Branding

Use the Wall Street Journal menu link to find a recent article that discusses some aspect of branding. Alternatively, your source may be any other business periodical (e.g., Forbes, BusinessWeek, The Economist) with an article that contains relevant information.

Provide a link or reference to the article. Then respond to the prompts below:

• Briefly summarize the key ideas discussed in the article
• Do your own experiences as a customer reinforce or challenge the ideas in the article?
• How do the ideas from this article apply to your company or workplace?
• Is the challenge of brand alignment across channels covered in this article?
  • If so, describe how it is discussed and explain its relevance
  • If not, should it have been included in the discussion? Why or why not?

peer#1

The article I have chosen for this week’s discussion is titled Amazon adds new ‘Amazon Pharmacy’ branding to PillPack and promotes its CEO (Farr, 1).

Article URL: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/15/amazon-pharmacy-brand-comes-to-pillpack-ceo-tj-parker-promoted.html

Key ideas discussed

Pillpack, the online pharmacy procured by Amazon has incorporated into its logo the Amazon branding. Pillpack now reads “Pillpack by Amazon Pharmacy.” Amazon has indicated it intends to enter the pharmacy market, currently worth over $330 billion (Farr, 1). Pillpack will be informing its customers and has already begun incorporating into its online website the Amazon branding. The CEO of Pillpack was promoted to Vice President at Amazon. Amazon has acquired several retailers over the years including Zappos and Whole Foods, continuing to expand and integrate touchpoints through its Omnichannel marketing (Kotler, 2).

Alignment with my own customer experience

As an Amazon Prime member, I do look for more value in the Prime membership. The availability (eventual) of an online pharmacy would add value to my Prime membership and aligns with the concept of the touchpoints I expect as a consumer (Kotler, 2). For example, I do not need to see the medication before I try it, but I do want two key things. One key thing is to be able to trust the pharmacy to which I am receiving the medication from. The other key thing is to be able to ask questions about the medication, if necessary.

Amazon has already been promoting Pillpack in its Prime membership, so they are early in the Omnichannel marketing to promote awareness and appeal, mapping touchpoints and channels across the Five A’s (Kotler, 2). The availability of an online pharmacy through Amazon would reinforce what I expect in a customer experience for an online pharmacy and as a Prime member.

How the ideas from this article apply to my workplace

The key ideas from this article can be applied to my workplace through the Five A’s framework and the Omnichannel marketing experience (Kotler, 2). Specifically, the experience involves meeting our customers through as many touchpoints as possible including both offline and online (JWI518, 3). As a service organization, we must walk through the shoes of our customers and align with the various steps in the Five A’s framework, using touchpoints to support each channel of the customer journey (Denger, 4). Whether it is through the company website, social media, a industry event or seminar, an in-person meeting directly with a client, or simply a phone call, these channels must align in both the customer experience and message when inquiring about our services and moving to act.

The challenge of brand alignment across channels

Brand alignment is mentioned in this article, but the challenges of aligning it across the various channels is not. The article does mention that Amazon has recently opened some brick-and-mortar stores to enhance the customer shopping experience through Webrooming (JWI518, 3). But the article does not go much further and elaborate on how it might address the trust challenge, as an example, for some customers whom might not trust someone they cannot see. Nor does the article speak to any of the touchpoints beyond the online component. The brick-and-mortar stores also do not apply to pharmacy, but rather for Amazon’s other acquisitions.

There are certain things that involve the senses and other factors that influence trust, and influence appeal in the Five A’s framework. Addressing this in the article would have given greater weight to supporting the touchpoints that are key to successfully moving from appeal to ask and act (Kotler, 2). Although Amazon does capitalize on its Customer Data Platform (CDP) very well and continues to use this data to drive Omnichannel integrations and meet customers at every touchpoint through a unified service and one-click shopping (Agilone, 5).

Kind Regards,
Ryan Michaud

References

1. Christina Farr. 2019. Amazon adds new ‘Amazon Pharmacy’ branding to PillPack and promotes its CEO. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/15/amazon-pharmacy-brand-comes-to-pillpack-ceo-tj-parker-promoted.html.
2. Philip Kotler, Hermawan Kartajaya and Iwan Setiawan. 2017. Marketing 4.0. Moving from Traditional to Digital.
3. JWI518. 2019. Week 8 Lecture Notes: Omnichannel Marketing and Digital CRM.
4. Errol Denger. 2019. 5 Tips for Engaging Shoppers with Experience-Driven Commerce. https://www.cmo.com/opinion/articles/2019/5/9/5-tips-for-engaging-shoppers-with-experiencedriven-commerce.html#gs.gxam5o
5. Agilone.com. 2017. Cross-Channel Marketing and How to Not Lose Sight of the Customer. https://blog.agilone.com/cross-channel-marketing-and-how-to-not-lose-sight-of-the-customer

peer#2

Good Evening Team,

The article I chose for this week’s discussion post is “Kylie Jenner Sells $600 Million Stake in Beauty Business”. Kylie Jenner established Kylie Cosmetics in 2015. She promoted her products on Instagram, where she accumulated more than 150 million followers. This week, Coty Inc has made an offer to pay Kylie $600 million for a controlling stake in her cosmetic startup company (Terlep, 1). Coty will own 51% of the company with a worth of $1.2 billion. Coty is hopeful this purchase will turn things around for the lagging sales they have endured since purchasing numerous beauty brands in 2016 from Procter and Gamble. In a world where conventional beauty companies ruled the market, independent brands and startups are now starting to dominate the market.

My personal experience as a customer challenges the ideas in this article. I do not purchase products strictly because of the celebrity promoting them. I utilize Omnichannel Marketing. Omnichannel Marketing is put into place when we use all channels for advertising our brand. Consistent brand messaging through the company’s website, product reviews, and customer service are all vital in my decision-making process in purchasing a product (JWI 518, 2).

The ideas from this article apply to my company in that Jack Welch is to Jack Welch Management Institute as Kylie Jenner is to Kylie Cosmetics. They are the faces of their companies and what initially draws consumers in to buy the product. Having well-known individuals such as these helps build brand awareness and credibility for the product.

Brand alignment is covered in this article in that as part of this deal, Coty wants Kylie Jenner to remain the face of the company. Her presence is essential for the company’s success. If she loses interest in the company and decides to part ways, her 29 million twitter followers may go with her (Terlep, 1). Coty must carefully manage the power of its brand. If not, it could be detrimental to the product line and the future success of the partnership with Kylie Jenner(McNair,3).

Best,

Karyn

References:

1. Sharon Terlep. 2019. Kylie Jenner Sells $600 Million Stake in Beauty Business https://www.wsj.com/articles/kylie-jenner-sells-600-million-stake-in-beauty-business-11574084772?mg=prod/com-wsj
2. JWI 518. Week 8. Lecture Notes. Omnichannel Marketing and Organizational Structure
3. Austin McNair. 2019. Brand Alignment: What Is It and How Do you Measure It? https://hingemarketing.com/blog/story/brand-alignment-what-is-it-and-how-do-you-measure-it