Royal Mail's Marketing Strategies: Brand Development and Global Reach

This report examines Royal Mail's marketing strategies, focusing on brand development concepts such as brand recognition, identity, positioning, personality, and affinity. It analyses the use of adaptation and standardisation strategies within the marketing mix (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) in Royal Mail's global marketing strategy. The report highlights how Royal Mail leverages these concepts to attract customers, maintain a competitive edge, and expand its market share, considering both the advantages and disadvantages of adaptation and standardisation in different international markets like Australia, America, and Europe. The analysis provides insights into how Royal Mail aims to achieve long-term growth and customer satisfaction by aligning its strategies with customer demands and adapting to local market conditions.

Principles and Practice of
Marketing

Table of Contents
Background of the Company ..........................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1 .........................................................................................................................................3
1. Outlining the use of following concepts to develop brand.....................................................3
2. Use of adaptation and standardisation strategies within marketing mix in global marketing
strategy........................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

Background of the Company
Royal Mail plc is a company which deals in courier and postal services. The firm was
established in 1516 in UK. Its headquarters is located in Victoria Embankment, London, United
Kingdom. Royal Mail Group Ltd. is the subsidiary of company which run the brands in letters,
Royal Mail and Parcel force worldwide in parcels. The fully owned subsidiary of the group is
General Logistics Systems which is an international logistics firm. It is a type of public limited
company. The organisation administers its services in mail collection & delivery in every part of
United Kingdom. Wall box or pillar is used to deposit letters and then taken these to a post office
or gathered in bulk from enterprises. Deliveries of these are made every day at least once except
Bank holidays & Sundays at orderly charges for all destinations of UK.
The main aim of Royal Mail is to form first class deliveries on the succeeding business
day in all over the world. The firm is operating as public corporation or government
department. Nevertheless, Postal Services Act 2011, is following by the Royal Mail, bulk of
shares of the company in 2013 were floated on London Stock Exchange. Initially, the
government of United Kingdom retained 30 % of stake in the firm, but in 2015, sold its left over
shares, ending public ownership of 499 years. The company is a part of FTSE 250 index. The
key people of Royal Mail are Peter Long as chairman and Moya Greene as chief executive. The
services which the firm is provided are EMS, letter post, third party logistics, delivery, freight
forwarding and parcel services. The operating income of the company in 2017 is £575 million
and about 1,61,135 number of employees are working in an organisation.
The current strategy of Royal Mail is based on marketing mix components. The strategies
are based on its services, place, price and promotion. The company provides special delivery,
universal and business services as product which attracts more customers towards it to use its
services. In its universal service, a specific sized items can sent for fixed price at any place
within the country. The act guaranteed that the company would continue to administer this
service until 2021. In its special service, secured delivery by 1 pm on same day or 9 am the
succeeding day for hiked cost. Money back is guaranteed by the company in case the item does
not get in on time.
Pricing is varied according to the services that the firm is provided. The company adopts
economical pricing strategy to sell its services. The customers attracts more due to its
economical price of services.
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Royal Mail provides door to door services which administers delivery of brochures, print
materials, leaflets and catalogues to group of business & domestic addresses chosen through
postcode.
The firm provides its services all over the world. These strategies are used by Royal Mail
in order to attract customer towards its services and sustain in competitive market and acquire
large portion of market share.
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INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a wider process in all the processes of business in which different tools and
techniques are used so that all the conducted operations related to the marketing of a product can
be successfully performed. The process includes promotion, research, customer services and
product development 7 designing (Principle of marketing. 2017). It ultimately leads the
organisation towards accomplishment of goals and objectives in an effective and efficient
manner. In the present assignment, the chosen organisation is Royal Mail which is a British
company provides postal and courier services. The company was established in 1516 and is a
public limited entity (Applbaum, 2010). The report covers brand recognition, positioning,
identity, personality and affinity and how the organisations used these concepts. Apart from this,
standardisation and adaptation strategies and its advantages & disadvantages for the firm also
defined and how organisation applied it within the marketing mix (Product, Price, Place,
Promotion) of the organisation in global market.
TASK 1
1. Outlining the use of following concepts to develop brand
There are some concepts which are used in most of the organisations to build its brand by
administering goods and services to its potential customers. These concepts are as follows:
Brand recognition
Brand recognition is an element of brand awareness. It is the ability of a customer to
identify one brand over the other. It is that capability of consumer by which they identify the
products by its feature and design components. Just by seeing the logo, packaging, tag line and
advertising campaign of product & service, the customer can currently recognize a particular
good. It requires client to recall previous knowledge (Carlborg and et. al., 2013). Auditive
learning experience or consistent visual must be repeatedly administer to consumers in order to
construct brand image. The good should be identified without using name, if brand recognition is
done in right way. The main objective of Royal Mail to use it is to acquire potential customers to
identified the product immediately without needing more effort. Its brand is recognised due to
economical prices and its fast services. Brand recognition proves to be highly effective for Royal
Mail. If the company wants to expand its business in European market then, company needs to
spread brand awareness effectively so that customers easily recognise the brand.
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Brand identity
Brand identity represents how the brand recognize itself in market. It comes from the
tangible and visible components such as logo, design, company name, typeface, colours, tag line
etc. The services of Royal Mail is known for the good name of the company and its logo. This
concept is used by the firm to attract customers and get their attention. The more attractive the
service, more will be its customers. The logo of Royal Mail is simple, yet attractive and is highly
recognised by the customers. People mainly recognise the brand by its logo, they do not require
to see title and name (Cătoiu and et. al., 2010). The services which are being provided by the
company is effective and on economical prices. So, this component might can influence the
perception of customers which can enhance the profitability and productivity of the firm. If
company wants to expand its business in other market, it will be easy for Royal Mail as
customers are already aware of brand and it will be profitable to expand its business in the
European market.
Brand positioning
Brand positioning refers to the place in the minds of customers that the firm wants its
brand to acquire. A strong position of brand means it has sustainable, credible and unique image
in the mind of people. Positioning is done on the basis of coherence, clarity, courage,
commitment, relevance, distinctiveness, patience etc. It is based on size, prices, quality, time of
day and cultural symbols. The main aim of Royal Mail behind brand positioning is to attain and
retain place in the minds of people by administering them satisfactory and quality services to
them. It is necessary for the company to change the perception of customers with respect to their
services. Royal Mail should have made different strategies and plans for the positioning of brand
and capture the market by getting customers. For expansion, different marketing strategies plays
crucial role in brand positioning. It highly influence the brand image as it helps in identifying the
complete details of the product, competitors and creative and innovative ideas (Collins, 2010).
Positioning acts as a base for creating and enhancing the needed perceptions and knowledge of
customers. It is the only component that sets Royal Mail services apart from its competitors. So,
brand positioning in other place is beneficial for the firm.
Brand personality
Brand personality is defined as a set of human attributes that are characterised to brand
name. It is the thing to which customer can relate. Brand equity also increases with an effective
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trade name by having a pursuant set of attributes that a particular customer segment enjoys. It is
like an human personality and it is both enduring and distinctive. Royal Mail use this concept to
gain deep understanding of perceptions of customers and their attitudes for the brand. It can
administer more awareness than is acquire by interrogating about characteristic perceptions. It
can also differentiate brands where they are same in product attribute. Brand personality
administers Royal Mail in differentiate the brand & make it different from the offerings of its
competitors. It not only consist personality features but demographic factors are also included
such as class, gender, age, psycho graphic factors etc.
Brand affinity
Brand affinity refers to the most valuable and enduring level of consumer relationship
and is rely on the same belief that the firm and consumer share common value. It helps the
company in identifying the buying behaviour of customers so that changes can be done as per
their needs. It also includes a layer of data that is useful when distinguishing among customers to
achieve market segmentation (Corrigan, 2011). Developing brand affinity is not easy to most of
the firms. It is a tool which assist Royal Mails in creating positive attitude of customers towards
their services. It also helps in developing trust and brand loyalty among customers to buy their
services. If company wants to expand its brand at other place, maintaining good relationship with
customers is necessary. If firm have good relation with customers then it will be easy for them to
promote its brand in the new market.
2. Use of adaptation and standardisation strategies within marketing mix in global marketing
strategy
Global standardisation refers as a marketing approach used by various business enterprise
to promote goods and services all across the globe. Standardisation at international level means
homogenizing all products and services on a global scale. This onward progress of
internalization and globalization had a strong impact on companies marketing decision and
strategy. According to Beberyn, 2015 Global Standardisation refers to an union framework of
product, demand, culture and environment of a business entity at international level. Consistency
in market segment and its product helps to achieve higher satisfaction level of customer with
lower operating cost (Cova and et. al., 2011). Companies can attain long term growth by focuses
on the demand of customer and modifying the product as per the needs and desire of target
consumer.
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On contrary, other firms supports and emphasize on adaptation process rather than
providing consistency. The fundamental ground of adaptation defines the criteria which suggest
that when a company is entering into international market, they are bound to consider all
essential environmental constraints and factors related to climate, race, religion, local food,
choice, language, taste, culture, laws etc. MNCs are required to alter their marketing strategy and
decisions according to current market demand. Adaptation process generally focuses on tailoring
the marketing strategies which appeals the local residents of the new market.
It Royal Mail adopt adaptation and standardisation strategy for the expansion of its
product in Australian, American and European market, it will assist in successful introduction of
product in the market and attainment of higher level of satisfaction of customers. These
strategies helps in attaining long term growth and sustainability of the firm by emphasize on
customer's demands and improve the product according to the needs and wants of potential target
customers. Adaptation strategy assists an organisation in tailoring its strategies related to
marketing that helps in attracting customers in new market.
Companies are using both approaches according to their business environment and expansion.
But still there are certain factors which describes the difference between the following :
Standardisation Adaptation
Advantages  Excellent channel of communication
 Single rational global image
 Higher production level with optimal
cost (Greene, 2015)
 Protects Brand Image
 Guaranteeing higher quality control
and uniform customer satisfaction
 The main advantage of adopting
standardisation is that it provides long
term growth and sustainability to an
organisation by fulfilling the needs and
wants of customers.
 Admire local
expectation and
specification.
 Great local image
 Alter strategies as per
customer desire
 Creates value for
product which enables
consumer to pay more.
 Application of
adaptation strategy
helps Royal Mail in
tailoring its marketing
strategies so that, the
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firm is able to attract
customers in new
market.
Disadvantages  Exposing the name of brand towards
risk factor
 Deficiency of uniqueness
 diminish the flexibility of supply
change
 Possible advertising effectiveness loss.
 Higher cost
 Consumes much time
and poor execution of
strategies.
 Ambiguous related to
customer demand and
needs.
Marketing Mix of Royal Mail:
Marketing Mix was popularised by E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960s and it can be defined as
a set of tactics or actions, that a business enterprise is used in order to advertise its goods/services
among target customer (Marketing Mix. 2017). Basically it refers to the concept of using
different methods which help the company to promote its product or brand name (Hossain,
2014). It is the combination of putting right product at correct place, time and price. It comprises
of 4Ps of marketing which are:
1. Product: It can be defined as an item that is produced keeping in mind the needs and desire of
target customer. It can in the form of tangible or intangible depending upon the preferences of
the consumer. Firms are require to ensure that they must manufacture the commodities which
satisfies the client.
Product development life cycle generally contains distinct stages related to its growth,
maturity and decline phase. It become essential for marketers to reinvent and stimulate the
product demanded. Royal Mail wants to expand its product, i.e., postal services to American,
Australian and European market to satisfy the demand of customers and attain high profitability
in the market.
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(Source: Product Development, 2017)
The key product of Royal Mail is their postal services all across the globe (Kotler and
Armstrong, 2010). The cited company has categorise its courier services into Personal, Business
and Corporate.
Personal : This includes sending letters, parcel and gifts to friends and family overseas.
Business : This has been used by the various business man to keep themselves connected with
their target customer which automatically raise their conversion rate. This can also be known as
Programmatic Mail which delivers the services quickly and came up with the results within next
48 hours. It includes:
 Search of New Consumer
 Raise Firm's reputation
 Expand all across the globe
 Save money and time
 Find Effective and Quick way to enlarge Selling and marketing on E-Bay
Corporate : It has been used by big and large sender who deals in large volume (Kotler, 2012). It
comprises:
 Receiving and sending huge bulk in an effective way.
 Managing the mail by providing security and efficiency solution.
 Royal Mail helps in increasing the success and growth rate of their respective campaigns
which promotes their product or services. Provides Electoral Services to various Political Parties.
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Illustration 1: Product Development

2. Price: It refers to that amount of a product or service which customer enjoys paying it seller. It
is considered as an important factor as it determines the company's survival and revenue. It gives
shape to consumer perception in context of firm's product or services. On the basis of Price
factor, buying behaviour of buyer depends.
Source: Pricing Strategies, 2017
Royal Mail has used economical pricing strategy in order to hold the larger share of
target consumer. As the company works their operations in three different area which enables
them to focus on different types of customer, generally include business man, manufacturers,
suppliers etc. As the firm is new in the market, initially, it is necessary to set its prices low so
that customers attract more towards the products of the business entity. According to Broklyn,
2014 it has been figured out that 59% of consumer believes that information that they are
receiving through mail generates more value than any other source of channel. This gives an
objective to firm for achieving long term success.
3. Place : Companies are required to select the distributional channel which can be easily
accessible to the target buyers. Effective positioning and placement channel had a direct impact
on potential customers, thus enabling them to buy respective product or service (Mish and
Scammon, 2010).
Royal Mail collected their all over 38 mail centres and bring it together to one particular
place. This makes easier for them to operate their functions effectively and efficiently overseas.
Further the respective mail is exchanged among the different mail centres and then carry forward
it to final delivery office from where it transferred to its potential buyers in terms of people,
retailer, supplier, business man etc. Company should expand its business in such market where
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Illustration 2: Pricing Strategy

the customers are familiar to the firm as well its products so that targets will easily be achieved
and firm attain growth and sustainability.
Source: Distributional and Placement Chanel
4. Promotion : This has been used by the various business enterprises in order to advertise its
services or product on large scale which automatically raise their market share and revenue.
Basically this includes various promotional channel through which company shares its product or
services among potential buyers (Reddy and Raghaveni, 2013). It compromised of different
elements in the form of :
 Sales Organization
 Advertising
 Public Relation
 Sales Promotion
Royal Mail uses door to door method in order to advertise their services. Further they
also use print media method in the form of Brochures, Leaflets, Catalogue which defines their
business services and attracts the large customer. Along with this they also focuses on attracting
large number of Business Man which falls in their corporate and business category. They
advertise their services in MNCs through using the method of Public Relation (Simoni and et. al.,
2010). Currently Royal Mail is also using the techniques of digital marketing so to get
themselves connected with their target customer through their own area of interest. They are
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Illustration 3: Distributional Channel

promoting themselves by following the latest trends in the form of various social media
networking sites. Company use appropriate marketing tools in order to effectively promote its
product in American, Australian and European market.
Source : Promotional Strategies, 2017
Standardisation and Adaptation of Royal Mail
The Standard principle of Royal Mail is to built their organisation that consists Lean
Principle with constructive standardised process. Though they have already linked their part with
automatic mail services processing. Royal Mail has adapt themselves according to the
introducing shape of different postal industries and aiming towards possessing right capabilities
and skills in order to enhance current services effectively. Royal Mail makes them flexible
enough to deal with the alter changes (Velentzas and et. al., 2012). This had a great implication
on their leadership, employment engagement related to process and change. It is very important
for a business entity to adapt their core activities according to the dynamic environment. Royal
Mail has start using digital media platform which promotes their services on larger scale. For
instance, company uses different social networking sites Facebook, YouTube in order to attract
the attention of potential clients. They believe in reaching to its customer through the medium
that they are using. Along with this, Royal Mail has analysed the culture of different countries in
which they are operating their mail services. When they deliver any personal courier, they end it
with saying a good-note probable in their local language, thus making them highly satisfied.
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Illustration 4: Promotional Mix

Before implementing any change, Royal Mail are required to do research which depicts
the latest trend and choices of customer in terms of Mail System (Woo and Leelapanyalert,
2014). Here customer can be the local or non-local residents, business man, suppliers etc.
Standardisation and Adaptation provides competitive advantage to the cited firm in terms of their
rivals depending upon them whether they choose consistency or modification.
CONCLUSION
As per the given report, it can be concluded that both standardisation and adaptation
plays an important in determining the company's share and revenue overseas. Increased global
competitiveness influence the business enterprise to alter themselves according to the changing
environment. It depends upon the company whether they want to modify themselves as per the
current changes. Royal Mail has focused on adapting themselves with the latest trend such as
using digital media platform in order to attract the large number of customer through their
channel of interest which results in leaving greater impact on potential buyers. Along with this
company uses marketing mix strategies which compromises of 4Ps, evaluating the core functions
and services of Royal Mail.
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