Amazon @ Seamless Innovation

Amazon’s Octocopter project swept many people e off their feet. It looked like future had arrived. Whether the project and idea is safe and more importantly legal in countries where Amazon would want to take this concept is a topic for a different day, but how revolutionary the idea is in terms of exceeding customer expectations in terms of delivery and service, we will take that into consideration for now. 

   

Marketing is not just about building a brand. It is also about creating a brand promise, communicating this promise to customers and most importantly, fulfilling that promise, time and over again.At a time when there is intense competition between companies to grab a share of consumer consumption, arriving at a brand promise and consistently delivering it is a critical factor for success of any brand and company.

Reliable, quick and hassle-free home-delivery is one such promise that is being made by a lot of companies these days. These companies are from sectors like e-commerce, food-chains, courier & logistics and many more.

With benchmarks for customer service and satisfaction rising due to the availability of alternatives and higher purchasing power, run of the mill ideas for marketing and customer services have started to feel the heat. Whether a company wants to grab its TG's attention or want to delight its customers through its service, innovation has become a game changer.Innovation has become a major factor to differentiate between ordinary and brilliant companies and brand.

Amazon is one such company which has always been know for its innovative approach towards its business.  The recent initiatives taken by Amazon testifies this. One is the much hyped experiment about using drones to deliver products to customers. But the other one is much local and much more viable option which many of us would not have imagined.

When a company demonstrates its futuristic delivery idea, how many of us would imagine that the same company is also roping in an organization tagged as old and slow – India Post, for the same objective- delivery! .  This is a classic example of seamless innovation. This is also something, which most of the organizations have not been able to achieve. When a company goes for all-tech futuristic innovations, it is almost impossible to have eyes open to more traditional avenues to innovate. Amazon did that.

The end objective in both the cases is same but the TG of course changes. The drone delivery would be for achieving quick delivery times and the India post collaboration is to achieve high penetration for the company in terms of customer reach. Not to forget the drone experiment was not done in India or for Indian market though, but the extent of pro-activeness and the efforts to achieve customer delight  is remarkable in the Jeff Bezos led company.

Also, one should note that Amazon's drone delivery experiment is not the first one since Dominoz has done this experiment in June this year already.

   

 But what makes Amazon special is the bandwidth of innovation it allows its employees and teams across globe to create value for their customer. This organizational culture not just enriches its employees with learning but also benefits its customers. Truly inspiring!

Cheers,