Wei Yun Lim's Blog #1

Being an avid reader of both books and comics, I am concerned about the decline of young readers and the gradual fall of print media. As a result, I am excited at the prospect of e-publishing as a more appealing and environmentally friendly alternative to the printed word, and wish to be able to market this to people as an economically viable option. My goal is to be able to use this course to provide me with a greater understanding of the communications industry. While I already have a rather specialized goal in mind, I do believe that this course will provide me with greater understanding of marketing in a professional capacity, as well as allow me to interact with professionals who will be able to share their expertise. The first week of class already showed me just how little I know about marketing, having never studied it in an official capacity, and I look forward to expanding my horizons and looking at various aspects of the communications industry.

The brand that I have chosen for the TTIY project is the Amazon Kindle. I selected it not only because of my interest in e-publishing, but also because of the recent unveiling of the new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite, and it will be fascinating to follow the market trends until the release date. Firstly, I noticed that the front page of the Amazon Kindle store is already boasting its new product:

Sadly I did not manage to locate a screenshot of its front page from two weeks ago, in which users were invited to pre-order the Kindle Paperwhite, rather than viewing the Paperwhite next to the Kindle Fire.

From my understanding, the Amazon Kindle targets a lower-cost market, providing users with a cheaper alternative to its primary competitor, the iPad. Amazon has made no secret of this being their target market in the past, reflecting the two prices in their front page:

(image credit to http://avideogamelife.wordpress.com)

This makes it suitable for the avid reader who does not wish to use the iPad, or the other services offered by a tablet. While I am aware that the Amazon Kindle does not target students as a whole, as evidenced by this article (http://techpinions.com/battle-of-the-tablet-business-models-amazon-kindle-fire/10619), I believe that I am still part of its target market as an avid (and broke!) leisure reader. I believe that I have begun to read more ever since my aunt bought me a Kindle for my birthday three years ago, and wish to explore how Amazon have used their series of tables to renew and revive interest in what was one believed to be a dying industry.