Brand Analysis eBay
The brand, eBay, was founded on September 1995 by Pierre Omidyar and Jeff Skoll. He envisioned eBay to be a marketplace that will serve as the venue of selling goods and services. In 1998, Pierre and his cofounder took in Meg Whitman and the three of them bought in experienced professionals and transformed eBay to what it is today, a company and a brand that focus on connecting people from all over the globe. For them, the focus of eBay was not just selling to people, but instead, making valuable interactions. Basically, eBay offers a service.
It gives sellers the ability to list their products for sell in a safe and high-traffic environment for the entire online world to see. It allows buyers to have access to a one-stop online shop where they can securely bid on their desired items and eventually purchase them. The key features of eBay’s service offerings are security, accessibility, and availability. The online store is accessible and available to anyone who has internet connection. eBay’s highly experienced staff makes sure that transactions are done in a safe and secure web environment. When it comes to the price, there is no price to pay to buy on eBay!
However, if you want to put your items for sale and start on auction, you have the choice to do so as a Power Seller and certain charges may apply. The price strategy is very effective because as a consumer, you get to enjoy the services for free. But if you want something extra, you then need to start paying for it. This price scheme is effective because consumers will really understand that if they want premium service, they need to pay for it. This is unlike other online companies and websites that require you to pay upfront without even offering any service first. As per distribution, eBay is available to almost everyone.
All you need is a computer and internet connection and you can access it. The marketing mix of eBay is based on a person-to-person trading environment online. The brand is promoted using e-marketing methods such as key working, banner advertisements, and other online ads. The brand is positioned to cater to the internet-savvy market. At first, almost anything of value can be sold on eBay. However, by forging partnerships with famous brands such as Disney, Sun, and GM, more upscale products are now available on eBay. The brand is positioned cleverly that it can cater to the upscale and lower markets.
The upscale products sold on eBay do not alienate the lower market segments; it even helps promote the brand and puts it in a premium, quality position! Right now, the room for improvement can be dictated by advancements in technology. Scientists and information management experts must be up to date to the latest innovations to keep eBay safe and secure. If there is new software for online security, eBay must adapt it immediately to make sure that all transactions done on the site are safe. Sources: http://www. cs. brandeis. edu/~magnus/ief248a/eBay/history. html
