Amazon.com's Communication Plan Report

Amazon is one of the largest companies in the world and continues to grow everyday. It is imperative that the communication plan matches that of its growing audience. 313 Associates proposes the following plan to build Amazon’s reputation and address potential challenges that the company may face in the future. Our team aims to uphold Amazon’s position as the leading e-commerce website, but also bridge the gap between the company and its stakeholders. Through extensive research, we have found that while Amazon is a highly competitive company, it is often viewed as unapproachable. This is mainly due to its size and broad spectrum of products and services. Some audiences even view Amazon as a monopoly that is willing to crush any competition. We want to help Amazon address these dissenters by proving that Amazon is a socially responsible company.

Another reputational issue that we intend to address is that of Jeff Bezos. As the wealthiest man in the world, Bezos has become a prominent name in the media. He is seen as a business tycoon rather than a human that people can relate to. We want to build Bezos’ reputation as a philanthropist, which will in turn make him more relatable to Amazon’s audiences. Furthermore, we found that there was public concern for Amazon's new headquarter locations. We aim to address these concerns and have created a communications plan to build support among the people living in these areas. Overall, our communications plan focuses on humanizing Amazon which will act as a catalyst to building a stronger more approachable company.

Jeff Bezos recently launched a $2 billion foundation called the Day One Fund. Although this is a step in the right direction in terms of philanthropy, it is simply not enough for the richest man in the world who is running a borderline monopoly within the e-commerce industry. It is not solely about how much money Bezos gives, but rather the combination of donating money and physically and personally engaging with communities. By expressing how much he cares and incorporating a more personal approach to philanthropy, Bezos can create a more personable relationship with Amazon’s constituencies.

Amazon should aim to set records amongst all corporate companies in terms of philanthropic contributions. If Amazon as a company decides that it doesn’t want to make a donation of this sort, then Jeff Bezos himself must take on this responsibility, which will undoubtedly benefit the company’s reputation due to the association of the CEO with his brand. Jeff Bezos is the wealthiest man in the world, so Amazon stakeholders expect that he does good with his money.

To emphasize Amazon’s devotion to philanthropy, Bezos and his team will be hosting the first annual Day One Foundation Gala in New York City. Two hundred celebrities and well known philanthropists will be invited to the St. Regis Hotel for a black tie ball and four course dinner, where they will also participate in an auction. One table at the gala will sell for $25,000, and one hundred percent of the proceeds from the gala tickets and the auction will be given to the Day One Fund. Furthermore, Jeff Bezos will match the amount of money raised from the gala, and add that to the total sum to be given to the foundation. For example, if $500,000 is raised from the gala, a total of $1,000,000 will be donated to the Day One Fund.

The event will be filmed live on national television, and all guests will be prompted to post on their social media platforms using hashtag: #ForDayOne. Amazon Inc’s social media and Jeff Bezos’s personal account will also be posting updates of the event. News leading up to and after the event will be pitched to national news outlets including New York Times, the Skimm, BBC world news, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC. The event will be filmed live for national television. In return, Amazon will gain positive news coverage that associates the company as a socially responsible organization.

There are multiple ways in which Amazon will integrate media into their new campaign. For paid media, social media boosting will be a large portion of the campaign. Utilizing their social media handles on Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook will be used to promote the gala. These platforms will also serve as a medium for information in the communities where the new headquarters will be to notify citizens of events happening they can participate in. In terms of paid advertising, Amazon has decided to launch a donation program. When checking out, customers will have the option to donate $1 (or more) to a varied list of charities, including the Day One foundation. For earned media, Amazon will invite reporters, influencers, and philanthropic celebrities to the gala in hopes that they will report back to their followers the success of the event and campaign message. The week of the event, as well as the week following, Amazon executives will appear on talk shows such as Ellen, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, etc. to talk about the campaign and advise on how those not in attendance can contribute to the cause. Owned media will rely heavily on a public relations campaign surrounding Jeff Bezos. The campaign will be a promotional video showing Bezos volunteering at homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and schools. The video will include testimonials from those that have benefitted from Bezos’ foundation. Shared media will rely on influencer promotion through Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat covering the event. The gala will also be live streamed, with the entirety of it being available to prime members, and the highlights available to the general public.

Without question, today’s corporate society is driven by social media. While it is important for any corporation to have a presence on social media, it is far more important to use it effectively. In Amazon’s case, they continue to optimize and grow their social media presence to promote themselves as an outlet for just about any need. Amazon is different in that it is such a large corporation that it must promote what they do rather than the products they sell.

In order to bring humanity back to Amazon, we seek to establish this through the gala we previously mentioned. In order to shed light on this cause, we will reach out to influencers who market to all different demographics and invite them to attend. Thus, these people will show that they support the cause and will hopefully influence others to also support. This bring backs humanity in that people are acting as a community to work for the greater good, rather than monopoly.

Another challenge that Amazon currently faces is gaining support for its new headquarters locations. Many people in Queens, New York and Arlington County, Virginia are against Amazon’s new headquarters locations. We need to address these dissenters and gain their support. Amazon plans to hire community managers who will act as the liaison between the company and its publics. Although Amazon’s move into these areas may indeed impact the housing market, Amazon is devoted to helping the communities in which they are moving. One way that Amazon can gain attention is to put some of their revenue into philanthropic efforts. This will appeal to the target audience and this show that Amazon cares about something other than being a large, expanding corporation. Similarly, Amazon can help customers stay interested in small businesses that currently exist in the new headquarter areas. They can do this by hosting events (i.e. charity events) at small businesses and incentivizing people to continue supporting them. Furthermore, a community manager can look into what benefits local customers may want and promote this through a prime membership. With a prime membership, customers can receive exclusive benefits that directly correspond with their community.

With Amazon’s announcement of the new locations of HQ2, our main audience is those who live in the affected areas. Specifically focusing on the New York move, the members of the community located in Queens are unhappy with Amazon’s most recent decision. Currently, Queens is New York City’s “most middle-class borough” and “thirty-three percent of the borough still lives in lower-income areas” (Rosenberg). Amazon needs to humanize itself to the community members who live in Queens and the Amazon workers in the packaging centers.

The City is paying Amazon close to $3 billion in subsidies and tax breaks (Zetlin) and Queens is outraged. Not only is their housing overpriced, but their road and transit options are crowded and unemployment is still at a thirty-year low (NYN). New Yorkers are worried that with Amazon nearby, housing prices will costs even more and overburden an already weak infrastructure. Amazon promises to bring around 25,000 jobs over the next ten years, but the people of Queens doubt that they are the ones who are getting those jobs. In addition to the already troubling housing situation, Amazon’s site will be placed near The Queensbridge Houses, one of the nation’s largest public housing projects. Those who are moving into Queens will most likely be the working millennial’s aged 22-27 (Dimock). These working millennials are the driving forces behind gentrification. As the people of Queens have already brought up, the jobs Amazon is promising are most likely not going to them but to working millennials (Moraes). In addition to bringing in outsiders for jobs, the outsiders will also increase housing prices, and crowd the already busy transportation systems.

In addition to focusing on those affected in the neighborhoods, Amazon has to focus its attention to its own employees. Amazon workers are unhappy with the newest minimum wage. Amazon increased the new wage to $15 and hour but will no longer give out “new stock grants and monthly bonuses” (Weise). Although workers are being paid more by the hour, they’re losing more in the long run. For some seasonal workers the higher minimum wage is a bonus but for those other long term workers, the raise is less beneficial.

In order to measure the results of our communications plan, we will be measuring qualitative results. Because our ultimate goal is to bridge the gap between Amazon and its customers, we need to look at the emotional connection that stakeholders have towards Amazon. Our first step will be to scan news media outlets. Coverage that ranges from giving positive to neutral attributes to Amazon can be considered a success. We also want to decrease the amount of negative coverage Amazon receives. By making Amazon more charitable and Jeff Bezos more relatable, we believe less people will criticize the company. We also will be monitoring social media to measure our success in increasing company activity online. We can measure quantitative results by counting shares, mentions and engagements. More importantly, we will measure the quality of response to Amazon’s social media (positive or negative). This feedback will allow 313 Associates to evaluate our communications plan and make changes as needed. Although we are not concerned with helping Amazon grow financially, we believe that by making the company more ‘human,’ it will contribute to even more financial success.

Works Cited

Dimock, Michael. “Where Millennials End and Post-Millennials Begin.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 1 Mar. 2018

Moraes, Lisa de. “'The Daily Show's Jaboukie Young-White Unhappy Amazon HQ Coming To Queens.” Deadline, Deadline, 16 Nov. 2018

“NYS Unemployment Rate Dips to 4.0%, Matching All-Time Low.” Labor Statistics for the Hudson Valley Region - New York State Department of Labor, Oct. 2018

Rosenberg, Zoe. “Where Do Middle-Class New Yorkers Live?” Curbed NY, Curbed NY, 9 Aug. 2017

Salinas, Sara. “Jeff Bezos Launches $2 Billion 'Day One Fund' to Help Homeless Families and

Create Preschools.” CNBC, CNBC, 13 Sept. 2018,

www.cnbc.com/2018/09/13/bezos-launches-day-one-fund-to-help-homeless-families-and-create-preschools.html.

Weise, Karen. “Why Some Amazon Workers Are Fuming About Their Raise.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 9 Oct. 2018

Zetlin, Minda. “Amazon Plans to Bring Half of HQ2 to Queens. New Yorkers Don't Want It.” Inc.com, Inc., 15 Nov. 2018