{"id":745,"date":"2018-02-19T21:32:05","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T02:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/?p=745"},"modified":"2018-02-20T11:12:09","modified_gmt":"2018-02-20T16:12:09","slug":"amazing-branding-amazing-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/?p=745","title":{"rendered":"AMAZING BRANDING…AMAZING SERVICE!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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PRESS PLAY>> NOW TO VIEW THIS MONTH’S WELCOME VIDEO<\/p>\n

AMAZING BRAND\u2026AMAZING SERVICE!<\/p>\n

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\"\"I was speaking recently with a long-time advertising colleague and friend and we were talking about the state of retail marketing.\u00a0 He indicated that he thought that all of the hype about Amazon was exaggerated and that brick & mortar retail was still the foundation of consumer selling.\u00a0 I agreed that “no, retail stores were not going to completely disappear anytime soon”, but I felt that the retail landscape had been changed forever. And, I pointed out that Amazon was probably the biggest factor in this retail revolution.\u00a0 Granted, the internet in total was the reason that shopping patterns had dramatically changed, but Amazon has been the leader in the changes in the way people shop more than any other single marketer in the world.<\/p>\n

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Watching the vans and trucks and golf carts going up and down our neighborhood streets over the holidays delivering package after \"\"package with those smile symbols on the side should be evidence enough that Americans are shopping more from their laptops and phones than we ever imagined just a few short years ago.\u00a0 And the pattern crosses all demographic and economic profiles with male and females, young and old, rich and poor, etc., etc. and there is no turning back. The disappearance of shopping malls personifies the changing shopping habits, but the delivery boxes demonstrate how we have become a nation of purchasers instead of a land of shoppers more than ever.\u00a0 I have to admit that we receive on average 2-3 Amazon deliveries a week and we don\u2019t consider ourselves online junkies at all.\u00a0 The reason this is so common is simple.\u00a0 Amazon has created a brand that means convenience, time-saving, and savings for just about anything that you want to buy.<\/p>\n

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\"\"I\u2019ve purchased everything from pool pumps to green tea, from auto wheel covers to protein shakes, and more and more.\u00a0 The reasons are simple.\u00a0 1. It\u2019s easy.\u00a0 I can buy just about anything we need with one click with Prime.\u00a0 2. Not sure what you need? Search in general topics and you\u2019ll find what you need quickly. 3.\u00a0 Not sure what to pay? You can compare prices at conventional retailers, online, catalogues, you name it\u2026and the savings are usually significant enough that it\u2019s a no brainer.<\/p>\n

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Amazon has made it simple and they continue to use the technology and logistics to make it fast and trustworthy.\u00a0 Making a return is as easy as purchasing.\u00a0 Getting a credit is fast and hassle free.\u00a0 As an author, Amazon made it easy to self-publish with Create Space.\u00a0 Then it was easy to reach readers with Kindle online access.\u00a0 Amazon\u2019s Web Services (AWS) is the largest provider of Cloud service in the world and that technological advantage is passed on to its consumer services every day. Amazon is a huge factor in video streaming and service and had moved into production in a big way.\u00a0 Have any more questions?\u00a0 Just get Alexa and ask away.\u00a0 The voice \"\"recognition service has Siri running and fostering a number of other in-home voice service like Google and Home Pad growing at a hectic pace.\u00a0 The other big news recently was the launch of Amazon Go, a check-out free food store that is a game changer in the grocery industry using technology being developed for other high-tech innovations.\u00a0 Over 15 years ago, I attended the National Retail Federation\u2019s annual convention in New<\/p>\n

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AMAZON GO PROTOTYPE STORE IN SEATTLE<\/p><\/div>\n

York where there was a Store of the Future exposition demonstrating the RFID technology developed by Magna in Germany which not only promised the check-out free capability and automatic replenishment systems of the future.\u00a0 This really hasn\u2019t developed in the US or mass markets around the world as expected.\u00a0 However, the Amazon Go prototype in Seattle is definitely the sign of things to come in retail.\u00a0 There are many other innovations that Amazon has announced in the past year, but it would take 2-3 more pages here to just briefly describe what\u2019s in store.\u00a0 Suffice it to say that the Amazon brand is growing by leaps and bounds and the customers are loyal and really satisfied.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE AMAZON GO VIDEO INTRO.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Is it working? Well, consider that Amazon\u2019s 2017 net sales were nearly $180 Billion, a 31% increase over the previous year.\u00a0 Operating income, even after the investment in new technology and systems was still over $4 Billion in 2017.\u00a0 Innovation is the key.\u00a0 The company launched 1430 new services last year, while continuing to develop community service programs like its \u201cDelivering Smiles\u201d where it donates thousands of items to families to help fight homelessness.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s an appropriate name for a brand that is now part of the fabric of our life as every time another package is picked up by the doorstep another smile takes place!<\/p>\n

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\"\"A TRIBUTE TO A GREAT AD MAN AND FRIEND<\/p>\n

Last week, the Tampa Bay area lost one of its truly great advertising executives, and I lost a good friend.\u00a0 Cedar Hames was one of the first advertising people I met when I moved to St. Petersburg some 43 years ago.\u00a0 We instantly hit it off because we shared a passion for advertising excellence, marketing strategy and branding.\u00a0 We also shared a craziness that made doing business fun.\u00a0 During this time Cedar grew from media sales to the advertising agency business, where he started a couple of firms, including Paradise Advertising, which he grew to being one of the largest in the Tampa Bay area and Florida.\u00a0 He recently sold his agency to enjoy the paradise of Florida where he was a native.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure he will be enjoying a higher paradise than he planned, and we will truly miss him.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_video admin_label=”Video” src=”https:\/\/youtu.be\/E2DR0LYhDnM”] [\/et_pb_video][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] PRESS PLAY>> NOW TO VIEW THIS MONTH’S WELCOME VIDEO AMAZING BRAND\u2026AMAZING SERVICE!   I was speaking recently with a long-time advertising colleague and friend and we were talking about the state of retail marketing.\u00a0 He indicated that he thought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=745"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":751,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745\/revisions\/751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}