Amazon Case Study: Impact Of Marketing Strategies On Brand Equity

Question

Task:
Write a well-researched Amazon case study determining the impact of marketing strategies on brand equity.

Answer

1 SECTION 1
1.1 Introduction
A “brand” is an individual name or term or sign or symbol or design, or an amalgamation of them all, which is aimed to recognise a particular group of products, services, and experiences of a specific seller or a group of traders and make them separate from their competitors (Bilgin, 2018). It helps a business to create its identity permanent. And most importantly, the brand image builds up brand loyalty and secure its position among the competitors in the market. Therefore, brand image is considered one of the most essential parts that helps a business to make its position permanent in the global market.

According to Lahap (2016), branding is the key role for an organization. It is proven that the proper organizational ROI or return on investment can be drastically attained through effective and professional branding research and development The researcher is intended to find out the “importance of marketing in enhancing the brand image” through this research. The researcher will try to understand and evaluate the value of marketing in enhancing the brand image. For this research, the researcher will take Amazon UK for the case study.

According to Hobbs (2016), the Amazon UK must develop and maintain their brand image, if they want to fix their position in the global market.

Before conducting the research, the researcher would state the research problem, find out the research question, give a proper justification, and build up the proper conceptual framework. The researcher will research with a proper data collection method and data analysis.

1.2 Problem Statement
The Problem Statement in the research is considered is an essential part. The problem statement is a brief and precise description of an issue and considering the biggest problem in the issue of the research subject. The problem statement addresses a condition that needs to be improved. Stating a problem in the research helps to understand the gap between the current problematic state of the research topic and its desired target position (Nasution &Aulia, 2019).

According to Evans (2019), the current Amazon UK with their existing in Amazon Fresh, Pantry, and Prime confuses the consumers streamlining and shorten the unlimited offer in grocery. It is estimated, this would make a tremendous impact on the Amazon UK, in the future. The crucial problem on which the researcher will focus is the decreasing and evaporating of consumer acceptance and awareness for Amazon UK. This research will inspect the retailer’s advertisement policy and marketing strategy to enhance the brand image and brand value and consumer awareness in the UK’s market.

1.3 Research Aim and Objective / Research Questions
Aim: The research includes the scope to discover the “impact of marketing in enhancing the brand image” for Amazon UK. Therefore, the proposed aim of the research is to determine the impact of marketing strategies for enhancing brand image for Amazon.

Objectives: To fulfil the aim the proposed objectives for the research are:

• Identifying and assessing the marketing strategies that have impact on the brand image.
• Emphasising and estimating the awareness of customers for the brand image.
• Examining the issues and their impact on the brand image of Amazon UK.
• Determining which would be proper marketing strategies to enhance the brand image of Amazon UK.

Research Question: This research study targets to find out the answers to these following questions:

• RQ1: What is the importance of marketing in enhancing the brand image?
• RQ2: Which issues the Amazon UK are facing in creating the brand image?
• RQ3: By which marketing strategies the issues in Amazon UK’s brand image can be overcome?

1.4 Justification of the Project
The brand image plays a key role to create expectations for its consumers and able to satisfy them. The brand image can simplify decision-making and product handling. Hence, setting up a powerful brand image is essential to secure the overall success of an organization. According to Hobbs (2016), if the Amazon UK wants to retain in the global market and secure its position among the competitors, they must develop their brand image and maintain it. In the case of Amazon UK, they can boost up the upfront mind presence of consumers through the libretto of customization, targeting and re-targeting each opportunity to communicate and recommunicate with consumers (Amatulli et al., 2016). It has been researched and proven that the Amazon of the US and the Amazon UK provides different offer and even have different strategies. In the Amazon of the United States, there is limited availability of private label, whereas the private label makes up the half market in the United Kingdom (Mulgan, 2019). The Amazon UK has not been experimenting with “own-brand brands”, and that discriminates the necessities and wants of consumers (Cano, 2020). The Amazon UK is not providing enough sales and not producing the product that can satisfy consumers. The Prime members are only able to have multiple private label offers and discounts. That is making the consumers uninterested. The system of ‘Prime Membership’ is abridging the target market and customer segments (Ibrahim, et al. 2017). The Amazon UK also lacks own-brand integrity.

1.5 Expected Research Outcome
To develop the idea researcher will investigate the issues of Amazon UK’s brand image. The main goal of this specific study is to research on the Amazon UK’s brand position and by which marketing strategies the brand image of the Amazon UK can be developed. The research proposal is set to bring out the below-mentioned outputs by the end of the research study:

• The necessity for building up a successful brand image. How a company can create a powerful brand image. The roles and functions of brand image and brand equity.
• It helps to understand the importance of marketing in enhancing the brand image. The research study will help to evaluate the marketing strategies; a company should take to create a successful brand image.
• The proposed research would enlighten the issues that Amazon UK is facing in creating a successful brand image. And to overcome those issues, what should be the possible marketing strategies.

2 SECTION II
2.1 Conceptual Framework and Research Hypothesis
The proper marketing strategy and developed plan can enhance the brand image (Chang, et al., 2018). Building up a successful brand image and managing it is considered one of the biggest challenges that a retailer faces initially. But it the most important part of a business, that can help the business to earn a permanent position in the competitive market. It can be said that consumers must know how to differentiate between a good quality product and a well-branded product (Mulgan, 2019)

2.1.1 Importance of Brand Image
According to Bilgin (2018), the brand image is an individual name or term or sign or symbol or design, or an amalgamation of them all, which is aimed to recognise a particular group of products, services, and experiences of a specific seller or a group of traders and make them separate from their competitors.

As per the research done by Alic, Agic & Cinjarevic. (2017), the company gets several facilities in the time of launching a new product or service, if the company has a successful brand image. The effective brand image can attract consumers even if it is launching a new product in the market. The effective brand image can earn consumers’ trusts. Therefore, it sets up a deep relationship with customers. A strong brand image can successfully fix the company’s name in the customers’ minds permanently. The brand image establishes the customers’ perception and expectation. Hence, it can satisfy its consumers.

2.1.2 Importance of Brand Equity
According to Keller & Brexford (2019), the term, brand equity is used for defining the value of a brand. The brand value is created upon consumer awareness and consumer experiences. People’s positive and elevated thinking of a company creates the high brand equity of that company. The brand equity is built upon the fact of customers’ experiences with that particular company. The brand equity is successful to make its position in customer awareness, customer recognition, trial, customer preference, and customer loyalty (Keller & Brexford, 2019).

According to Kusum et al., (2017), Brand equity helps a company to build up brand awareness, brand association, brand loyalty, and the perceived quality. The importance of brand equity is very important for a company. The brand equity is considered as the asset of a company. A company with high brand equity can launch a new product with a price rate that is higher than the original market price. The strong brand equity can earn huge loyal customers that can enhance its share in the global market.

2.1.3 Importance of Customer Equity
The customer relationship management of a company results in customer equity. Customer equity can be defined as the overall lifetime values of the whole firm customers. According to the layman terms, customer equity is equal to customer loyalty. In another word, customer equity can be described as the company’s entire future revenue that would be generated by the company’s customers in the span of a lifetime. Customer equity is considered as a very important part of a company (Çifci, et al. 2016).

According to Martin (2016), customer equity is essential because of its function as a marketing system for a company or an organization. The companies which estimate its customer equity can make important decisions on acquisition, retention, or add-on selling, successfully. The customer equity needs adjustment in marketing investment, as the relationships with the customer is always unpredictable. Customer equity depends on the objective assessment of the customers’ values.

2.1.4 Conceptual Framework
The main objective of this research is to understand and evaluate the importance of the brand image, brand equity, and brand value; and the importance of marketing in enhancing the brand image. The following diagram of the conceptual framework is provided to understand and evaluate the importance and processes of positioning a brand.

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework
(Adapted from: https://www.mbaskool.com/)

The above-mentioned diagram provides the idea of proper branding. In that framework, the importance and necessities of branding are given. And the components that brand knowledge is made up of, are also provided. The framework also helps to understand the important steps that one needs to take to create and enhance the brand image.

2.2 Hypothesis
Hypothesis 1:
H0: Null Hypothesis: Marketing has an important effect on enhancing the brand image.

H1: Alternative Hypothesis: Marketing does not have an important effect in enhancing the brand image.

Hypothesis 2:
H0: Null Hypothesis: Amazon UK is facing issues in creating a successful brand image.

H1: Alternative Hypothesis: Amazon UK is not facing issues in creating a successful brand image.

Hypothesis 3:
H0: Null Hypothesis: Amazon UK can build up the brand image through proper marketing strategies.

H1: Alternative Hypothesis: Amazon UK is not able to build up the brand image through proper marketing strategies.

3 SECTION III
3.1 Research Aim and Objective / Research Questions
Aim: The research includes the scope to discover the “impact of marketing in enhancing the brand image” for Amazon UK. Therefore, the proposed aim of the research is to determine the impact of marketing strategies for enhancing brand image for Amazon.

Objectives: To fulfil the aim the proposed objectives for the research are:

• Identifying and assessing the marketing strategies that have impact on the brand image.
• Emphasising and estimating the awareness of customers for the brand image.
• Examining the issues and their impact on the brand image of Amazon UK.
• Determining which would be proper marketing strategies to enhance the brand image of Amazon UK.

Research Question:
This research study targets to find out the answers to these following questions:

• RQ1: What is the importance of marketing in enhancing the brand image?
• RQ2: Which issues the Amazon UK are facing in creating the brand image?
• RQ3: By which marketing strategies the issues in Amazon UK’s brand image can be overcome?

3.2 Research Methodology
The researcher will follow those below-mentioned methodologies to assess and analyze the aim and objectives of this specific research study.

3.2.1 Data Source for this Research Study
The researcher will conduct that specific research study based on the secondary source to conduct the research and analyze it. The secondary data are information that has been collected already by other researchers and scholars through the primary source. The main researchers of these data make them available to use for other researchers. The secondary data sources can be found in the books, journals, research papers done by other researchers, conducted interviews that have been recorded previously, reports, news, official and governmental websites, and so on (Ellram & Tate, 2016). Using these data has both positive effects and negative effects. In that particular research study, the researcher will collect data from the books that have focused on the branding: brand image, brand position, brand equity, brand loyalty, etc. & the strategies and plans of marketing. The researcher will also focus on those study materials which will provide insights on the importance of marketing in enhancing the brand image. For the case study, the researcher will follow several previously conducted types of research, journals, and reports on the Amazon UK with official websites of Amazon UK and Amazon of US. The researcher will also study some reports published in the newspapers (especially, the newspaper of business and economy) of the last four months to find the relevant data based on the research topic.

3.2.2 Sampling Method for this Research
Data sampling can be defined as the as a method that requires mathematical and statistical techniques to use, select, operate, examine, and analyze a representative compartment of data to detect the designs, formations, and trends in a larger amount of data and information. There are many data sampling methods. In that particular research project, the researcher will collect data from the secondary data sources using the systematic data sampling method. In systematic data sampling method, the researcher will study, collect, and analyze the data with statistical principles (Johnson, Hakim, Dittrich et al., 2016). First, the researcher will calculate the sampling intervals. The systematic data sampling method will be based on probability. In this sampling, the researcher will not need the full list, an approximate frame will be needed. The systematic data sampling method will provide the researcher with many advantages. After doing systematic data sampling, the researcher will have the approximate result of simple random sampling. The systematic data sampling is considered as time-efficient and cost-efficient. Therefore, the investigator will earn the benefits of these two qualities. The systematic data sampling method does not need face-to-face contact or a one-on-one interview. That means the researcher will be benefitted with lots of time and less effort in conducting that specific research.

3.2.3 Data Collection Method
For data collection, the researcher will use secondary data sources. The researcher will focus on those study materials, which will provide insights on the importance of marketing in enhancing the brand image. For those materials, the researcher will use the college lecture materials, course materials, college library. For the case study, the researcher will follow several previously conducted types of research, journals, and reports on the Amazon UK with official websites of Amazon UK and Amazon of US to analyze the annual reports and sustainability reports of Amazon UK to understand the recent brand image and marketing strategies that are being used in the Amazon UK (Newman & Gough, 2019). And therefore, the researcher will use the database of ProQuest and Google Scholar. The researcher will also study some reports published in the newspapers (especially, the newspaper of business and economy) of the last four months to find the relevant data based on the research topic. For that, the researcher will collect data from the relevant apps for a newspaper. The researcher will have to be very specific, strategic, efficient, ethical in collecting the data.

3.2.4 Data Analysis
The secondary data assessment process will be conducted qualitatively based on the character of the data and information that the researcher will need. Therefore, it can be said that this particular research study will require qualitative data analysis. The qualitative data analysis for the secondary data source provides deeper information in terms of the data (Largan & Morris, 2019). The qualitative data analysis indicates non-numeric data from other researches, books, reports, notes, interview records, and audio and video record. By doing the qualitative data analysis, the researcher will focus on the verbal and behavioural data to brief and formulate the information (Elliott, 2018). The researcher will reformulate the other researches to bring out a similar context from other experiences and studies. Through the research questions, several secondary sources and annual report, the researcher will evaluate the understanding and emphasizing the co-relations of every data and information (Largan & Morris, 2019).

3.3 Organization of the Study
This research report is arranged in the following steps:

Chapter One is the Research Proposal as planned in this assignment.

Chapter Two will illustrate the case study of Amazon UK to emphasize the issues they are facing in enhancing the brand image.

Chapter Three will include the conceptual framework and hypothesis of the research.

Chapter Four will build up the details of the methodology arranged in this research, data collection method, sampling method.

Chapter Five will build-up of findings of the research along with the data analysis.

Chapter Six will provide a brief of the main findings through the research and will discuss the understanding of the importance of marketing in enhancing the brand image.

3.4 Project Schedule

3.5 Gantt Chart

3.6 Project Budget and Budget Justification
To complete the full research study within the fixed timeline, which is 09-Oct-2020, the budget of the research is approximately 1,500 dollar. The justification of the research budget is provided below:

• For collecting the data for the literature review from the appropriate source that includes a published journal article, peer-reviewed articles, and relevant books, the researcher will need 500 dollars approximately.
• For collecting and analysing the data, the researcher will need to access several figures and charts, paid websites, and paid applications, different tools. For that, the estimated budget is 1000 dollar (approximately).

4 References
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