Comparing Amazon.com with Borders Group

Amazon.com online eBooks Company and Border Group Company have been in the businesses for a long timenow, but their successes and failures have diverse magnitudes. Online selling and purchase of books has had a noteworthy effect on the global learning arena. The books are put on display on their website for people to sample their synopsis before ordering them. This is a far reaching strategy that has built up the availability of indigenous and exotic information as the companies act as databases for the books. Currently, Amazon is the leading eBook company followed by Borders, which is the 2^nd largest United States book-seller chain.

History

Amazon.com

The world nowadays has changedindividuals into lovers of the internet, because almost everything is purchased online. In 1994, Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com. At the beginning, the business was situated in his garage in Bellevue, Washington. An opportunity availed itself when anentrepreneur called Nick Hanauer invested $40,000 in Jeff’s business enterprise. He believed in his venture. Amazoneventually got determined to go online, though its design was not as flamboyant as it appearsnowadays. The website looked so unadorned and unsophisticated that those who visited it were not left with a long-lasting effect. The business commenced on shaky ground until in 1995when Tom Alburg invested $100,000 in Amazon. This assisted the company to create animprovedwebsite and began hosting. This drew many customers to buy books from Bezos merchandise, and this expanded the market share of the company not only from Washington State, but also all over the country.His success emerged when he allowed individuals to write reviews on books. People regarded Amazon not only as a bookshop, but also as an online community. By the year 1997, the company had accumulated $15.7 million inrevenue. It went public, and CDs and movies were added to the website. This was not enough for the company, and in 1998, Amazon supplemented heir stocks withhome enhancement items, toys, electronics, software and games. This enormous success did no go the right way for some people who alleged that Amazon was receivingso much atanincrediblyshort time.

Borders Group

The founders of this company are brothers by the names Tom and Louis Borders. Their foremost bookstore in 1971 was located in Ann Arbor, the headquarters. At the time, they were still scholars at the University of Michigan. The brothers set up more stores in Indianapolis, Michigan and Atlanta, and then created a stylish system that made it possiblefor them to followup bookstore sales and supply. Not only did they use their own bookstores, but they also sold their Book Inventory Systems (BIS) to various booksellers. They opened their first large scale bookstore in 1985, and included in it was a coffee bar. This alone raised the bar for the subsequent aspiring booksellers. They then hired a Harvard MBA student, Robert DiRomualdo, in 1988. He had a vast experience on retail and this aimed at expanding the business. His headship in the next four resulted into massive growth of the borders bookstore chain. By the year 1992, Kmart bought the Borders and formed the Borders-Walden Group. Business was still in its peak, but after the sale book earnings began to dwindle than it was anticipated. As Kmart stared to have his own retail dilemma, in 1995, they separated themselves from theseries of bookstores, turning off the Borders Group with an opening public offering. The Borders Group stretched outglobally from 1997, starting with a bookstore in Singapore,and afterwards over 40 stores in Australia, Europe, Asia and purchasing a chain of 35 stores chain and named it, Books.

Management and Marketing Strategies

The business philosophy of Amazon is mainly focused on the consumers, regardless of its enormous growth. The company has 425 goals that were created in 2009, and among them, 360 unswervingly affected customers. Their mission statement goes: “We are looking forward to becomingthe Earth’s most customer-centric online company for the three customer primary sets: seller customers,consumer customers, and developer customers.”(Rich, 2009). Consumer satisfaction is the key to any success in the business. Therefore, this implies that the goal of consumer satisfaction should be the most important strategy for any business that wises to attain its set goals and objectives. This is because these loyal customers then pass on the news of quality services to their families and friends. Eventually, the restaurant begins to enjoy a large market share in the competitive market. The marketing manager should ensure that the product and service department creates the need for the consumers to try out the various items on the menu each time that they are served in the restaurant. This implies that the restaurant will market itself through quality service provision. This marketing strategy only requires perfection and the management incurs minimal costs.

 The operational strategies of the company revolve aroundsix core values namely: novelty; bias for action; possession; high hiring bar and prudence. It is devoted to enduringdevelopment based on consumer pleasure. On the other hand, Borders Group focuses on reaching their customers by bringing their services closer to them. There first, unique way of consumer satisfaction was designing a coffee bar within is premises. By the year 2003, they had 1,249 stores under the name Borders and Waldenbooks. They stroke a deal with Starbucks subordinate, Seattle's Best Coffee so as to manage cafes in its superstores.

Another unique feature of Amazon is that a large share of its promotion is concealed or not direct. Its ads are worth one million dollars, through Super Bowls andit also postsbrochures in marketplaces e.g.shopping malls Amazon.com believes incrafty online tactics, well-builtassociate relations and a steadyaffirmation of excellence to promote itself to the people. Autonomous Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing has been the disgrace of Amazon.com’spromotioncrusade. Amazon.com has considerably extended its product submission, global sites and worldwide set of connections, so as to fulfill customer services. In the present day, it offers a lot figuratively e.g. tennis equipment, diamond jewelry and manages sites for the France, U.K., Japan, Germany, Canada and China (Joyo.com). By the year 2000, Amazon.com started to offer e-commerce display place to other merchants and individual sellers. At the moment, top-notch retail brands and individual sellers boost their market shares and get in touch with new clientele by the influenceof the Amazon.com’s e-commerce display place. Through initiatives e.g.Advantage, Marketplace, and by operating with the company’ssupplementary Amazon Services, various sellers offer their range of assortment to Amazon.com clientele by means of various mechanisms of the e-commerce platform.

The marketing strategies proposed for implementation should be such that they are within the budget constraint of the restaurant. This means that the marketing manager should not spend all the funds on marketing strategies at the expense of the restaurant profits. The funds used should be reasonable. This is irrespective of the expected outcome. This is because the optimum goal of any enterprise in profit maximization.

The investors’ interest should also be taken into consideration when carrying out the marketing strategies. This is both in terms of the current investors and the new investors. As for the current investors, marketing strategies should be carried so as to increase the revenue. However, this should not be carried out at the expense of the profit margins. As for new investors, it is extremely crucial to tell them of how well the restaurant is performing in the market.

The Borders Group,while holding on to their rank as the 2^ndlargest bookstore chain in the United States, had difficulty competing in the book market. After its collapsed early attempt, Borders was terribly late to create an online e-commerce infrastructure from 2001 to 2008. It joinedAmazon, to manage its online dealings. Supportedmainly by book publishers from 2002 to 2004, it tried to revive its credibility in the market, but never fully put into practice the resulting intellect into its stockpile layouts.On the third month of 2007, borders Group publicized that it would cut down half the number of Waldenbooks channels it owned, to almost 300, in the subsequent year. Furthermore, in March 2007, itmade known the removal of its UK and Ireland commerce together with its merchandise.The Borders Group filed for Chapter 11 on February 16, 2011, after the United States Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan made public that it would shut 200 stores. Borders declared the shutting down of 28 extrabookstores on March 17, only two days following a 90-day extension of their deadline by a Manhattan bankruptcy judge to conclude on the lease oftheir property.

Therefore, the supremacy of the eBooks companies between Amazon.com and Borders Group is undoubtedly Amazon. Their marketing strategies paid off from the word go, even though they came late into the market. In the world of technological advancements, more sophisticated strategies have been and are still being assembled to create a harmonious and fast lane life.