Amazon Prime (Cont.) and Alexa


A while back, I’d written this blog on how the scheme called Amazon Prime came about. I found a very interesting use of that very scheme (from Amazon’s perspective) in Scott Galloway’s The Four, a book on the fastest growing tech companies (Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google).

In the age of the Internet, customer loyalty to brands has been steadily eroding. People tend to search for what they want and don’t care about the brand, something that leaves retailers at the “mercy of Google and disloyal consumers”, writes Galloway. To which this is Amazon’s response, especially in the US:
“(Amazon) via pricing and exclusive content and products, is asking people to either join Amazon Prime or leave.”
Why?
“Prime members represent recurring revenue, loyalty and annual purchases.”

But if you thought Amazon is the knight in shining armour for brands, you could not be more wrong! You must have heard of Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant. Named after the famous library in Alexandria:
“Voice even further circumvents attributes that brands have spent generations and billions to build.”
Amazon actively encourages this trend: they give greater discount for the same item ordered via voice (Alexa) v/s click. And so, writes Galloway:
“Death, for brands, has a name… Alexa.”

If you’ve never used Alexa and are wondering how good it really is, fear not, for comics have the answer. In the old days, when Bill Watterson was still writing Calvin and Hobbes, “mom” was the term for someone who could fix anything:
Today, while mom hasn’t been replaced, the “fix everything just right” person has a new name:


Comments

  1. Ramiah KumarAugust 30, 2018 at 12:18 PM

    I liked THREE things in this blog. As anyone would have guessed two happen to be the cartoons. While we know the ways of Calvin, I like the mom's retort in the second cartoon, "Stop calling me Alexa!" Without this blog, I wouldn't have got it actually!!

    So, that leaves us with what is the third thing I liked. It is this line:

    “Prime members represent recurring revenue, loyalty and annual purchases.”
    I liked it because I misread it as 'Prime numbers..." After I understood my error, I still liked this line because it still rings for me this way: Prime members are as important as Prime numbers! Know what,the prime numbers have forever remained mysterious for the mathematicians!

    ReplyDelete

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