Amazon-Pepsi Music Giveaway Deal Raises Retailers Concerns; Amazon Logo Taken Off

Pepsi tied up with Amazon.com for SuperBowl earlier this year, to give away 1 billion free MP3 songs though Amazon’s digital music service...this was a blow to Apple (iTunes, as it had previously done a similar promotion for 100 million songs the year before for Pepsi. The new deal was supposed to give a big boost to Amazon.com’s DRM-free music service. But the partnership has antagonised rival bricks-and-mortar retailers. Amazon’s media and electronics business competes directly with Wal-Mart and Target, the two largest mass retailers, while its rapidly growing grocery business competes with major supermarkets.In an apparent response to retailers’ concerns, Amazon’s name has been banished from the front of Pepsi bottles carrying the promotion – rendering it invisible in supermarket aisles to passing shoppers. Similarly, Amazon’s logo is on the back of cardboard multi-pack cartons of cans that are stacked on the shelves of mass discounters and supermarkets, next to the product’s bar code and nutritional information. The treatment contrasts with a promotion between Pepsi and Apple’s iTunes, in which the iTunes name was carried prominently.
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