learnthe4ps.com - For students of marketing.

It has been a few weeks since our last post — Learn the 4 Ps took a break to get through final exams and the holidays.  Now we are back with a nice supply of articles.  Posting may be a bit heavier than normal in the next few days.

This article, in one of my favorite trade magazines (Brand Packaging), titled “Brands Without Borders,” (November 5, 2010) describes the challenges of global package design.  Many firms would like the simplicity of designing a single package and using it across the planet, but that is easier said than done.  Retail formats vary across countries, local tastes and aesthetics are different, along with other variations.  One cultural difference noted that Chinese consumers “favor busier packaging and tend to associate simple, understated packages with lower-end generic products.”

Amazon.com comes up with some very creative marketing strategy ideas.  One of its very successful programs is Amazon Prime. For $79 a year (free first year for students), Prime members have all Amazon orders shipped with free two-day delivery (full disclosure, Joe is a very satisfied Prime customer). This Bloomberg Businessweek article, “What’s in Amazon’s Box? Instant Gratification” (November 23, 2010), describes how this brilliant “Place” decision has built loyalty and sent major competitors scrambling. This provides a great example of a firm leveraging its strengths (wide selection and low prices) — making it hard for other online retailers to copy the strategy. Combine this with Amazon’s new smartphone comparison shopping app (which makes Amazon’s price shopping advantage even more apparent) — and Amazon is looking pretty good moving forward.

What do you think of this strategy?  What else could Amazon do to build customer loyalty?  If you have never shopped at Amazon, go the site and search for something you might want to buy?  What do you like — and dislike — about the Amazon shopping experience?

[NOTE:  I changed the date of posting to test out a Facebook app -- originally posted on December 2.]