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Top of Mind Thursday Memo Archive
Top of Mind Thursday : June 24: Absolutely. Positively. Not
Back in 1979, Fedex (then called Federal Express) released an ad campaign that told us to count on their service to get packages to us overnight: Absolutely. Positively.
For decades, we counted on Fedex to get priority items where they wanted to be. And Fedex delivered–when we expected them to. Absolutely. Positive.
Fast forward to 2021. Yes, the volume of packages grew dramatically during the pandemic, but one would expect a company whose entire business is based on delivery to figure out how to address this new market opportunity. But through April, the on-time delivery record for Fedex was only 87%, vs. 95% for UPS.
We ordered a package two weeks ago that was supposed to arrive in 2 days. When it didn’t show up, we pulled up the tracking number and tried to find the package. Over the next week, we saw Processing, Out for Delivery, then Pending–but still no package. Today, the sender notified us the package had been returned to them, without ever getting to us.
The worst part is the shipper was only a few miles from us. Had we known this would happen, we could have driven there and picked this up ourselves two weeks ago.
A 13% failure rate is too high for a company that considers themselves an essential service. It’s definitely not acceptable for someone who built their entire brand around on-time delivery. The pandemic is no excuse. If UPS could figure this out, why not Fedex?
Here’s the problem: When you make an ongoing brand promise to customers, they expect you to follow through–especially when you’ve been at this for more than 40 years and it’s the keystone of your business.
Make sure you are delivering on the promises you make to customers. All the time. Absolutely. Positively.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – June 17, 2021: Overheating
The western half of the United States is in the middle of an extreme heat wave. Temperature records are being broken across the country.
The situation is exacerbated by the extensive drought conditions faced by most of this area. Lakes and dams are at record low levels; dried grass and plants are like tinder. In CA, warnings have gone out about fire danger, as well as the need to conserve power to avoid blackouts.
This is not the first time this has happened, nor will it be the last. One of the impacts of climate change is we see more and more extreme weather events–from record-breaking heat to stronger hurricanes, tornadoes, and even massive snow storms.
We know all this, yet there is a limited number of actions currently being taken to mitigate this. We cut back dried vegetation to avoid fires and ask people to turn up their thermostats, but those are temporary measures. The bigger actions–such as reinforcing the power grid, building fire resistant structures, adding additional energy sources–require more thought, more work, and more investment. Yet that’s where the greatest returns will be.
There’s a Chinese proverb that says a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Getting more people who take that initial step makes the journey easier for everyone. It’s time to recruit as many people as we can to take the first big steps to deal with this issue–before a little overheating turns into a massive conflagration.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday : June 10, 2021 – Meeting Expectations
As we emerge from pandemic limitations, people are beginning to gravitate to seeing each other in person.
Breakfasts, lunches, dinners, coffee–we now have the chance to see family, friends, and colleagues in the flesh for the first time in over a year. If we’re vaccinated, we can gather in groups–almost like the old days.
But what’s interesting is that in some cases, people don’t want to go back to the old way of doing things–and it’s not from fear of catching the virus. In-person meetings involve planning, dressing up (including pants and shoes!), and travel time–not to mention more calories from all those meals.
After more than a year of avoiding all of this, some of us actually like no commute, no dress-up, no drama events, and that’s not likely to change any time soon.
We’ve watched how people and organizations adapted to being totally virtual, because they had no choice. The next step is to adapt to hybrid situations where some people choose to show up in person, and others use technology to attend from a distance.
Navigating the new landscape will be more complicated and more challenging than operating entirely in the virtual world. The question is how well will we do to manage meeting expectations.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday : June 3, 2021 – Beating the Odds
In a desperate attempt to get reluctant Americans vaccinated against COVID-19, many locales are creating cash and merchandise prizes to incentivize the holdouts.
This runs the gamut from free food and beer to vacations, cars, and even guns. In California, the newly vaccinated will receive $50 incentive cards and all those in the state who are vaccinated will be entered into a drawing for a $50,000 weekly prize or the grand prize of $1.5 million.
Is this a good use of funds? It looks like the incentives are motivating some people to get vaccinated. Whether it will be enough people to get us over the top on herd immunity is still to be determined.
The decision making process is fascinating. In California, the chance of an individual winning a prize is 2.2 million (much better than winning the lottery!).That’s the upside.
The downside: Without vaccination, the chance of getting severe, even life-threatening, symptoms from a COVID infection is 1 in 6. The chance of getting COVID at all depends on the amount of virus circulating at any given time, and that in turn is dependent on the precautions being taken (like wearing masks) and the preventative measures taken (getting vaccinated).
Yet the slight promise of a big payout is enough to move more people than the fear of severe illness or death. Such is human nature.
It would be great to know that the chance of being more prepared against an event in the future will be increased because of what we’re learning now. But I wouldn’t bet on it.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com