Advertising Effectiveness for FedEx - Case Study Example

TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE 1.0 Introduction……………………………………………………………………….. 2 2.0 FedEx’s use of advertising to persuade target market………………………….2 2.1 Most effective advertising strategies……………………………………………….3 2.2 Strengths and limitations of Fed Ex’s current advertising strategies in terms of brand recognition and recall…………………………………………………4 2.3 Actions to improve the effectiveness of FEDEX"s current advertising strategies…………………………………………………………………… 5 2.4 Increased reach or frequency for current advertising campaign…………………6 3.0 References ……………………………………………………………………………..7 1.0 Introduction FedEx is international courier organization that is involved in the provision of road, water and air distribution and logistical services using a very established delivery and pick up networks. FedEx uses advertisements a lot in the process of publicizing its business around the world. Advertisements have been very important in ensuring that the company remains in business as one of the best. In this paper a number of issues on FedEx are discussed. Advertising can be used in many ways to play with the psychology of potential customers just to convince them that the products of a particular company are the best. FedEx uses print adverts and online advertising as some of its most effective strategies. Current advertising strategies used by FedEx have a number of strengths and weaknesses which must be looked into. In order to increase the effectiveness of advertising a number of actions are recommend within the paper. They include intensive and aggressive campaigns and exploration of new strategies that are yet to be put to use. Based on the current levels of brand recognition and recall the company will need to become more aggressive in order to capture exploit all the potential it has. 2.0 FedEx’s use of advertising to persuade target market FedEx makes use of advertising since the role of advertising is to persuade the target market. It achieves its objective in a number of ways. With advertising the company identifies its products and services as different from the others. Through this the product is presented as having a unique personality or identity. The important thing here is to convince the target market that its products are better than any other are that they should go for them. The Customers are then made aware of the existence of the products and their chances of picking them are increased. Through advertising the company gives information concerning its products Percy, Rossiter and Elliott (2005). This information is about the attributes of the product and where the customer can get them. When a customer has positive information about the product then making decision in favor of the product is not very hard. This is very true for people who have no other information form rival companies. The company does persuasion of the market by inducing the customers to attempt using the new product and also reuse the available product besides trying them for new uses. The company in its creativity uses ordinary things to pass its message. A dog has been used in one You Tube advertisement to convince the market of the trusted solution to delivery problems that is found in FedeX. The dog passes the message of speed in delivery of items. 2.1 Most effective advertising strategies Advertising strategies used by FedEx differ in the way they affect the behavior of the market being targeted. The company has used the print media for along time because it is one of its most effective strategies. It has worked well in the United States and has also been exported to China which is a newly emerging market Hills (1997). The strategy has been sold aggressively in China and its fruits were seen when FedEx beat UPS, a rival company in market share. FedEx invests heavily takes higher risks. Another strategy employed by the company is sponsoring sports events and activities. This has helped to advertise the company as one that is concerned about investing back into the community. Another strategy that has worked effectively for the company is the use of inline communication to market its products. A good example is the dog advert that appears on you tube in which FedEx represented by the dog is seen as the solution for delivery problems. A huge market has actually been won through this. It became the first company to start using the World Wide Web. It boasts of having its website as number one in the shipping industry with a network of more than 2 million people who are connected to the website. FedEx has used different strategies in different regions to pass its message. For example in Hong Kong a certain study revealed that the most effective strategy for advertising is the print strategy where stickers with messages are placed on the lift doors and TV Bovee, and Arens  (1989).Use of televised advertisements has not been left behind. It is a great contributor to the sales that the company has made for some time now. Even before the company launched into online marketing television was a very important tool which was being used to maintain the market. 2.2 Strengths and limitations of Fed Ex’s current advertising strategies in terms of brand recognition and recall When it comes to brand recognition and recall FedEx does a good job in certain areas and not all. It is clear from a certain case study done in Hong Kong that the brand recall and recognition were not very well done by the participants especially when unaided. The study showed that the name of the company could be recalled and recognized by majority of the participants as opposed to the names of the other delivery companies. However the participants had little familiarity with the brands especially when unaided. The strength part of the advertisements can be felt in isolated areas. For example advertisements on the lift TV and lift doors have been seen by most of the people. However when it comes to other places such as on the walls outside of the building and door of the buildings no advertisements is present. Emphasis on specific areas is a strong strategy especially because these areas have a lot of traffic Percy, Rossiter and Elliott (2005). The weakness is that not all areas are being explored. Some have never been tried and yet if they were use tremendous results could be realized. The recall of advertisements on lift doors, TV and TVC without aid is impressive. The opposite is observed on adverts in places other than these three areas. The current advertising strategies have been used to raise the level of brand recall and recognition to some level but there is still more potential to be exploited. Good work has been done as can be seen in the area of brand recognition. This is another strong point. This is so because wherever FedEx operates it is a household name. So many people have had of it and know it. Nevertheless, the currently used strategies should be subjected to more intensive campaigns for the company to gain a stronger grip on their customers. Recalling and recognizing the brand by customers will require that information be pumped into their minds as many times as possible. 2.3 Actions to improve the effectiveness of FEDEX"s current advertising strategies The advertising strategies being used by FedEx currently are working but they need some improvements so that the company can beat all its competitors in market share all over. These changes must be effected in those areas where the market share of FedEx is lower relative to its rivals. Since FedEx has embraced technology they need to make a more aggressive use of their website to communicate with customers and to create a difference from other companies that are also making use of technology. Actually the important thing is to be more aggressive in the strategies that are already in used. More effort must be made in these areas in order to appeal to more customers. When more effort is made even the usual customers will be persuade to continue doing business with the company and they can also increase the volume of their involvement. New areas should be explored especially in the area of printed adverts. If these ads are placed on lift doors and Lift TV then they can as well be put in other places such as lavatories, walls of buildings and other legally permissible areas. This will ensure that the minority section which may not access the ads in the lifts and other targeted areas has an opportunity to see it. People should be allowed to see the adverts as many times as possible and in as many places as possible. They should also hear the message as many times as possible as much as possible. It is important for the levels of advertising to be maintained above those of the companies doing similar businesses. This therefore calls for some level of creativity as well as borrowing form the rival companies especially in areas where they are ahead of FedEx. FedEx has been keen to ensure that it remains a head of the other companies in embracing technology. This technology should be exploited to the maximum. The website of the company should be designed in a manner that it will appeal to all sections of the population and that it will appear the best when compared to those of rival companies. All the information that clients can ever want to have should be posted there. Research should be done to ensure that social media is embraced well by the company and used to the maximum in order to expand the market share. 2.4 Increased reach or frequency for current advertising campaign Whether FedEx should increase its frequency or the reach it is making to the target population is a question of what is more important than the other. Actually both actions are necessary but looking at the current situation frequency increase does not have a bigger priority when compared to increasing the reach. Already the company has done a lot of work in the frequency area although all has not been exhausted. Again, there is a high possibility that those customers that have heard of the products of the company are already used to the message and they could be looking for something new. Increasing the frequency would therefore cost the company but have no positive effect on such people. The customers in the ownership of the company can still remain for the time being but what is important is getting to the unreached to enlarge the empire. The ‘we understand’ campaigns in which advertisements are made for the FedEx brand, corporate social responsibility and FedEx office and sports programs was designed to be very efficient. Customers should be expecting a lot from the company from these campaigns owing to the increasing economic hardships. FedEx should try its best to increase reach. The reason for this is that there are many members of the population that comprises its market who are yet to hear about its brand. Others are probably held up as customers to its competitors and if they hear about it they would opt to try its services. The company has not spread its branches across all of the international market and doing this will greatly expand its capacity and profits. In this era of globalization more ground should be covered in order to out do the competitors. Increasing reach is necessary because rival companies such as UPS and U.S postal service lead the way in market share in the United States. Besides, since they already rule the market they could do everything possible to maintain their clients. Getting to a new clientele is the only promising way for the company to grow and expand its market share. Increasing reach is also important because new members of the population could have a bigger potential of using their products than the population they are currently depending on for business. Since FedEx is facing stiff competition in the shipping area, a bigger target population will ensure survival in the shipping area. Conclusion Since the campaign is aimed at telling the customers that the company understands and provides solutions, it is important that new customers are reached because those who are already in business with the company definitely know this. Reaching out to more customers will also ensure that the company grabs those that belong to its competitors to bring them to the side of FedEx. Since competition is about outdoing the other taking up the rival companies’ market share will help FedEx to climb the ladder Keller (1998). Wider coverage through reaching out will also make FedEx the household name all over. The name that is known by many people will cause clientele to be endeared towards it more than the names of other courier companies. References Belch, G and Belch M (2007) Advertising and promotion (7th edition) Bovee, C. L., and Arens W. 1989.Contemporary Advertising. 3d ed. Homewood, IL: Irwin. Cook, G. (2001 2nd edition) "The Discourse of Advertising", London: Routledge, Fisher, J. 1997."Fast Pitch." Entrepreneur. August 1997. Geoffrey P, New Models for a New Age of Research Vol. 51, No. 2, 2011, pp.333-334 DOI: 10.2501/JAR-51-2-333-334 Graydon, S. 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