Amazon will slowly phase in its plan to deliver products by using a drone, a technology most Americans still associate with use in covert military missions rather than dropping holiday gifts on the front porch.
The revelation of the drone delivery system, unveiled on a segment of “60 Minutes,” has generated a lot of talk both in the public and in the business community. That buzz, according to a column from Forbes, was part of the marketing plan all along.
“It’s just one small piece of a much larger, more thoughtful and possibly brilliant longer-term marketing plan for Amazon,” the Forbes articles stated.
The Forbes writer, Will Burns, speculated that the announcement was meant to generate talk just as the holiday shopping season begins to take off. But he also wrote that Jeff Bezos, the Amazon CEO, also meant to begin a process of getting Americans used to the idea of drones buzzing around overhead, delivering books, music and clothes to customers happy to get their orders quickly.
Amazon is not the first company to try the use of drones. Tech Crunch reports that during the Disrupt SF 2013 conference, Skycatch demonstrated a drone – dubbed the Tacocopter – that delivered tacos to a panel of experts on robotics.
Also, a Dominoes franchise in the United Kingdom used a drone this past summer to deliver two pizzas, according to Tech Crunch. And in China, SF Express started using drones on a limited basis to deliver packages.
Amazon’s program offers to deliver most small packages within 30 minutes, giving online customers the same immediate gratification that traditional shoppers get, according to the Tech Crunch article.
However, none of this is expected to happen soon. Bezos told “60 Minutes” the technology still needs to mature and that delivery by drone is still years away.
But Burns, writing in Forbes, said that Bezos’ marketing genius is evident in the announcement. The American public will need time to get used to the idea of drones being used in a positive way, since most associate drones with their use by the government in either war zones or to spy on others.
Burns also pointed out that consumers will need to get used to the idea of drones dropping in from the sky, potentially disrupting activities on the ground or colliding in midair.
“People will need to be absolutely convinced nothing can go wrong,” Burns writes. “It will take massive PR exposing the successes of early adopters, but just as much PR exposing the failures, exactly why the failures happened, and what Amazon is doing to fix the problems.
“Over time, our confidence in the concept will increase.”
Bezos is also taking advantage of the media getting the public used to the idea of drone delivery, rather than putting it on Amazon to do the same work through a costly and lengthy advertising campaign. In five years, Burns predicted, consumers will not only be used to the idea of drone deliver but also wondering why it hasn’t started already.
