Consignia finds fame in noteriety
CONSIGNIA leaders have a small crumb of comfort at the end of an otherwise dreadful week – most of their customers at least know who they are.
A survey for the company has found that, for the first time since it changed its name last year, a majority of the UK population recognises the new title for the Post Office.
After weeks of making headline news for all the wrong reasons the profile of the Consignia brand has risen to its highest-ever level, with 55 per cent saying they knew the name.
When the Consignia name was adopted for the Post Office at the cost of £2 million last March, the recognition rate among the public was less than 15 per cent.
In the world of commerce, Consignia has achieved even greater notoriety in its short life, with 98 per cent of businessmen knowing the name, compared with 30 per cent ten months ago.
A spokeswoman for the company said: “They are very encouraging figures considering the brand is less than a year old. They have easily exceeded our targets for brand recognition.”
She conceded the hostile publicity given to the company in recent weeks may have contributed to boosting the profile of the company. “It is hard to pinpoint any one reason, but I am sure it has added to the brand awareness.”
Consignia was launched a year ago as the new name for the holding company behind the Royal Mail, the Post Office and Parcelforce.
The word “consignia” does not mean anything, although it was supposed to be a play on the word “consign”, and critics dismissed the change as an expensive cosmetic exercise. John Roberts, the chief executive, said it was a move designed to underline the firm’s determination to become a major international company in e-commerce and logistics.
“The new name describes the full scope of what the Post Office does in a way that the words ‘post’ and ‘office’ cannot. We are already doing much more than the words ‘the Post Office’ suggest,” he said.
But since the name-change Consignia has earned far less money than the old Post Office used to and is now afflicted by industrial action and losing £1 million a day.
Allan Leighton, the chairman, warned this week the company would face a “death by a thousand cuts” under plans to deregulate the market in postal deliveries.
Stuart Smith, the editor of Marketing Week magazine, said: “It has definitely been the association with bad news which has raised the profile of the Consignia name.”
