involve primary data collection and may be qualitative or quantitative in nature. Prepare a Report that Is approximately 1500 – 2000 words it should ncludes the following structure:

• Executive Summary

• Introduction and background

• Research Objectives

• Methodology

• Limitations

• Data analysis and findings

• Recommendations

• Conclusion

Answer 1

Introduction: E-Business or Electronic Business, is the administration of conducting business via the Internet. This would include the buying and selling of goods and services, along with providing technical or customer support through the Internet. e-Business is a term often used in conjunction with ecommerce, but includes services in addition to the sale of goods. Web marketing is a term of e business that can attract more people to one’s website, increase customers for one’s business, and enhance branding of a company and products. Today's top businesses are focusing more and more on an Internet marketing strategy. Effectively executed, an Internet marketing strategy offers:  Powerful opportunities to reach customers,  Unparalleled ROI  Clearly measurable results

Building blocks of E-business: Internet technology has played a critical role in the progress of e-business. Internet was launched in early 1960s. In 1989, CERN labs designed a new protocol for data distribution over internet which became known as the World Wide Web in 1991. Before the introduction of that protocol, internet access was only limited to research, government and military institutions and use of technology for conducting business transactions was very partial. The fact is clearly understandable from the discussion that internet and World Wide Web technology are building blocks of current e-business era (Bartels, 2000).

Requirements for an efficacious E-business: There are two basic elements that are required in successfully continuing an e-business. These are an e-business model and appropriate strategies to implement proposed actions. E-business model is defined as a description of links between a company‟s customers, suppliers and other relevant stakeholders, which identifies the flow of money, information and products, and values of the people who have a share in the organization. They also devised a diagramming technique called e-business model schematics to develop successful e-business models.

An overview of amazon: Amazon incorporation is an American international e-commerce company. It was started by Jeffrey P. Bezos in the year 1994. When many .com companies were not able to survive during the 90‟s, Amazon managed to survive and is successful now. It is the 11th most searched site around the world. it began as one of the first major companies to sell goods over the Internet Started as solely as an Online Bookstore Due to success diversified into many other product lines and services Multinational e- commerce company. By 1995, Amazon quickly became the world‟s top online book selling website. Two popular web portals (Yahoo! and Netscape) placed it in their featured website lists. Two business practices correlated with Amazons immediate scalable success, it was capable of adjusting to rapid demand of products while maintaining satisfied customers. Amazon created a supply chain based on wholesale relationships for inventory it did not have, acting as the middleman in the shipping process because it still only had its Seattle warehouse. With this logistical design, Bezos was able to ship to over 50 states and 45 countries in July of 1995. In July of 1996, Amazon released a new service; it‟s directed at innovating within their current customer base or exploiting the market for new ones. it launched their “Associates” program, allowing independent websites to receive commission revenue at 3-8% per sale. Specifically, this was performed by inline linking to Amazon titles and was one of their first vertically integrated moves. Amazon became a public company in May of 1997 with an initial public offering (IPO) of three million shares of common stock. By 1998, Amazon was fast becoming one of the world‟s leading Internet startups. They conducted business with over one and half million customers, reaching both the United States and 160 countries. Outstanding success as an e-commerce bookseller influenced the development of new services, products and additional markets to enter. Amazon posted a $3 million first quarter net profit in 2002, signifying the end of its internal recession. Operating as a lean cost cutting corporate culture led to their first annual profit in 2003 at $35.3 million. Stable financial growth soon followed and maintaining profitability these years rebooted Amazons business strategy of acquisitions and innovations. In 2005, the debut of the still popularized service “Amazon Prime”, a “shipping club” arrived. Shipping time was a decision criterion customers used when evaluating online ordering, and Amazon Prime wanted to close this gap, experiencing profitability with the service soon after. Amazon had now expanded their product categories far beyond books, offering apparel and electronics since the early 2000‟s. World‟s Largest online Retailer Amazon is the largest online retailer, according to the Wall Street Journal, selling $67.8 billion worth of products in 2013. The second largest, Apple, sold only $18.3 billion online in 2013.

Business Models of Amazon: Amazon has three distinct businesses, plus a slew of nascent enterprises and developing opportunities:

1. Amazon Retail Starting in books and then expanding into electrical and other goods, Amazon built an online retail business around three aims: I. Best prices: Amazon products are generally offered at a discount, a steep discount in the case of books. II. Unrivalled selection: Amazon often has the largest selection of goods in a particular category, especially books (outside S/H marketplaces like Abebooks.) III. Convenience: Amazon focus on the customer and try make purchasing an enjoyable experience, offering:  An attractive, easy-to-use customer interface (which evolved through many trials)  Fast and reliable delivery from vast, fully automated warehouses, first located in strategic spots in the US but increasingly worldwide.  A no-nonsense returns policy.  Reviews by customers of the product.  Purchase suggestions based on previous purchases and webpage viewing (an example of realtime systems).

2. Amazon Marketplace:  Amazon also offers a third-party selling platform, Amazon marketplace, that allows merchants to offer goods and services through an online shopping mall. Amazon charges a commission based on a formula involving the sale price of the item, a shipping credit, a referral fee of 6-25% of the sale price, a variable closing fee and a $0.99 fixed closing fee. This has now been augmented or replaced by four comparable services:  Sell on Amazon. Merchants pay $39.99 per month, plus a commission varying as above, generally between 15% and $1.35 per item.  Amazon Webstore. More complete service. Merchants pay $24 per month plus 2% of sales.  Checkout by Amazon. Similar to PayPal and Google Checkouts, but needs to integrated into shopping cart.  Fulfillment by Amazon. Allows merchants to use Amazon's advanced fulfillment technology.  The services are being expanded from USA, Canada, UK and Germany to other countries. Amazon does not release information on these businesses, either revenues or usage levels.

Customer of amazon incorporation: Amazon defines what it refers to as three consumer sets customers, seller customers and developer customers (including content creatos and enterprises). There are over 76 million customer accounts, but just 1.3 million active seller customers in its marketplaces and Amazon is seeking to increase this. Amazon is unusual for a retailer in that it identifies “developer customers” who use its Amazon Web Services, which provides access to technology infrastructure such as hosting that developers can use to develop their own web services. Members are also encouraged to join a loyalty programme, Amazon Prime, a fee-based membership program in which members receive free or discounted express shipping, in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan. Amazon Consumer Seller Enterprises Content Creator

3. Amazon Web Services: Amazon leveraged the technology it developed in retail to offer an increasing number of web services. Companies owned by Amazon Incorporation:

Marketing strategy of Amazon – Amazon marketing strategy: All of us know that Amazon is an online shopping forum and they bring the sellers and buyers together through this forum. The main aim that was behind this online portal of shopping was to make shopping easy, through this the customers can help the consumers choose and go for the product that they see online. This activity saves the hassle of traveling costs and saves time; because if you go to the shop choose and then get it then the price of the commodity is increased due to the additional travel cost. Amazon is a real-world experience for the consumers and the sellers both. The question here remains unanswered that what is the reason behind the successful business run by Amazon. All the business experts have a fair idea that it is the business strategy of the Amazon. The Amazon business strategy is stunning. The marketers know that Amazon has personalized its business strategy in a way that it attracts the majority of the consumers and makes it one of the top web sites being visited in the entire world.

1. Cost leadership strategy: A cost leadership strategy is where the price may be similar or usually lower than the competition, but costs are certainly lower. In Amazon‟s case, the core strategy is clearly more a cost leadership one when compared with bricks and mortar retailers. Amazon has massive warehousing facilities and processing capability, which give it physical economies of scale. That in turn gives it cost advantages. But in its service it is differentiated - so it is something of a hybrid.

2. Market segmentation: E-commerce giants like Amazon uses demographic & psychographics segmentation to segment the markets. Amazon‟s segmentation is based on actual purchase behavior: not what people might have expressed interest in, but what they actually did. Amazon‟s micro-level segmentation targets each customer individually, allowing the company to convert visitors into long-term, high-value customers. Customer segmentation often involves creating personas who will buy in a certain way & certain products. Similarly Amazon targets the middle class & upper class people who have got hands on experience in the basic technology but don‟t have time or prefer convenience over shopping from the physical outlets. Amazon has successfully positioned itself as a Glocal (Go global Act local) e-commerce giant where one can buy anything & get it delivered at any remote locations. Using the catchphrase #AurDikhao in its most recent campaign in India, it has further helped them carve a distinct space in the consumer‟s mind.

3. Generic Corporate Strategy: Concentranic diversification create value for customers by using their technology expertise. The lowest cost customer centric the market place. Founder of Amazon incorporation Bezos’ goal is to be a cost leader. so it is committed to levaraging amazaon’s core competecies in whatever ways they can find to realize the value of the company’s assets.

4. Web Marketing & Promotion Strategy: One of the reasons that customers are attracted to the website is the variety of products that are listed at the website; the provision of such a facility extends the limitations of the business. The business strategy of Amazon is simply to make buying easy by giving a user friendly and customer friendly forum for shopping. The websites interface is absolutely amazing and simple for anyone to use. One more business strategy by Amazon is to build a strong bond between the people who have designed the website and the people who use it. The acceptance of quality of products along with the provision of such a market to the masses makes the life easy for all those who want to shop while staying at home. To help the consumers with a shopping suggestion it would be a good idea to provide them with the views of the product being promoted on the website. It is amazing that most of the people rely on what the others tell them about the thing they are about to buy and one of the most important business factor is “the word of mouth”. This attracts the most strongly motivated customers who are willing to spend on the things from the shop and in the case Amazon; they are willing to buy from the web site. When it is about the website business strategy then it definitely is about the search engines optimizations. Business strategy of Amazon is definitely relying majorly on the concept of how their website can be ranked as one of the websites that are searched for most. Amazon makes sure that it targets the audience and then uses its own personal experience of business catering the needs of the customers that are well known to be beneficial for the business. Amazon hits the at the right target as it pulls the trigger of the business strategy of making the website with a variety of pages so that it is searched by the majority of the consumers for one product or the other. The search engine optimization is a business strategy for Amazon because it gives the website an opportunity to provide visual offer to treat for the product online this way the customers have to an option of buying from Amazon. Efficient business based on the concept of search engine optimization will need a strong background with a well build and well organized website. Now the idea is to focus on how Amazon‟s business strategy works, it works on the basis how well build the websites individual pages are and how those pages are indexed. The organization of the web pages will increase the opportunity to find Amazon while they are looking for products online. The visual impacts of the web site leave a major effect on the consumer‟s mind and then n turn the choices of the consumer of the product to buy. The layout of the entire website has the same impact on the consumer as the packaging of a commodity has on the consumers. One of the Amazon‟s business strategies is the well organization of the website. In addition, the colour and the well-designed web pages attract the maximum customers.

5. Global Branding Strategy: The company also manages to engage a number of partners and businesses for the global branding strategy for the web site to flourish as the online web market. This also is based on how the Amazon is affiliated with the industry and the people it works with for the development of their global business.

6. Pricing and Business strategy: The Amazon works with a well-developed business plan that includes the business strategies of the company specifically designed for the customers so that they not only make the most of the website themselves but also provide benefit for the company itself. It makes sure that like all the other markets this online market also earns them the maximum profit through not just the advertising strategies or the pricing strategies but also from the business strategies. Amazon not just carter to a specific kind of consumer but it also has to look upon the customers from a global point of view. Amazon‟s position is strengthened when it is known as a global bookstore that provides the variety throughout the world to all kinds of customers. The pricing and the business strategy redefines the Amazon‟s business plan comprehensively.

Marketing mix of Amazon: Amazon is one of the world‟s biggest online retailers, selling a vast array of goods such as books, music, games, clothes and movies. As of 2013, Amazon employs 117, 300 members of staff, and has a global net revenue of 74.45 billion US dollars. Since its conception in 1995, Amazon has outgrown several competitors in its field, and has gone on to become a market leader, and has around 240 million customer accounts worldwide. Amazon has used careful investment and acquisition of other smaller companies to enable itself to stay ahead in its field, and continues to expand its product range, whilst offering competitive prices to customers, and faster deliveries to those who choose to sign up for its various account packages. In July 2013, Amazon launched its services in India, choosing not to employ an advertising campaign. The site is ranked as the 27th most popular in India, with around 4.2% of all Amazon customers coming from this country. The company is doing well here, and this Indian venture is part of a bigger effort to offer its services to a wider range of people in Asia. Amazon is an international ecommerce company, using connections to the internet from various gadgets such as phones and tablets, to allow its customers to browse and purchase products immediately. These products are then delivered to the customer, using delivery service companies. Amazon has built up a huge product base, and sells almost everything, including: ; Kindle ; Books ; DVDs ;  Mobile phones/tablets; Gaming consoles and games ; Clothes for men/women and children ; Jewellery ; Gardening equipment

Place in the marketing mix of Amazon: In the recent past, sites such as indiaplaza and allshcoolstuff were forced to close due to the lack of trust when buying goods online. However, the brand image of Amazon enables it to have a far and wide presence and the bottom line of the company is enough to enable massive R&D efforts to secure the website. Amazon has customer service bases in many of the countries where it has an online presence, with most bases being located in the different states of the USA. Amazon employees are friendly and relaxed.

Promotion in the marketing mix of Amazon: While Amazon has broadcast television commercials, these are mostly in the American market. Amazon uses mainly web based advertising, and they make some use of billboard and smaller methods of advertising. Amazon also uses advertising networks online so that whenever you check something on amazon, you will see an ad for the same thing somewhere else on some other website. Search engine marketing and getting the company‟s name high up the search engine‟s results is also a smart promotional strategy by Amazon. The founder of Amazon had this in mind when creating the company, deciding that it should start with an „a‟. In India, Amazon can be seen to rely on the best source of promotion there is – word of mouth. People telling others about the site, or mentioning it in a positive way is a sure way to have a new future customer. However, there are several print media ads to make their presence felt to the people. However, much more is needed in the promotions department from Amazon in India because the traffic of Amazon is being taken over fast by Flipkart.

Price in the marketing mix of Amazon: Amazon is competitive with its prices, and has little ways of staying ahead of its market contemporaries. For example, if you are looking to buy a book, Amazon offers you a new copy, or a used copy as well, complete with pricing and condition. Another initiative is to pay to have a premium account, ensuring faster deliveries. Amazon can also keep their prices competitive due to their use of staff. Minimum numbers – but well trained – ensure that consumers benefit from the lack of overheads, and the result is shown in the prices online.

SWOT analysis of Amazon – Amazon SWOT analysis:

Strengths in the SWOT analysis of Amazon: 1. Strong background and deep pockets – Built on its early successes with books, Amazon now has product categories that include electronics, toys, games, home and kitchen, white goods, brown goods and much more. Amazon has evolved as a global Ecommerce giant in the last 2 decades. 2. Customer centric: Company‟s robust CRM has created customer centric processes in order to carefully record data on customer‟s buying behavior. This enables them to offer individual items, related items or bundle them as an offer, based upon preferences demonstrated through purchases or items visited. Also, the company claims that 55% of their customers are repeat buyers resulting in low cost of acquisition of new buyers. 3. Cost leadership: In order to differentiate itself, company has created several strategic alliances with other companies to offer superior customer service. The most important strategic tie ups are with logistics provides who control costs. Because of playing on economies of scale, Amazon is able to lower the inventory replenishment time. 4. Efficient delivery network: With its strategic partners & due to its Amazon fulfilment centers, Amazon has created a deep & structured network in order to make the product available even at remote locations. It also has free of cost delivery charges in certain geographies. 5. GLOCAL strategy: By using the strategy of “Go global & act local”, Amazon is able to fight with domestic E-commerce companies through absorbing & by forming / partnering with supply chain companies. The branding too is done as per local taste. For example- In India, Amazon is currently using the “Aur Dikhao” campaign to encourage users to browse more of their products. 6. Acquisitions: Acquiring companies like Zappos.com, Junglee.com, IMBD.com, woot.com etc. has proven to be a successful and revenue generating step for the E commerce giant.

Weaknesses in the SWOT analysis of Amazon: 1. Shrinking margins: Due to extensive delivery network & price wars Amazons margins are shrinking, which is resulting in even losses. In India, Amazon had a loss of $359 CRS in the year 2013-14. 2. Tax Avoidance issue: Amazon has attracted negative publicity on account of Tax Avoidance in countries like U.S & UK. Most of its revenue is generated from these well established markets. 3. High Debt: In many developing nations Amazon is still struggling to make the business profitable thereby affecting the overall profitability of the group resulting into High debt. 4. Product flops – Amazon launched the fire phone in the US which was a big flop. At the same time, Kindle fire did not pick up as strongly as Kindle did. Thus, there were several product flops which caused a dent in Amazon‟s deep pockets.

Opportunities in the SWOT analysis of Amazon: 1. Backward Integration: Amazon can come up with its In-house brands in different product categories. They can also differentiate their offering. This will help them make profits in highly competitive E-commerce market. 2. Global Expansion: Expansion mainly in Asian & developing economies will help Amazon because those are the markets with low competition in E-commerce industries & are not saturated like developed economies. 3. Acquisitions: By acquiring E-commerce companies it can decrease the competition level & also can use the specialized capacity of the other company. 4. Opening physical stores outside U.S: By doing this Amazon can help the customers to engage with the brand, resulting in increase in repeat purchases & increase in loyal customer base.

Threats in the SWOT analysis of Amazon: 1. Low entry barriers of the industry: Low entry barriers affect the current player‟s business as more & more company means tough competition, price wars, shrinking margins & losses resulting into questioning the sustainability of the players. 2. Government regulations: Not having clarity on the issues related to FDI in multi brand retail, has been a big hurdle in the success of the E-commerce players in many developing nations. 3. Local competition – India has snapdeal and Flipkart who are local E commerce retailers and are taking away majority of the market. Similarly, there are many local players who take bites from the market share thereby making it hard for a big player like Amazon to make profits.

Amazon's Sustainable Competitive Advantage:

The company has built up a size and scale that makes it very hard to compete with. Amazon.com so thoroughly dominates the online retail world in the United States that no pure digital competitor would have a chance at knocking it off its throne. It might be possible for a well-funded niche retailer to nibble at the edges of the online giant by doing one thing really well, but the idea that anyone would attempt to directly compete seems silly. Amazon not only has the ability to offer the lowest prices (though it does not always use it). It also has a well-developed delivery network with warehouses dotting the country. Those regional fulfillment centers -- which were and continue to be a massive investment for the retailer -- allow the company to cut shipping costs. Add in the fact that Amazon owns its own robot company and has deployed non-human workers in its warehouses and the retailer has a host of advantages that would be very tough to duplicate. The online retailer has one last advantage that gives it an almost insurmountable edge over its competitors and any would be challengers -- its massive number of users with credit cards on file. It's not impossible to compete with Amazon -- Apple or Wal-Mart could in some areas -- but the digital leader has a combination of sustainable competitive advantages that make it very hard to compete with. Let's break them down and look at why it's the way each edge the company has built works together than keep competitors at bay more so than any one on its own.

Pricing is a deterrent: Amazon has achieved such a massive scale that it gets the best prices possible from its vendors. Wal-Mart gets the same thing as do a handful of other retailers in select areas, but the amount paid to manufacturers is not the only factor in setting prices. Physical retailers price their goods based on a higher cost structure than a pure digital store. WalMart has actual stores and those stores cost more money than shipping warehouses. Of course, it's possible for physical retailers to charge less online but that can anger in-store customers. Amazon can operate on razor-thin margins and still make money on the transaction. Physical retailers can't do that and if they drop prices online they risk cannibalizing their own sales and driving margin down while having all the same overhead costs.

Amazon has shipping down: Because it has no physical stores, Amazon has optimized its efficiency in the delivery business. This includes warehouses strategically dotted around the country and the aforementioned robots. The company also has highly advanced software that helps it set inventory levels and even begin packing orders based on predictive algorithms. Amazon also has progressive deals with the United States Postal Service and UPS that give it a shipping edge. It's possible that a competitor could make similar arrangements and the biggest retailers might match the company's warehouse network, but it's very difficult, if not impossible, for a competitor to match all of the shipping advantages Amazon has built itself over time

Conclusion: This paper explained the e-business strategy and e-business model that have been used by Amazon incorporation is offering its Retail Online goods and services to its customers. Based on the evaluation, it is very clear that the e-business strategy is complementing the e-business model used. The new business platform is something else, a web marketing strategy that amazon has used and succeeded.