The Ionology quadrant helps businesses establish where they stand within a market place and their current status in comparison with its competitors. This is determined by the size of the customer base a company is interested in pursuing and how these potential customers view the business (McKeown & Durkin, 2017). Amazon and Girlfriend Collective are two businesses in the same industry, that is, ecommerce. Amazon is an online retail store that sells nearly all things imaginable, including women’s clothes. On the other hand, Girlfriend Collective exclusively sells women’s clothing, especially activewear. These companies are in the same industry but belong to different quadrants of the Ionology quadrant.
Amazon belongs to the prime quadrant because it has all the five characteristics of prime businesses. First, it is the largest ecommerce business, which is the ultimate destination for any business. In particular, Amazon Fashion brings in annual revenues of approximately $4.5 billion (Statista, 2020). Second, the company has established itself as a global brand, and its website traffic comes primarily from direct traffic or engine searches of their brand name (McKeown & Durkin, 2017). Third, the company has vast resources as its disposal, which enables it to shape the entire market. Amazon commands a huge proportion of the market share and is a trendsetter for other companies (Danziger, 2020). Fourth, Amazon attracts new customers through its reputation. Most people are drawn to Amazon for its efficiency, which has become its main selling point. Finally, Amazon regularly buys other businesses for expansion purposes. For instance, the company has acquired many ecommerce shoe and clothing retailers such as Shopbop in 2006 and Zappos in 2009 (Danziger, 2020). It is evident that Amazon has firmly established itself in the online retail clothing industry.
Girlfriend Collective falls on the advocacy quadrant of the Iconology quadrant. First, being a relatively new company founded in 2016, the company has not made deliberate advertising efforts, and advocacy is its default position. For instance, only about 7% of the company’s traffic comes from display advertising (Similar Web). Second, the company’s website has a long and comprehensive “about” page, which indicates that customers are interested in learning more about but the products sold as well as the business itself (Girlfriend Collective, n.d.). Third, the company prides itself in making luxurious clothing from recycled materials. Although this is a strong point of differentiation, many companies have now adopted the use of sustainable production materials and methods. Next, the company relies on word-of-mouth and other offline efforts to obtain customers. For instance, the company runs numerous campaigns where people get discounts for referrals to others (Girlfriend Collective, n.d). Finally, Girlfriend Collective uses social media interactions to manage existing clients. For instance, in 2016, the company offered free leggings to customers who shared their purchases online. Girlfriend Collective has all the characteristics of an advocacy business.
Amazon’s vision is to be a “customer-centric company where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online” (Amazon, n.d.). Amazon has already achieved this goal because it has a reputation for having everything. Therefore, its goal should be to maintain this status by actively anticipating customer needs and working to meet them (McKeown, 2017). On the other hand, Girlfriend Collective’s vision is to “find a community of people who care about where their clothes come from as much as how they look” (Girlfriend Collective, n.d.). To achieve this, the company should embrace advertising to popularize sustainability as its value proposition (Tabrizi et al., 2019). It should leverage the power of advertising and social media to extend its outreach. Ultimately, the goal of most businesses is to have a wide and loyal customer base.
References
Amazon. (n.d.). Who We Are.
Danziger, P.N. (2020). Amazon, already the nation’s top fashion retailer, is positioned to grab even more market share.Forbes.
Girlfriend Collective. (n.d.)
McKeown, N. (2017). A Step by Step Guide to Digital Transformation.
McKeown, N., & Durkin, M. (2017). Chapter 6: The fifth principle of digital business strategy— current position. In The Seven Principles of Digital Business Strategy, 63-77. Business Expert Press.
Similar Web. (n.d.). Traffic overview: Girlfriend.
Statista. (2020). Top online stores in the fashion segment in the U.S. in 2020, by e-commerce net sales.
Tabrizi, B., Lam, E., Girard, K., & Irvin, V. (2019). Digital transformation is not about technology. Harvard Business Review, 13, 1-6.