Midterm Case study

Strategic marketing
Amazon eyes online sales boost through ‘Fire’ smartphone

Represented to: Dr. Moshira Gamil

Represented by: Nada Eldek
ID: 22211038079
:Introduction
In a market dominated by Apple and Samsung, Amazon announced the debut of the Fire phone.
Just as it did with the Kindle Fire, Amazon has thrown its hat in the ring with the bigger players
in an existing market, hoping that small differences in features, pricing, and service will drive
success for the brand. On the technical side, the Fire phone boasts a 4.7 inch 3-D display, 2.2
GHz quad-core processor, 13 MP rear facing camera, and 2 GB of RAM. That's some powerful
technology, but is it game-changing? The features of the device seem to be a key differentiator,
with the new Dynamic Perspective and Firefly systems positioned as major advantages over
competitive operating systems. It remains to be seen if these "innovations" are disruptive enough
.to give Amazon a foothold among the strong players in this space

Q1: What is driving Amazon’s entry into the smartphone market? is it an ego trip
Q2: How does it fit in Amazons vision to be earths most customer centric company to build
a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy
?online
Q3: what is strategic focus does the move signify? What alternatives are open to amazon
?and how could amazon pursue them

:For effective strategic planning we must answer below questions

?What is the business doing now
.Amazon expand its successful in its application, website and storage (aws)
?What is happening in the environment
The case study mentioned that smart phones market is sales slow and users are reluctant to
switch from familiar brands and operating systems
?What should the business be doing
We must deliver something that's valuable to consumers and also make high profit on the
.long term

For any strategy to be effective it needs to be well tuned both to the needs and requirements of
customers (the market conditions in which it is implemented), and to the resources and
.capabilities of the firm seeking to implement it
Fire smart phone is fit to Amazon marketing strategy from their opinion as they thought that
from market requirements, I have to be present in everything related to my field, even if it is on a
.larger scale
Also, the variety of products and services they provide, and they also noticed that there was an
opportunity that had not happened before as the case study mentioned “What we saw was an
opportunity to prove some new capabilities that really hadn’t been done before in premium
smartphones,” says Ian Freed, Amazon’s vice-president for the Fire phone. “We’ve seen
”.innovation stagnate a bit over the past two to three years
From my point of view, I think marketing strategy wasn't suited to market needs as there was no
.need to more brands in smart phones market
Amazon created a need to online shopping and services and how to convince the customer that
he needs Amazon all the time, as evidenced by the fact that there are many people who subscribe
.for Amazon Prime
So, the customer needs to have a phone which had all the features of Amazon and free Prime for
.one year as mentioned
About organization resources, case study didn't mention anything about it but they made a
.grateful success in Kindle e-reader tab so they can produce the fire phone
.So, it was an ego trip as their marketing strategy wasn't adapt to market needs and requirements
Defining the business purpose or mission requires the company to ask the fundamental
:questions
?What business are we in
E-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence
?What business do we want to be in
Smart phones market
Strategic intent: Vision need not be as competitive, Amazons' vision to be earths most customer
centric company to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they
.might want to buy online
They thought that if they produce the fire phone, that will serve their strategic intent but I think
this wasn't correct as you already have many consumers use your platforms without your smart
.phone, so you have to find out how to be dominated in search engine all over the world
Company values: Amazon hold itself accountable for demonstrating the Leadership Principles
through its actions every day. Also, its Leadership Principles describe how Amazon does
business, how leaders lead, and how it keeps the customer at the center of its decisions. Unique
Amazon culture, described by their Leadership Principles, helps them relentlessly pursue their
mission of being Earth’s most customer-centric company, best employer, and safest place to
.work
:Distinctive competencies of the organization
It should be articulated, clearly stating what differentiates the organization from others of its kind
.– what is the distinctive essence of the organization
To realize its mission of being “earth’s most customer-centric company,” Amazon cultivates
distinctive competencies that create excellent customer experiences, such as fast delivery and
superior customer service. In addition, the company’s distribution and workforce are also
.distinctive competencies
Market definition: in terms of major customer targets that the organization seeks to serve and
the functions or needs of those customers that will be served. Amazon needs to compete with
Microsoft through storage services and also compete with Google in search engines, as
mentioned in the case study "Amazon also controls a global network of warehouses, one of the
world’s largest commercial cloud storage operations, and has access to a growing catalogue of
."digital music, movies and films

Competitive positioning: the mission should spell out where the organization is, or intends to
be, positioned in the marketplace. This is the result of bringing together market definition and
distinctive skills and competencies. As mentioned in the case study, they try to differentiate
themselves through provide a lot of services " With Firefly, a user can point the phone’s camera
at anything from a book to a shaker of salt or a poster and either extract and save information –
such as an email address – or navigate directly to a product page on Amazon to buy it" Also,
provide Amazon Prime membership for free worth $99, allowing unlimited free shipping and a catalogue
of digital music, movies and television shows. Users can store in Amazon’s cloud an unlimited number of
.photos that they take with the device

The marketing strategy process

After we create our mission (Business purpose) to be Earth’s most customer-centric company,
.best employer, and safest place to work, we are going to create the marketing strategy
We can view the development of marketing strategy at three main levels: the establishment of a
core strategy, the creation of the company’s competitive positioning, and the implementation of
.the strategy
Establishing the core strategy
The core strategy of Amazon consists of focusing on investing in technologies, enhancing its
logistics applications, improving its web services by fulfillment capacity, M&A strategy, R&D
.activities in logistics, experimenting with Fintech, and securing its inventions using patents
Analysis of organizational resources: create a long list of the resources and weaknesses it has at
.its disposal
:Strengths
1. Firefly operating system
2. Amazon prime services (Prime users are more lucrative for Amazon than regular)
3. Successful of Kindle e-reader tab which mean that I have qualified Human resources
4. AT&T contract
5. Fast delivery
6. Superior customer service
7. Amazon has successfully built strong brand equity 
Weaknesses:
1. Entry into the phone market is tough to crack
2. Price is very high without a contract, it costs $649.
3. There isn’t a clearly defined unique customer segment
:Analysis of the markets served
:Opportunities
1. Not enough innovation in a market that brings out new features on a daily basis
2. Substantial market
3. Increasing physical presence of the brand
:Threats
1. What may have worked with books won’t work with communications, especially in an
already crowded market
2. Apple and Samsung have established strong brand and product leadership
3. Difficult to the users of smart phones to switch from familiar brands and operating
systems.

The organization can begin to see where its strengths might be best deployed, both offensively
and defensively, as well as where its weaknesses leave it vulnerable to market change or
.competitor action
Opportunities & Strengths: as an example, we don't have enough innovation in a market that
brings out new features on a daily basis so we can provide firefly as a new innovation to serve
.the market
Opportunities & weaknesses: as we have entry into the phone market is tough to crack as a
weakness, we can beat on that with substantial market as a new building of strengths.

Threats & Strengths: as an example, we have Apple and Samsung have established strong brand
and product leadership as a threat we can success to avoid this as Amazon has successfully built
.strong brand equity
Threats & Weaknesses: Amazon didn't a clearly define unique customer segment for the fire
phone but we can focus on the users of smart phones that their switching from familiar brands
and operating systems isn't difficult.

.From my opinion, they improve the performance through the two sides
They want to increase the sales through expand the market, they will produce new phone (new
.product) and they seek for new users
Also, they need to improve the productivity through increase margins while adding value to the
.consumers
They use differentiation strategy which is creating something that is seen as unique in the
market. Under this strategy company strengths and skills are used to differentiate the company’s
.offerings from those of its competitors along some criteria that are valued by consumers
The major advantage of a differentiation strategy, is that it creates, or emphasizes, a reason why
the customer should buy from the company rather than from its competitors. Amazon provide
firefly operating system which the user can point the phone’s camera at anything from a book to a
shaker of salt or a poster and either extract and save information – such as an email address – or navigate
.directly to a product page on Amazon to buy it

Also, provide Amazon Prime membership for free worth $99, allowing unlimited free shipping and a
.catalogue of digital music, movies and television shows
Amazon sold fire phone for $199 on a two-year contract through AT&T, the only US carrier offering the
.device
:Conclusion
I think it was better to make an offer for the prime users themselves and this will increase sales
of the prime first and consequently the fire phone sales even if they sell it with the cost price as
Kindle e-reader but on the long term they will increase the profitability. Also, they can make an
acquisition for any brand which is already had smart phones product line as Nokia and develop
it. You must learn from the other's mistakes like Microsoft, they produce a mobile phone and
!they sold only 20K from it
You must log on any competition when the market needs for this or you need to add a value
.doesn't exist not to prove yourself or such only an ego