The Positioning of Amazon in China

Amazon is described as “an e-commerce and cloud computing company, offering the internet’s largest retail platform,” situating the industry giant between multiple product categories (Interbrand, 2017).
Example Market
The example market chosen for Amazon is China, one of the main areas of potential failure for the company. Cultural factors that impact marketing include language, the ways consumers interact with digital sites/graphical user interface, the types of products being offered, and content.
Message Strategies
The message strategies Amazon uses in the home country are completely different from what is used in China due to differences in socio-linguistics and semantics. Visuals are also radically different, and some Korean online firms understand Chinese aesthetics better than Amazon (Caixa Liu & Jinhwan Hong, 2016)
Localizing Efforts
Amazon has purchased local companies in China like Joyo, to try and start with the localized platforms. However, the rebrand as Amazon was not as successful as was expected (Dunn, 2017).
Marketing Challenges
Chinese consumers might have preconceptions about Amazon. Also, “online shopping in China is not widely practiced and organisations investing in B2C online shopping need to understand the factors that affect Chinese consumers? online buying behaviour,” (Clemes, Gan & Zhang, 2014, p. 364). Competitors are edging their way into the Chinese market, like Haitao, which “can be understood as service innovation process because it creates new market spaces and provides differentiated values for Chinese customers,” (Caixa Liu & Jinhwan Hong, 2016, p. 101).
Part Two
The Brand’s Competitive Set
Amazon has few parallels in the United States. In China, however, Amazon has company. Alibaba remains the most important member of Amazon’s competitive set (Dunn, 2017). However, other key players like Haitao are poised to threaten Amazon in China (Caixa Liu & Jinhwan Hong, 2016).
Advantages Over Competitive Set
Amazon has several advantages over its competitive set. Those advantages include global brand identity, which transcends that of Alibaba, a massive and well-structured supply chain that is unparalleled in digital marketing, and access to networks of transportation, warehousing, and distribution around the world. This means that Chinese consumers can access products that they cannot get using other services online.
Target
Amazon targets a broad consumer base in every market around the world. Therefore, it needs to focus more on segmentation. Different product categories and services like Prime will appeal to different people. Also, Amazon might want to capitalize on the Prime and Amazon Studios brands to penetrate the digital media aspects of its business by partnering with local film producers.
Final Positioning Statement
To differentiate my brand and position it well in China, I would use creative marketing and messaging strategies. The first thing I would do would be to focus on core strengths that differentiate Amazon from Alibaba. Amazon might not be able to compete with Alibaba on the products that it delivers well to Chinese consumers. However, Amazon might be able to penetrate the digital content distribution aspect of business, from e-books to streaming video.



References

Caixia Liu & Jinhwan Hong (2016). Strategies and service innovations of haitao business in the Chinese market: A comparative case study of Amazon.cn vs Gmarket.co.kr. Asia Pacific Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 10(1): 101-121.
Clemes, M.D., Gan, C. & Zhang, J. (2014). An empirical analysis of online shopping adoption in Beijing, China. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 21i(3): 364-375.
Dunn, J. (2017). Amazon is still getting dominated in China. Business Insider. 22 Feb, 2017. http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-market-share-china-alibaba-jd-chart-2017-2
Interbrand (2017). Amazon. http://interbrand.com/best-brands/best-global-brands/2017/ranking/amazon/