Okay, time for some charity work. I know a number of readers of this blog are clever marketing types, who have probably tackled many challenges over the years. So let’s set up a doozy of a challenge for you, and see what you recommend. And we promise that the best ideas will be seen by ‘those who decide’!!!!
Let’s start with the positives:
- Brand with one of the highest brand recalls and awareness scores ever, across b2b and b2c.
- Automatic trustworthiness – most trusted ‘federal government institution’. Well, that’s got to count for something?
- Brand with history – dating back to Benji Franklin, for goodness sakes!
- Employs a ton of people - nearly 600k, second largest in the civilian workforce to Wal-Mart.
Now let’s deal with a few business realities:
- Does not benefit from companies and consumers going to email, web, social media … it cuts out a revenue source, in a big way
- Does not benefit from companies trying to be ‘enviro-friendly’ and encourage paperless billing
- Has failed to enunciate that paperless billing has, based on research, reduced customer relationship scores
- Has a huge retail estate which it has protected but underutilized for years.
- Can raise stamp prices only via Act of Congress, can shut branches only … via Act of Congress, can do almost anything only … via Act of Congress. So highly flexible (?) approach to running it’s operational side.
- And the kicker … is due to lose $238 billion (yep, that’s nearly a quarter of a trillion) by 2021 based on current trends. And you thought GM was a huge bailout cost!
So……………….
Let’s make a couple assumptions:
1. You’ve been named CMO with vast power to change things, shake it up, etc.
2. The USPS Board of Governors accept this designation, and promise to ‘butt out’ given the precarious state they’ve allowed the USPS to put itself in.
3. The US Government isn’t about to foot the bill for anything elaborate, given the increasing loss making situation coupled with a few, minor issues like reducing the Federal deficit, staving off the Chinese from assuming financial control of the US, and preventing back-slip into recession. So forget, at least for a few years, any “Super Bowl” funding requirements.
What would YOU do?? Let’s assemble the best ideas, and maybe save an institution which, by all accounts, should be consigned to the scrapheap of obscurity within a few years, at the current rate …
Ideas from retail specialists and shipping people particularly welcomed!!!
