In Public Relations your voice can only go so far without being backed up by fact, and where those facts come from is research. Without research justifying a reason the facts are just opinion and hold little water. So this week I sat down with a PR article to see how the research process affects a company.
One company that I am interested and seems to be advancing in all areas is Amazon. This past week Amazon announced that they are the proud new owners of Whole Foods. With this new ownership there are many promises that were made to mark down these processes. This has been backed up by many price reductions already being made.
“We’re determined to make healthy and organic food affordable for everyone. Everybody should be able to eat Whole Foods Market quality – we will lower prices without compromising Whole Foods Market’s long-held commitment to the highest standards,” said Jeff Wilke, CEO of AmazonWorldwide Consumer.
This has since been seen in the stores already and the prices are being lowered by large percentages. Even Amazon’s Echo and Dot devices are being sold in local Whole Foods store at lower cost. This brings to question what other Amazon products will be located in stores and what price changes will be made. This can make us wonder how many products is Amazon able to lower without going over a limit.
According to Forbes, one of the reasons is because of the value Amazon will be receiving through vertical integration that is the combination of two or more stages of production usually operated byy separate companies. Before Amazon was selling and only profiting as a retailer. Now they are moving into a higher margin of processing as well.
Well lets be honest the prices of organic Fuji apples are not being reduced by 43% without some number crunching and a research process behind the action.
How this applies to research is that this decision was not made over night. First the question had to be asked to see what the benefits of this merger would be for the companies, stakeholders, and consumers. Next, extensive research was done to develop the decision would be beneficial. Amazon and Whole Foods are now in the final steps of evaluating the outcomes.
Could this be the start of something new for two companies making other food retailers think about the next steps to take in order to keep consumers buying from them?
Amazon Press Release: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2295514
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