Integrated Marketing Proposal for USPS - BIC Class Project

VISION, BRAND & INTEGRATED

MARKETING PROPOSAL

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Presented By: Alex Suazo, Javier Garcia, Yanin De Jesus, Alex Dean

CCNY Branding & Integrated Communications

Business Strategy & Measurement – Final Presentation

Professor Scott Elias – Fall 2013

WHAT WE’LL COVER

1. DISCOVERY

– ENDURING CORE & ENVISIONED FUTURE

– SITUATIONAL REVIEW & SWOT ANALYSIS

– AUDIENCE SEGMENTS & CUSTOMER SENTIMENT

– BRAND & PROJECT BRIEF

2. STRATEGY & IDENTITY

3. INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS PLAN

– STRATEGIC CAMPAIGN TACTICS

4. CONCLUSION

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DISCOVERY 3

USPS possesses a wide range of unique and own-able properties that help

substantiate the need for a brand repositioning. Their reliable, loyal, and dutiful

legacy is substantiated by the fact that:

• Roots tracing back 238 years to its founding as the United States Post Office (USPO) by order of the

Second Continental Congress - dedicated as ever to serving the American people.

• USPS delivers to every residential location in America, without fail.

• 20.6% of all USPS are military veteran career employees

• 40% of the world’s mail is delivered via USPS

• UPS and FedEx rely on the USPS to deliver to areas where they either can’t or don’t deem financially

viable to do so

• If USPS were a private company, they would consistently outrank UPS and FedEx every year, ranking

42nd in 2012 with $65.2B in revenue.

• USPS remains the category leader of delivery innovations for both consumer and commercial mail, with

services such as flat rate mailing

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VISION STRUCTURE ENDURING CORE

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Be the American eagle rising from the ashes.

By repositioning themselves as a loyal and reliable

friend, the USPS can shift their perception to be seen

for who they really are: the industry leading service

with a sense of duty that delivers mail without fail.

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VISION STRUCTURE ENVISIONED FUTURE

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SITUATIONAL REVIEW

USPS is facing many challenges and inevitable market forces

within the social, business and industry landscapes that stem

from rapid changes in demand for traditional products and the

limitations for responding that are inherent current business

models.

Some examples of these forces include:

• customers’ economic uncertainty

• the evolution of the nature of mail

• potential regulatory legislative changes.

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SWOT ANALYSIS

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STRENGTH

The postal service still has the essential

mission of delivering mail to every

community in America, which private

companies like FedEx or UPS would

probably charge a lot more for, especially

for rural addresses that are hard to

reach.

WEAKNESS

- Inability to adapt to a transformed digital-first costumer as

quickly as competitors have due to lack of flexible revenue and

smart marketing.

- Micromanaged by Congress with strict rules

- Can’t sell non-postal products even though they have

thousands of retail locations

- Campaigns that lack strategy

OPPORTUNITY

Integrate mail and technology while

keeping the civic mandate to uphold

privacy and security.

THREATS

According to Fast Company, “Mail volume declined by more than

43B pieces in the past 5 years and is continuing to decline ...

and letters bearing postage stamps declined 36% in the same

time frame, and nearly 50% in the past ten years.” (2011).

Another threat is market share: competitors like FedEx, UPS and

DHL all have strong work forces, competitive pricing, and daily

delivery as well.

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AUDIENCE SEGMENTS

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RESIDENTIAL/CONSUMER BUSINESS/ECOMMERCE GOVERNMENT

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WHAT ARE THE CONSUMERS SAYING

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BRAND BRIEF

• Project Background: It has come to our attention that USPS is perceived as an underdog company despite their 200+ year legacy of serving the American people.

• Preliminary Findings

– If USPS were a private sector company, it would rank 42nd in the 2012 Fortune 500, compared to UPS which ranked 52nd and FedEx 70th.

– ~20% of employees are military veterans dedicated to their work and serving the American people.

These findings were very curious to us because they aligned with USPS’ “reliable, efficient, highly trusted and unique universal service”, but not with customers’ opposing perception.

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BRAND BRIEF

• Visual Findings: Overall, the branding that exists is

consistent across all assets.

• Brand Issue: Customers have a false perception of

USPS due to the lack of speedy customer service and

yearlong consumer-facing messaging

Project Objective: Rebuild and reposition the USPS brand

to drive preference, market share, and increase in sales.

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BRAND STRATEGY

& IDENTITY 12

WAIT A MINUTE MR. POSTMAN

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click to listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=425GpjTSlS4

BRAND IDENTITY PLATFORM

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POSITIONING PERSONALITY PROPOSITION

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POSITIONING

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PERSONALITY

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PROPOSITION

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BRAND EVOLUTION

• Postal service employees were once rooted in American culture, with songs written

about them and TV characters written for their role.

• A gradual change in perception in the media could be seen between 1980’s-90’s in

the form of media coverage of the more than 20 incidents of workplace shootings by

USPS employees, and the representation of USPS employees embodied by the

character Newman, from the hit TV show Seinfeld.

• Negative perceptions of the USPS and its employees have become commonplace,

with most consumers expecting negative service experiences such as long lines and

disgruntled employees.

• These perceptions lend an opportunity to shift perception positively by realigning the

brand to stand for their employees’ reliability, loyalty and their unwavering

commitment to deliver best-in-class services and innovations that meet the needs of

their consumers.

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AUDIENCE TOUCHPOINTS

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LIVING PRINCIPLES

COMPETITIVE OVERVIEW

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LANDSCAPE TRENDS

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INTEGRATED

MARKETING PLAN

THE PROBLEM

Despite USPS’ stellar business performance, dutiful ex-military

employee base, and category-leading delivery records, the

company suffers from shrinking sales, negative profits and

poor perception.

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THE SOLUTION & INCENTIVE

Our marketing communications strategy will shift this

current consumer perception to drive preference for

USPS and increase sales.

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INCENTIVE STATEMENT

To Americans, USPS is the courier they can rely on

because they honor their legacy of serving

the American people.

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BEHAVIORAL SHIFT

America currently sees USPS

as a government owned

agency on the verge of a

collapse.

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CURRENT DESIRED SHIFT

Americans will see a brand that

they have a personal

connection with, which delivers

to their home daily, without fail.

This connection will drive

Americans to continue to trust

and rely on USPS and stop

using other couriers.

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PROPOSED BRAND PERSONALITY

USPS is a reliable and loyal friend.

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STRATEGIC CAMPAIGN TACTICS

• USPS Internal Rallying Cry

• Build A Social Media

Conversation That Matters

• Co-branding

• Print & Social Media

Memories

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INTERNAL RALLYING CRY

Since its inception, USPS has been an all-American brand that has delivered the tangible experience of “mail” and letters every day for decades.

USPS employees need to understand this, to their core, and rally internally: “Email belongs to the workforce. When people want to make it count, they send regular mail via USPS.”

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SOCIAL MEDIA THAT MATTERS

• Encourage consumers to talk more about USPS and share their personal

experiences on social media.

• Build a “face” for USPS on social media that serves two key purposes:

1. 24/7 reliable and responsive customer service

• Twitter: Postman Bob, a retired mailman, answering all your questions

and concerns 24/7. @USPSHelp

2. Re-humanize the “postman” by sharing his quirky day-to-day activities

which customers aren’t aware of because they’ve never met him and

don’t think about the person that delivers their mail daily.

• Postman Danny: a Tumblr (& Instagram) diary

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@PostManDanny Resident postman for the 11011 area. Follow me and the crazy things I see on my routes. #dogs #lawnstatues #lawndecorations

CO-BRANDING WITH GMAIL

USPS could co-brand with

Google to create an email-

based system with added

transactional value.

Gmail users would have the

option to print and mail a

hard copy of any e-mail or

document archive.

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Haven’t heard from this person in a while? Send them a real letter instead.

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PRINT & MAIL SOCIAL MEDIA MEMORIES

Users on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, could create, print and send

physical social media “memories” and photo albums for Holidays,

Birthdays, or “just because”, through a USPS integrated social media app.

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CONCLUSION

• Our ultimate goal is to help Americans understand that

USPS is not just a government agency but a brand that is as

American as its customers; USPS believes in hard work, and

is always there for its customers, wherever they are.

• We will reignite USPS so that consumers trust and rely on

us again. Americans will write more letters, buy stamps to

mail those letters, and re-connect with their postman –

ultimately changing perceptions of the USPS and increasing

sales.

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THANK YOU.

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