Digital Storytelling Analysis of “Amazon”
Amazon.com, Inc., briefly Amazon, is an e-trade and cloud computing company based in the United States. It was founded by Jeff Bezos on July 5, 1994 in Seattle, USA. It is the world’s largest shopping site in terms of total sales volume and market value. Therefore, we wanted to analyze the digital storytelling on Amazon ‘s website, which has such great success worldwide.
1. Name of the story / e-trade website
“Amazon” is given to women who participated in the war as the Amazons of ancient times. According to Vocabulary.com, Amazon is the woman who reminds of great, powerful, warrior-like women, legendary Greek women warriors. According to Vocabulary.com, defining someone as an amazon can sometimes mean negative. Amazon may also be an admirable term for a sculptural, athletic woman. Founder Jeff Bezos decided to have his company name Amazon because he inspired the name Amazon from the Amazon River in South America and also the name started with the first letter of the alphabet “A”.
As a summary, while determining the Amazon name, it was observed that no choice was made considering the service area of the company. Considering the warrior meaning of Amazon, it can be deduced that it will be ambitious towards the competitors in a similar category. But at the same time, the negative meaning of the warrior should be taken into consideration. As a result, Amazon is not touching the emotions and connects with the consumer with the name. It is positioned as a more commercial site.
2. Message, the story / e-trade website
Amazon welcomes the consumer with the message “Welcome to Amazon.com” at the entrance of the site. We ship over 45 million products worldwide. ”. Again, on the main page, it states that you can shop on the site from different locations. In a nutshell, the main message Amazon wants to give is globalism, accessibility as well as a wide product range. The arrow from A to Z in the logo supports the main message. A comment similar to the comments made while evaluating the name can be said for the message that the e-commerce site wants to give; The site has a commercial stance, far from the approach that touches the emotion.
3. Entrance of the story / Home page of the e-trade website
The homepage of Amazon has an industrial look, as mentioned earlier. As a consumer, it is quite difficult to establish an emotional bond with the brand.
4. Journey that the e-trade website promises to consumers
E-trade sites should offer consumers a journey while searching for a product. When evaluated from this point of view, Amazon offers a journey that can answer almost any questions consumer may have about the product with detailed product promotions, comparison tables and promotional videos.
However, the request for membership, which is compulsory at the stage of product purchase, affects the journey negatively. Many consumers are tired of signing in to sites and then receiving campaign e-mails from companies. For this reason, completing the shopping without becoming a member has become a preferred feature for many consumers.
As mentioned before, the journey that the website presents to consumers has to be designed carefully (easy and clear) and smoothly. Journey has to be supported by the storytelling for consumers to enjoy spending time in the website and have a satisfied user experience.
5. Conflicts / Contradictions / Analysis in the e-trade website
Considering the accessibility of the main messages and the message on the main page: “You are on the Amazon.com page. Fast shopping for millions of products with local delivery from Amazon Turkey “, explains consumers that the company removes the distance with local solutions; which is actually removing the contradiction and offering solutions to consumers.
6. Archetype of the character / e-trade website
As Ballester & Sabiote (2016) mentioned, the use of archetypes in brand story helps to connect with others (e.g., consumers), and present products and brands, in a meaningful way. Since archetypes are forms or images of a collective nature that represent a typical human experience, define the personality of a brand, and give a voice to express the story to the consumers, e-trade websites should also benefit from the advantages of archetypes to generate the impact on consumers and to make the core message, mission of the brand or company pass to the consumers easier.
Amazon can be identified as a “hero” among the archetypes with its warrior, combative features. The hero’s life axis is power. The hero has a rare vitality and resistance that he uses to fight for power or honor. It does everything so as not to lose. In fact, it doesn’t lose because it never gives up. The hero can be overly ambitious and in control. The fact that Amazon is the number one e-commerce site of the world is like a proof that the archetype gave its right.
However, the convenience, affordable prices and wide range of products Amazon offers are the result of a customer-oriented approach and are among the features of the hero archetype. Amazon does its job quickly, effectively and to the high standards of its customers. The main messages he gives on the site also emphasize these features.
7. Place / Atmosphere of the e-trade website
Creating a “Place” in e-trade websites is actually to create an atmosphere that will evoke emotions in the minds of consumers. “Amazon” has a layout that makes it easy for the consumer to find the product they are looking for, where the wide product range is clearly separated by categories. An online wardrobe atmosphere has been created on the site. But this atmosphere is not an atmosphere that touches emotions, but rather cold.
8. Narration / The narrative language of the e-trade website
Description, adjective, idiom, first person singular and plural person use increases the sincerity in communication language and creates a warm atmosphere. It has not implemented this element of digital storytelling on Amazon. The site, which has a mechanical language, supports the cold and commercial perception.
9. “Feature + Benefit + Meaning” analysis of the products in the e-trade website
Amazon shares its product features and benefits in great details, and supports the information it provides with visuals, text and video. However, a meaning supported by storytelling is not attributed to the products.
10. Persuasion capability of the e-trade website
One of the most important roles of digital storytelling is to assist the consumer in the decision-making process by convincing the consumer when buying a product.
When the website of Amazon is examined, it is observed that detailed information about the product is almost all the questions that the consumer has in mind. The site does not establish an emotional connection with the consumer, but it has the qualities that can convince the product to buy with its content.
11. Recall level of the e-trade website
As brand awareness increases, recall level of the brand increases in consumers’ mind. Stories help to increase brand awareness, which has a positive effect on the recall level of the e-commerce website.
From this point of view, Amazon has a very high brand recognition, so the level of recall is high in the consumer mind too. However, the site does not have a stance supported by digital storytelling that will increase the level of recall.
12. Reality of the e-trade website
Having a true story is one of the most important elements of storytelling, stories should not be evaluated and prepared as fiction. Stories should reflect the facts. Amazon is a realist site with its stance and product presentation, it is not possible to talk about fiction, it is real.
Summary of Amazon Storytelling Analysis:
The average score of Amazon in the digital storytelling analysis is 6.7 out of 10. Amazon needs to develop the digital storytelling elements above to connect with the consumer and touch emotion. The commercial hardware of Amazon is very strong, brand awareness is very high. For this reason, the success of the site cannot be ignored, but if the site is strengthened with digital storytelling elements, it will get better business results.
