FedEx, the courier and delivery service company, is adopting a more integrated, purpose-driven approach to its messaging in response to major changes taking place in the marketplace.

Rajesh Subramaniam, FedEx’s evp/chief marketing and communications officer, discussed this subject at the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) 2018 Masters of Marketing Week.

“Connecting the world has never felt more important,” he said. (For more, read WARC’s in-depth report: Why FedEx changed its messaging from giddy to humor to honor.)

“We are living in challenging times. On the one hand, forces like the internet – and FedEx, for that matter – have brought the world closer together, connecting businesses to customers around the world.”

On the other hand, he continued, there are “divisive forces” that form part of a countervailing trend seeking to put up barriers of various kinds.

Against this backdrop, the heart of FedEx’s “New Possibilities” platform – which looks beyond pallets and packages to tell stories about communities and people – intentionally “connects our message globally across channels and functions”.

The underlying goal informing its communications is bringing “to life the global impact that FedEx makes every day, helping entrepreneurs, teachers [and] families around the world realise their dreams,” Subramaniam said.

“But it also comes from a deeper desire and a deeper responsibility. As a business leader, I personally feel the need to connect and unite all 425,000 FedEx team members around the world. And, as a CMO, I feel the responsibility to use our media budget to spread a positive message.”

This initiative constitutes a shift in tone for FedEx, which has long relied on a humorous flourish in discussing its customer solutions – a strategy that proved to be highly effective over time.

While switching approach was “tough”, the broadening demand for FedEx’s services, shown nowhere better than the growth of e-commerce, indicates there is a powerful rationale for pursuing a new focus, Subramaniam reported.

“The world keeps changing. Thanks to technological advancements, we are more global and we are more connected than ever,” he said. “Customers everywhere expect and demand faster, better service, from anywhere in the world, on their terms.

“In that hyper-competitive marketplace, it’s never been more important to connect our internal brand promise with the external expression of our purpose. Every package and every experience is a reminder of what we deliver when we deliver.”

Sourced from WARC