Chapter 10_ Product concepts

Product Concepts are very important in a retail business. Fed ex offers many different services that make Fed ex a competitor in the field it is in. On the shipping side Fed ex offers many offers that the post office does not offer like overnight services that actually get there on time. They offer a First Overnight which gets there the next mornig before 8:30 am. Thay have a Priority Overnight service that gets there before 10:30 am. Fed ex has many different shipping options that will fit any urgent needs from the customer.

Fed ex office offers a variety of supplies and resources that are needed by everyday by customers. Fed ex office offers paper, such as resume paper, cardstocks and pastel papers to meet any need of a customer. Fed ex office also offer many retail supplies such as pens,papers, flash drives, folders, presentation supplies, mailing supplies, greeting cards, and any printing needs.


Fed ex office also offers a packing service that ensures a guarentee. If fed ex office packs a package for a customer they offer a guarentee. Any package that we as employees pack will be insured by fed ex office. Fed ex offer many different products that can appeal to many different customer interests. Fed ex offers many different boxes with the "Fed ex " brand on it as with many of its office supplies, such as pens planners and gartnet supplies. Fed ex office also offers any copying need by the customer.

Sales Promotion and Personal Selling

Fed ex has many differnet sales promotions in the offce and print center and when it comes to shipping. In the office Fed ex offers many different sales in order to get customers to buy their products. For example Fed ex is pushing the 8 giga byte flash drive. Each team member must offer every customer a flash drive at the end of every transaction. On the Shipping side they always offer a pack and ship. Fed ex's slogan is "We pack Peace of mind". Fed ex guareentees customers that if we pack a package for them it will get there in perfect condition.

                                        

Fed ex also offers sales on printing oversize posters, brochures, postcards ,etc. Right now Fed ex is offering 40 % off christmas cards and all christmas products. Fed ex office always puts a coupon in a customer's picked up print order in order to keep the customer coming back. Fed ex office also offers Free proofs for customers to see what their print job will look like. This is a great sales strategy so that customers will get exactly what they want every time.Fed ex office also has beneftis when a customer opens up an account with Fed ex. The customer gets the convenience of charging print orders to their account and paying later. Fed ex shipping accounts can be setup as well. Shipping accounts get percentage discounts that increase in time. There are many different sales promotions that Fed ex and Fed ex office offers in order to make the Fed ex experience outstanding.

Advertising and Public Relations

              Advertising by definiton of our text book is impersonal , one way mass communication about a product or organization that is paid for by a marketer. Advertising is one of the most important ways of driving or selling a product. Fed ex does a huge amount of advertising through commercials, websites, banners ,posters, etc. Especially since Fed ex bought over kinkos and renamed it Fedex office They can print as many brochures,postcards, and business cards that they need for advertising purposes.
Highlighting four key areas of the company’s business, Memphis-based transportation and logistics giant FedEx (NYSE:FDX) introduced a new ad campaign during NBC’s NFL season opener this week.
Steve Pacheco, director of advertising for FedEx (NYSE:FDX) said, “Our number one goal with any advertising campaign is to communicate directly with our customers. We have found that humor is a very effective way to engage an audience and, most important, make that engagement memorable.”
FedEx (NYSE:FDX) stocks were at 74.99 at the end of the last day’s trading. There’s been a -13.0% movement in the stock price over the past 3 months.

 Recently I have noticed more Fed ex advertisements on commercials. Fed ex does mostly Product advertising and advertising relating to the economy and the cheaper options and alternatives that Fed ex provides.

Retailing

               Retailing is all the activity directly related to the sale of goods and services. It is no suprise that the U.S. economy is so heavily based on retail. Millions of Transactions go on every day and 72 percent of all transactions goin on every day is a retail based transaction. I work for Fed ex Express as a driver. I decided to go to a Fedex Office in regular clothes to see the retail experience in the store. The first thing that I noticed is every customer is greeted as soon as they enter the door. Most retail stores that I have been to this has never happened to me. There would be several visible Employee's but all of them doing something other than paying attention to the customer. In Fedex even employee's that are helping other customers will acknoledge you and say politely that they will be with you in a second. Just a few minutes of being in Fed ex office I could tell that retail is very important to the company. They make a customer feel welcome and that makes a person more likely to buy something or come back. After having a few of my questions answered the employee did offer me the "product of the month" which was a 8 giga byte flash drive that was on sale only for that month. He offered it to me asking me if I was in school which I thought was a clever way to drive the sale even tho I declined. Also they offer alot of online retailing from business cards, brochures, banners, and the list goes on. Fed ex office is the retail part of Fed ex the company as a whole. If I had to rate my experience as a customer on a scale from 1-10 I would definetly rate fed ex office a 10.

Consumer Decision Making

Fed ex pays an enormous amount of attention to consumer behavior and how they can attract more customers through various strategies. Working for Fed ex personally, the customer experience is one of the most important factors in the day to day operation. Fed ex wants its employee's to always follow the "Purple Promise" which is to make sure every customer experience is outstanding. Consumer behavior is directly effected by their experience in store. If the customer encounters a bad experience it is horrible. Now in these times word of mouth does not only effect the next consumer decision making process that the customer spoke to or heard about a bad experience, but now customers have the option to go online and pubically post their opinons through various social networks or easily accesible applications. This can harm a company's reputation. Fed ex has a zero-tolerance policy for treating customers with disrespect.

Fed ex also creates easy and convienent ways for customer's to track their packages through every delivery step. According to Donald Corner, Director of New Product Development " Fed ex was among the very first to imagine that the internet could become a tool for tracking and conveying shipment information." When a customer ships a package they can track their package every step of the way which gives the consumer a sense of safety. The following is a link on Fed ex uses insight and innovation to innovate. http://www.prtm.com/uploadedFiles/Thought_Leadership/Articles/External_Articles/PRTM_PDMA_How_FedEx_Innovates.pdf




Fed ex office also provides a variety of convenient ways for cutomers to get needed items printed without leaving the house or office. Fed ex office provide an option called Print Online where customers can upload their documents or design online, choose custom options to their order ( type of paper, black and white or color, binding options, poster options , paper type,etc) and generates a turn around time based on jobs in house. This way customers know when exactly their orders will be ready and can come pick them up.



Also customers have the option to email the store directly and can contact live team members to talk about their order. Fed ex office also has many other options for customers on the go and that need things printed right away. Fed ex office has usb readers linked to copiers/printers so that customers can come in put their usb directly in the machine use a credit or debit card print needed documents and go. The customers dont even have to wait on a line because they have been charged directly to their credit cards.

Customers needing invitations or business card or letterheads can also access a very usefull tool called the desighn and print center where you can desighn your own stationary. The convenience of desighning your own custom made peice of stationary from home and the option to get it delivered to your home really puts Fed ex office on top of competion and allows consumers to skip the decision making process just based on pure convenience.