Tag: Royal Mail

As more business is done over the net, CLARE GASCOIGNE assesses the power of online branding

When Honda ran a television campaign showing Honda owners who look like their cars, it invited viewers to post photos of themselves and their vehicles on its website. The move generated so much traffic that the car maker had to set up a new site.

It is a good example of one of the net’s key features: interactivity. The ability to engage can help develop a brand and inspire customer loyalty.

“The key word with online branding is simplicity,” says Michael Peters, chairman of Identica, a branding consultancy. “People have so little time, you have to be able to sustain their interest. Online branding should be about distilling the essence of what the brand is until you get to its core values.”

Royal Mail is changing the licence agreement for its flagship data file Postcode Address File (PAF) to make it “simpler and more transparent” for users.

Currently PAF is charged on a per-computer server model as opposed to per-user, which is seen to discriminate against smaller businesses. Royal Mail is proposing to change to a tiered pricing structure based on the number of users of the PAF file.

The postal services company denied the move was intended to raise more revenue from PAF and said that access to the file would be cheaper for some users.

The new licence will be phased in over the next three years. The announcement was made at a Royal Mail AGM in June, with full details of the new prices to be revealed on 1 September.

Royal Mail is to launch a web-based booking system for its door-to-door division in 2007 as part of its increasing emphasis on the door-drop medium.

It will replace the email and telephone-based scheme currently in place and allow customers to deal with every aspect of their booking online.

The system, which is being developed in consultation with clients, is already in the testing phase and will be trialled on a limited basis before rolling out just after Christmas.

Royal Mail is launching the UK’s largest ever mail-out to reach every UK address and provide customers with information on its new pricing system that will come into effect on 21 August 2006.

The nationwide door drop will explain how the cost of sending mail will soon take into account the size, thickness and weight of items and how to prepare for the changes. Previously mail has only been priced by weight.

The size guide leaflets will be delivered to UK addresses in the two weeks beginning from 31 July.

Royal Mail is rolling out a 10 million GBP marketing and advertising campaign to communicate the changes and ensure every consumer and business across the country is prepared for launch day on 21 August.

The communications programme includes extensive TV, radio and print advertising. The TV campaign has been on air from 10 July. The multi-media campaign has been designed to inform and remind customers of the changes.

The pounds 3bn government bailout of Royal Mail has been delayed until at least the autumn because ministers cannot decide whether to proceed with a sale of shares in the organisation to its 195,000 employees.

Allan Leighton, the chairman of Royal Mail, had hoped to gain approval before Parliament rises for the summer recess next week for a scheme to hand 20 per cent of the company to its workforce. This would result in an award of free shares worth GB pounds 5,000 for each employee.

Despite support in principle for the idea at ministerial level, the Government has put off a decision until towards the end of the year. Without approval for the employee share scheme, the other elements of the Royal Mail refinancing announced in May by the Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling cannot proceed either.