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Just like Helen Keller Essay Marketing new services that will enhance existing organizations must be carefully thought out and planned to be considered a needed addition to any organization. Companies which have been founded on principles of ethics and quality services, ensure that every additional service provided to the many existing services must meet the expectation of each customer that is serviced. Team B has begun to target the process of marketing the expansion of processing packages that are undeliverable within the Fed Ex organization. Instead of returning the packages to place of origination, or re-delivering packages after an additional delivery failure, a process specifically geared to contact the person for whom the package is meant, will be the newly planned addition to the existing services which Fed Ex provides. Learning Team B will focus on reviewing the existing organization, providing a more detailed description of our LT goals in this process, review the importance to our success in planning and executing the idea, provide a SWOTT analysis on the project, and will develop a marketing strategy in order to be successful with this new process. Providing a consumer friendly service will give Fed Ex further success in the industry of package delivery to all consumers; both within the U. S. and Internationally. In today’s fast paced, high competition and deadline driven environment millions of people turn to FedEx Corporation everyday to get packages to the desired destination because of the assurance and commitment behind the name. FedEx Corporation was built upon providing top of the line innovative solutions and it continues to be an crucial part of the FedEx the overall culture and business strategy. FedEx Corporations commitment has been an instrumental part in the overall development of products, ideas and services that have given FedEx’s customers the ability to grow their businesses around the world. What is known as FedEx Corporation today, was originally introduced in 1971 as FDX Corp, and since their inception has engineered the shipping and logistics industry and has set the mark over and repeatedly, for all others in the business to meet. Since its beginning, FedEx Corp has been seen in the public eye as a leader in the transportation and logistics industry. The FedEx Corporations ability to collectively work together through their different entities demonstrate the leadership and foresight of the trusted FedEx brand. It is this loyalty which brings customers to FedEx every day. â€Å"FedEx provides customers and businesses worldwide with a broad portfolio of transportation, e-commerce and business services. FedEx Corporation offers integrated business applications through operating companies competing collectively and managed collaboratively, under the respected FedEx brand. † (FedEx Corporation, 2009). With a marketplace that is always changing FedEx Corporation is always putting forth full effort to be on the forefront of technology and to bring new and innovative ideas to maximize their profits and customer choices. FedEx currently handles an â€Å"averaged 3. 4 million† a day and delivers to over 213 countries† (E-Logi, 2009). Even in a hard international economical time, many Customers are increasingly seeing the value of using FedEx to reach new markets, grow their businesses and cut inventory carrying costs. The global economy is expanding steadily, particularly the manufacturing sector, giving our business more opportunities to grow in the future. (FedEx Corporation, 2009). As one can tell FedEx Corporation is a trend setting and revolutionary business force which continues to be on the forefront of innovation due to its ability to focus on the customer, ability to make tough decisions and always absolutely positively delivering on its promises. Federal Express is a global leader in getting packages to consumers. Business consumers already enjoy services like a hold feature for important packages and documents. This service is designed for the organization that ships a large number of packages and documents to regular business partners or employees. Employees and partners can retrieve their package from the closest sorting facility by having a hold placed on any or all incoming packages. Federal Express notifies partners and employees via pre-recorded voice mail that their package is available for pickup at the location nearest them. The service that is being contemplated is a kiosk idea, where customers business or individuals can send packages or documents, as well as pick them up all in an automated system that is based on the needs of the consumer. Undelivered packages and documents will be retained with in the kiosk, and consumers can pickup their delivery. This will be offered in a few different manners. Customers can log into the web site and obtain a pin number for the package, or it can be e-mailed or an automated voice mail can be sent to a cell or land line telephone. Customers whom do not want deliveries to be sent to there place of residence can have the option to have this become their primary way of receiving anything shipped by Federal Express. People in a specific delivery area will have the ability to ship and receive their packages and documents using the same kiosk based on geographic and delivery area. The kiosk will be totally automated and open twenty four hours a day, based on customer needs. Marketing is defined as the strategy-allocating resources (time and money) in order to achieve the objectives of (a fair profit for supplying a good product or service). The economy uses tactics to get buyer’s attention in order to gain maximum success. â€Å"Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large† (American Marketing Association, 2008, p. 1). Marketing is vital to any organization in meeting the needs and wants of the consumers and if the marketing department is not focusing on meeting the needs of the consumers, stakeholders or vendors, the organization will not be successful. Marketing helps the organization develop a plan, collect data on the target population, examine and explore areas of the organization that will improve services to his or her customers in order to provide top quality services. FedEx marketing department has decided to explore the problem of holding customers package when they are not home to receive these packages. With the current system, customers can pick up their packages at the nearest Kinko’s FedEx store, but in order to know if the package is there for pick up, the customer would need a tracking number then have internet access to see if the package is there for pick up but many times, the package is not there before the driver finishes his or her route, therefore, FedEx has decided to incorporate a kiosk system. This system will create a faster tracking system and enhance the quality of service provided to the consumers, vendors and stakeholders. The marketing department will create services that would fit the lifestyles of the consumers, by understanding demographics, psychographics, cost and time in providing a new service as well as if the new service will be beneficial to the consumer. Without a clear understanding of the importance of marketing in the success or failure of the organization, misrepresentation of marketing can have consumers going to the competition because of getting their needs better met with faster turnaround services, better customer service and overall, top quality management. Strengths of reputation and organizational processes of Federal Express now known as, Fed Ex are what they have worked hard to create. Companies which have the focus of excellence usually have the proper organizational values in a progressive environment. Weaknesses within Fed Ex are between the past upper management decisions to categorize delivery drivers as independent instead of employees of Fed Ex. In 1998, 203 drivers filed a lawsuit against Fed Ex, citing they were paid as independent contractors instead of regular employees with benefits. (1) This class action suit would cause competitors to think Fed Ex has less sensitivity to employee requests for better benefits and more importantly working relationships within the company. Opportunities may present of growth within a company for in-house middle management and upper management. Promotions are readily available to the employee who shows they are working toward the growth of the company. Threats may be exhibited in ways which show habits that are representative of carelessness and lack of ethical behaviors of employees. Intrusion of thieves which may attempt to sabotage or rob delivery persons of packages delivered is another type of external threat. Any action which causes the inability to provide the services for which the company is known for may be categorized as a threat. Major mistakes, poor decision making skills, package losses, or failure to deliver on time are all errors which represent key threats to an established business such as Fed Ex. Of these threats they are known as internal and external threats. Trends may be what a company starts and is shown throughout the city, state or world as a mainstream guide for other companies in similar fields of service. Other companies may begin to show the public how a stable company works; as a level of standards. As a company which is known for delivery, productivity, quality improvement techniques and reputation, Fed Ex is a trend setter. Analysis of the plans of a package holding process will aid with deliveries that cannot be delivered after the second attempt. This is an opportunity for Fed Ex to stand out from among the other delivery services. Creating a personalized processed to contact the recipient until located will cut costs with returned item shipping, in addition to up-building of customer services. Marketing research can be a quantitative or qualitative process. Quantitative research would be conducting surveys to the consumers. Qualitative research includes focus groups and observational studies. The best marketing research approach for our service would be a qualitative approach. It is the less expensive approach and a more efficient way of getting feedback from the consumer for our particular service. Marketing research follows the guidelines of the scientific process. The research project for this particular process is a 24 hour automated Kiosk for Fed Ex customers to send and receive packages based on their own needs. The next step would be to collect primary and secondary data about the new Kiosk service. Then we can perform qualitative research by use of observational studies, by picking a sample of Fed Ex customers to test the new Kiosk service. From the observational studies, we can then compile the data on how the customers reacted to the new Kiosk service. Once we have all this data we can then summarize our findings and determine whether or not this idea is feasible for Fed Ex. The market research process leads us to our marketing strategy for the new Kiosk service. A good marketing strategy includes a target market and marketing mix. Our target market would be adults over the age of the 18, and our marketing mix would include the 4p’s: product, price, place and promotion. References American Marketing Association. (2008). Marketing definitions. Retrieved January 22, 2009 from http://www. seologic. com/ E-Logi (2009). E-longi. net FedEx corp. Retrieved January 6, 2009, from http://www. e-logi. net/index. php? ID=696 FedEx Corporation (2009). FedEx Corporation investor report. Retrieved January 5, 2009, from http://ir. fedex. com/releasedetail. cfm? ReleaseID=259392 http://www. fedexdriverslawsuit. com/ (1) Retrieved Feb. 8, 2008 http://www. fedex. com/Dropoff/start? locale=en_US Retrieved 2-7-09