Amazon Goes to War
Adam nails it…. L2 also has a good read…
Digital transformation is all the rage. With few exceptions, every business now grapples with how the digital economy changes how things were done in the past. Traditional industries wonder worriedly how they’ll be able to keep up.
Take note, then, that a master class on digital transformation is about to begin. Amazon announced Thursday that it will complete its purchase of Whole Foods on Monday. The screaming headlines focused, rightly, on Amazon’s promise to transform “Whole Paycheck” to affordable organics. Amazon will apply its consumer-friendly cost-cutting regimen to a range of Whole Foods products.
The bigger news, though, was how Amazon intends to make Whole Foods into a digital powerhouse—or least how it’ll integrate Whole Foods into its digital engine. The high-end supermarket’s loyalty program will become Amazon Prime, instantly boosting the value of the Whole Foods shopping experience and of Amazon’s free-delivery-and-other-benefits program.
Amazon also plans to put many Whole Foods products onto its online platforms, including many that hadn’t previously been available through e-commerce. This will be a possible step function up for Whole Foods and a boon to Amazon too.
Lastly, for now, Amazon plans to test its delivery “lockers” in Whole Foods stores. This drop-off location service is good for Amazon’s shoppers and also enhances the traffic potential for Whole Foods.
Each initial innovation that Amazon is bringing to Whole Foods is something the grocer either couldn’t or didn’t do for itself. At the same time, Amazon is able to “synergize” its e-commerce machine with one of the premier non-digital brands in the country.
Let the transformation commence.”
Adam Lashinsky
Where Martech Went Wrong
The current preoccupation with Martech as fancy CRM and demand generation is as baffling as it is strategically off-base.
The programmatic train-wreck occurs daily with corporates over-spending and under-auditing. Stupid is as stupid does. Most Martech investments are failing to deliver anything like the ROI promised while unleashing a wall of spam on unsuspecting and unwanting customers. And, marketers continue to chase the latest, bring shiny tool rather than returning to fundamentals.
Meanwhile, retail and distribution is being monumentally disrupted by voice and services such as Amazon Prime. Marketers need to look at Martech as the enablement of products and services, not just the distribution of messages and offers. Where is your voice strategy? Where is your ‘presence’ strategy for meeting customers in new places? How do you partner deeply with Google and others to counter Amazon?
I’d say one in ten marketers I speak to are working strategies that go beyond the 15 year Martech journey we’ve all been on. Instead that work has been left to chief digital and marketing officers. In doing so, they are ceding marketings vital role in architecting customer experience. More importantly, they are loosing touch and control of what will be one of the most important distribution and media channels emerging.
It’s time to rethink your Martech strategy.
Amazon’s Beehive
Loved looking at Amazon’s newly granted a patent for ground-based mobile drone fulfilment and maintenance carriers. Further evidence that the big new battleground in retail is fulfilment and logistics.
