What UPS is doing to survive this bad economy

[satellitedriver]

Now here's something I really know and can comment about. My career is outdoor advertising, signs and vehicle graphics.

Our "brown" package cars and drivers are one of, if not the best form of advertising available to UPS and it should be treated as such. These employees and their cars are worth their weight in gold in terms of advertising dollars.

A typical delivery vehicle, traveling 25,000 mile per year in a metropolitan area will make 2.2 million impressions in that time period. In simple terms, for every mile a UPS package car is driven, on average, it will be viewed by 88 people.

So, from the info I found here...
http://www.sustainability.ups.com/social/health/training.html
UPS will make 176 billion (176,000,000,000) advertising impressions per year with it's vehicles alone. If you do the math, it means every man, woman and child on this earth will see a UPS truck at least 26 times a year.

Now $10 million (plus or minus) spent annually on sponsoring a nascar driver can be put towards better uses, such as maintaining or creating a few positions for displaced workers who would be responsible for maintaining the appearance of UPS' current fleet. It may not sound like much, but it can mean a world of difference for the person who was just laid off.

Checkers

I agree,
these billions of impressions are made on a face to face daily encounter, with the driver, albeit, a view of the truck on the road, or a one on one personal delivery by a driver.
Our trucks should be washed daily.
Our new uniforms should not look like crap, after the first washing.
(Thank you bean counter's for saving money, by downgrading the quality and appearance of our uniforms.)
The packages should not be crammed into a pkg car and let the driver deal with the customer over a torn up pkg and having to return to pick it up as a damage claim.
(at least the building is clean, mentality.)
The list of erroneous cost savings, at our company's future expense, will be our long term down fall.
We have only two things to sell.
Brand and service.
We do a great job in service, but our Brand is suffering.
IMHO,
UPS should invest (read as advertise) in the physical and professional appearance of package delivery.
Clean cars, clean pkgs and yes, clean drivers.
No beards, no dreadlocks, no tat's, no piercings,ect...
( I do not care who this last comment ticks off)
When a customer sees one UPS driver, they should be seeing all UPS drivers.

 

[upsgrunt]

I agree,
these billions of impressions are made on a face to face daily encounter, with the driver, albeit, a view of the truck on the road, or a one on one personal delivery by a driver.
Our trucks should be washed daily.
Our new uniforms should not look like crap, after the first washing.
(Thank you bean counter's for saving money, by downgrading the quality and appearance of our uniforms.)
The packages should not be crammed into a pkg car and let the driver deal with the customer over a torn up pkg and having to return to pick it up as a damage claim.
(at least the building is clean, mentality.)
The list of erroneous cost savings, at our company's future expense, will be our long term down fall.
We have only two things to sell.
Brand and service.
We do a great job in service, but our Brand is suffering.
IMHO,
UPS should invest (read as advertise) in the physical and professional appearance of package delivery.
Clean cars, clean pkgs and yes, clean drivers.
No beards, no dreadlocks, no tat's, no piercings,ect...
( I do not care who this last comment ticks off)
When a customer sees one UPS driver, they should be seeing all UPS drivers.

I'd sign my name to that also-well put Sat.!

 

[UPAXED]

Yeah! And acne and bad breath too.

 

[UPS Lifer]

I am not sure that everyone understands the human psyche when it comes to advertising.
People look right past the UPS vehicles on the road anymore. 30 years ago it may have made a difference. Not anymore - the brown vehicles are part of the landscape. It is a neutral perception.

Every time you see a US Postal employee or vehicle what type of image do you get?
For me it is on the negative side of the spectrum. This is the impact of media attention from employees going "postal" to comedic responses to such.

In todays' market - people equate the advertising to a successful company. If they do not see the company in advertisements they perceive that the company is not doing well. You need to continue to sell the image all the time - sell! sell! sell!

Why is America so fat? there are so many food commercials on TV you get hungry just looking at them. You get up to get something to eat!
Why is FedEx perceived in the stock market as a better value than UPS? Advertising -

If you don't spend the money advertising, your competition will take over your market share and you won't have to worry about how to better spend your money.

Look at how the media portrayed BO and McCain - You don't think that exposure made a difference?

UPS needs to do more and better advertising. Take a page out of the FedEx book - Liven up the commercials - sponsor big events - spend some money on Superbowl commercials that are catchy and comical and will be played over and over by other media sources. How about Golf Sponsorship - Stadium Sponsorship - And some of this should be spent overseas.

It takes vision to have a successful company - You are lucky to be part of a company that understands how to run a business and what it takes to stay the course and ride out the storms.

When this recession is over - UPS is positioning itself to come back better and stronger than ever. It will be a the leading edge or crest as the country pulls out of this funk.

 

[dilligaf]

Interesting thought Lifer. What you say makes sense. I know Super Bowl adds are expensive (at 3 mil for 30 secs), but many of the adds are talked about for months afterwards. I wonder though, if we were to put an add in the Super Bowl, how much of an uproar this would cause with employees and shareholders alike. UPS does need to come up with something new and innovative as far as advertising. Whiteboard is getting old.

 

[InTheRed]

Interesting thought Lifer. What you say makes sense. I know Super Bowl adds are expensive (at 3 mil for 30 secs), but many of the adds are talked about for months afterwards. I wonder though, if we were to put an add in the Super Bowl, how much of an uproar this would cause with employees and shareholders alike. UPS does need to come up with something new and innovative as far as advertising. Whiteboard is getting old.

I'm not a fan of NASCAR but I thought the DJ spots were funny. The funniest one to me was the one where he announced he was going to drive the truck. Being an insider for part of my career, it was funny to see all levels of operations and corporate celebrate.

 

[dilligaf]

I'm not a fan of NASCAR but I thought the DJ spots were funny. The funniest one to me was the one where he announced he was going to drive the truck. Being an insider for part of my career, it was funny to see all levels of operations and corporate celebrate.

I don't follow NASCAR and have never seen the ads.

 

[toonertoo]

I'm not a fan of NASCAR but I thought the DJ spots were funny. The funniest one to me was the one where he announced he was going to drive the truck. Being an insider for part of my career, it was funny to see all levels of operations and corporate celebrate.

Whoever did those commercials was on it, why did we lose them? Why do you think we are all going to puke if we hear "ya gonna race the truck?" one more time. It stuck in peoples heads, and not just Nascar fans. Now we have a new young driver, we could do it again, will we? Oh and he is pretty hot!
Sure alot better than the white board guy.
As for saving money, I used to go 69 miles, now I go 83. Just for starters. My truck is flilthy most days, and I would rather have it dirty, than one side clean
I dont have the answers anyone wants to hear. I think UPS got too arrogant, and pays little attention, and its going to bite them in the butt.

 

[satellitedriver]

I am not sure that everyone understands the human psyche when it comes to advertising.
People look right past the UPS vehicles on the road anymore. 30 years ago it may have made a difference. Not anymore - the brown vehicles are part of the landscape. It is a neutral perception.
I politely disagree.
The psyche of those in UPS making the decisions on where best to spend advertising money is ill spent and ill advised.
When a customer is directly confronted with a driver ill dressed and a filthy pkg car( inside and out) and handed a pkg that is blacken by filth, the perception is not neutral, it is positively negative.

Every time you see a US Postal employee or vehicle what type of image do you get?
For me it is on the negative side of the spectrum. This is the impact of media attention from employees going "postal" to comedic responses to such.
Agreed.

In todays' market - people equate the advertising to a successful company. If they do not see the company in advertisements they perceive that the company is not doing well. You need to continue to sell the image all the time - sell! sell! sell!
The drivers and the pkgs car are the image being "sold",so therefor, they should look as good as the 60 second commercial.


Why is America so fat? there are so many food commercials on TV you get hungry just looking at them. You get up to get something to eat!
Why is FedEx perceived in the stock market as a better value than UPS? Advertising -

If you don't spend the money advertising, your competition will take over your market share and you won't have to worry about how to better spend your money.
We agree, again.
America is fat and the world population is gaining weight due to advertising.
Go anywhere in the world and say the words Coke and McDonalds.
Instant recognition.
These two companies do not need to advertise, but, they are the two biggest advertisers in the world.
Why? Everyone knows them already.
The key is consistency of product tied to constant bombardment of Brand.
Spending money on the appearance of our pkg cars and the professional appearance of ground pounding box throwers( read as drivers) only reinforces the advertised value.




Look at how the media portrayed BO and McCain - You don't think that exposure made a difference?
We will just have to see how that sales job works out.

UPS needs to do more and better advertising. Agreed. Take a page out of the FedEx book - Liven up the commercials Yes - sponsor big events - spend some money on Superbowl commercials that are catchy and comical and will be played over and over by other media sources. How about Golf Sponsorship - Stadium Sponsorship Maybe - And some of this should be spent overseas.

It takes vision to have a successful company -Agreed, but, it is hard to have visionary's when they are viewing downward through a microscope (ie; micro-management) You are lucky to be part of a company that understands how to run a business and what it takes to stay the course and ride out the storms.
Nope, I am blessed, not lucky.


When this recession is over - UPS is positioning itself to come back better and stronger than ever. It will be a the leading edge or crest as the country pulls out of this funk.
From your lips to the ears of God.

All rejoinders aside, we should strongly advertise and backup our BS.
If memory serves me, "Dr". Clarence S. Gonstead, the founding father of the quackery of chiropractic medicine said;
"Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise."
It made him rich and spurned a whole new industry that thrives to this day.

 

[sealbasher]

It is still like peak here(in toronto)pu s are down but del heavy.

 

[InTheRed]

Whoever did those commercials was on it, why did we lose them?

Probably because DJ retired.

If you never saw the commercials try searching for them on youtube.

 

[govols019]

"Build you a car"....nice. I believe you guys have 29 cars out of 43 with full sponsorship for '09. An engine supplier probably in it's last year with Nascar(Dodge) And 2 more who may be forced to withdraw in the next few years(GM and Ford) I smell a fat lady.

Tell the fat lady to take a bath if you smell her.

Factory support has been pulled from NASCAR before. They'll survive.

How many cars does IRL have? 24? How many will show up to that embarrassment that the Indy 500 has become?

 

[sortaisle]

hope you dont have the 36 miles each way to work i have

up hill both ways?

 

[UPS Lifer]

All rejoinders aside, we should strongly advertise and backup our BS.
If memory serves me, "Dr". Clarence S. Gonstead, the founding father of the quackery of chiropractic medicine said;
"Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise."
It made him rich and spurned a whole new industry that thrives to this day.

I don't think we disagree at all. I highly agree that a sloppy driver, damaged pkg and dirty package car provide a negative image. I don't think that is the norm though - I don't see it anyway from my drivers out of Camp Verde. And you KNOW I look for it! I get a lot of packages also so I think I can be a barometer as the average customer...again no issues with UPS.

I just think that UPS is a such a big part of the landscape of Americana that people see the standard UPS vehicle and driver as a transparent part of the business world. It is not dissimilar to seeing a McDonalds... just seeing the McDonald's doesn't necessarily make me want to go have a Big Mac but when I see it in a commercial I start to think about making the trip there!

 

[trplnkl]

I just think that UPS is a such a big part of the landscape of Americana that people see the standard UPS vehicle and driver as a transparent part of the business world. It is not dissimilar to seeing a McDonalds... just seeing the McDonald's doesn't necessarily make me want to go have a Big Mac but when I see it in a commercial I start to think about making the trip there!

I don't do that, neither seeing a McDs going down the street or seeing a commercial makes me want to go there. However when I see one from the street (specially if I am in a strange area) I will make note of where it was so when I do decide I want a big mac, I know where to get it.
Now, on the UPS side of advertising, I think the company would be wasting their ad bucks, if they had any tv spots that didn't center around the UPS Store and include locations in the ad, even if the local Stores had to be included in a short spot right after a national ad. Just giving the toll free number isn't enough.
other than that...I aint got no opinion on it.

 

[The-UK-Guy]

Feel free to add to the list!

1. When giving the yearly pay raise to drivers , only pay half of the raise for the first 6 months.

yep or just fireing drivers who make top pay .
Whats up Raw , hows everything going ?

 

[The-UK-Guy]

I agree,
these billions of impressions are made on a face to face daily encounter, with the driver, albeit, a view of the truck on the road, or a one on one personal delivery by a driver.
Our trucks should be washed daily.
Our new uniforms should not look like crap, after the first washing.
(Thank you bean counter's for saving money, by downgrading the quality and appearance of our uniforms.)
The packages should not be crammed into a pkg car and let the driver deal with the customer over a torn up pkg and having to return to pick it up as a damage claim.
(at least the building is clean, mentality.)
The list of erroneous cost savings, at our company's future expense, will be our long term down fall.
We have only two things to sell.
Brand and service.
We do a great job in service, but our Brand is suffering.
IMHO,
UPS should invest (read as advertise) in the physical and professional appearance of package delivery.
Clean cars, clean pkgs and yes, clean drivers.
No beards, no dreadlocks, no tat's, no piercings,ect...
( I do not care who this last comment ticks off)
When a customer sees one UPS driver, they should be seeing all UPS drivers.

LOL, your funny. you sound a bit like that guy Adolph Hitler.
I promise that thousands of secretarys around the globe completely disagree with you.

 

[txsalesrep]

haven't gotten the full details from my Brother inlaw. just saw him in passing. His exact quote was ................."they are trying to comvince us that we (management) would not bennefit from going union.......more butt kissing" They specificly mentioned Obama and his promises to the unions.

For those who think that the card check will not affect UPS....you may be right, unless managemnt goes unuion as well. That certainly will cause their expenses to go up!

This is funny....we recently got this same talk about Obama and the Unions. We were told that "UPS was not trying to influence any decisions and we could do what we want" but, they then proceeded to tell us about all of the bad things unions can/will do if you join. One of our managers went as far as to talk about people getting "hurt" and families being harassed by the unions if there is another strike. But again, it was up to us if we wanted to consider joining. We were also told that UPS already gives us everything that a union would get us. STRANGE?

 

[lmccracken]

hiring UPS Freight drivers in LaCrosse Wi. I was hired today as the number 1 driver, hoorah!!!

 

[brownmonster]

hiring UPS Freight drivers in LaCrosse Wi. I was hired today as the number 1 driver, hoorah!!!

Just stay out of the river.