Need an Integrated Marketing Communications Approach by UPS & Promotional Objective - Case Study Example

1. Need an Integrated Marketing Communications Approach by UPS & Promotional ObjectiveUPS was known to be an industry leader in package shipping and delivery. It was well known for its experience and excellence in these domains. However, when UPS decided to expand its business lines, it found it extremely difficult to shed its image. UPS was the preferred partner for package shipping and delivery but it was not viewed in the same league for other businesses such as movement of goods, logistics, inventory management and financial transactions involved in these activities.

UPS was finding it tough to convince customers of its capabilities in this synchronized commerce market space. Hence, it felt the need for taking an integrated marketing communications approach to convey its new positioning.The promotional objective of this new repositioning strategy was to build a sort of bridge between its old perception by the customers and its desired positioning. This led UPS to change its logo, adopt the color brown in its logo and marketing campaigns and hiring a new advertising agency.

The idea was to make consumers aware of the new business lines, invite calls from them and then convert those calls into business.2. Four different marketing approachesUPS wanted different marketing strategies for different sets of audiences or stakeholders. Therefore, it segregated them into 4 different categories from business point of view and consumers formed the fifth category. These categories exhibited characteristics which were distinct from each other. There were shipping decision makers in manufacturing firms while the people were widely distributed in service firms.

There were small independent business owners on one side and senior business decision makers on the other. The needs of these 4 categories were very unique and hence required to be dealt separately. It was not appropriate to use a single marketing campaign for these 4 different types of audiences. Hence, it made sense for UPS to take four different approaches to marketing.3. Importance of Brand Recall RateBrand recall rate is the degree to which a brand name is remembered by the consumers as belonging to a brand, produce, service or company.

Brand recall significantly increases the probability of a brand being preferred or bought by the customer. Before the marketing campaign with the use of Brown color, UPS faced a big issue of brand recall in categories other than package shipping and delivery. Hence, the main purpose of its marketing campaign was to make consumers aware of its product lines so that they can recall the brand name of UPS whenever that product line is talked about.A brand recall rate of 97% to 98% was very important for UPS as it implies that there was a change in the mindset of the consumers.

In other words it was an evidence of the success of UPS’s new marketing campaign. It was much higher than a generally accepted norm of 50-60% for good brands.This was also important for UPS from point of view of competitors. Such as high brand recall value ensured that the customers would at least consider UPS as one the options while using any of the business lines it deals in. This obviously meant more business for the company.