Amazon's Big Branding Problem

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) has an odd little problem. Constant diversification has led to it having hundreds of different products and services in seemingly every industry. While shareholders love the revenue that these products and services spin-off, the fact that everything is named so inconsistently should be cause for alarm. (For more, see: These Are Amazon's 5 Biggest Bets for Next Year.)

Amazon 1.0

The "Amazon" brand was first. Products were labeled "Amazon-something" and the boxes were covered with the word "Amazon" as a neat form of free advertising. Eventually, the little A to Z arrow smile made an appearance and the Amazon logo that we all know today became standard.

As product lines grew, the Amazon brand began to take on different forms. Today the Amazon brand is as inconsistent within itself as the Amazon company is with its other brands. Take Amazon Marketplace for example. The transaction facilitator portion of the retailer is clearly owned by Amazon. The company name comes before the service name and the service is referred to simply as "Marketplace." (For related reading, see: Seven Iconic Brands That No Longer Exist.)

This naming practice is the same with Amazon Kindle and Amazon Prime, yet different from Amazon Studios and Amazon Publishing. Neither of the latter two are ever referred to simply as "Studios" or "Publishing." Recently, with AmazonFresh, Amazon has completely omitted the space between the company name and the service, an omission which often appears in its other logos but is not technically their official name.

Carrying on with the Amazon brand, its color scheme differs from product to product with no discernible reason. Amazon Kindle's logo uses yellow, Amazon Instant Video uses green, Amazon Cloud uses blue. AmazonFresh, is again unique with its incorporation of a red tomato (but only sometimes).

Kindle

Not content with just one brand, Amazon took its popular Kindle device and used the product name to spin-off a brand. Five years ago we would have purchased an Amazon Kindle but today we buy Kindle Paperwhites or Kindle Fire Tablets.

As an off-shoot, we install Kindle apps from the Amazon App Store, buy books from the Kindle Store or borrow them for free from Kindle Unlimited. Interested in publishing a book? Your choices are either Amazon Publishing or Kindle Direct Publishing, depending on the format of the book. Yet again with the mish-mash of colors, Amazon Kindle is stylized with yellow, Kindle Fire with orange and Kindle Paperwhite with blue.

Fire

Continuing along, Amazon found popularity in their Kindle Fire tablet and decided to release a string of them entitled Fire HD. Today we have Fire HD and HDX in a variety of sizes, as well as a Fire HD Tablet for Kids, a Fire TV stick and the short-lasting Fire Phone. These brands at least have a unified color scheme if not a confusing naming system. (For more, see: Six Branding Tips For Small Business Owners.)

Prime

The final spin-off brand is Amazon Prime. Originally the membership service for free delivery, Amazon Prime has turned into the ultimate membership for consumption. Amazon has since been dropped from the service's name, and subscribers—called Prime members—can take advantage not only of free two-day shipping but of free one-day shipping as well as same-day delivery (Prime Now).

Prime members also have access to Prime Music, Prime Video, Prime Day and Prime Fresh (which, confusingly enough, is an additional $299/year membership available to Prime Members who want access to AmazonFresh).

Other Amazon Brands

Abandoning Amazon and its spin-off brands for a moment, there's the question of all of Amazon's other smaller businesses that operate with their own branding entirely. The majority, like soap.com and Goodreads, were developed and popularized independently of Amazon and the brand name has value without adding in the Amazon name.

There is however, the odd-case of Pinzon, Amazon's private brand. For reasons unexplained, Amazon launched a private label bedding and towel business in 2009 and has barely promoted it. Today the label is officially called Pinzon by Amazon.com, a name that is similar enough to Handmade by Amazon yet just different enough to wonder why Amazon can't just keep things simple. (For more, see: Big Money in Private Labels.)

Why Is This a Problem?

Amazon's brand is valued at $38 billion according to Interbrand. However, this valuation must be hindered by the fact that the company is wholly inconsistent with its naming practices. Rather than have an Amazon TV, Amazon Delivery, Amazon Tablet, or Amazon Handmade, etc., the company uses existing related products and services and turns them into independent brands.

For shareholders, this could go one of two ways. Amazon could simplify its color and naming scheme to ultimately hold four strong brands rather than four weak brands, half of which can't stand alone without help from another. These four brands could become four independent companies or be used to increase the value of the parent company Amazon.com.

Alternatively, Amazon can continue what it's doing right now, creating new brands which build off of one another, leading to an alienation of any customers who can't remember if they need a Prime account to use Amazon Publishing to launch their book in Kindle format.

The Bottom Line

Amazon, as with its widely diversified product and services offerings, has a wide number of brands. These brands are inconsistent in terms of style and color choices even among themselves. For shareholders, Amazon's unfocused approached could either end with four strong and valuable brands or confusion among customers.

Source: Amazon's Big Branding Problem