97 per cent of logistics providers think work on their own brand is an important success factor. This is one of the results of the the fifth annual market study “brand management in logistics”, conducted and published by Get the Point, a communication agency specialising in the logistics industry. In addition to the logistics providers, they had once again included their customers in the study as well.
This showed that 92 percent of industrial and trading companies think advertising and brand building by the logistics service provider is important. There is a similarly high correlation to brand recognition: 58 percent of logistics providers believe that their key messages are known among customers. This is consistent with the information provided by the shippers, of whom 52 percent know the slogan of their carriers.
However, there were different assessments regarding the impact of good branding work on their own sales. 71 percent of shippers stated that they pay attention to external presentation when choosing their logistics provider. However, only 52 percent of the logistics providers believe in this effect. In the previous year this figure was only 41 percent.
Nevertheless, the marketing budgets have increased significantly again. Last year 53 percent of the budgets were less than EUR 200,000; this year 49 percent of companies budgeted EUR 200,000-500,000.
However, the personnel resources for marketing were down in the same period. Meanwhile, in 78 percent of the marketing departments are working less than five employees. In 2015 this figure was only 69 percent. “The declining number of internal marketing experts contradicts the growing importance of the brand work, especially since the share of external support has increased only marginally,” said Clemens Meiß, one of the two managing directors of Get the Point. This disparity could have an “adversely affect with delay”. Here it was important “to counteract in due time”.
Another result of the study concerns the importance of internal communication for branding. 84 percent of logisticians put emphasis on internal brand communication, with 58 percent of the polled think their own employees are brand ambassadors. Last year this figure was only 44 percent.
“Brand is made from the inside out,” says Wieland Schmoll, also managing director. This rule was confirmed by this year’s survey results. Because the intense internal communications makes “more and more people becoming fans of their own company or its brand name”.
Large movements are also noticeable in online or digital marketing. In 2015 only 65 percent of the logistics companies were active in this area; today there are already 82 percent of the polled. Thus the information needs of most customers seems to be covered. Because only 44 percent of shippers want stronger commitment.
During the survey, 400 marketing directors, managers or owners of the Germany’s biggest logistics companies were contacted, which have an annual turnover of at least EUR 50 million. To check the plausibility, also 100 shippers from various sectors were polled, who are using a large scale of logistics services. A total of about 80 persons participated in the survey.
