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Introduction and Core Issues
Charles I had established a company called The Post Office in 1635 which grew since then to a very wide company, but later in the 90s it broke off into two segments; one that handled the post and one that handled the media. In 2002, The Post Office official came to be known as the Royal Mail group. Royal mail group has three businesses working underneath it, and Royal Mail is one of them. Royal mail was given the main task of handling all the mail assortment and delivery of the mails to different places. In 2003, they were assigned the task of delivering parcels as well. These parcels were aimed to provide a solution to the business market (CWU Research).
Royal mail works throughout the UK and provides solutions and collection services to businesses in the UK. It works 6 days a week delivering its post to people all over the UK. The maximum weight that Royal mail handles is about 20 kg and delivers to more than 20 million people all over the UK handling about 82 million items per day (CWU Research).
Royal mail has divided itself into 3 different categories catering to different markets. One is the personal customers these are those that get their everyday needs fulfilled to send out small packages to other people around the UK, this package is for personal use. The second is for small and medium businesses this caters to the small businesses, which need to send packages to their customers or other small businesses. Last is the Corporate and the Public sector this caters to all the big corporation who want to increase their customer base and want to send packages and mail to different people and businesses (Royal Mail Group).
Since some time now competition in the market for Royal Mail has increased a lot and many new companies have come in the offer better services and better rates, due to this reason Royal mail has lost a lot of market share. This has been a big downside for the company as it used to be very well known in the market but now it not considered as one of the best services providers, people now wish to use other services rather than Royal Mail.
The sad part of Royal mail is that it has failed to meet its financials set for some time now which shows that it may be going into a financial loss (Webb). Not only has the finance been unreached but the quality that was communicated and promised to the customers had not been met which caused disappointment between the people, who started switching to other postal services and it has been criticized heavily by many users. The efficiency of their work has also gone down very much and has failed to achieve the efficiency target that has been set up for the company during the past few years (CWU Research).
These few issues that Royal mail is facing are not small ones that can be ignored but are very big issues that need to be resolved properly by the company. If that is not done then the company will be facing even more huge losses than it had ever before. Since the customers are getting better quality and better service from another company, therefore, it is obvious that they will switch to that company. Brand loyalty matters a lot and that can only be built when a brand delivers its promises and does much more helping customers reach customer delight that makes them stay loyal to the brand and not even think about using the services of another company.
Another problem that the company failed to notice and take into account is that many people both employees and outside had not accepted the companys shift from personal mail to the business market. People believed that Royal Mail was more related to personal mail sending mails from one person to their family or relatives or friends. But, since the change, they failed to relate themselves to the brand. This was one big mistake; they should have done market research before to see the acceptability of such a change and what people would think about it and how to go about doing it instead of bringing a fast drastic change in the company.
Now, Royal Mail has lost a lot of its market to its competitors and is suffering from the mistakes that it has made. It has not been able to reach its targets and no matter how hard they try they keep facing one glitch or the other in their schemes and campaigns to bring the company back to the top where it once used to be.
Proper research of the market and market trend must be done to understand what the market wants and how to go about achieving the targets. This the only way that proper strategy can be made to raise the market share of Royal Mail again and to become number one in the UK again.
Strategic Intent Statement
Set Strategic Intent
Any company needs to set goals and set its vision and mission of a company for the future what the company would like to do. Hence, the company needs to have a sense of direction to understand where it is heading in the future. Royal Mail needs to find that sense of direction and see where it is heading in the future. Royal Mail needs to see itself as the market leader again in the next few years and gain back the market share that it had lost (Telegraph Review). It should direct itself to rising again from the fallen. Royal mail should see itself grabbing every opportunity to do what it needs to rise in profits again and reach all the goals that it had once lost.
Another issue may suggest that Royal Mail needs to find is its sense of discovery. They need to understand that there is nothing that they cannot achieve when they put their minds to it. Royal Mail has to make is Unique selling point and this point should be that they can deliver anywhere and anything at any time. The package needs to be different from that of its competitors and make sure that they give discounted rates to their customers to that they can at least develop a customer base to work with.
This USP is something that they should focus on the ad it will then later become the image of the brand. People will expect the company to deliver what it has promised and Royal Mail will deliver that and much more for its customers. Customer delight: a way to the customers heart. They will also make follow up calls and take feedback from their clients about their services so that they can improve on their services and show their customers that they care (The Telegraph).
Lastly, the need to have a sense of destiny, they need to provide their employees that what they are doing is the right thing and that they can excel at everything that they put their minds to. They have to show the employees that they matter and that they have a bright future ahead in the company and the company can do nothing without them. With this sense in them, the employees will work happily for the company which in turn will provide betters services to its customers working in a two-way direction.
Set the Challenges
Royal Mail must set the challenges for the company itself. It should have targets that it can achieve and give its employees incentives when the reach that many targets, this gives motivation for the employees to work harder for the company. The company should challenge itself on its efficiency and increase its quality so that it can have that impact t on the customers that it needs to give out. And once it has achieved that challenge they will be back to the top that they were before.
Empowerment of the Strategic Intent
The company must realize that these goals cannot be achieved without the help of everyone in the company. The upper management of the company has to mingle with the lower levels of the company as well. They should have a discussion involving the opinion of the lower management as well and letting everyone take part in the decision-making process so that no one feels left out. That way everyone will be satisfied and willing to put their heart and soul into working for the company.
SMART Objectives
After the company has set up its strategic intent, it must make its Smart Objectives that must follow at all paths and lines for the company to make sure that they achieve their goals. These objectives must be as follows:
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To increase the efficiency of the company and make deliveries and collections on time and if possible in case of emergencies then they must make it before time.
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They must have employee satisfaction and a high motivation level in the company so that employees working in the company will be motivated enough to work their hardest for the company.
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To increase the rates of the services and provide better packages that will attract the customers to using their service only and to raise their level and quality of service for the people so that they can gain their loyalty towards the company.
Marketing Plan
Target Market
The target market of the Royal Mail has to be the mass market. It should rage from the business for people. It should target people who are most likely to send things to others who are living separately from their families. They can also target small, medium and big businesses providing a wide range of services to them. They should not limit themselves to only one of these but should give equal attention to all.
Brand Positioning Statement
Royal Mail needs a brand positioning statement that will attract people to give them another try and that they will this time be more than what they had expected them to be and they will deliver their promise. The statement will be as such:
For individuals and businesses; be it big or small, Royal Mail is the quickest and most efficient way to deliver your packages and posts to at a very cost-effective rate because only Royal Mail has the right methods to do that
Service Strategy
Royal Mail needs a service strategy that will be effective in every way possible for the brand that it will pull in customers. It needs to be strong enough to do so and it needs to be different from other strategies as that is a very important aspect, to differentiate oneself from its competitors. Without that there will be not much of a difference in the services being provided and the company will be taken as just another company in the market.
Royal Mail will make calls to its customers confirming the delivery of products on time and if they and any issues then taking them done and working on them. It is very important to get customer feedback about the service that is being provided as it shows the customer that you care and also the company can get customer feedback and work on the faults that have pointed out by the customers.
Royal Mail will give a date and time to deliver the package and will deliver on time but the emphasis will be on delivering before time as that gives the company a strong point to look onto as customers will be happy that their products are being delivered before the mentioned time.
Royal Mail will offer collection services from households as well, people will not have to come to the office to deliver their product but they can easily call up and ask for the company to pick up the package and deliver it.
Royal Mail will also expand its services to the outside UK and start sending packages abroad so that people dont have to hassle and go to a different company when they need to send a package abroad.
IMC Strategy
Royal Mail will have a USP of delivering to the customers before the required time. It will be their unique selling point in which they can differentiate themselves from their customers. Royal Mail will be able to cash on this point.
Their main message to their audience will be that they deliver to their destination in due time if not before. It will be communicated that all the strategies proposed above will be done by Royal Mail and the customers will not be let done but will experience extreme satisfaction on behalf of the company. They will also communicate to their customers that the packages will be perfectly safe with the deliverers and if there will be any mess up then the company will be responsible for it.
The best way to communicate all these messages to their customers will be via a television advertisement as these are the best way to reach their audience. Next, they will also use newspaper advertisements. For businesses, they will send personalized card offering packages to the company that they will be willing to work with.
By doing all of these the company can reach its audience better and leave them with whatever their requirements maybe.
Conclusion
Royal Mail has lost a lot of market since a very long time and it is now time for it to grab its market share back and to return into the market with aggression and show the competitors that Royal Mail is royalty. All the strategies mentioned above will be sure to help Royal Mail get its customers back and gain their loyalty as long as they dont fail to deliver the promises and keep them they way they are supposed to be kept as without that they will never be able to have customers. It is high time for Royal Mail to get back to its feet and start doing things the right way.
Works Cited
CWU Research. Royal Mail Profile . CWU Research. 2004:1-4.
Royal Mail Group. Welcome to Royal Mail. 2011. Web.
Telegraph View. The Post Office Thinking Outside the Box. 2010.Web.
Webb, Tim. 2010. Royal Mail profits dip as letters business suffers £66m loss. Web.
The Telegraph. Research International, the company which measures Royal Mail performance. 2011. Web.
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