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dealing
of
carriage-able
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and
Milestones
Through investing into its business model and realizing customer needs and
expectations, TCS has been able to achieve many milestones over the years
of its operations. These milestones have indeed set quality standards and
benchmarks for the express courier service.
1983
TCS was found in Pakistan, with 12 stations & 25 booking first day
1985
Countrywide Network Expansion to over 100 locations to meet Pakistan
Banking Council need
1989
2008
2009
Acquired non-resident visa facilitation rights for Embassy of Egypt;
Acquired non-resident visa facilitation rights for Malaysian Embassy
Karachi;
Through investing into its business model and realizing customer
needs and expectations, TCS has been able to achieve many
milestones over the years of its operations. These milestones have
indeed set quality standards and benchmarks for the express courier
service.
TCS Today
Today TCS is known for its trust and reliability element and has a strong
presence not only in Pakistan, but also in the Middle East and North America.
The
company
provides
both
domestic
and international
services
to
consumers, corporate, SMEs and households and is now the biggest network
in the country. Following are some relevant figures regarding the operating
scale of TCS:
Monthly pickups and deliveries: 6
million
Offices: 155
Continent of operations: 5
Professionals working with TCS: 7000
Express Centers: 530+
On-line and off-line locations: 2000
Satellites tracked delivery vehicles: 250
Chartered planes: 2
Couriers: 3000+
Employees: 6000+
Destinations: 3500
The corporate sector, the two major target areas for TCS are banks/financial
institutions and export/import sector.
Banks and financial institutions are the major target markets which generate
a large percentage of its revenue. The main product is DOX in order to send
drafts, cheques, agreements etc. TCS has traditionally remained dominant in
this sector as it provides timely and speedy delivery.
Another major target market of TCS is the export/import sector. It attracts
businesses by offering different sized packaging and ensuring a safe and
timely delivery of their goods.
TCS also targets consumers. For example its students express and
sentiments express targets customers looking for a quick and economical
way to deliver goods or documents to places inside and outside their locality.
But theres a flip side to the rosy coin, in international courier services, these
very same profit-oriented organizations choose DHL or FedEx as a courier
service provider over TCS because of the fact that TCS has relatively lesser
visibility in the global arena. The effective distribution in international arena
is limited to certain countries. Also for international deliver TCSs charges are
higher than its competitors. All in all, if summarised the business class is an
active customer class for TCS that is affected by the prices they charge for
their services.
Private Class
In the private class category, the main reason why people choose TCS over
other courier service providers is because of the trust-bond they have come
to associate with TCS. Many people in the class trust players that are
reputed, and have been providing such services for the longest time period.
TCS was the pioneer in the courier service provider category; this is the
biggest reason many private customer use TCS over other service providers.
Also many consumers that represent the younger generation associate
innovation with TCS.
The various event based promotions is seen as an innovative step by many
young consumers and hence they like to try TCS products and services. Many
people are swayed by the timeliness of the service by TCS when compared
with OCS and other courier service provider. Having a vast number of outlets
throughout Pakistan has enabled TCS to minimize time lags to a bare
minimum and this has helped attract customers by earning their trust,
through delivering their packages on time.
over 350 retail outlets and over 2000 service locations worldwide. It has a
fleet of 5 planes, 200 vehicles, 3000 bikes and 6000 employees to facilitate
its operations. The new state of the art building is located near the port
making TCS more efficient (Kotler, 2008). The most important aspect of the
TCS supply chain is that it has established a value delivery network. By
installing a customer friendly distribution system, TCS has achieved a
leadership position in the express courier industry in Pakistan and is adamant
to expand globally too (Kotler, 2008).
Marketing Mix
The marketing mix consists of four elements: Product, Price, Promotion and
Place. We will talk about each one in light of TCSs marketing strategy.
Product
1)
and
fast
delivery
services
international
network.
Its
Freight plus
This offers delivery of less urgent and large size shipments within 10-12
working days. But this service is not for domestic goods, its exclusive for
export shipments. Moreover customer clearance is also provided.
Red box
TCS has come up with a red box to help customers safely deliver anything
they want to from toys, books clothes to shoes or other accessories. The box
is simple and, convenient and also cost in effective. Things can be sent to
residents in UK, USA, Canada and Far East. TCS has gone out of its way to
help customers show their loved ones how much they care with the
innovation of the red TCS bx. Everything from its red attractive color to its
material helps make the delivery service unique and safe. The box is
available in two different weights ten kg and twenty five kg.
Students express
This service is especially for students. It delivers their documents to colleges,
universities and other educational institutions anywhere in the world. To avail
this service the student has to submit a copy of his/her id card along with the
documents to be sent and the rest is taken care of by TCS.
2)
packages,
parcels,
and
MMS
Mail management solution
MMS ensures continuous delivery of value. TCS imported state of the
art printing and sorting technology from the best suppliers in Europe
and Asia pacific. This has allowed TCS to operate as the only end to
end solution provider in the category with the largest delivery network
in Pakistan.
Sentiments express
TCS sentiments express handles the gifts delivery service. It was started
when the management realized there was huge demand from consumers
wanting to celebrate various occasions like Eid or birthdays with their friends,
family, and colleagues residing in a different city. TCS saw that these
customers did not have an easy and cheap way to deliver gifts to their near
and dear ones. So TCS came up with sentiments express which makes it easy
for customers to deliver personalized high valued gifts safely. TCS offers a
wide array of gifts ranging from gourmet cakes, floral bouquets, to various
other gifts wrapped in a unique and attractive way , adding more meaning to
peoples celebration.
3)
Logistics services
its
logistics
wing
as
Overland express
TCS overland express is the market leader in door to door goods
transportation in Pakistan by land through forty to fifty containers. This is
especially
suitable
for
companies
that
have
to
transport
goods
or
merchandise in bulk to different cities all over the country within three days.
Moreover packaging facility is also available. The main product offering are:
LCL (Loose container Load)
FTL (Full Container Load)
Hub to Hub delivery
Hub to Door delivery
Promotion
TCS does not indulge into mass promotional
activities like DHL does. The reason that TCS
does not invest in mass marketing is because of
its loyal customer base, also promoting itself on
billboards has not being effective in the past.
The only TV commercials that TCS does are for
special occasion like Fathers Day etc. But even
those advertisements were discontinued, since
the cost incurred was greater than the actual
outcome of the advertisements. On the other
hand to create awareness of its occasion based
schemes, media such as radio and newspaper
are used extensively. The main concern is cost. The cost incurred in having a
print advertisement and radio commercial is lesser than running an
advertisement on TV. Also TCS is investing itself into e-marketing, whereby
we saw that TCS ads started appearing on Facebook and other popular
websites.
Print Media
The infrequent nature of occasions makes way for advertising only for a
limited time at a specific time of the year. This saves the overall cost as
compared to having a TVC running all year round. This is an effective method
noble
cause,
and
established
relief
Pricing
This section will delve into the pricing strategies adopted by the Tranzum
Courier Services and will critically analyze their efficacy in the domestic and
international context.
consumer
base,
thus,
pricing
is
very
important
for
the
organization which will not only help it to attract new customers, but also
allow it to sustainably retain them.
TCS practices three different kinds of pricing strategies due to different
nature of the business. The service it provides differs because TCSs services
vary from the type of customer to the level of service to be offered and the
geographical proximity of the service. Thus the pricing model needs to be
completely different from that of traditional product manufacturers or service
providers since the nature of their products and services is fixed, unlike the
case of TCS where one business may want to send a parcel to Kazakhstan
and at the same time a consumer may want to send a parcel within Karachi.
To cater all these deviances in the extent of services provided due of the
nature of the business, TCS have adopted numerous pricing strategies for
different business units and consumer & business groups. Just like all the
travel and courier business in the world, TCS too practices Geographical
pricing which is quite evident from the TCS rate list attached in the appendix
1.
Geographical Pricing
TCS practices extensive geographical pricing and the extent of it can be
comprehended by the types of geographical pricing it has adopted. TCS has
adopted five different types of geographical pricing strategies. The most
important ones from them are uniformed delivery pricing and zone
pricing.
Uniformed Pricing
Uniformed delivery pricing is mainly practiced in Sentiments Express in
which the cost of cake with its delivery will remain the same no matter to
and from which location it is sent.
Zone Pricing
Zone pricing is mostly practiced in international courier services. As it can be
seen from the TCS rate list in appendix 1, the international prices are
categorized into different zones and each zone has a different price from
other zones. The price stays the same no matter which location in the zone
courier is sent.
Freight Absorption Pricing
Sentiments express also uses freight absorption pricing to some extent as
the products offered by sentiments express are not charged for freight
charges. Now whether the freight charges are included in the price or TCS
intentionally absorbs them to penetrate market is another case.
Dynamic Pricing
The essential characteristic of dynamic pricing is that prices are adjusted
continually to meet the characteristics and needs of individual customers
International Pricing
It is very important for companies that operate internationally to set prices
that are reconciled with each and every individual country. The most
important price determinant in the international courier industry is the
existing prevailing prices in the industry. TCS also practiced international
pricing strategy as it operates in many other countries other than Pakistan
along with major industry players like FedEx, DHL etc. Appendix 2 & 3 show
the prices of TCS that are aligned with the international prices of major
multinational companies. It can be deduced from the data that TCSs
international prices are not very different from the FedEx international prices.
Pricing problems
TCS is currently serving both B2B and B2C customers consecutively without
any differentiation. For example, the mail delivery service is simultaneously
used by business and other individual consumers and it is extremely
implausible to differentiate between them with respect to marketing. There
are separate services offerings for consumers and businesses but on many
occasions directly go for the consumer service being offered. This is one of
the issues TCS faces with respect to pricing.
TCS does not practices competitive pricing which is evident from the
comparison of TCS rates with that of local courier services. Appendix 4 shows
the rate list of Leopards Courier Services, which is the biggest competitor of
TCS in Pakistan. It can be noted from the comparison of Appendix 2 & 4 that
TCS has quite high prices than its competitor because TCS believes its
services are of better quality and does not believes in competitive pricing on
cost of quality compromise.
SOCIAL/CULTURAL ASPECT
Celebrating mothers day and Valentines Day in Pakistan is clear evidence,
showing the impact of highly influential American and European culture.
Besides this, media and foreign channels are changing the life styles of the
people, making it faster day by day. Now customers demand quicker, faster
and reliable services. With these changes in our culture, the courier service
industry has to keep pace with the new trends by offering customers the
required needs.
TECHNOLOGICAL ASPECT
Technology is changing on daily basis offering businesses new dimension to
carry out their operation. Similarly, in the courier service industry,
technology is playing a very important role in providing faster and reliable
delivery services. Though these technologies demands major investment by
the company but in turn deliver productive results in terms of profit and
gaining competitive edge.