Amazon Prime Adds Value

            Recently, the web giant Amazon.com, added music to its Prime bundle service.  This was a bold marketing move that adds even more strength to its expanding service.  To better understand what Amazon is doing as a company, first understanding what Amazon Prime is, and second, realizing how adding music will create more value for current members is important.

            Amazon Prime is a service that generally costs $99 a year and as little as $40 a year for college students.  After becoming a member, Prime users can then get free two-day shipping on millions of items, video streaming services, e-book rentals, and now over one million different songs to listen to.  Amazon Prime continues to be a successful marketing strategy and not only pulls in new customers, but also keeps them locked in for good (Perez, 2014).

            Adding music creates more value for Prime users by allowing them to access all of their favorite media through one platform.  One Prime membership could potentially allow someone to cancel his or her Spotify and Netflix accounts, saving him or her over $100 per year.  When breaking down the cost of Prime by month, it is only $8.25 for a general account.  Prime beats the monthly price of Netflix and Spotify, while still giving users countless hours of media to enjoy (Pepitone, 2014).

            Overall, Amazon Prime is a major strength for the company because it allows users to get free two-day shipping and a variety of streaming options, and with the addition of music, Prime is arguably the best value out there right now when it comes to streaming services.  I think Prime has really strengthened the company as a whole, and as a marketer, I know a lot can be learned by watching what Amazon does next with Prime.

References

Parez, S. (2014, July 23). Tech Crunch. Retrieved October 12, 2014, from Techcrunch.com:

http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/23/amazon-expands-prime-music-catalog-by-hundreds-of-thousands-of-songs/

Pepitone, J. (2014, June 12). NBC News. Retrieved October 12, 2014, from NBCnews.com: http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/amazon-prime-music-isnt-spotify-killer-it-doesnt-want-be-n129586

Key Attributes for Success in the Workplace

Professional employees should have at least three characteristics. First, they should take responsibility by owning up to the choices that they have made. Second, they should show initiative by completing tasks without being told.  Third, they should share credit with other employees when a job or task is completed well.  When the whole team is happy, then the boss is happy.  Employees who have these characteristics are bound to do well. (Ritter & Joseph, 2014)

            Taking responsibility is extremely important because it shows ownership of actions. Employers will frown upon those who happily take responsibility during good times but quickly pass the blame when mistakes are made.  Such behaviors of passing off responsibility could take a toll on employees’ integrity in the workplace. (Ritter, 2014)

            Showing initiative is crucial to being professional because employers will not always list every task or objective that needs to be completed.  When employees show initiative, they prove that they can focus on assigned tasks and go above and beyond what is expected.  Employers are then free to work on other objectives without having to worry about the job getting done. (Joseph, 2014)

            Sharing the credit is another key component to being professional because it builds morale within the company.  Building morale promotes a cohesive team atmosphere.  Employees who take all the credit for success fail to recognize the importance of teamwork.  Professional employees should try to build up those around them in order to produce synergy.

Employees must take responsibility, show initiative, and share credit among their co-workers to be professionals.  These characteristics will impress employers and raise morale within a company.  If employees do these things in harmony, it will create an extremely effective and successful environment.

References

Joseph, C. (2014). 10 Characteristics of professionalism. Retrieved October 1, 2014, from smallbusiness.chron.com: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/10-characteristics-
professionalism-708.html

Ritter, B. A. (n.d.). Ten qualities of a valuable employee. Retrieved from http://rcg.org/youth/articles/0412-tqoave.html