One action we did briefly consider was creating a national advertising campaign to build awareness for the Amazon brand. In 2002, we ran a long-term advertising test in Portland and Minneapolis. The campaign drove a bump-up in sales, but we ultimately decided not to fully move forward with it. The modest sales uplift was nowhere near enough to justify the $50 million per year we estimated we’d have to spend on an effective national marketing campaign. The better investment was to plow that money back into improving the customer experience.
