Building a Global Brand Through “Top of Mind” Marketing at a Pop-Culture Level

Don Talend
Write Results

Super Bowl TV ads might be the best indication that advertising has become a major part of popular culture. Steve Pacheco, managing director of advertising for Memphis-based FedEx Corporation, showed the audience several FedEx Super Bowl ads—and reviewed the many other FedEx pop culture-oriented advertising platforms that have made the company an increasingly ubiquitous global brand—at BMA Chicago’s Oct. 2 MarketingMasters Luncheon Seminar.

Pacheco, whose 11-year FedEx tenure includes such creative highlights as the Emmy-nominated “Carrier Pigeon” spot that aired during Super Bowl XLII, indicated that the driving force behind the aggressive strategy to equalize the brand with pop culture is constantly keeping FedEx mission-critical services “top of mind” among both C-level executives and small business owners. “I think that we have done a decent job of trading in our brand equity and what they know FedEx to be—which is lively, dependable, trustworthy and absolutely, positively getting it there,” he said in reply to a question about the inherent challenges in reaching C-level executives. “We try to reinforce that and drive it home as best we can.”

Pacheco noted that the company’s uncommon service culture, branded by the slogan “When it Absolutely, Positively has to be there Overnight” that won advertising awards 20 years since last being used, allows it to stake a claim to pop culture. It’s brand ubiquity via pop culture that has fulfilled the vision of chairman, president and CEO Frederick W. Smith. “FedEx has made this service culture so that we could take care of whatever you need to have taken care of,” Pacheco said, adding that he works according to the mantra “Stay ahead of culture by creating culture.”

In addition to a total of 12 Super Bowl ads aired during Pacheco’s tenure at FedEx, he cited several other examples—a few using a bit of irreverence and dry wit—of how the brand recently has penetrated pop culture:

• “Slacker T-shirts” with a FedEx label embroidered into the side to make it appear that the wearer is a carrier holding a package
  
  
• The “FedEx” nickname given to Britney Spears’ ex-husband Kevin Federline
  
  
• Julia Roberts driving a FedEx delivery truck in the 1999 film “Runaway Bride” and Tom Hanks playing a FedEx systems engineer in “Cast Away” (2000)
  
  
• The company’s shipping a wide assortment of goods for a taping of a 2007 “Oprah’s Favorite Things” episode in Macon, Ga., the market with the highest viewer loyalty to the program
  
  
• FedEx’s long history of sponsoring major sporting events as a strategy for reaching C-level executives during their limited free time, including the FedEx Orange Bowl and BCS championship in January 2009 in Miami, the company’s 20th year of sponsorship
  
  
• Additional sporting event sponsorships, including the PGA’s season-long FedEx Cup points competition that began in 2007 and sponsorship of NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin through FedEx Racing
  
  
• Sponsorship of an NBA.com Global page, including the slogan “The Global Leader in Assists”—a key component of FedEx’s global marketing strategy
  
  
• The acquisition of naming rights to FedEx Field in Landover, Md., home of the NFL’s Washington Redskins, and the FedEx Forum in Memphis, home of the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies and the NCAA’s University of Memphis Tigers basketball

Such examples of the penetration of FedEx into pop culture have resulted in the ubiquity of the brand, Pacheco notes. He gets personal proof of this ubiquity when he visits the largest cities in the country, such as New York and Chicago. Pacheco related a recent example of his own test of FedEx brand ubiquity: during a recent visit to Manhattan, he noticed that he only had to go a few blocks to see FedEx imagery.

Brand ubiquity has paved the way for international expansion, Pacheco added, noting that the company has the fourth-largest organized fleet of aircraft in the world. Such a fleet gives the company the capability to increase its presence in countries such as Japan and India, he pointed out. “How we integrate ourselves into these markets is part of our master plan for total world domination,” he said to scattered chuckles.

Another long-term brand-building tactic is tracking preferences of emerging consumer groups. Pacheco says he doesn’t have to look far to conduct some unofficial consumer research: He reports that his 12-year-old son has developed quite an affinity for the NBA—a major FedEx sponsorship partner. “The illustrative point here is that if you’re trying to reach ‘Tweeners’ and emerging teens, your job is tougher than ever before and obviously that’s the next generation of FedEx users and we’re monitoring that carefully,” he said. “They’re the customers of tomorrow; they’re shaping brand perceptions as we speak and we want them to have positive brand associations” to FedEx.

A key partner in FedEx’s endeavors to shape brand perceptions among Tweeners and all consumer groups has been its agency, BBDO Worldwide, Pacheco noted. “In April 2009 FedEx will have 20 years with BBDO—we think that’s quite an impressive achievement in this day and age,” he said in appreciation to his introducer, Emma Armstrong, group account director for BBDO Worldwide.

Pacheco also expressed his appreciation to the company’s delivery personnel, indicating that those individuals form the backbone of the company and brand. FedEx celebrated its 35th year in business in April 2008 and Pacheco referred to a recent print ad featuring a delivery driver who rescued an elderly motorist during a flash flood as proof of FedEx employees’ character; the ad was headlined “Our Team Members are Absolutely, Positively the Reason that We’ve had 35 Years of Great Success.”

He also cited an example of how ubiquitous FedEx delivery personnel are in the minds of customers by showing a note of thanks to a driver from a law office administrator. “We walk into the front door,” he noted. “We don’t come into shipping dock. You have to be affable and approachable—this is an example of forming a key relationship with the person who runs the office.”

Pacheco also provided further insight into the company’s brand-building strategy by answering several questions from the audience:

• On the greatest challenge in reaching B2B professionals, particularly at the C-level: “Reaching C-level people has never been harder to do, but we’ve never had more tools for doing it. CEOs have different media-consumption habits than most people and are harder to reach. What we’ve found is that, with their mission-critical focus, when things need to get done that day, that’s where they really earn their keep. We need to be there in that moment. Relevancy takes care of itself, but recency is really on us to make sure we’re top of mind from an awareness standpoint when they have a critical decision to make. An awful lot of opportunities exist for us to be as recent as we can, given their mindset; these are busy people with a thousand things on their minds.”
  
  
• On why the company is retiring the FedEx Kinko’s brand, a move the company announced earlier this year: We’re rebranding it to FedEx Office. The intent is to make that footprint, that retail storefront, that portal, become all things FedEx. It’s part of a very ambitious and aggressive growth strategy outside the U.S. and in the U.S. and it’s meant to be a digital portal for on-the-go folks who need back-office support no matter where they happen to be. Kinko’s had many similarities to FedEx, but it never really synched up as well as we would have liked. We decided to drop the Kinko’s name—it will better define all of the different things you can do.”
  
  
• On the potential impact of social media on FedEx’s brand equity: “We ultimately haven’t changed our thought on that. We know people are going to talk about us—it’s the old adage that if you go to a restaurant and have a bad experience, you’re going to tell four people and if you have a good experience, you won’t tell anybody. We’re only as good as our last delivery or last customer interaction. We’ve always acted as if the transparency of our last delivery is what’s going to take us to the next day.”