Amazon's Marketing Leadership
by Miki Saxon
Yesterday I shared quotes from Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos that focused on entrepreneurial topics, especially stock and its price.
Today, we’re going to look at Bezos’ vision for Amazon marketing.
Let’s start with what you thought of the last Amazon ad you saw. You’re probably scratching your head and thinking that it wasn’t very good, since you don’t remember it.
There’s nothing wrong with your memory or the ad, for that matter, because there was no ad.
That’s right, no giant ad budget, no super-size presence at tradeshows, no typical corporate marketing.
“Instead of shelling out big bucks for lavish trade shows and TV and magazine ads, Amazon pours money into technology for its Web site, distribution capability, and good deals on shipping. … “It is pretty unprecedented that their brand has ascended so quickly without a large marketing budget,” says Hayes Roth, chief marketing officer at brand consultant Landor Associates. “It’s not about splaying their logo everywhere. They are all about ease of use.”
Amazon has done well in the recession for the very reasons that Wall Street lambasted them after the dot com bubble burst.
Wall Street wanted short-term profits, while Bezos focused on the long-term.
When I was looking for yesterday’s quotes, I also found these two and they say it all.
“If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.”
There are two kinds of companies, those that work to try to charge more and those that work to charge less. We will be the second.”
It takes enormous strength of character to stay focused on the future when investors are pounding on you to focus on immediate returns.
Too many CEOs sell their company’s future by focusing on keeping investors, analysts and the media happy in the short-term.
Your comments—priceless
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Image credit: TimYang.net on flickr
September 29th, 2009 at 6:10 am
Damn, it’s really hard to argue with Jeff Bezos. He started Amazon way back when the internet was otherwordly to most of us, and nobody ever heard of buying books by email.
The dot-com bubble burst, and a great deal of stuff has happened, but Amazon has been an Amazon throughi it all!
The comments about the seductivity of short-term gains are right on the money- and, nonethleess, Bezos’ vision of what Amazon could become appear to be being fulfilled.
I’m impressed by his abiility to stay focused on his vision, and implement it to maintain leadership. That’s a great CEO, doing his job.
Craig Jennings
September 29th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Hi Craig, who wants to argue? Bezos refusing to roll over an play the Wall Street game put Amazon where it is today—few CEOs have the guts and even fewer Boards.
American business will have a hard time rebuilding and prospering as long as it is forced to kow-tow to Wall Street quarterly thinking.
Thanks for taking time to add your thoughts to the conversation!