DHL is the worlds leading express and logistics company

offering customers innovative and customized solutions from a

single source. With global expertise in solutions, express, air
and ocean freight and overnight transport DHL combines
worldwide coverage with an in-depth understanding of local
markets. DHLs harmonized international network links more
than 220 countries and territories worldwide. DHL continues to
be at the forefront of technology and with more than 150,000
dedicated employees, guarantees fast reliable services aimed
at exceeding customers expectations.
For decades, industry giants Federal Express and United Parcel
Service together owned 70 percent of the U.S. market for
express and package delivery services. DHL, the 34-years-old
acknowledged leader in the global market, serving 220
countries, was little known to U.S. customers; it had only 6
percent market share. When DHL acquired Airborne in 2003,
the company knew it needed an all-out effort to complete
head-on with the domestic behemoths. The company
budgeted $ 1.2 billion for new initiatives to boost its presence
in the U.S. market, starting with the addition of seven regional
sorting centers to increase ground delivery capacity by 60
percent. To support its ambitious goal of becoming number one
in the U.S. parcel delivery market, the company created an
innovative new red logo and spent $150 million on an
integrated six month marketing communication campaign
including broadcasting, print, interactive, and outdoor
advertising as well as sponsorships, public relations and a new
website that focused on brand awareness and brand value. DHL
Americas executive vice president of marketing channels, we
are showcasing the DHL brands value message to current and
potential customers across all points of contact.
The DHL marketing campaign, developed by advertising agency
Ogilvy and Mather New York, opened with a June 2004
television ad showing drivers for FedEx and UPS watching in
wonder as a freight train rolls by carrying brand new yellow
trucks with the red DHL logo. Not only did the company
completely renovate its own website (www.dhl.com), but it
also placed full motion interactive advertising on the other
websites. The companys website allows customers to
download all its television, interactive, print, and outdoor
advertising, as well as a computer screensaver with DHL trucks
continuously streaming across red black ground and
interspersed with the campaigns catchy headlines. A public
relation leader s complemented campaign by Ogilvy PR
worldwide that was aimed at core constituents and opinion
leaders complemented the paid advertising. And the
companys tangibles became and bright yellow background on
every DHL building, vehicle, courier uniform, packaging unit,
and drop box in North America.
DHL used sponsorship as key element of the campaign,
highlighted by its role as the Official Express Delivery and
Logistics Provider of 2004 U.S. Olympics Team.
Targeting small and medium sized business, which have larger
revenue per shipment and are more profitable, DHL created
one of the most coordinated services marketing
communication companies in history. The advertising company
achieved integration through color, theme, tagline, and design.
Communication and Service Marketing Triangle Relevancy with
DHL:
As DHL is a global organization its organizational environment
varies from country to country. In these circumstances DHL has
developed different marketing activities for different countries.
These activities are also flexible. DHLs corporate level strategy
is fixed, but divisional and functional level strategy changes
because the country managers set them up by analyzing the
environment. DHLs technology is mainly based on network,
collection and distribution. Its human resource is highly skilled
and qualified. They are also empowered so that they can make
quick decisions.
The marketing activities of DHL are phenomenal. The overall
marketing activities are a combination of promotional and
functional strategies. So, like all other organizations DHL does
have an infrastructure for communication and marketing
related programs. It goes through varies negotiable steps.
Which are the reasons for creating the services marketing
triangle. As like any other organization DHL has made use of
there communication expertise to fulfill a standard marketing
criterion.
The company is indispensably dependent on three major bases.
These bases confront to be the most significant and influential
foundation. The bases are the company, employees, and the
customers who play a very important role to make DHL what it
is today. There are both way communications in the
organization, which are vertical and horizontal. This occurs
amongst the employees of DHL. There is also external
marketing communication, which occurs between the company
and the customers through advertising and public relation. On
the other hand, the interactive marketing remains the base for
customer service center and service encounter, which occurs
between the employees and the customers.
Marketing Mix of DHL analyses the brand/company, which
covers 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) and explains the
DHL marketing strategy. The article elaborates the pricing,
advertising & distribution strategies used by the company.
Let us start the DHL Marketing Mix:
Product:
DHL provides large variety of services through its five divisions.
One of its divisions DHL Express is one of the largest air carriers
in the world. DHL is a courier service basically for urgent and
reliable transportation of documents. Services for rail, road,
ocean and air are provided through DHL Global forwarding.
Transport management, warehousing and value added services
are provided through DHL Supply chain. Most of the E-
Commerce business is heavily dependent upon DHL, which
provides its logistic services including delivery of light as well as
heavy parcels. DHL also provides premium service of
temperature controlled storage as well as cold storage for
special products through its matured distribution network. This
gives an insight on DHL marketing mix product strategy and
service offerings.

Price:
DHL implements competitive pricing policy in its marketing mix
strategy and sets very comparable prices with that of its
competitors. Usually, the price of the DHL service demanded by
the customers, varies in proportion with the distant of the
destination. The customized DHL services are decided by means
of premium pricing, i.e. these services are slightly expensive
than other standard services provided by the company. DHL
also engages itself in agreement with its corporate clients and
small businesses in the market to provide its loyal customers
with special discounted prices.

Place:
DHL has its its global presence in more than in more than 150
countries. With more than 850 terminals, offices and wear
houses DHL express carries out its operations with a fleet of
over 250 aircrafts. Supply chain division of the company also
operates across 60 countries and has 1590 warehouses and
offices. DHL has something called as Multi-User warehouse,
which caters to large number of companies and manufacturers.
These multi-user warehouses are located strategically such that
they are conveniently accessible especially in the industrial
estates. DHL also provides facility of Multi-Story warehouse
which has large number of floors connected by elevators. This
is established in the area wherein limited amount of floor area
is available.

Promotion:
DHL promotes its services through television advertising along
with newspapers, magazines as well as makes smart use of
social media platforms such as Facebook and twitter. To
improve its visibility, DHL also sponsors for national and
international events such as Formula 1, and world famous
football clubs such as Manchester United. DHL also promotes
itself through campaigns such as Go Green projecting its
services, which cause minimum harm to the environment
reducing the carbon emissions. To gain popularity DHL also
engages itself with various government organizations. It is also
part of Make in India campaign by Government of India.

Since this is a service-marketing brand, here are the other three

Ps to make it the 7Ps marketing mix of DHL.

People:
DHL has links with more than 220 countries and engages more
than 300,000 employees to provide reliable and fast service to
its consumers. DHL also engages its employees in various
training programs developing their communication skills and
other skillsets. DHL is a people centric company focusing on its
employees as well as its customers.

Physical Evidence:
DHL establishes its identity through its popular logo yellow in
color with DHL written over it red color font. DHL also paints its
logo over its delivery trucks, buildings and packaging materials.
It also pays great deal of attention to brochures, website,
business card etc.

Process:
DHL uses soft trans program to measure the time required for
cargo handling. The information gathered is used to inform the
customer about their freight. The company to measure the
customer satisfaction uses questionnaires. Customer visits and
sales reports are recorded through I-sell program. DHL also has
special services for different industries depending on the
industry. High cost is incurred to maintain the customer loyalty
even in case of mistake committed by the customer. This
summarizes the entire DHL marketing mix.