Mediabistro’s Patrick Coffee tapped RSR’s Director of Technology, Gareth Price, for his perspective on the future of retail and Amazon’s ongoing stature as “America’s ‘Most Favored’ Brand.”
Excerpt:
“Amazon is the best perceived brand of 2013 largely through it’s combination of mass-market reach and being included in the warm glow that tech brands have enjoyed in 2013. As a company whose retail strategy is centered on providing lowest price, highest convenience access to commodity goods, Amazon’s perception is heavily tied to the public’s perception of tech in general.In 2013, tech has been an industry that has largely avoided the criticisms that other large industries that have benefitted from automation and deregulation (finance, real estate, etc) have been subjected to (namely, systemic inequality and the perception that these industries belong to a plutocratic class).As Amazon grows they will face competition from smaller, nimbler competitors that provide a specialized service in niche areas (eg. Zappos in shoes). The lessons from the history of American retail suggest that trying to be everything to everyone at the lowest price is difficult to maintain in the long run (eg. Sears, small-town department stores) and forming an emotional connection that resonates and adapts with consumers will be the key to maintaining long-term brand perception.”