Ctrl-alt-frank
Amazon runs risk of being seen as big bully
Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) - by Frank Catalano
An open letter to Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive officer, Amazon.com Inc.:
Dear Jeff,
Let me first apologize for any undue familiarity in addressing you as Jeff. We've never met. However, in your analyst's calls, public interviews, and personal appearances you come across as a likable, personable guy (albeit one with a laugh that would amaze a hyena). So it seems you want people to be comfortable enough to think of you by your first name.
That comfort, however, is a growing challenge. Your personal style is increasingly at odds with the actions of your company. Indeed, your company is apparently sliding into the same muck from which Microsoft is only now extricating itself after its legal and goodwill missteps.
Basically, Amazon seems to be going down the slippery path of treating customers like assets and the press as the enemy. Let me offer a few examples of how what may be good business decisions individually can be dangerous in aggregate.
Let's start with that revised privacy policy of last fall, the one stating that any customer information can be shared with any Amazon partner. Amazon explained that the change came about due to the need for a clearer policy.
But if clarity - and not outright ownership of all customer information - was Amazon's goal, why not make the new policy effective the date of the change for only subsequent transactions? If I'd been surreptitiously buying Spice Girls items, I could stop, knowing full well future purchase information might be shared. But the new policy was applied retroactively to all purchases and shows no option for removing any purchase information.
I expect many customers now pause before hitting "Place Your Order," and some don't hit that button at all. I'm reminded of the hue and cry privacy groups raised over the terms of service for Microsoft's Passport service, terms which essentially gave Microsoft the right to do anything it wanted with any private Passport data in conflict with Microsoft's own privacy policy for the site, a problem Microsoft now pledges to remedy.
How about lawsuits? This year a federal district judge in Washington state threw out the suit Amazon.com filed against a Los Angeles company called Amazontan.com. Your company claimed trademark infringement. At the time, Amazon vowed to continue the legal battle in California.
The site sells tanning products. Jeff, the words "Amazon" and "tan" have a much longer and more logical association than the words "Amazon" and "books" or even "Amazon" and "lawn furniture." Not only does this send the message that Amazon is happy to squish the little guy, but it makes about as much sense as Apple's one-time cease-and-desist letters to any maker of computer products that had a fruit in the product name. Or Microsoft's successful efforts to trademark the name Bob (a failed product) and the initials NT.
As an analyst and commentator, I'll try not to sound too sensitive on this next issue. But do you really think it helps your image when Amazon continually stiffs the local news media? Sure, Wall Street loves it when you're repeatedly on "Good Morning America" and the BBC, but cancellations of local interviews and ignored requests from local reporters are flat out irritating when it's clear you leap for the phone when Katie Couric calls.
I suspect you've been told that as a global company you must cater to the global press. But Amazon is also a Seattle company with local employees and economic impact. In a vacuum of official answers, rumor and aggressive enterprise reporting rush in.
Microsoft slowly awakened to this reality after years of largely ignoring the local press, then discovering that through the miracles of satellites and syndication locally originated Microsoft stories don't stay local for long.
Of course, you may wonder what the big deal is when it comes to the overall approach these three examples illustrate - after all, many of the same tactics (treating customers as cattle, loosing take-no-prisoners lawyers, and stonewalling press) were applied by Microsoft. And Microsoft is, even at its worst, insanely profitable.
But the difference is Amazon doesn't create its own products. It sells commodities that people can easily get elsewhere. So what you're really selling is convenience, service, and trust. This last is easy to erode through the kinds of maneuvers Amazon has been executing.
Amazon.com isn't just the world's biggest bookstore. It's running the risk of also being tagged the world's biggest bully. It doesn't hurt to remember that a best-selling novel purchased from bn.com reads just as well.
Cordially,
Frank Catalano
Customer since at least 1998
Frank Catalano is the principal of Catalano Consulting, a strategic marketing firm advising technology companies. He also provides tech industry analysis for KCPQ-TV Seattle, is co-author of "Internet Marketing for Dummies," and gets Amazon.com spam at catalano@catalanoconsulting.com.
Latest News |
Most Viewed Stories |
Most Emailed Stories |
