Comments

I haven't seen the advert, but I find it interesting that as FedEx has expanded its business that "overnight delivery" is still the cornerstone of its branding efforts. I realize that the Kinko's acquisition was as much for warehouse locations because FedEx does a lot more with logistics than just 'get box, send box, deliver box', but where's Kinko's in their advertising? For that matter, where are the superb logistics services that FedEx (and its chief rival UPS) offers? It's not so much that it's a bad ad, in my eyes, but that FedEx is being too myopic in it's overall branding efforts.

Posted by Dave Taylor at April 1, 2005 1:12 AM

Steve, I got a totally different take on the preteen approach. To me the idea was that the value of using FedEx is plain and simple, so much that it's clear even to a child.

Otherwise, yeah, the "go home; we're done" attitude REALLY overstates the value so that the overstatement is obvious.

Walgreen's 7 Basics Lesson for FedEx:
Don't ever get caught being obvious about overstating your value.

Posted by Jason Kerr at April 1, 2005 5:46 AM

Kinko FedEx is effective in what they do however.

An "offsite" is questionable to me in that the expense of such is charged to customers ultimately - and in these times of strategy meetings as needed on the fly every day - "offsite" is a dinoFOSSIL concept perhaps.

Posted by Sean at April 1, 2005 7:05 AM

What is interesting, sad really, is that FedEx is dumbing down their service. What they are really in the business of is offering their clients trust and sincerity: "We know you are asking us to deliver your thoughts, feelings and ideas and we are your conduits. You can trust us to deliver them to the right people at the desired time in perfect form." FedEx built their business on faith and trust, why would they want to make it seem so simple?

They are trying to say, "We are doing the thinking for you." not.. "It is easy." not.."It is so easy, that perhaps we are charging too much."

I've seen the ad, it is part of an overall campaign that needs to be redirected.

Posted by Wendy at April 1, 2005 8:47 AM

I thought the FedEx ad where they are all in the shower is funny...

Posted by john at April 1, 2005 10:30 AM

Not only is it insultingly oversimplifying the complexity of business today, it is so predictable. Who actually would say, "I didn't see that coming."?

It just seems like a retread of so many other ads.

What if they had used Jason Alexander's George Constanza character from Seinfeld as the voice of solution? They could be in an office instead of offsite. After he offers the idea of using FedEx, everyone could agree that is a great idea and he gets up and says, "My work here is done. Go forth and do likewise." He leaves as everyone else just sits there. Pause. The boss regains composure and says, "Well, that's a good start. But maybe if we didn't go home in the middle of the day we could also increase our production."

Posted by Dustin at April 1, 2005 11:20 AM

I also found the ad a bit disappointing. I have been waiting for the additional services and expanded availability that the brain trust behind the acquisition of Kinko's presumably had in mind. So far the impact has been to actually reduce the accessibility of Fedex as an air freight carrier, as they have been busy closing their staffed Fedex locations having late drop off times and pointing customers to their Kinko's locations.
The net effect for me as a customer is that our Japan-bound packages, that once could be shipped the same day as ordered, now lose a day. Why? The FedEx counter that once accepted packages heading west as late as 7:00 p.m. local time now is gone, and none of the Kinko's locations in the area has expanded their 4:40 p.m. cut off time to accept packages any later than they did before.
Actually it is a bit worse, as the driver servicing Kinko's nearby habitually departs 10-15 minutes earlier than the cut-off time, as the counter people at Kinko's cheerfully volunteered after a recent futile attempt to drop off a package.

Aside from the considerable expenditure of changing the FedEx Kinko's signage, has the company done anything to strengthen their "brand"? Beyond the ubiquity of presence Kinko's locations afford them, I haven't seem it yet. No recent eureka moments using Kinko's or FedEx recently come to mind.

They still appear lost in the mechanics of merger "overhead" reduction. Somehow I doubt it is a coincidence that the staffed FedEx counters being eliminated are staffed by union employees, for instance.

As far as the ad is concerned, however, it seems more the the meeting (focus? service?) have gone for an "offsite"...

Posted by Sean Blechschmidt at April 1, 2005 11:33 AM

Hmmm. So FedEx is saying that, by handling all of your shipping/logistics concerns they can really simplify your business. I don't see the insult here.

To me, the toungue-in-cheek nature of the "offsite" was pretty obvious. They make their point (There's more to FedEx than just "overnight"... a category which they are already the undisputed leader no matter what the DHL ads say) and they use a little humor--which you can really only find truly insulting if you take yourself too seriously, in my opinion.

[And Kinkos*FedEx has its own separate marketing campaign going. ]

Posted by Danny at April 1, 2005 11:35 AM

Hey...Business IS simple. It's a typical aspect of human nature to create the mythology about what one does for a living as being so complex and so difficult that it can not be performed by mere mortals. It's a sign of status, a badge of honor...we all like to believe that we have some special wisdom or competence...Hell a 5 year old can run a lemonade stand. Billions of people worldwide and maybe several million of them who might be politely called "idiots" in some circles are in business and prospering. Enough said.

As for the advert..It's tongue n cheek...it should be taken that way (KISS)...and don't ignore the fact that we are, after all, talking about it and FEDEX/Kinkos...The ad works.

Posted by Dogan Tekben at April 1, 2005 12:53 PM

2 things:

1. Maybe "insult" was not the right choice of words. I'm not some hypersensitive knew-jerk loud mouth waiting for someone to offend me. Narcissistic may be a better term. The ad seems to do more to float FedEx's boat that their services are the answer to any business' woes than it does to give a compelling reason to use them. HOW does that make the company better? It seems to focus more on what FedEx wants from companies (all our shipping biz) than on what companies want from FedEx (i.e. convenience, simplicity, friendly service, advanced services, reliability, great rates, an advantage over my competition).

2. The ad works because we're talking about it? Please. That is such a poor standard for good advertising. How many of us actually decide which shipping service our business uses? How many of us actually want to use FedEx now that they've been discussed? It's not like we've never heard of them before. They don't have an awareness issue, they have an advantage issue. I know FedEx is there, but I have no idea why I would use them over UPS (Brown wants to know what they can do for ME), or DHL, or USPS, et al. If FedEx were a relatively unknown player in the market, then yes our discussion would be a success. Not the case however.

Posted by Dustin at April 1, 2005 2:13 PM

Amazon has changed the way they "ship stuff" with their "Prime" membership.

Yes, shipping stuff can help the bottom line and become a strategic advantage.

Posted by Fourputtinski at April 1, 2005 8:13 PM

Say what you wan't about Fedex, but in terms of brand and logo you could do worse. How many of you can see the subliminal arrow in their logo? Motion, action, service...brand.

Posted by eric lapp at April 2, 2005 6:03 PM

Dustin..Please, indeed..Yes, it's pretty simple..we're talking about FedEx and in talking about FedEx other people are in on the conversation and if you've noticed we're providing a lot more info (you provided a ton) about FedEx then was provided in the ad...People learn alot about the choices they make by listening to conversations.

Posted by Dogan Tekben at April 3, 2005 12:54 AM

Advertising is really about selling, and getting people to do something after they have seen an ad. In this instance, I think that FedEx has done just about enough. Like what Dustin said, FedEx doesn't have an awareness problem. I think what FedEx is trying to do, is to show people that whatever they are looking for (convenience, simplicity, friendly service, etc.) can be found at FedEx, and that even a young girl knows about it. So much so that if you don't, and you get insulted, you'll go find out why. IF you do that, haven't they done just about enough?

Posted by Jyh Yeong at April 3, 2005 11:59 AM

And there's a radio commercial...one guy coaching his girl on saying "FedEx" the right way. Whcih devolves into endless repetition of "FedEx...." I can just see the presentation now--"And he telling her how to pronounce it, and she can't get it just the way he wants it, and we end up saying Fed Ex thirty two times. It's placement of the highest order. It's the new Aflak..."

Posted by jtaylor118 at April 3, 2005 9:37 PM

Dustin, I have to agree with you. Just because we are talking about the ad means nothing of itself. Good advertising is salesmanship in print,radio,tv etc, and a good ad is one which makes it easier for you to sell your stuff. Not one that gets people talking about the ad.In addition, when much of the conversation about the ad is negative, I wonder how much good that does for the brand.

Posted by fredd kambo at April 4, 2005 11:08 AM

I don't know that I provided that much information about FedEx. At this moment I couldn't tell you why you would use FedEx over UPS or DHL. Those three are fairly even in my mind with UPS probably doing a better job of establishing themselves as the business solutions provider (touting reliability, attention to corporate needs, and stealing the "neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom" from the US Postal Service).

In my opinion, that blows a tanker-sized hole in your argument because I just showed how their ad can lead into their competitor's advantages.

FedEx meanwhile tells me, "We ship stuff." Truly compelling. OK, maybe "We ship all your stuff."

I just think the one-stop-shop bullet point is WAY overrated. The only reason it is in there is because the executives want people to do their one-stop-shopping with them. I'd rather see a business win me over with their WOW! factor then tell me that I can experience that WOW! in their other services. Instead, FedEx tells me that I can experience mediocrity in all my shipping experience and that will somehow magically make my company better. Once again... compelling.

Posted by Dustin at April 4, 2005 1:11 PM

In the first place, UPS is way to expensive to really become what they "want" to be--some sort of all-inclusive supply chain provider. Sorry, but not at their rates. For those who equate the twenty or so overnights they need to "ship" to supply chain solutions--great, but get real. Big Brown can claim all kinds of things, but for most businesses that require shipping of any scale--they can't cut it.

In the second place, the "girl" in that Fed Ex ad was grown up, not a junior high student, but rather an employee. Really, look at it again (or for once).

Posted by Mike at April 4, 2005 3:47 PM

UPS is price inhibitive? Great Mike! How could I tell that from the FedEx ad? You just pitched a better commercial than what FedEx signed off on.

The age of the girl is irrelevant to me at this point. I have not seen the ad, but am basing my whole argument on Steve's description. If I had a link to the ad, I'd gladly view it. Otherwise it will have to appear during my limited TV viewing hours.

Posted by Dustin at April 4, 2005 5:45 PM

Dustin, while I think you're right about one-stop shopping being mediocre as an advertising point in this particular ad presentation...It sure as heck sells in practice.

It's totally compelling to me when I'm out somewhere or else on the phone trying to get ten things done at once and then some one-stop along the way says the magic words, "Oh, let me take care of that for you."

Ahhhhhhhhh.

Don't sell it short because FedEx sells it weak.

Posted by JasonKerr at April 5, 2005 7:48 AM

The whole point is that "OFFSITE MEETINGS" are a joke... they are for those people who waste time during the day and can't make decisions on how to actually improve the company. They should just ask during the day, instead of wasting people's time.

Posted by Al Carbone at April 6, 2005 11:53 AM

I'm guessing that FedEx might get the customers that are going to try FedEx just to see if everything Dustin has said about them is true. As in, they can't be that bad, can they?

Posted by Dogan Tekben at April 7, 2005 11:07 AM

What did I say that states FedEx is bad?

Nothing.

What did I say that states their advertisement is bad?

A lot.

I personally have nothing against FedEx. They just seem to be an also-ran in my mind. The only reason I would choose FedEx would be top-of-mind awareness. But I have no idea (based on their advertising) whether they have better customer service,performance, pricing, advanced services, etc.

My comments are a greater indictment of their ad agency than of FedEx themselves (other than they signed off on the ad).

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Posted by Dustin at April 7, 2005 12:53 PM