Media Planning

Media Planning

1.1

Historical context

First established in the 17th century, the Royal mail continues to be the driving force in the UK postal market serving 28 million people a week through 14,300 offices. The royal mail has experienced steady growth over the course of nearly 400 years. Below is a timeline highlighting key events in the brand's life-cycle.

1635 Charles I allows the public to use his Royal Mail.

1840 Uniform postage introduced with the Penny Black.

1883 Postmen are introduced.

1927 London Underground mail rail opens.

1968 The first 2nd class letter is sent.

1974 Postcodes are designated for all UK addresses.

1981 The GPO splits into the Post Office and BT.

1993 Self-adhesive stamps are introduced.

2004 Smart-Stamp is launched.

2006 The UK postal market is fully liberalised вЂ" only the second in Europe. Changes in pricing are made to take into account size as well as weight. 2007- The Royal Mail has recently left Carat agency and is now being handled by O&M.

1.1. (2)

Current market/Performance

The mail market was valued at around 6.6 billion pounds at the end of the last financial year. Mail volumes amounted to 21.9 billion items. A decrease of 2% from the previous year, this is the third consecutive year that a decrease has occurred. As of September 2007 there will be 18 licensed operators in the Uk. Two of which have been granted long-term licences.

Royal Mail's financial performance at the end of March 2007 has decreased from 344 million to 194 million. The decrease is believed to be a result of increased costs, falling mail volumes and increasing revenues. However, in terms of quality of service the Royal Mail was able to meet 11 out of 12 targets, a significant turnaround from the previous year's effort of 11 out of 18. However, the number of businesses that have turned away from the Royal Mail has risen by 40 %, including companies like O2, BT and HSBC.

1.1(3)

Competitors

The UK's mail market was fully liberalised вЂ" opened up for competition - on 1 January 2006. This means Royal Mail no longer enjoys the statutory monopoly it held for 350 years. New operators licensed by Postcomm can now collect and deliver any mail, from any customer.

Royal Mail;

TNT

ANC Express (trading name of ANC Limited);

Challenger Security Services (Admin) Ltd;

Citipost AMP Limited;

City Link Post (trading name of Target Express Parcels);

CMS (trading name of Royale Research Limited);

DHL Global Mail (UK) Ltd;

DX Network Services Limited;

Intercity Communications Ltd;

Lynx Mail (trading name of Red Star Parcels Ltd);

Although the market has been opened up to competition, there is limited information regarding the advertising budgets of competitors or their market share. The Royal Mail has maintained its 99% share of the letter market as the only end-to-end delivery service, a position that may be under threat in 2008 from their closest rival TNT.

2.1Analysis

2.1 (2) Threats

Email

According to Nielsen, there are more than 27 million active e-mail addresses in the UK excluding work accounts. As many as 60 billion e-mails are sent every day across the globe, according to researchers IDC, by contrast, the Royal Mail delivers a third as many items - per year.

Royal Mail's attempt to harness the e-mail market came in 2006 as they launched a service that allows people to buy and print out stamps online. Royal Mail's marketing director Alex Batchelor said: 'We have launched this service in response to demands from the general public who want to be able to buy and print their postage online, direct onto an envelope or a label.

Instead of queuing to pay for stamps at the post office, it is now possible to pay for postage via the Royal Mail website by debit or credit card or using a pre-pay account. Users of the service can then print out a bar code onto an envelope, paper or a label and post the letter in the usual way. The service was made available following the pricing in proportion changes. However, whilst the media campaign explained the new changes to pricing and mail sizes it gave little attention to the new electronic postal service.

Over the last 10-15 years the Royal Mail's media budget has fluctuated between: 10 million in 1996 to 31.1 million in 2000 and finaly14.5 million in 2006. Despite decreasing and increasing advertising expenditure, the Royal Mail continues to lose its grip on the market and continues to lose money.

2.1(2)

Target Audience

The Royal mail advertises on a national scale, aiming for full geographic coverage of the Uk. It has had long focussed on middle aged women aged (35-50) as their primary target audience within the consumer sector believing the emotional significance associated with a letter to be most appealing to this group. However, the Royal Mail shifted its focus to the business sector in 2005 under the appointment of Adam Crozier. Although the business sector accounts for almost 86% of the Royal Mail’s business the emergence of E-mail and online communication has left the Royal Mail fighting a constant battle against new technologies. The Royal mail would be wise to also target the younger generation, as the primary users of new technologies.