...Barnes & Noble Vs. Amazon To attain a competitive advantage over Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble needs to develop a proper strategy and implement a successful marketing plan. SITUATION ANALYSIS Barnes & Noble first must consider the issues and problems facing their company, and then perform an opportunity analysis to determine their strengths and weaknesses in relation to their customers, competitors, and company capabilities. In regards to the main concerns of Barnes & Noble, the company needs to worry about the uncertainties associated with the expected rapid growth of the Internet, the changing profile of Internet users, increased competition and indeterminate future developments in electronic retailing from publishers, wholesalers, and retailers, and intense price competition. By 2000, more than 80 million users will be on the World Wide Web, with an increase in females and a broader spectrum of education levels and age, changing the market demographics. Additionally, some book publishers, namely Simon & Schuster and Bertelsmann, have expanded online, while the national leading wholesaler, Ingram, is developing a website where wholesalers could ship directly to consumers. In the meantime, small publishers and universities have started to publish directly on the Web, avoiding print versions completely and thereby challenging the posterity of conventional books. Within the Barnes & Noble Corporation, their smaller traditional bookstores such...
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...| Mergers & Acquisitions | Acquisition Case Study: Amazon’s acquisition of Zappos, November 2009 | | Stephen Greening | 26/04/2014 | WORD COUNT: 2489 Contents Executive Summary 3 Introduction 4 Amazon Overview 4 Amazon’s Previous Acquisitions 5 Zappos Overview 6 Acquisition of Zappos 9 Strategy 11 Why Amazon wanted to acquire Zappos 11 Regulation 14 Valuation 15 Comparable Company Analysis (Comps) 15 Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Analysis 16 Precedent Transactions Analysis 16 Historical Stock Price & Next Twelve Months (NTM) Analysis 17 Financing 19 Defence Tactics 21 Implementation 23 Risk 25 Conclusion 26 References 27 Books 27 eBooks 27 Journals 27 Online Images 27 Presentation 28 Reports 28 Websites 28 Executive Summary In November 2009, ‘Amazon, Inc.’ (Amazon) completed the acquisition of ‘Zappos.com, Inc.’ (Zappos) in a deal worth around $1.2 billion. Amazon announced in July 2009, that it had reached a deal to acquire Zappos in a deal worth $847 million. The deal was financed by 10 million shares of Amazon common stock (worth around $807 million) and $40 million of Cash and Restricted Stock units on the balance sheet. Amazon is an American international electronic commerce (e-commerce) company, while Zappos is an online shoe and clothing shop. The acquisition of Zappos by Amazon was a friendly takeover; the public announcement, negotiation...
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...student in order to help you with your studies. UKEssaysEssaysMarketingAmazon Com Case Study Analysis Marketing Essay submit to reddit Amazon Com Case Study Analysis Marketing Essay "We want to be the world's most customers Centric Company. . That we focus increasingly on trying to get the customer experience right. Within that we want to build a place where people can come and discover anything they might want to buy online." (Mellahi & Johnson, 2000). Executive Summary Amazon.com is an American electronic commerce company which has become as a symbol of internet business. It was first founded by Jeff Bezoz in 1995 when he began selling books online and to the date now, Amazon.com is the leading online market worldwide for its books and various other products. It was when the company aimed to be successfully the World's most customer oriented company. Customers can discover various products they wish to buy at reasonable and affordable prices. The strategy used by Jeff drove him to become the online leader of market. The main strategy used was to orient the business towards customers and to be innovative with continuous improvement in online shopping skills. Initially, it was used to be online sale of books and with the use of strategy and innovative approaches the business was expanded its boundary with introduction of various other products like toys, CDs, DVDs, computer software, apparel, furniture and goods etc. Amazon offers a large selection of books and...
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...Calculators, lemmings or frame-makers? The intermediary role of securities analysts Daniel Beunza and Raghu Garud Introduction As Wall Street specialists in valuation, sell-side securities analysts constitute a particularly important class of market actor.1 Analysts produce the reports, recommendations and price targets that professional investors utilize to inform their buy and sell decisions, which means that understanding analysts’ work can provide crucial insights on the determinants of value in the capital markets. Yet our knowledge of analysts is limited by insufficient attention to Knightian uncertainty. Analysts estimate the value of stocks by calculating their net present value or by folding the future back into the present. In so doing, they are faced with the fundamental challenge identified by Frank Knight, that is, with the difficulty of making decisions that entail a future that is unknown. These decisions, as Knight wrote, are characterized by ‘neither entire ignorance nor complete . . . information, but partial knowledge’ of the world (Knight, [1921] 1971: 199). The finance literature has not examined the Knightian challenge faced by analysts. Indeed, existing treatments circumvent the problem by adopting one of two extreme positions. In the first, put forward by orthodox economists, it is assumed that Knightian uncertainty is non-existent and that calculative decision-making is straightforward. Analysts are presented as mere calculators in a probabilistic world...
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...Positioning in Relation to Porters GenericStrategies * Strategic Models * Stakeholder Analysis.....continued on page 5 | 5 | Value Chain Analysis | 6 | 2.0 Business & Corporate level strategy | 7&8 | 3.0 Alternate strategy * Critical reflection | 9 & 10 | Bibliography/Harvard referencing | 11 & 16 | Supporting Appendices | Total word count : 2725 Inc titles/subtitles. Amazon’s Strategic Positioning. 1.0 Introduction This assignment is to establish Amazon’s strategic positioning in Europe in correlation with value innovations that may have contributed to Amazon’s success from 1995 to 2012. About Amazon Amazon is an eCommerce business based in the U.S and was started back in 1995 selling books, CD’s and other media. However Amazon’s profits were only noted in 2002 and to this day have annual sales equal to or more than $40billion with a customer base of nearly 144 million in purchase accounts and over 2 million market seller accounts. In 1998 Amazon also extended their market to the UK with an agreed takeover of Bookpage.co.uk and has since managed to establish their second biggest and most successful market overseas. Value Innovations. Since reporting profits in 2002 Amazon has invested in innovations that add value to the customer, keeps interest and encourages ease of purchasing. Some innovations that have aided in the success of Amazon tend to allow ease of use and convenience, this combined with special delivery discounts...
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...Tuesday, March 15, 2016 CASE STUDY QUESTIONS 1. Use the value chain and competitive forces models to evaluate the impact of the Internet on book publishers and book retail stores such as B&N. Value chain and competitive five forces model was provided by Michael porter and explains how to edge over rival firms in the industry. Value chain helps in identifying ways to create the best value for the customers and it’s a 3 step process: activity analysis, value analysis and lastly evaluating and planning. Five forces of competition according to Michael porter are: threat of substitutes, rivalry, supplier power, buyer power, and barriers to entry. B&N Company, publishers and other book retailers thrive to survive in the current competitive environment and with the internet posing all this challenges. Threat of Subtitute In the industry there are some of substitute that the customers might use if our product have a problem. With the new technology it can create new substitute all the time. Internet has enhanced development of e-books and e-learn which have become substitutes to physical books. As e-books are getting popular, the demand for traditional books have declined, and demand and supply more substitute products are getting dominant. This has threatened existence of both publishers and book retailers since people have adapted to using the current means which is of low cost and easy to access. Rivalry Amazon Company has been using e-book and e-learn to which...
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...Amazon.com Case study: Mission- to be the earth’s most customer-centric company • Relentlessly improving the customer experience by expanding selection and convenience while lowering prices; • Demonstrating sustained operating progress; • Positioning for growth; • Making innovation the foundation of everything the company does; • Focusing on optimizing free cash flow per share. What does it mean to have the mission, “the earth’s most customer centric company”? How well is Amazon achieving this mission? In its 2005 presentations to financial analysts and its shareholders meeting, Amazon.com described itself as having a new mission- to be the earth’s most customer centric company, which the company defined as “starting with the customer and working backwards.” One of the main goals of Amazon at the time and still relevant today is to relentlessly improve the customer experience by expanding selection and convenience while lowering the prices. Amazon started with the customer centric motive of expanding consumer options by offering a wider selection of books online versus an ordinary bookstore. Amazon has made their mission possible through many partnerships such as Target, Baby’s R Us, Nordstrom, Office Depot, etc. With the convenience of having many categories in one place and excellent customer service, customers continuously gave a high customer satisfaction rating to the company. Achieving the mission through partnerships and convenience. Ex. Partnership...
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...Assignment #2: Amazon.Com’s E-Business Model Je’neen A. Wilson, B.S. The Business Enterprise – BUS508 Strayer University – White Marsh Prof. A. Kobina Armoo Has Amazon Lost Its Identity? Amazon.com is a famous Internet retail company in E-commerce. Its business includes B2B and B2C. It opened its business in July 1996. Today, Amazon.com has expanded its business in more than two hundred and twenty countries and this company sells various products like electronics, books, music, DVD, House wares, PCs and cars (Amazon.com Announces 4th Quarter Profit 2002). It is the biggest retail store in E-commerce. Even though Amazon.com owns these accolades, this company is struggling to survive. Amazon.com had a $19 billion market value before its stock prices decreased from $75.25 to $9.25 (German, 2001). The problem is that Amazon still has not made real profits since it opened. How to help Amazon.com keep standing on the stage? If Amazon.com wants to survive in E-business and start making real profits, Amazon.com should merge with other retail companies, operate a new E-business strategy, and rebuild its financial structure. Business strategies and activities play a very crucial role in the future development of the organization. These strategies become more important, in case of e-business organization such as Amazon. Every organization uses different business strategies in order to remain in business. Some adopt customer- centric strategies; some uses strategies to maximize their...
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...Amazon.com - Financial Analysis Case Study Introduction The bookselling industry is one of the steady growing industries which have estimated the sales of $27 billion in the year 2006. The sales of the books highly depend on different seasons. The industry has diverse customers who buy different categories of books which includes the trade books, college books, professional books, mass market paper-back books. With stiff competition across the market, the companies are strongly focusing on adopting different ways and means so as to attract more and more consumers and achieving high market share in the industry. Company overview Amazon.com is considered to be the market player in the e-commerce industry (bookselling). Amazon.com was founded by Jeff Bezos, who focused on enhancing the book shopping experience of consumers, with innovation and new ways to sell books online. One of the major players of Amazon.com is Barnes and Noble. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore that has turned into one of the largest online retailers selling items from music and movies to artwork and furniture. As the company website states “it is by design that technological innovation drives the growth of Amazon.com to offer customers more types of products, more conveniently, and at even lower prices.” In this paper you will learn the financial health of the company Amazon.com. The 9-step process written about by Professor Piper will be followed to assess how financially sound Amazon.com...
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...Case Study Phase III Edgar Pavon-Hernandez American Military University Case Study Phase I Defining risk to an organization means identifying which assets are susceptible to a threat. This threat can cause damage to a company or can be costly. The most important aspect is to mitigate risk to keep tangible and intangible costs low. For example Amazon.com is an online shopping website. Because it is a website its revenue is from online orders. In the following sentences I will go over a few things which can be potential risk to the site. A risk to the company, Amazon.com, could be a hacker gaining unauthorized access to the websites server. The hacker could then begin attacking other servers within the site. If the main server as well as back up servers were to become infected and be brought offline. Another example could be a disgruntle employee who sells personal information which includes names, date of birth, credit card numbers as well as email addresses and passwords. Both of the above mentioned risks can cause the company damage in loss of revenue, which would be a tangible cost. But on the more serious side, the site would lose customers. This is the intangible costs. Because loyalty is an aspect of customers that cannot be bought or sold. Regaining lost customers due to a risk becoming a threat causes the site to have to take different measures to attempt to regain the lost customers. Another area that is susceptible to risk is the shipping...
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...Amazon.com - Financial Analysis Case Study Introduction The bookselling industry is one of the steady growing industries which have estimated the sales of $27 billion in the year 2006. The sales of the books highly depend on different seasons. The industry has diverse customers who buy different categories of books which includes the trade books, college books, professional books, mass market paper-back books. With stiff competition across the market, the companies are strongly focusing on adopting different ways and means so as to attract more and more consumers and achieving high market share in the industry. Company overview Amazon.com is considered to be the market player in the e-commerce industry (bookselling). Amazon.com was founded by Jeff Bezos, who focused on enhancing the book shopping experience of consumers, with innovation and new ways to sell books online. One of the major players of Amazon.com is Barnes and Noble. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore that has turned into one of the largest online retailers selling items from music and movies to artwork and furniture. As the company website states “it is by design that technological innovation drives the growth of Amazon.com to offer customers more types of products, more conveniently, and at even lower prices.” In this paper you will learn the financial health of the company Amazon.com. The 9-step process written about by Professor Piper will be followed to assess how financially sound Amazon.com...
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...Amazon.com - Financial Analysis Case Study Introduction The bookselling industry is one of the steady growing industries which have estimated the sales of $27 billion in the year 2006. The sales of the books highly depend on different seasons. The industry has diverse customers who buy different categories of books which includes the trade books, college books, professional books, mass market paper-back books. With stiff competition across the market, the companies are strongly focusing on adopting different ways and means so as to attract more and more consumers and achieving high market share in the industry. Company overview Amazon.com is considered to be the market player in the e-commerce industry (bookselling). Amazon.com was founded by Jeff Bezos, who focused on enhancing the book shopping experience of consumers, with innovation and new ways to sell books online. One of the major players of Amazon.com is Barnes and Noble. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore that has turned into one of the largest online retailers selling items from music and movies to artwork and furniture. As the company website states “it is by design that technological innovation drives the growth of Amazon.com to offer customers more types of products, more conveniently, and at even lower prices.” In this paper you will learn the financial health of the company Amazon.com. The 9-step process written about by Professor Piper will be followed to assess how financially sound Amazon.com...
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...Amazon case study analysis ---- Jiachuang Sun 1. Review of Amazon’s strategy between 2007 and 2009 Strategic analysis Profiling the business: ➢ Mission: Amazon’s mission is to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible price[1]. ➢ Product/service analysis: Since the establishment of Amazon, new products has been kept adding into the original book category and Amazon has moved further to provide service. There are three product categories in Amazon, media category, electronic and general merchandise category and other category like Amazon web service and Amazon Enterprise Solution. This means you can buy almost everything from Amazon. ➢ Sales and gross profit analysis: The net sales growth of Amazon in year 2007 and 2008 was in average 30% and the total sales in 2008 was $19166m. In the same time, the gross profit grew from $3353m in 2007 to $4270 in 2008. Actually, both the sales and profits grew quickly since 2001 and they seemed to grow at a quicker way. External environment analysis ➢ Opportunities and threats: • Opportunities: to further improve the speed of delivery; international expansion in emerging markets such as China and India; extension of brands into new areas; through acquisitions and partnership to consolidate Amazon’s technological capability...
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...Relationship marketing (5 approaches & basic principles) Relationship Marketing refers to a long-term and mutually beneficial arrangement where both the buyer and seller have an interest in providing a more satisfying exchange. This approach attempts to transcend the simple purchase-exchange process with a customer to make more meaningful and richer contact by providing a more holistic, personalized purchase, and uses the experience to create stronger ties. With the growth of the internet and mobile platforms, Relationship Marketing has continued to evolve and move forward as technology opens more collaborative and social communication channels. A simple example of this would be sending new customers a "Welcome Kit," which might have an incentive to make a second purchase. If 60 days pass and the customer have not made a second purchase, you would follow up with an e-mailed discount. You are using customer behaviour over time to trigger the marketing approach. Relationship Marketing Vs Transactional Marketing Transactional marketing is a business strategy that focuses on “single point of sale” transactions. The emphasis is on maximizing the efficiency and volume of individual sales rather than developing a relationship with buyer. On the other hand relationship marketing is a business strategy that seeks to establish long term relationship with its customers rather than focusing on single transaction, not only does it focus on individual customers but on all the stakeholders...
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...http://hwcampus.com/shop/busn620-weeks-assignments-latest-2016/ BUSN620 Week 1 Assignment Title: Week 1 Due Date: End of Week 1 1. Read weekly announcement 2. Participate in the weekly forum. 3. Review weekly assignments in the syllabus. 4. Please complete the following for your week 1 written assignment: Read Case #16- BMW of North America and answer the following questions (each question a subsection): 1. What is fueling BMW's Growth? 2. How is BMW Doing in the U.S? Compare the following 3 years (2012, 2013, & 2014) in terms of annual revenue, car sales, gross margins and end year stock sales (outside research required). 3. Is the "Dream It. Build It" program a sustainable advantage in the long term? Do you see any room for further improvement? (link to other companies to add depth; i.e. Ikea, etc.) 4. Do you think customers really need "millions of combinations" for their car? Can they be happy with available standard options? What are the downsides of mass customization? 5. How does this case study link to the topics presented in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 & Chapter 3? 6. submit your responses to the Weekly Assignment Folder: Additional resources for Case Study: • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ddq6O_QAz0 • http://www.anthonymonahan.com/BMW-Dream-It-Build-It-Drive-It Post/submit homework to the assignment folder for grading. Make sure you provide substantive graduate level answers. Review examples in resource section, grading rubric and APA guide prior to final...
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