Brand, Brand, Brand

Your story is failing your customer. Not because you have not written one, but because the story you are telling is not the one your customer actually cares about. That gap is quietly costing brands sales every single day on Amazon and everywhere else.

On this episode of The Longer Game, Michael Maher sat down with Andrew Morgans, founder of Marknology, an Amazon-focused agency based in Kansas City that has worked with over 300 brands since launching seven years ago. The conversation started with the practical difference between running a website and running an Amazon business, and ended up somewhere much more interesting: why storytelling is the real long game in retail.

Amazon and Websites Are Not the Same Business

A lot of agencies pitch themselves as full-service, promising they can handle Amazon the same way they handle a brand's website. Andrew Morgans has built his business on cleaning up after that promise. Amazon and website advertising might look similar on the surface, but the skill sets, algorithms, and customer intent behind them are worlds apart.

"Marknology is definitely the benefactor, the beneficiary, I guess, of a lot of agencies messing it up. Over promising and under-delivering. I think that Amazon is just harder than people think to actually do it the right way."

— Andrew Morgans, Founder at Marknology

Michael Maher pointed out why this matters so much: on Amazon, paid and organic performance are linked. A sale from advertising helps a listing rank higher organically too. Miss that connection and you waste money without understanding why.

Why Amazon Customers Convert Differently

Website conversion rates of two to three percent are considered strong. On Amazon, Andrew Morgans has seen listings convert at 30 percent, even 48 percent over two years running, because shoppers arrive already intending to buy.

"No one's searching how to set up my podcast studio on Amazon. People are searching because they've researched it on a blog somewhere, the ten best podcast microphones, and then what's the one you just got."

— Andrew Morgans, Founder at Marknology

That difference in intent changes everything about how a brand should show up. Amazon is not where you build awareness from scratch. It is where awareness gets converted into a sale.

Branding Is the Long Game

Michael Maher separates Amazon sellers into three buckets: resellers, private label sellers, and brands. Brands win because they have an identifiable story, something that compounds over time instead of resetting with every new listing or price war.

"Branding is the long game for building something. Storytelling is at the core of that. Our human ancestry goes to storytelling. That's how things were passed on."

— Andrew Morgans, Founder at Marknology

Andrew Morgans shared a personal example. Early in his career he was known around Kansas City as "the T-shirt guy" because of a side apparel brand, even though his real business was Amazon growth. The label stuck because his own messaging was unclear. Fixing that meant separating his personal brand from his companies and being deliberate about what story each one told. The lesson: if people are not getting your message right, the problem is usually the message, not the audience.

Big Brands Are Losing to Smaller, Sharper Ones

Perhaps the sharpest point in the conversation was about legacy CPG companies losing shelf space on Amazon to small, focused brands that simply care more about the platform.

"When you type in chocolate chip cookies on Amazon, I'm beating Nabisco and Oreo and Chips Ahoy. Why am I ranking them? Because they don't care about the platform, and they're not embracing it."

— Andrew Morgans, Founder at Marknology

Michael Maher noted that this is not because big brands hate Amazon, it is because they treated it as a tertiary channel while smaller sellers leaned in fully, invested in their storytelling, and earned the same digital shelf space without the cost of walking into a grocery chain's boardroom.

Influencers Are Now Telling the Story For You

Musical instrument brands have partnered with musicians for decades. Andrew Morgans sees the same playbook now moving into Amazon private label, where influencers are not just endorsing products, they are becoming the face of the brand itself. Michael Maher tied this back to search behavior: when a shopper sees an influencer holding a product, they go straight to Amazon to look it up. If the listing is thin or poorly reviewed, that credibility disappears instantly.

What This Means for Brands

• Do not assume a website agency can run your Amazon business the same way, the skill sets do not transfer directly.
• Treat Amazon shoppers as high-intent buyers, not people you need to educate from zero.
• Invest in a clear, consistent brand story across every channel, it compounds over years, not weeks.
• Audit how your own content and social presence might be sending the wrong message about what you actually do.
• Consider influencer partnerships that go beyond a single post, ones where the influencer becomes part of the brand story.

Brand, brand, brand is not a slogan, it is a warning. The companies winning today are the ones telling a story that matches how their customers actually think, search, and buy.