I have written about the laws of unintended consequences, perception and bias, and the narrative previously. According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, “narrative”:

• a story or a description of a series of events.
• a particular way of explaining or understanding events.

A story has three sides – your version, my version, and the narrated version. As I sift through 300 stories a week to produce this newsletter, it is clear that stories are managed or not. We live in an era where stories can travel continents in minutes via social media; some journalists do proper work, and some don’t. When a multi-national or brand tell me the media has a story wrong or is drawing incorrect conclusions from it, my mind starts processing the news. I want to have a look at the Zoox acquisition, which Amazon announced and look at what is happening at Lazada.

In the past newspapers and TV was the primary sources of information. Today there are many news platforms, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, WeChat, Facebook, and Instagram. Podcasts also communicate value to listeners. Some companies control the narrative while others don’t.

When a lack of PR leads to a narrative

Lazada announced that from July 1, it would have a new CEO who currently leads its Indonesia business. Alibaba announced it as did Lazada [PDF], yet if you looked at the press, one would think that reporters had different sources of news. 

As Lazada is a private company inside a listed company, they have until recently been quiet. Shopee has been shouting from the rooftops that it is the market leader in the Southeast Asia Region. Lazada’s silence is, according to the media, equal to struggles. Lazada has retooled and aligned its business inside Alibaba as acquisitions are hard. What if Lazada was more vocal about its wins? What then?

I know investment bankers think that Shopee has won in South East Asia. If you take away Sea’s gaming success and only showcase numbers from Shopee, the narrative is different. Does only one marketplace win in South East Asia? Investors want a monopoly in a large market to justify the get big fast mantra. I will concede that based on disclosed financial performance that Shopee has executed well. The question I keep going back to is, how accurate is app downloads, data from SimilarWeb in relation to internal metrics?

Amazon to empower Zoox for autonomous ride-hailing?

Readers will know that Amazon is the best narrative manager and use every opportunity to say enough to not get on the wrong side of the SEC. Zoox is an autonomous ride-hailing company that has raised $1 billion from venture capital. The Information’s Amir Efrati, who has his finger on the pulse of the autonomous sector, reported a price north of $1b for the asset. The use of ratchets for some later stage investors will lead to some making money or getting their money back without any upside.

Amazon has invested billions into logistics over the past 18 months. Yet, it wants the industry to believe that the goal is to help Zoox serve the autonomous ride-hailing sector? Jeff Wilke, Amazon’s CEO, Worldwide Consumer, is trying to sell this as a ride-sharing deal. Jesse Levinson, Zoox co-founder, and CTO’s comments are particularly interesting (bolding is mine). “Amazon’s support will markedly accelerate our path to delivering safe, clean, and enjoyable transportation to the world.”

The contrarian in me:

• Jeff Bezos invested in Uber. He has had access to data on Uber’s path from pretty early. As much as Bezos wants us to believe that he is not privy to data from his investments, why would a billionaire right blank checks to startups? Ego? Or the need to learn from the startup. Even if Bezos got nothing, whoever manages his venture investments will want to report on the investment made, right?
• I know Bezos likes robots, space, and investing in entrepreneurs, but as founder CEO of Amazon, his focus is always on that. As much as Amazon wants us to believe he no longer leads day-to-day management, I cannot for one minute think that. Bezos, as a passive leader, makes no sense, and he always says he is working on a quarter three years away. 
• Logistics is a lever that correlates with consumer delight. There is nothing more frustrating as a consumer waiting for a package for days. Amazon has invested in controlling as much of the customer experience as possible. The last mile is still dependent on partners.

Ride-hailing is not going away, but Lyft and Uber’s business models are dependent on dense cities that need on-demand solutions. Amazon will never allow any other business to interfere with its consumer relationships, and that is not about to change. Zoox will speed up autonomous delivery in populated US cities. Drones have been a PR’d to the moon and back, but this feels pretty close to customer adoption. I can see Amazon using Zoox cars to deliver items in Arizona as a start. 

Businesses, please speak up

I find it rather sad how many startups are not interested in growth opportunities based on their lack of communication. When you need data to show traction or scale, and the last pubic post or data point was in 2017, it raises flags.

• Companies should understand that they are in control of their narrative. When I ask startups for insight or data for a blog post, the lack of speed is annoying but also telling. As I said last week, the Internet never forgets, and no public data helps no-one.
• The public will look for social proof, and an active social media page or blog that was last used in 2018 is not confidence-inspiring. 
• I understand that specific sectors are competitive, so insights are at a premium. But if your brand has no public data and a competitor does, guess what the perception is?

Failure to control the narrative around your brand is dangerous. Consumers are seeing different messaging on different channels. The confusion voids your investment in marketing and leads to brand confusion. A problem I see many brands struggle with on marketplaces is their product content. The brand investment in R & D, patents, and then lose control of distribution. A mixed message on every channel leads to failure.