Group 5
Shen Liang WenHui Huang Sjoukje Botterweck Jesper Voorendt
CONTENT 4 5 6 16
26 27 28
Executive Summary DHL overview Analysis 4C Analysis Brand Analysis Launching Strategy Launching Objectives Launching Positioning Event Introduction Target Group Key Benefit for DHL Launching Schedule Participant Journey Launching Channels Budget Conclusion References Appendix A. Media scanning B. Customer Journey
Executive Summary This project is initiated by DHL in cooperation with Delft University of Technology. The ambition of DHL is to get larger market shares in the business to consumer (B2C) and consumer to consumer (C2C) parcel market. A lack of awareness and strong competition causes the small presence in the C2C market. Competitor PostNL has a strong position in this market, because of their national brand image and long time experience with the Dutch consumer. Besides, small companies enter the market that have technological advances or specific branding strategies, for example Cycloon Fietskoeriers, which shows to be a fast growing competitor. All of this support the argument that it is the right time to strengthen the market position of DHL in The Netherlands. To create a stronger market position for DHL, the focus is on increasing over the counter sales (OTC) and a higher brand awareness among Dutch consumers. DHL improved many aspects of their services in the Netherlands, and is ready to humanize their services to compete with PostNL and others. Our launch strategy has a strong focus on increasing the brand awareness of DHL for C2C market. This is achieved through organising a gift exchange event between strangers, targeted to the future customers of DHL. Their activity on social media and need to share will support and make this event gain awareness. The future customers will unconsciously experience the simplified and excellent service of DHL, while experiencing the launch event as bringing positive surprise to their lives and create a positive brand image to DHL. This way DHL humanizes their brand image and gain awareness in the C2C market.
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DHL Overview DHL has a long history of being one of the top delivery services in the Netherlands. It started when it was founded in 1969 in San Francisco by Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom and Robert Lynn when only in 1977 it has expended from pure document delivery to small parcel express service. So, only 8 years later it had already spread across the world with offices from Australia, US, Korea, Paris, Iran and Hawaii, when in 2002 DHL almost covered the whole world with 220 countries, including the Netherlands. Now, 2017, DHL is still on top of the world through excellence and making parcels simply delivered. In the Netherlands, DHL takes care of more than 20% of the parcel deliveries market [11] and delivers parcels nationally and internationally.
Figure 1. The history of DHL
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Analysis 4C Analysis In order to make the launching strategy fit with DHL, it is necessary to understand DHL’s current situation starting from the 4C analysis, which includes consumer, company, competitor, and context analysis. For the customer analysis, we realize current DHL customer segment and customer journey of parcel service. For company analysis, we use SWOT and define the company profile to find key values and benefits of DHL. For competitor analysis, we research the competitor’s strengths and current situation by media scanning. For context analysis, we use DESTEP and Porter’s five force model to find internal and external opportunities for DHL.
Consumer Analysis To understand the behaviour of the consumer, a customer journey was done with the parcel service of DHL. This created insight in latent needs for the customer, identified points for improvement and strong points in the service of DHL to use further in the development of the launch strategy. DHL’s current customer For Dutch people, the DHL parcel service is quite new and unfamiliar, although people regard DHL as a strong and reliable delivery company for businesses already. In order to gain more market shares in Netherlands, DHL needs to provide a consistent level of service with a reasonable price. The current customers for DHL are price conscious and primarily driven by reliable delivery. Moreover, compared to its competitors, DHL is also worldwide company, which can provide a committed international delivery service. In the Netherlands, some people are loyal to PostNL, because it is a national company and its familiar dutch image. However, for people who only care about quality and price, DHL could be a potential company delivering this service for them. Customer Journey Since the customer is core to being part of brand awareness, the customer analysis starts with a customer journey. It is a very effective tool to understand the actual journey that a customer goes through during a service experience. Insights will appear that cannot be imagined and are unaware by the customer themselves: latent needs. The customer analysis allowed us to find touch points for improvement in the service, but mainly getting insight in the messages that are conveyed to the customer through the service. The customer journey started when the parcel was sent on the 3rd of May in Delft to another location in Delft. The package was received the next day on 4th of May. During the customer journey of sending the parcel, the points that were experienced and noticed are described below. The whole customer journey is in Appendix B.
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Stage 1: Sending Firstly, packing the parcel was not a problem, because a spare box and tape was available in the customer's’ home to prepare it for delivery, which can be seen in figure 2. But the customer had not delivered a package before using DHL, so finding the parcel shop was something new in the delivery service of the customer. The customer was able to search for the location of the shop online quite easily, but finding the exact location of the shop was more difficult, since no visual reference was given of this shop being a parcel shop (see figure 3).
Figure 2. How the package was prepared for delivery.
The service at the parcel shop was quick and easy, so this was experienced as being very pleasant. Stage 2: Receiving After the package was delivered at the parcel shop, an email was sent immediately to the receiver. This gave immediate feedback and a feeling of control on the parcel being delivered to the customer. After knowing the estimated time of delivery through email and the track and trace service, something went wrong. Although the person receiving the package was home during the estimated time, the delivery was not completed. The housemate of the customers informed him that the delivery was missed. DHL left a note, that he was not home, although he was home even around the estimated delivery time. This caused frustration, because now more work had to be done to get the package from another place, but luckily his housemate found the package in the hall and gave it to him. On the one hand it was a lucky situation, but on the other hand, this is not very pleasant situation, because the package was in a public place without knowledge of it.
Figure 3. The visibility of the DHL shop is quite low.
Figure 4. The package was received somewhere different.
Cconsumer analysis conclusion DHL has potential in being successful with customers who are that loyal to other parcel delivery services. Because DHL has a pleasant competitive price and promised quality of delivery, theory wise they can compete well with the other parcel delivery competitors. The downside is that, as a customer you are reliable on the internet to find the location and search for the exact physical location, since the locations are not located in the most known and regular visited shops, like supermarkets.
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Company Analysis To understand DHL better, a company analysis was done. During the company analysis, we analysed the company’s profile, did a SWOT analysis and created the Porter’s five forces model. Company profile Vision - Be The Logistics Company for the World. Mission - Excellence. Simply Delivered. Strategy 2020 - Focus.Connect.Grow. The international main website of DHL explains that the mission and vision include an international view on the world of delivery. They want to keep their focus on delivery services, since this is their expertise, but also state that they want to extend to “especially in emerging markets and the vibrant e-commerce markets of the world” [11], which suggests that DHL is a company open for innovation. DHL states: “DHL connects people and improve their lives. They do this by being uncompromisingly customer-centric and delivering excellence day in and day out, by bringing people together and making life simpler – for customers, employees, investors, and society, DHL helps to make the world a better place” [11].
SWOT Analysis A SWOT analysis helped us to find insights for more specific insights on the company itself. This includes what to avoid and what to look for that can function as a starting point for the launching strategy. Strengths
• Increasing demand of C2C service • Trustworthy brand image • World market leader in sea and air mail • Reliable delivery • Network in more than 220 countries and territories and about 275,000 employees worldwide • Stable market share in the world • Strong brand equity • Positive public image (Eco-friendly) • Easy parcel website Opportunities
• Tremendous increase in e-commerce • E-service demanding (rely on the Internet) • Green (Eco-freindly) & Sustainability trend • Circular Economy
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Weakness
• Strong B2B brand image • Less local parcelshops • Limited margin for parcelshop owner (low motivation) • The quality of deliver staff/service (the quality of DHL's service and staff are complained about. There are late and inaccurate deliveries, but also are not always placed logically when parcel was missed.) • Advertisement and promotion of the brand for C2C is inadequate Threats
• Competitive segment • Government owned competitors • Declination of traditional services (Letters) due to electronic communication • High labor cost • Price wars
From the SWOT analysis, the following conclusions were made on the following topics: Trustworthy brand image & Strong B2B brand image DHL has a trustworthy brand image, which could be used for the new start of its positioning to promote this brand image for its C2C market.This also counts for its strong B2B image. The ‘new’ C2C image could benefit from this brand image that is already aware with C2C customers as well. Easy parcel website The user friendly website of the DHL parcel service in the Netherlands is beneficial as a start to launch their new positioning. This is a very good start and possible service point to focus on during the promotion or selling of their C2C service. Tremendous increase in e-commerce Due to the growing e-commerce industry the online the sent and received packages numbers will keep increasing the coming years because of online shopping. This also means that sending packages will become more common. Green and Eco-friendly trend As seen in the new brand values of the DHL’s new positioning, being green is a trend that is seen in many companies nowadays. Being green is now still seen as a competitive advantage, but being green becomes a less distinctive element for different brands, since it is growing to be an expected brand element. But this also means that being green is a brand element that cannot be missed for such a big company as DHL. Competitive Segment The parcel service is part of a competitive segment in the Dutch market. PostNL is seen as the biggest competitor, but more competitive services gain brand awareness. That is why DHL, as described in the assignment, should be distinctive from other competitors and make sure they keep their strong brand name up to date with their customers. More details are described in the competitor analysis. Company analysis Conclusion DHL has a strong brand reputation and since trustworthy is also something customers already perceive from DHL, these elements could have value in the launching strategy. The trend of being green and its coherency with the brand values of DHL seems like a good match and useful to take into account. Being distinctive is something that DHL will have to fight for in this competitive segment, and using its strong aspects makes DHL more distinctive. From the SWOT analysis can be concluded that the following elements can be integrated in the launching strategy to compete with the strengths of DHL: A trustworthy delivery service, strong brand equity and an easy parcel website.
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Competitor analysis In the competitor analysis, media scanning was used to observe and understand how other companies present and visualize their positioning to their customers (B2C and C2C). Next, the profile of DHL’s primary competitor, PostNL were analysed to understand DHL’s current position and strength in the market and its similarities and differences from primary competitor.
Competitor profile
Since PostNL has a high m``arket share in the parcel service in the Netherlands, namely 70% [11], the competitor profile of PostNL was established to get insights in how DHL eventually should differentiate from its biggest competitor. This will add to let DHL be distinctive. PostNL’s key benefit is described as the following: “We are the essential link between the physical and the online world. We facilitate communications between people and companies.” The positioning exists from the points that PostNL describes as the following: -The essential link for our customers -A people company that cares for everyone -The number-one network connecting the world -Bringing our core values to life -Connected every day -Passionate every day -Inventive every day PostNL’s vision “In 2020, we want to be the provider of mail and logistics solutions in our selected areas. That’s why we work on new products for current markets and look for new markets for existing products.” PostNL’s strengths PostNL has a very big market share in the Netherlands and is expanding its services in Belgium and Germany. Its recourses also have great reach in and outside the Netherlands. PostNL’s weaknesses Comparing to DHL, PostNL has connections throughout the world, but not the same brand name all over the whole world. They only have connections with other brands to make their experience seamless. The benefit of DHL is that it has a consistent and known brand name all of the world, which gives customers a feeling of recognition also outside the Netherlands.
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Media scanning
Media scanning was done to find out how the companies present their positioning to the customers (B2C and C2C). During media scanning, the following points were paid attention to, in this case based on the advertisement: • current branding strategy • positioning • pricing strategy • channels presented of service • differential competitive advantage Results During the media scanning the following results were found. All the data collected for every advertisement and total information found in media scanning can be found in the appendix B. The following competitors were identified and analysed in the product category competition of DHL: • PostNL • UPS • FedEx • DPD PostNL is the only company that has advertisements in the Netherlands that are recently updated and regularly published. The other competitors have advertisements, but mainly abroad, like United Stated, United Kingdom and Germany. They miss visibility in Netherlands by the use of commercials. FedEx, UPS and (international) DHL focus on the international delivery. They also show their big capacity to create a feeling of importance in their brand. All the companies try to create a connection with their customers and want to show a feeling of trust. DPD has a different style of video to represent their brand. All brands also show their trucks and/or vans with their brand name on it and a similar target group for average households and/or families. They present customers as people between 25 - 50 years old. At this point it is hard to find DHL advertisements on Youtube that are recent and shown in the Netherlands, which is not very positive for visibility for B2C and C2C. Further all the advertisements was to show that the easiness, convenience and trustworthy is a core benefit for choosing their brand. For the DHL youtube account, some other videos, on the other hand, are interesting, because they show some insight in the service and how they want to help customers get a clear idea on their brand and services which is a strong point.
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Competitor analysis Conclusion DHL does have similar points-of-parity with some of the main competitors, which makes sense, because they are in the same market segment, but DHL can be more distinctive and more expressive by focusing on its point-of-differences. Trustworthiness, convenience and easiness are values that are overall shared by most companies, but with different weights of emphasis. DHL should find its balance between these values to make DHL distinctive from others. Since DHL is an international company and promotes this abroad already; when looking at its competitors, this could something to promote as well for DHL in the Netherlands. On the other hand, PostNL shows its personal and Dutch personas which also created success. No clear choice for DHL is clearly concluded from this. When looking at DHL on youtube for advertisements, that are recent, Dutch advertisements are missing, which is an indication of the great and needed opportunity for DHL to work on their visibility for C2C customers in general, but also on this specific channel. The point-of-difference of DHL could be: international power, reliable service worldwide, strong B2B brand image. The point-of-parity that need to be further developed is the C2C advertisement, with the examples of Youtube or television.
Context Analysis In the analysis of the context/market a DESTEP structure is used to understand the demographic, economic, social, technological, ecological and political forces of DHL’s competition. Next Porter’s five forces model is used to get an understanding of the competitive category factors.
DESTEP
Demographic The Netherlands has a population of around 17 million and a yearly growth of 0,4%. For DHL as one of the world’s largest logistic companies, this is a tiny market. However, the population is well educated and it has an high GDP per capita of $48,860 (nominal, 2015 est., World Bank). Economic As noted in the demographic characteristics, The Netherlands has an high GDP per capita. More relevant to DHL is the postal market growth, in 2016 it was approx. 1.4% and seems to continue in the next several years [13]. The combined market turnover was in 2014, €1.36 Billion and 3.5 Billion mailpieces. Of the total mailpieces, only 7% is from consumers, which is around 245 million in a year. Social In the previous decades the postal market has seen many changes in social behaviour. E.g. sending a letter to friends has been replaced by WhatsApp messages or emails. This change in social norms is mainly caused by technological trends. Technological developments also enable startups to disrupt mature markets [14], because of a better understanding of digital services and user needs.
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Being green/sustainable A clear social movement is a growing interest in sustainable and green services and products. This could explain the success of Cycloon, who delivers packages green by using only bikes and electrical vehicles. Also, circular economy has become a highly discussing topic. A circular economy seeks to rebuild capital, whether this is financial, manufactured, human, social or natural. This ensures enhanced flows of goods and services. Emerging nationalism of countries worldwide The last social trend is the emerging nationalism of countries worldwide. Right wing parties have become popular, because of a negative perception on the multi cultural society. This trend is interesting for this research, because it could influence the success of PostNL and other nationalistic branding. Technological A lot is changing in the world of technology innovations. A good example, also relevant for DHL, is the first Drone deliveries that already have been tested by Amazon. These technologies can have great impact and disrupt the logistic industry, but it is still in its beginning phase. Currently, other developments in artificial intelligence and data analytics make it possible to create and run complex delivery networks worldwide. Next to that, internet is a growing platform for ecommerce businesses, which leads to a growth in delivery of B2C packages. Ecological Climate change, also referred to as global warming, refers to the rising average temperature in the world. For the Netherlands this means, warmer winters with less transport difficulties by freezing temperatures but also a higher sea level which creates a higher risk for floods. Political Nationalistic and populistic politicians become more powerful. Worldwide this causes less predictiveness of policies. This could also count for the delivery services.
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Porters’ five forces model
Porters’ five forces model was used to analyze the five levels of competition within industry and strategy development. From this model can be derived how to differentiate DHL from existing and future competitors. The results are displayed in the next figure.
Figure 5. Porter’s five forces model for DHL From figure 5. can be concluded that the bargaining power of suppliers is low for DHL parcel shop owners. There is definitely a threat of substitutes, because there are constantly developments in lowering the costs of logistics and infrastructure, which means that DHL should keep developing its logistics and infrastructure to stay a large competitor. Further, the bargaining power of buyers are quite high. Since the C2C market is growing, and because of the competitiveness in this market, buyers can choose similar alternatives, besides DHL. Therefore it must keep presenting its great benefits to customers actively.
Context analysis conclusion
Because of the large scale and scope of DHL as a company, it has to take many trends and into account. Focused on the Netherlands, the most important trends are: a stable growth of the postal market, increasing interest in green services, increasing demand in customer centered design and services. Market wise DHL is in a good place, since the parcel service market keeps growing, but the number of competitors is also growing. Total C2C mailpieces is around 7% of the whole Dutch postal market, and expected to grow the coming years.
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Brand Analysis The brand analysis describes what DHL is now, who their customers are what the brand values are that make DHL different from its competitors.
Brand Values
“An inspiring, committed and green ‘inventor’ brand, offering simplicity service, for demanding online consumers.” This is the positioning that DHL wants to convey to the public. DHL describes the following brand values with its definitions: • Simplifying - Simply use and send your parcels with the simple delivery. • Green - Go green solutions, optimized transport routes, vehicles with alternative drive systems and energy-efficient warehouses. There are many ways to reduce climate-damaging CO2 emissions and other environmental impacts in the transportation and storage of goods. • Inventive - DHL has an innovation center and a trend research department to develop and demonstrate DHL’s innovation capabilities and logistics solutions portfolio through building “Thought leadership” through trend research, engaging customers, partners, and business leads on innovation topics through a portfolio of events, briefings, and workshops. • Committed - Promise to deliver parcels and packages and ensure containers arrive on time.
Figure 6. DHL brand values
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Brand positioning
DHL describes its change of positioning from a “sober and Dutch-rooted delivery company” to an “inspired, committed and green ‘inventor’ offering simplicity to demanding online consumers. DHL wants to actively differentiate its positioning from its biggest competitor, PostNL, and focus on the convenience of the customer. DHL wants to create tomorrow’s delivery and enable online consumers to send and receive parcels the way that fits them.
Brand analysis conclusion
The brand values for the launching strategy are chosen based on the findings in the company analysis. Compared with the largest competitor PostNL, they share the brand value ‘inventive’. Therefore the launching strategy is not directed in this way. About the other three brand values of DHL, only committed and simplifying are selected for the launching strategy. The first argument is that ‘green’ is a popular brand value with much growing competition from small startups like Cycloon. Second, from the company analysis the power of DHL is their large international distribution network and still providing services with simplicity. Because of these powers in their brand and assets, the direction is set to committed and simplistic.
Launching strategy Launching objectives
According to the insights we found from analysis, DHL has low C2C brand awareness in the Dutch market, therefore the launching strategy should focus on increase brand awareness and improve customer loyalty to have long term success. In order to make a distinction with competitors, the launching strategy should also convey DHL’s new brand positioning, by integrating the brand values in the event and activities of the launching strategy. a. Increase brand awareness b. Increase customer loyalty c. Convey new DHL brand positioning and brand values d. Increase social media presence
Launching positioning
This launching strategy has the objective to distinct from PostNL and other competitors. It is important to distinct from PostNL, because it is the only player in the consumer market [1]. The brand values of PostNL are: connected, passionate and inventive [12]. Purpose: The Purpose of DHL gift exchange event is creating awareness of C2C business of DHL for potential customers. Positioning: For people who have not used DHL C2C services before, DHL offers the gift-exchange event that is simplifying and committed, that makes consumers experience DHL’s quality by participating this event, and gives a surprising and fun experience to reinforce brand awareness.
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Event Introduction
The event is a national gift exchange between strangers. Participating the event is easy, it only takes a few minutes to sign up and create a profile on the DHL website. Participants can provide their preferences and hobbies through a questionnaire, then others receive this information as inspiration for buying a gift for the person. Every participant who sends a packages gets one present back. The whole service is based on the existing DHL parcel service. Without extra resource investment or changes in the service, DHL provides one free trial for participants to let participants experience DHL parcel delivery service while attending the event. As a reference to prove this idea works, there is a worldwide gift exchange organization which called Redditgifts. Redditgifts is a giant online gift exchange event that started connecting internet strangerfriends around the world with one another in 2009. In 2013, there are 89,421 people worldwide participated in Secret Santa. And now this company is still working well. We think DHL is an excellent organization to host such an event in The Netherlands, because of the effective use of their current resources and their brand image that matches to young and international oriented target group. This event meets the launching objectives by using right channels to target future potential customers. It draws their attention by comprehensive event planning which includes advertising and follow-up effect on social media. Through this event, it conveys positive brand image such as humanize and friendly by interesting gift change activity; simplifying and committed as brand values by simple and trustworthy parcel service. The event can be effective and efficient for DHL.
Target group
The target group of the event was defined mainly based on the spiritual needs of existing and potential customers of DHL, since the deliver service could be used by the all kinds of people divided by the demographic features. In this event, the target group is the people who are active, energized, curious to daily new things, which makes them spontaneously enjoy the positive and interesting experience provided by the event. The features of target group are listed below: 1. Have emotional needs of experiencing surprised, interesting and positive feelings. 2. Actively or spontaneously gain information from the Internet The target group accurately covers people from all ages and genders who have certain spiritual needs and benefit from Internet. This decision directly set the main visual and emotional image that should be delivered by the event, which also make the event perfectly fit the brand image of DHL.
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Considerations of selecting target group Before selection of target group, several features have been considered, In order to identify a specific target group for the launching strategy. • First, it is important that targeted consumers are real potential new customers for DHL, which means that there is a high likelihood that they will use parcel services in the following years after the event. • Second, a factor more related to the success of the specific gift-exchange event is that people are curious, open-minded, active, and love to have fun in their daily life. Those people intuitively fit the main emotional mood of the delivered event, which is positive, interesting and joyful. • Most of the people use internet now daily, but a younger age makes people more active on the internet (Stroud, 2005). Therefore, the image of the event leans to match the image reflected by younger age who is active on Internet. The one of main parts target group of this launching strategy should be highlighted because of the representativeness. They are urban students and workers of 24 - 30 years old. This group counts 1.529.000 people in The Netherlands [13], and is around 9% of the total population. Most of them just graduated from education and enter their career. Busy life will trigger them to enjoy interesting things and be curious about something specious as their past life. Moreover, they are the group loving to share everything on social media, and are be affected by peer’s opinion. According to Harvard Business Review [8], “neuroscientists have shown that any kind of positive personal interaction lights up a part of the brain called the temporoparietal junction, which stimulates the production of oxytocin.” Seeing as millennials have grown up in a digital environment and interacting online is simply part of their daily life, it is evident that connecting through social channels and engaging with others through posting, commenting and sharing content essentially increases levels of oxytocin. That said, happy employees results in higher levels of retention, engagement and productivity, resulting in a positive return on investment. Thus, by targeting on this group, because of their sharing behavior, it would attract more potential customers to reach DHL.
Key benefits for DHL
The event do mainly help DHL increase brand awareness, however, because of other launching plannings supporting the event, such as videos, sharing post on social media. These bring DHL more benefits behind the event. • Use existing C2C service to increase brand awareness • Increase loyalty of DHL service • Reach potential customers by fun event • Increase customer database and social media followers • Convey committed and simplisitic brand values
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The fit between target group and launch plan This event creates positive and interesting experiences for people who are active and energized in daily life. This range of people are e-generation who use the Internet everyday, and most of them live in cities. They are curious to interesting things and positive emotions like surprising and exciting. Moreover, the majority of the target group is not familiar with DHL parcel service. The event gives participants a first time experience of DHL services, which increases the chance of getting loyal customers. Points of Difference Compared to PostNL which emphasizes Dutch local and passionate image, the positioning of the event conveys DHL’s simplifying and committed values which are the most relevant values of parcel service. “Simplifying” is the core value for DHL mission by “Excellence. Simply Delivered.” Thus, it is valuable and important to keep conveying in launching strategy. “Committed” means DHL is committed to providing customers with the best delivery service which is humanize and friendly. The launching strategy use the same parcel service to deliver participants’ gift, thus participants can experience DHL committed service and simple delivery.
Launching Schedule The detailed time planning as below figure. We plan to launch this event on 1st September and last until 6 th October. September is the month people end their summer vacation and go forward to a new start. And people are not so busy and willing to attend event at that time. In order to promote this event, the poster would be hanged in the parcel shop a month before, and videos on social media, backlit diorama in shopping mall would be released two weeks before starting for attracting target group effectively and maximize the value of your marketing resources. The event have three small round. Participants would sign in the event first, and wait system to match then get receiver’s information. Participants can send their gift during specific week and receive their gift one week later. After receiving, DHL would use email to remind you share your experience and gift on social media for attend prize lucky draw. Then DHL pick some interesting stories to cause more attention and hot topic on social media as follow-up effect..
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Figure 7. Launching schedule
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Participants Journey
1. Go to DHL website for finding more details about event 2. Sign-up, choose gift budget range and fill in the questionnaire about preference. (Fig.9) 3. Choose gift SIGN UP DHL suprise challenge 4. Around one week later, the normal DHL sending parcel process with code and receiver’s address will be followed. 5. Wait for another participant’s surprising gift 6. Share the gift of your experience on DHL social media channels and automatically attend the lucky draw 7. Attend DHL award lottery for sharing posts PRIVATE
BUSINESS
DHL GIVES SURPRISES
New about DHL
Great that you are participating in this event!
We would like you to fill in some personal information to help arrange this event! Do you already have an account, then sign in! Sign in
More information
Name
Street
City code City
Email address
We would like you to fill in this form, to help your match in finding the best surprise for you, when some inspiration might be needed!
PRIVATE
BUSINESS
DHL GIVES SURPRISES
1. What are your hobbies? Spoiling my pets Writing my thoughts
New about DHL
Doing yoga for fun Collecting mini cacti Trying not to be bored.. Other great hobbies:
.....
SIGN UP
2. What would you like to be able to do with your gift?
DHL suprise challenge
Chillings around the house Activity for outside Spoil my pet(s)
Great that you are participating in this event!
Keeping the summer in my house
We would like you to fill in some personal information to help arrange this event! Do you already have an account, then sign in!
Enjoying the warm colours of autumn Other great descriptions:
..... Sign in
More information 3. Describe your personal motto
Name
.....
Street City code
I have filled in the form and understand that DHL will not use any of the information for sales goals, only for the organisation of this event.
City Email address
We would like you to fill in this form, to help your match in finding the best surprise for you, when some inspiration might be needed! 1. What are your hobbies? Spoiling my pets Writing my thoughts
Confirm
Figure 8. Questionnaire on DHL web
Doing yoga for fun Collecting mini cacti Trying not to be bored.. Other great hobbies:
.....
2. What would you like to be able to do with your gift? Chillings around the house Activity for outside Spoil my pet(s) Keeping the summer in my house Enjoying the warm colours of autumn Other great descriptions:
.....
3. Describe your personal motto
.....
I have filled in the form and understand that DHL will not use any of the information for sales goals, only for the organisation of this event.
Confirm
Figure 9. Participant journey
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Launching Channels Online channel The online channel is mainly used for delivering the commercial video of the DHL gift exchange.(Check the video via QR code and web link) This happens during the whole event, which creates awareness for the C2C business of DHL to potential customers and also raise the brand awareness for existing customers. Since main audiences of this event for online channel are curious people using social media [15] and getting information from it, the essential online channels for delivering videos are Youtube, Facebook and Instagram. Because in these three platforms, the DHL has its own channels and they already have a amount of subscriptions: DHL Youtube: 20,000 DHL Youtube Express Netherlands: 4,986 DHL Facebook: 432,413 DHL Instagram: 257,412 Delivering the commercial through Facebook and Instagram directly reach the main audiences, since nowadays the Facebook and Instagram are the main information resources of our targeted online audience. And comparing with the offline advertising, delivering the advertisements through the social media platform is beneficial for the budget in the short time period. The delivered commercial video straightforwardly illustrates the “joyness” and “surprise” emotion of gift exchange event, and point out main timepoint and process of participating the event. The DHL brand image has been clearly shown from the video through the vivid DHL logo and the red-yellow DHL theme color. The content of video mainly emphasizes on showing the simplifying process of delivering parcels and attract customers’ attention through tempoed music and sincerely surprised and joyful smile.
https://goo.gl/jTY8sW
Send one surprise, Get one back! DHL Surprise SIGN UP- SEPTMBER 1-24, 2017 http://dhlparcel.com/surprise
Offline channel The offline channel is mainly selected for delivering the poster and backlit diorama of DHL gift exchange event, which is responsible for cooperating the online channel advertising and raising the Figure10. Event Poster put in parcelshops awareness of the event. The Poster is delivered through the existing DHL parcelshop in a long time period, which directly reach the group who use the DHL parcel service. And in the other hand, the DHL parcel shops usually in the densely populated areas, which also make delivering posters in parcelshops a smart way to broadcast the event. The backlit dioramas are delivered in the main shopping mall / shopping street of chosen city in a short period, which are used to attract attention for the event. The main goal is to create awareness of consumers that DHL is doing the event. This channel, the backlit diorama, directly reach the potential and existing target group in place where they often and necessarily go to during the weekends or in their free time. This smart choice plays the limited budget (10.000 euros) with greatest value in the short time.
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Visual references The online and offline channels will have a similar visual style from what DHL already has. This was chosen, because the current DHL style is already very effective and well known. Keeping the B2C and C2C style similar, DHL creates a direct connection of also being a C2C company.
Budget This project assignment has a budget of €300.000, and in this paragraph is an overview of the expenses. All expenses include tax, because of tax benefits and and effects on the company’s financial management. IT costs website First cost estimation for the development of the website, which explains the event and convinces visitors to sign up. The technical development is a minor part of the cost estimation, because it is using existing technologies except it has to have a database which is integratable with the DHL system. The major part of the costs are in designing the landing page and creating online presence by search engine optimization. And as well the event has to be accessible from any device or browsers and in the current DHL app. The costs a based on 100 hours work by an external company, with an hourly price of €100. App integration The website with the signup form is going to generate new customer data, that has to be integrated in the current customer database and as well in the gift exchange system. To match people on their preferences, a new system has to be build. What the system has to do is not too complex, but it also has to be integrated in the current supply chain system of DHL. This Figure11. Launching budget integration is expensive because experienced IT people from DHL are required. For this development project, costs are based on having two full time developers of DHL for four months. Project leader This launching strategy creates much interaction between DHL and consumers. People can start making use of DHL services for free. Hence it is important to manage these events of DHL properly. During the event support requests and complaints from shop owners and consumers should be quickly replied, because the prevents negative associations and media attention in the wrong way. One DHL project leader is in lead of the event and responsible for the support, management of two interns and a PR budget of €10,000. Costs are based on a half year salary. Two interns To support the launching event, two interns will manage content marketing and social media advertisements. The internship fee is €500 per month.
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PR Around the launching strategy public relations is an important area to focus on. DHL takes some risks in organizing a new event. Media attention having much influence of the success of the project. Hereby is an budget for improving business relations of €10,000. Free delivery All participant can send one package for free in The Netherlands. Sending a package for private use in The Netherlands starts from €5,-, this is used as the default price in the event. The total amount free deliveries is estimated on 5000, which cost DHL €25,000 in total. It is important to note that the amount of deliveries is an uncertain factor. Hence the project leader is responsible for monitoring the demand, and having controllable factors to influence the amount of signups. As well €30,000 of the unexpected costs can be used to have more participants. Unexpected costs 10% of the budget, €30,000 is set as unexpected costs to reduce risk. Print costs (poster) incl. distribution Over the whole launching period posters will be used to communicate the event. Included distribution costs, this will cost €20,000 Banners in shopping streets On a shorter period, bigger banner are used to attract attention for the event. The main goal is to create awareness of consumers that DHL is doing the event. Social media advertising Cost per click (CPC) on Facebook is around 25 cents. To attract 100,000 unique visitors the the sign up pages is €25,000 required. This budget can be spend over multiple channels. Commercial A basic commercial is needed to market the event online. Based on multiple references in the course is a budget of €10,000 good for a professional video which explains the event and conceive the DHL brand values. Prices for Sharing To make it more attractive for people to share their stories online it is possible to win presents to share with friends and familie. A maximum budget of €10,000 is set to make around 50 people win something. Design strategy and fees To create a whole launching strategy that meets the objectives and brand values of DHL. The prices for the design strategy is based on a hourly salary of €60 per strategic designer and spent hours are 120 per person. €60 * 120 hours * 4 persons = €28,800
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System Analysis: Causal Diagram
Figure 12. The causal diagram This launching strategy is new to DHL in the way that it is an interactive programme, in which consumers can experience the service. As well are the channels that are going to be used relatively new, because most used channels will be social media. However DHL has done multiple advertisement before on social media, it can still vary strongly in effect on the amount of views it generate. Hence figure X shows the causal relations of variables in this launching strategy. This causal diagram shows the main effects between the controllable factors (red) with the system factors (white) and the key performance indicators (yellow). To summarize, the outdoor and online advertising lead to more views. This is the amount of views on the event webpage, either on phone, tablet of desktop, and is expected to vary between 50.000 - 100.000. More views has a positive effect on the number of signups, the expected conversion rate is expected to be 1% - 10%. From here probably not all signups will join the event due to many reasons, the highest participation rate is estimated at 80% with a minimum 30%. At this point, from all the packages that are sent, people can share their stories on the channel with a hashtag. The percentages of people to share the story is between 10% - 40%.
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Scenarios Undoubtedly this launching strategy has its risks, DHL will share its services in a new and inventive way. For example it is uncertain how many interest the event will get and how many people will join the event. A very high number of participants has much effect on the costs of the launching strategy. Many other factors have effect on the success of the launching strategy, therefore the most likely and some extreme scenarios are discussed. The used variables are: interest (views), participation (signups), reaction (consumer and media reaction). Scenario 1: Low views - low participation - negative reactions In this first scenario the launching activities to get attention are not successful. The advertisements on social media have a low conversion. People are not interested in ads on social media anymore and or many of the target group use ad blockers in their browsers. Also the visitors on the event website show low interest, the event looks numb. Only a few participants join and some news articles write about the failed project of DHL, “Why would I send a random package with DHL”. “DHL tries to be cool unsuccessfully”. Scenario 2: High views - High signups - positive reactions Most of the advertisements to get customers to the website generate many views. Even offline media attracts customers to the website. People already talk about the event and signups rise to over 50.000. DHL has to put and stop on the signups and put extra resources on managing the IT system and support. During the event when packages are send, media attention rises. Critical factors in this scenario are the capacity of the IT system and distribution and as well the PR capabilities of the employees. Scenario 3: High views - low signups - medium reactions Much attention from the advertisements and much rumours on the internet about the event. From the beginning there is already a negative tone, and signups are low, 2000. Reactions of users are okay, but media only publishes negatives news of the event. For DHL it is crucial to give the right support to participants and create still interesting content for sharing.
Conclusion In summary, we are aiming to increase DHL's C2C brand awareness by an interesting and low-cost giftexchange event. The event make people curious and experience DHL real parcel service. We use existing resources (parcelshops, parcel service) to support this launching strategy. In order to increase brand awareness, there are two phases. First, the poster and video launched before the event attracts people's attention and trigger a discussion topic among people. Second, after the participants receive their gift, the post they share on social media will also cause more discussion topics and brand awareness for DHL. Once the event is successful, the event is repeatable and scalable for other countries.
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References [1] ACM (2015, Dec), The current state of the Dutch postal market, https://www.acm.nl/en/ publications/publication/15136/The-current-stateof-the-Dutch-postal-market/ visited on June 30, 2017
documenten/vvpmarktverkenning1aug16.pdf
[2] Buutvrij. (2017). PostNL. Retrieved from https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va-U81hGDJw
[13] Trends in the Netherlands 2016. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.cbs.nl/-/media/_ pdf/2016/26/trends-in-the-netherlands-2016.pdf
[3] DPD Pakketservice. (2012). Wij zijn DPD Pakketservice. Retrieved from https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=9y9rtZcLN9E [4] DPD Lietuva. (2015). DPD corporate video (EN). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=AR1wE7Rguu8 [5] FedEx. (2017). FedEx Ad: Dream :60. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/user/FedEx
[12] We are PostNL. (2017). PostNL. Retrieved 24 June 2017, from https://www.postnl.nl/en/aboutpostnl/about-us/we-are-postnl/
[14] Moreau, F. (2013). The disruptive nature of digitization: The case of the recorded music industry. International Journal of Arts Management, 15(2), 18. [ 1 5 ] M e s s i n g, S. , & We s t wo o d , S. ( 2 0 1 2 ) . Selective Exposure in the Age of Social Media. Communication Research, 41(8), 1042-1063. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0093650212466406
[6] UPS Nederland. (2010). UPS Nederland. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Bq_Fx5sYKnM [ 7 ] U P S. ( 2 0 1 1 ) . U P S We L ove L o g i s t i c s. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=VCh6HnXHKRc [8] Reassess Millennials’ Social Sharing Habits. Harvard Business Review. Judith E. Glaser & Ashley Blundetto (2015). Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2015/03/reassess-millennialssocial-sharing-habits [9] Contract Logistics & Logistics Management. (2017). Exel.com. Retrieved 24 May 2017, from http://exel.com/Who-We-Are [10] DHL vision http://www.dhl.nl/en/about_ us/company_portrait/mission_and_vision.html. Retrieved on May 2, 2017 f [11] VVP Marktverkenning 2016. (2016) (pp. 2,9). Retrieved from http://www.vvp.nu/media/
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Appendix A. Media Scanning Ads of competitors can reveal much about what that company believes about marketing and their target group. Look at branding strategy, positioning, pricing, channel and promotion strategies, the following was concluded. DHL Does not have a clear advertisement in the Netherlands. This means not much visibility is created via commercials. DHL parcel Netherlands There is video on the parcel delivery of DHL in the Netherlands. It shows an animation, which indicates an easy way to achieve what is needed. This shows their process and their channels. With this video they want to achieve transparency, show their customer friendly service, and the interaction between customer and DHL. PostNL [2] A funny tone is used overall, PostNL wants to be future oriented because they are showing futuristic/new technology. They are focusing on average households/families because of the environment and people they use in the video. It does not particularly show a target group with a high or low income. It feels more like a middle income. PostNL focuses on sending and receiving of packages and parcels for consumers (at least this advertisement). UPS - B2B Further there is no other Dutch advertisement . This is a very old one from 2010. It is called ‘campusship’, they explain what value this particular service brings. The international commercial shows and puts emphasis on the international packaging delivery service.
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The international commercial [7] It is playful, warm, personal. It shows its big capacity by showing bigger storage houses, but also local delivery vehicles that are small. In the end they show that they value that their packages are delivered in a kind and professional manner. UPS shows channels like airplanes, trucks, boats, smaller trucks and local vehicles like something of mini truck and delivery guy. DPD [4] Focus on customer satisfaction, show average and normal people, focus on the human approach. They show different nationalities, different levels of education. Locally organised, but national and international package delivering is also done by this company. They also mention something and it is introduced as “total zero”, where they focus on limiting their load on the environment. They present themselves focusing not on money, but they also do not position themselves cheaply. It also does not seem particularly expensive per se. [5]English version In the English version they present themselves as operating via a user friendly smartphone application FedEx FedEx does not really have Dutch commercials. On youtube it only shows inter national commercials. The international commercial of 1 month ago shows a playful video, shows its international delivery reach en positions its delivery service as a ‘magical’ experience, and they realize it. It have a ‘light’ feeling. Like everything will be arranged for you. They focus on the experience for the customers. They mainly show flying objects which suggests their magical delivery service, but in the end they show some van for the realistic delivery.
Their target group is also middle income households. They even show a part of a family. [6]. Retrieved on 9 May 2017 Conclusion Some media scanning is done to find out how the companies present their positioning to the customers (B2C and C2C). When looking at different points, like branding strategy, positioning, pricing, channel and promotion strategies of the advertisements of the above direct competitors of DHL, the following can be concluded. PostNL is the only company that has advertisements in the Netherlands that are recently updated and regularly made. The other competitors have advertisements, but mainly abroad, like United Stated, United Kingdom and Germany. They miss visibility in Netherlands via commercials. FedEx, UPS and (international) DHL focus on the international delivery. They also show their big capacity to create a feeling of importance of their brand. All the companies try to create a feeling with their customers and want to show a feeling of trust. DPD has a different video for representing their brand. All brands also show their trucks and/or vans with their brand name on it and a similar target group for average households and/or families. They present customers as people between 25 - 50 years old. At this point it is hard to find DHL advertisements on Youtube that are recent and shown in the Netherlands, which is not very positive for visibility for B2C and C2C. Further all the advertisements was to show that the easiness, convenience and trustworthy is a core benefit for choosing their brand. For the DHL youtube account, some other videos, on the other hand, are interesting, because they show some insight in the service and how they want to help customers get a clear idea on their brand and services which is a strong point.
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B. Customer Journey