Tag: Europe

Royal Mail TV ads to showcase business service record (UK)

Posted by | Sep 8, 2008 | |

Royal Mail is to unveil a multi-million-pound ad campaign in an attempt to fend off competition from rivals.

The marketing drive, which is called ‘Partners for Growth’ and showcases how Royal Mail has helped business customers, breaks in October across TV, digital and press.
The ads will explain how businesses such as gift provider Hotel Chocolat and online lingerie retailer Figleaves.com have successfully used the mailer’s services.

Royal Mail will also flag up a dedicated area of its website, which will provide a series of case studies on its clients.

Royal Mail hopes the campaign, created by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, will also raise staff morale by proving its business model has a future.

Royal Mail has largely abandoned broad ad campaigns targeting consumers, a strategy it used throughout the 80s and 90s, because 90 pct of its revenue now comes from businesses.

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Royal Mail puts brands into consumers hands through innovative new channel (UK)

Posted by | Sep 8, 2008 | |

Royal Mail is continuing its drive to deliver innovation in marketing by launching a new advertising and communications solution named Matter, which literally puts brands into consumer’s hands.

Matter is a box that fits the standard dimensions of a UK household letterbox, containing a range of physical brand representations enabling advertisers to get their products and services into the homes of their target customers.

And Matter has already received the endorsement of consumers – with more than 30,000 people registered to receive a box of brands after a test mailing created a storm of interest, featuring on more than 100 blogs and websites, as well as YouTube.

Royal Mail, which developed the solution in an exclusive partnership with Matter Media Limited, is now talking to advertisers keen to be involved in the next Matter mailing scheduled for October.

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Slovakia faces antitrust proceedings

Posted by | Sep 7, 2008 | |

European antitrust regulators are to bring formal proceedings against Slovakia, accusing the country of re-monopolising part of its postal service.

The move follows unsuccessful talks between Neelie Kroes, the EU competition commissioner, and Lubomir Vazny, the Slovak transport, post and telecoms minister, which ended late on Friday, and could involve Brussels using some of its strongest powers against the central European country.

“Commissioner Kroes has no choice but to pursue the formal antitrust procedure against Slovakia,” said officials.

The problem centres on so-called “hybrid mail services”. These are used mainly by banks, insurance companies, utilities and the like, and involve the sender transferring letters or communications to a third party operator, who prints and delivers the mail. Such services are typically used for large quantities of standardised post, such as invoices.

Brussels became concerned about the situation in Slovakia, after a law change there came into effect in February and effectively extended the monopoly held by Slovenska Posta to these services.

The Commission claimed that these services had previously been open to competition, and that several private companies had entered the market. Their viability, it said, was now at risk. Subsequent talks with Slovak officials, most recently on Friday, have failed to resolve the problem.

Now the Commission is threatening to deploy rarely-used but powerful procedures against the EU member state. If the decision sought by Mrs Kroes is adopted, it would find that Slovakia has infringed Treaty rules by attempting to re-monopolise the delivery of hybrid mail services.

This decision would be directly binding on the government there, and confirm that the market for hybrid mail is open to competition.

The EU has fought a long battle to persuade and eventually force member states to open their postal services to competition – but already there are some concerns in Brussels that countries are backsliding.

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Postal privatisation a threat to service with no benefit to customers, says report

Posted by | Sep 7, 2008 | |

The government’s strategy of opening up the postal market to private sector competition has provided “no significant benefits” for consumers and smaller businesses, while representing a “substantial threat” to the future of the Royal Mail, an independent report commissioned by ministers warned yesterday.
A major shakeup is needed in the way the industry is regulated if Britain is to benefit from a strong, competitive and cost-effective postal service, said the damning report by former media regulator Richard Hooper for business secretary John Hutton.
Large companies have benefited from the full liberalisation of the postal market since 2006, gaining more choice, lower prices and better quality products, but “there have been no significant benefits for smaller businesses and domestic consumers,” said the report.
Customers were largely happy with the value for money now provided by the state-owned Royal Mail but Hooper – a former deputy chairman of the media and telecoms regulator Ofcom – said the current situation endangered the future of a universal service which guarantees one price and next day delivery throughout the country.
“There is now a substantial threat to Royal Mail’s financial stability and, therefore, the universal service. We have come to the conclusion, based on evidence submitted so far, that the status quo is not tenable. It will not deliver our shared vision for the postal sector,” the report concluded.
The panel carrying out the review said in its initial findings that there was now a “strong case” for taking action to make sure the Royal Mail has a sustainable future.
“As we see rapid changes in the way people communicate, the way in which the postal sector is regulated will also need to change, and we need to establish how best to create the incentives for Royal Mail to modernise its operation, providing a stable financial future.”
The report said the postal market was changing and faced an “uncertain future”, especially as firms looked to cut costs in the face of challenging economic conditions. In the past two years, competition in the collection, sorting and transportation of bulk mail from businesses has expanded rapidly and much more quickly than was anticipated, the report found.
But there was virtually no competition to the Royal Mail in the delivery of letters despite a belief that some rival firms could invest in deliveries, perhaps twice a week, in urban centres.
The Royal Mail was delighted with a report that appeared to vindicate many of the concerns it had raised in the past.
“We welcome this report and Royal Mail absolutely agrees with the report’s conclusion that the one-price-goes-anywhere universal service to the UK’s 28m addresses is at the heart of a successful postal service.
“The report identifies the ways in which the open postal market is clearly not working and Royal Mail looks forward to submitting its further views on the changes that are required in the market,” it said.
TNT, the private sector company field-testing end-to-end mail services in Liverpool and the biggest competitor to Royal Mail elsewhere in the country, welcomed the report’s suggestion that the regulatory framework needed a shakeup.
But Nick Wells, chief executive of TNT UK, questioned the findings that consumers and small businesses were not benefiting. “We are focusing on small and medium-sized companies,” he said. He believed private sector competition had forced Royal Mail to improve its services for all consumers.
The government said that the report clearly indicated Royal Mail must now go through a revolution of its own.
Hutton said: “The initial findings from the review team paint a stark picture of the huge changes in the postal market … despite progress in recent years, I am now clear that to be successful the Royal Mail must undergo radical change.
“I have therefore asked the review team to urgently bring forward ideas, including changes to the system of regulation, to meet our ambiti

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Norway Post launches new Brand name strategy

Posted by | Sep 5, 2008 | |

The Group will market itself towards the Norwegian and Nordic business markets with the new name, Bring. Private customers, the post office network and daily postal delivery in Norway will keep the Post name and get a new and modernised Post logo. The brand renewal comes after the group has grown significantly in the Nordic region. Through investing in its own activities and through purchases totalling more than 5 billion kroner, Norway Post is in a solid position within the Nordic market. By the end of 2007 Norway post had become the largest post and logistics company in the Nordic region. The entities which were purchased have increased the Group’s turnover by 10 billion kroner in 3 years, and a comparable expansion is planned for the coming years. The aim is to double turnovers by 40 billion kroner outside Norway by 2011, says CEO of Norway Post, Dag Mejdell. 24 percent of Norway Post’s income for the half year 2008 came from activities outside Norway.

Altogether, Norway Post’s transformation will be one of the largest ever to happen in Norway. The total cost of Norway Post’s rebranding in 2008 will be 300 million kroner, of which 150 million is being spent on development and the launch. The rebranding of vehicles and materials will take place over a three year period and we expect that the major part of the remaining rebranding can take place in connection with normal operational changes throughout 2009 and 2010. – The rebranding is a major financial effort and an important investment for the future.

1 USD = 5.70135 NOK

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