Speed Post – The Courier Service

Courier Service Market in India• Till late 70s- Dependence on “Post

Office”• 1980- Monopoly broken- Entry of

Skypak; ‘Promise of safe delivery of documents’

• Boom in the market- Department of Posts launched SpeedPost in 1986

Today…• Organized Market- 200 crores; Annual Growth Rate- 40%

• Leading Players- DHL, SkyPAK, SpeedPost, BlueDart, Elbee

• Rapid increase in number of players- 4500

• Era of Generic Selling is over

• Innovative marketing strategies – Value Add-ons

• Tie ups with foreign affiliates

About Speed Post• Services available- 62 cities, 61 countries and more than 664 point to

point destinations• Round the clock counters• Unique money transfer facility(SPMO), Book-your-own article scheme,

book now pay later facility, and contractual service

Strengths• Good Domestic Network• Lower Pricing• Less Sensitive to Hike in Air rates• Channelized Business from govt.

sector

Weaknesses• Perceived as less consumer

driven• Govt. Organization• Lower levels of Service• Consumer perception requires

change

Competition- Positioning Analysis

Courier Service

Positioning

DHL Product Differentation. Technology is used in a strategic sense, focus on automation & speed of delivery, Pioneer in entering new markets

SkyPAK Customization for different market segments- Tailored delivery to different needs of customers. Specialized product promotion. Kidglove-fragile items; Night bird- late night deliveries; Expressions-carrying personalized messages

Blue Dart Focus on reliability and zeal. Better and faster than any other player in the market. Emphasis on value added services- Track and Trace, MIS, ERP, Customs and Regulatory expertise, Air Network and superior technology

Elbee -UPS Emotional Need Differentiation. Focus on ‘Quality of Service’. Continuous improvements in technology- new standards of feedback, supertabs which will shrink confirmation time of delivery parcels; Customer to view it as a ‘one stop shop for all express requirements’; Do that extra bit for improved service

Speed Post- Positioning• Uses the rational appeal; Focus on how accountable, reliable it is• Tries to break the assumption of public services not being accountable• What made speed post unique- It was public, very good coverage and

lower prices than its competitors• Addressed the concerns of the customers and attempted to prove it

wrong• Positioning focused on identification of reasons why target audience

should think/ investigate about the product

Speed Post Campaign• Launched in September 1991, to celebrate Speed Post’s 5th anniversary• The main campaign was in three segments.

a) For Higher Income Group: Corporate Sector b) For Higher Income Group: Non-Corporate Sector c) For Middle Income Group: Corporate & General Sector

• First campaign of three designs 'Never'. 'Impossible', and 'Out of Question' had one insertion each in all these magazines; By-line "you will be surprised" – to change wrong perception about Speed Post

• Approach was changed- Three designs were taken up- “A public courier service? And efficient? And accountable? A reliable public courier”

Objectives of the Speed Post Campaign

• Launching brand name• Earlier publicity efforts not

systematic

• Creating awareness to acquire new consumers

• Converting users of other courier services to those of Speed Post

• Correcting presumptions about Speed Post

Need for Corporate Campaign

• Major customers are corporates and not the general public

• Highly sensitive to quality service• Speed Post faces competition from

multinational courier service companies like FedEx, DHL, TNT etc and Indian companies like Blue Dart

• Speed Post suffers from the lethargic image of the Indian Postal Services

Corporate Campaign• Campaign should play on the strengths of the Indian Postal

Service which are:– Its Deep national network– Collaboration with national courier services of other countries

under the Universal Postal Union• Run free sector wise sampler services for a month• Publish articles in the Universal Postal Union’s magazine Union

Postale to add credibility• Explore other platforms other than print like:

– LinkedIn– Commodity trading sites– Sector specific magazines and sites like Overdrive, Autocar India,

Pharma Times Online, Equipment India etc.

Group 5Himanshu Gupta- 19ALakshmi Nair – 22ANeeraj Mishra- 25APankaj Mishra- 28APavni Kumar- 29A