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In his email to employees announcing that Amazon had just acquired their company,Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh assured his nervous team that their jobs were just as secure as they were a month ago, and that the Zappos vision "remains the same: delivering happiness to customers, employees and vendors."
We plan to continue to run Zappos the way we have always run Zappos — continuing to do what we believe is best for our brand, our culture, and our business. From a practical point of view, it will be as if we are switching out our current shareholders and board of directors for a new one, even though the technical legal structure may be different.
Chances are Zappos will be the same --for the time being. They will be a "wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon." But anyone who has owned, worked for, been a customer of, or a vendor for businesses that have merged,knows that the chances of Zappos not becoming Amazonized are very slim. Maybe not in 2009 or 2010,but chances are in 2011,like a pebble in shoe, a little bit of Amazon will infiltrate the Zappos culture.
Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Kathleen Carr reminds Zappos that Ben & Jerry's made a similar promise when they were purchased by Unilever.
When Unilever bought Ben & Jerry's, I felt the change. I missed the concerts, the tie-dye and the sightings of the bearded duo. And the company felt it too. Unilever assured us that Ben & Jerry's tradition of social mission would be preserved. And then the Eco-Pint was discontinued.
I know shoes to pints is not a fair comparison. But it gives me pause.
Will you keep your promise? Or should I lace up my walking shoes?
— Kathleen
Branding expert Laurie Ries offers up why the shoes don't fit at Amazon.com
To think Amazon can buy Zappos and leave it alone so that it remains vibrant, cutting edge and whimsical is foolish. It will never happen. Amazon might keep the Zappos name, but they will fold it into the Amazon way and system thereby losing that special Zapponess. Did Toys R Us feel like Toys R Us under Amazon? I think not.
Amazon should keep both its feet books and electronics. Too many feet in too many shoes isn’t a good thing for any brand.
Jeanne Bliss at Marketing Profs Daily Fix Blog is more optimistic. Yes, she says her antennae is up for changes at Zappos but overall she thinks the zaniness of Zappos will remain the zame.
On this point I stick my neck out to say that I believe in both of these companies' commitment. Here's why:
- They both began with a passionate focus on customers.
- They both still have leaders on board who think, drink, eat customer happiness.
- Bezos knows that messing with what Zappos has achieved in terms of emotional bonds with customers and employees is what they are buying. This is the currency of the brand. He knows not to mess with that. (check out the Bezos' video)
- Amazon saw a kindred spirit and asked it to bond with them. Tony characterizes it closer to a marriage/romance with his line above.
- Congruence of values will be an important compass in steering decisions.
In explaining why Zappos sold, CEO Hsieh said with Amazon's finances Zappos can "accelerate the growth of the brand and culture." Anyone who has worked in a company that has undergone rapid growth knows that its really hard to maintain the original culture.
The bigger a company gets, the more policies and procedures that are required. It is a rare occurance in business when additional money doesn't come with strings attached.
What Zapponians will be looking at is whether employees will still be encouraged and have the freedom to deliver customer happiness in a way they did for Zaz Lamarr in 2007 when her mom died.
In her now famous blog post, Lamarr shared that when her mother was critically ill she had ordered quite a few shoes from Zappos for her mom because she had lost weight and her old shoes didn't fit. Unfortunately,only two of the seven pair of shoes that Lamarr had ordered fit and because she was taking care of her mom she forgot to return the other pairs.
Zappos had sent her an
