United Parcel Service was established in 1907, when a nineteen-year-old James E. Casey, felt the need to start of a messenger service. (Babcock, B. A., 2002) He started off the American Messenger Service in Seattle, with a sum of $100 borrowed from one of his friends. UPS has grown through its historical transitions and is established in many countries and territories of America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Pacific Rim. By 1985 they had started international air service to six European countries and by 1989 they had started domestic air network in Germany. Today UPS has spread its wings over almost 185 countries and it would not be incorrect to say that they can reach anyone anywhere. This paper focuses on the theoretical premises and concepts attributable to UPS innovative success.
UPS Direct and Relationship Marketing
According to Hill, T. & R. Westbrook (2007) UPS innovation success is related to their relationship marketing strategy as they offer a relatively homogenous product with a plethora of competitors both on a national and international level. The contemporary view is that you do not create portfolio’s of products and services, rather you create portfolio’s of customer groups, and thus through relationship marketing they may have become successful.”
The foregoing is an illumination of the feasible direct and relationship marketing models that UPS had adopted. Various means adopted by UPS in the strategies of customer retention and customer satisfaction belong to the theoretical and conceptual frameworks of direct and relationship marketing. UPS has continued to focus on maintaining and building long-term customer relationships. UPS is continually improving customer service for the 1.8 million customers, who use their services each business day; the business conducts market researches to keep an eye on customer service as a way of ensuring operational excellence.
The designs of relationship marketing that distinguish it from other forms of marketing are based on that relationship marketing focuses on a market’s more specifically suited information on products and services which suit retained customers’ interests in a way contrary to direct or intrusion marketing which focuses on obtaining new clients by targeting bigger market communities basing On potential client listings. Armstrong, L et al (2001) state that obtained data on UPS marketing thrust shows that although the company is more biased towards the objectives of retaining its clientele bases, there is overwhelming evidence on the company’s incessant endeavors to break new grounds in global and native markets, to obtain new customers and expand the existing clientele base.( Bitran, G, 2000)
It can thus be explicable and demonstrated from research findings how UPS has tapped the merits of integrating relationship marketing approaches into retention planning to accomplish its significant growth rate and sustainability. These can also be interpreted as elements indicative of the company’s high likelihood to be able to maintain its multilateral growth into the future. The relationship marketing model holds that service providers can capitalize on offering a broad ranging list of services and products. This can be in from using various persuasive instruments, leveraged on personalized customer problem resolution to get clients to have access to options that they may prefer in purchasing products or services.
The application of relationship marketing in various services and product provision domains has to be characterised by the development and use of various customer relationship management schemes that allow the observation and assessment of each customer's preferences and dislikes. In Shrivastava P, Hart (2005) terms UPS has made us of its sustained customer feedback system to come up with their core service delivery options. The company has derived means of empowering customers the world over to ship and track parcels and more importantly the company has given customers the capacity to manage their accounts at all the stages of the parcel delivery process. Markusen, A., (2006) states that this way UPS has enhanced the prospects of customer satisfaction which have translated well into the merits of customer retention germane to the company’s growth and sustainability endeavors.
Whilst other companies in the parcel delivery sector have not tapped the merits of the other effective element of relationship marketing, personalized marketing, UPS is making the most of this. Wai-Kwok L, (2000) concurs that this dimension entails building customer shopping or service purchasing profiles. . Information obtained and compiled on customer shopping trends preferences and dislikes, etc, is used to compute and deduce the likelihood of the customer interest and/or preferences in other product/service categories. Lawrence, H (2004) notes that this is likely preferences are conveyed to the clients through various communication channels that a company has in place for contacting its clients. This is typically an internet tailored relationship marketing model, and UPS has manipulated the facilities of e-Commerce to design system that assembles user profiles while also empowering users to manage their accounts and UPS purchase activities online.
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