Amazon Smiles

Source: WARC Prize for Asian Strategy, Entrant, 2012

Downloaded from WARC

Amazon faced a tough challenge from well-established local competitors, Tmall and 360Buy, when it
launched in China in 2011. These two brand owners dominated their home market with a 70% market
share, but at the end of this three-month campaign Amazon had become China's second favourite
online retailer. The key to success lay in identifying the gap between the happy experience online
shoppers wanted and the disappointing reality, which too often featured fake goods and poor service.
A campaign, focusing on Amazon's authenticity, quality and service, ran on TV, in print and online and
in train commuter stations. The result was a 20% incremental uplift in sales and significantly improved
brand metrics.

Kaiyu Li

Campaign details
Brand owner: Amazon China
Brand: Amazon
Agency: Young & Rubicam China
Country: China
Channels used: Internet - general, Internet - search, Online video, Outdoor, out-of-home, Television
Media budget: 1 - 3 million

Executive summary
In 2011, when Amazon officially landed in China, local competitors Tmall and 360Buy dominated their home turf
with a seemingly insurmountable 70% market share.

Chinese people's preference for local retailers looked to be a tough challenge for Amazon, the world's largest
online retailer.

But this three-month campaign exceeded expectations by not only meeting its target objectives of raising
awareness for the Amazon brand, but also propelling Amazon to becoming China's number-two online retailer of
choice, and generating more than 20% incremental uplift in sales. It also laid the very strong foundation for a
long-term brand platform.

The campaign was piloted in Shanghai, and now it's been rolled out in other markets.

Market background and business objectives

Challenges

Amazon was a late entrant to China. The market already had strong players, with Tmall and 360Buy owning
70% of the market.

Competition was fierce, forcing key the players to focus on low price to attract traffic.

Amazon was faced with the challenge of competing against these local players, winning over their customers to
become their online retailer of choice.

Communications Objectives

To build brand awareness and make Amazon famous.

Insight and strategic thinking

Close to 80% of the young adults who the brand was trying to reach considered having fun to be the most
important thing in life (Young &Rubicam's proprietary survey Brand Asset Valuator).

And shopping was part of the fun experience, whether they shopped in the mall or online. Through consumer
eXploring, we understood that rational factors like price and assortment were important, but they were cost of
entry. They couldn't differentiate a brand and make people love it.

Like in the shopping mall, shopping online was more than buying. It was 'shoppertainment'. People tended to go
shopping where they felt happy.

But when Amazon was trying to officially launch, there was little happiness in China's e-commerce industry. It
was highly homogeneous, and key players were talking about 'low price'. But low price led to a 'trust cisis' that
was aggravated by fake goods and poor service. When the industry's credibility was questioned, shopping
online had become an experience fraught with anxiety and disappointment. Clearly there was a gap between the
reality and what online shoppers wanted.

For Amazon, this was the opportunity. Amazon was determined to turn that around and deliver a positive
experience, supported with its competitive assortment, quality, authentic goods and service.

The strategy was simply to make Amazon stand for a shopping experience that was full of happiness.

Implementation
We took the iconic smile on the Amazon delibery box, and made it stand for the entire Amazon experience:
authenticity, quality, and service.

Exhibit 1
Exhibit 2
Exhibit 3

We integrated traditional media and digital media to impact our target audience with high-frequency exposure.

We leveraged TV to build public awareness, focusing on drama and entertainment programmes that
matched out audience's viewing habits.
With iconic presence in the metro station, on the subway trains and office-building LCDs, we caught the
attention of our core target audience as they commuted to and from work (exhibits 2 and 3).
For print, we selectively use lifestyle and fashion titles, and placed a combination of advertising and
advertorial content.
For online display, we focused on online video websites that were popular among the target audience.

Performance against objectives

Brand KPI provided by client showed that the campaign fulfilled its objectives and had a positive impact on
business. It laid a solid foundation for future growth. So successful was the idea that it is being rolled out to
other markets.

In a matter of three months, the campaign had a hugely positive impact on business, with more than 20%
incremental uplift in sales. As well as stimulating business, the brand also grew positively, as indicated in table
1:

The effectiveness of the campaign was recongnized with a high level of endorsement from consumers (table 1):
Table 1

Lessons learned
1. When all competitors are talking about the same thing, change the topic.
2. Real consumer insights are central to relevant strategies.
3. The most dramatic creative idea is often in the brand itself.
4. For a late entrant to the market, emotion may be the only fuel it has to drive it forward in the competition.

Copyright WARC 2012

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