Marketing Mix

Definition: The marketing mix refers to the set of actions, or tactics, that a company uses to promote its brand or product in the market. The 4Ps make up a typical marketing mix - Price, Product, Promotion and Place.

FedEx Corporation or Federal Express is an American global courier delivery services company which was founded in 1973 by Fred Smith. It is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. Today, with a fully integrated physical and virtual infrastructure, FedEx’s business model supports 2–48 hour delivery to anywhere in the world. FedEx operates one of the world’s busiest data-processing centers. It operates one of the largest real-time, online client/server networks in the world. The main core competencies of FedEx are in express transportation and in e-solutions. These competencies include a very timely customer response time, cutting-edge technology and innovation.

FedEx is one of the most revered and trusted brands in the world of supply chain accommodations. The FedEx family of companies provides total shipping solutions and information accommodations to customers ecumenical. To the customer, the FedEx brand stands for a company that plenarily and plenarily, positively lives up to its promises. The rudimentary aim of the organization is to distribute a world class customer experience to their customers so that their adhesion grows and they are far less liable to jeopardize endeavoring another carrier. A world class experience transpires when caring, dedicated people secure/ascertain of they distribute quality and engender a sense of feeling of being thoroughly sure in the mind of the

Fedex is considered to be one of the most employee friendly companies of the world. It follows best practices in recruitment, selection and training of the

FedEx was first established in 1973 as a logistic company with the name Federal Express that be created by founder and first CEO Frederick W Smith. The Headquarters is in Memphis, Tennessee in the US. The company became well known for its fast and reliable delivery service around the world. On its first night of operation FedEx delivered 186 bundles to 25 urban locations in the US with only 389 employees and a 15 Dassault Falcon aircraft. In 1980 FedEx purchased a system for live updates on the packages. In this system, FedEx drivers share the current locations from the trucks to provide updates of the packages to the customers. This information was sent to a central computer of FedEx then the company improved the update system by introducing FedEx.com webpage. This webpage allowed the tracking data to be easily accessible. However, recently, FedEx uses Savvy bundle for packing and tracking the products across couriers. (Baldwin, 2016)

Delivering to over 220 countries and territories, FedEx today is a big global industry with a vast network worldwide. The company that started as a laid out in an economics class today is one of the biggest mail distribution corporations known by all customers as the company that “send shipment overnight”

FedEx Corp., founded by Frederick W. Smith, began operations in April 1973 and was incorporated on October 2, 1997. FedEx Corp. is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange and headquartered in Memphis, TN. Fedex Corporation was formed in January 1998 with the acquisition of Caliber System Inc. The company reports in four major business segments. FedEx Express provides time-certain delivery within one to three business days serving markets that comprise more than 90 percent of the world 's gross domestic product. FedEx Ground provides low-cost, day-certain service to every business address in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico

FedEx is based upon innovation, and it exactly is one of the important reason for the successful of the FedEx culture and business strategy. FedEx launched a new service which is the next business day delivery service. A quote from Fred Smith whose the president of FedEx “The information about the package is just as important as the package itself”. The innovative culture within FedEx is deemed as a distinct competitive advantage in terms of the strategic business practices that are continuously encouraged.

The first element in the marketing mix is the product. A product is any combination of goods and services

• Customer base of FedEx is its one major strength but proper attention should be paid to maintain it properly.

FedEx started at Little Rock, Arkansas, with the founder Frederick Smith’s ambition to improve the distribution system by adding next-day package delivery. Over years, FedEx has developed into multi-billion dollars corporation and provide services in express, ground, freight, and etc. Today, FedEx Corporation has four major segments: FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, and FedEx Office. FedEx Express is the world’s largest express transportation company that provides overnight delivery services for most of its operating locations. FedEx Ground segment is a leading small-package carrier in the US that ship goods for businesses and residential customers. Freight segment provides less-than-truckload freight services. FedEx Office and Print Services offer customers sales, marketing, and other information technology services. Currently, FedEx has about 52,400 drop-off locations, 647 aircraft and 54,100 vehicles. In 2013 fiscal year, FedEx reported $21.8 billion in revenue, and over 2 billion in operating income. The revenue has increased at 10.9% in 2011, 8.9% in 2012, and 4.5% in 2013. (“FedEx 2013 Annual Report”)

The FedEx Corporation, conceived as Federal Express, is an American-based worldwide courier delivery Service Company. It provides strategic and logistical support for a variety of operating divisions, currently known as FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, and FedEx Services. These companies operate independently, compete collectively and manage collaboratively (Amsler et al., 2010). For the purpose of this report, focus will be on FedEx Express operations. The company is currently the global leader in the express delivery market, and offers delivery to and from individuals and businesses in over 220 countries and territories (FedEx, 2016a).

FedEx is a leading provider of supply chain management to corporate customers on a global perspective. FedEx is made up of six independent business units; FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, FedEx Custom Critical, FedEx Trade Networks and FedEx Services which all complete each in the different sectors of the transportation industry so that they can tailor FedEx services as a whole to fit its customers' needs in the best way possible. It boasts of a fleet of aircraft and may motor vehicles and trailers. As a means of complementing its express delivery business, FedEx ground has provision for small packages ground delivery, less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier FedEx freight hauls larger shipment. There are various strategies that FedEx uses in its business operations, this paper will therefore give a highlight on the strategies that FedEx applies when it comes to its distribution that ensures its success in distribution. It will look at why FedEx has control of most of the distribution channels for their services (FedEx, 2012).

Federal Express Corporation ("FedEx Express") is the innovator and the global leader in the express transportation industry, offering full range of integrated air and ground transportation services, logistics, customs clearance services, telecommunications and shipment handling technology in over two hundred and twenty (220) countries around world. FedEx Express offers speed, reliability and ease of use at competitive prices. A major part of FedEx Express success is directly attributed by its company strategy.

At the end, we conclude that the product ‘P’ is not the only important element in the marketing mix. No single element in the marketing mix carries more importance than the other. Each and every element ideally supports the other elements. There is no single element of marketing mix that works alone for any business. To create the right marketing mix, a marketer has to consider a product with right features, with the right price, make sure that the goods are at their right place on right time and promoted successfully. All the variables of the marketing mix are influenced with each other. They are used in constructing the business plan for a company and if all elements are placed rightly then success is achieved. In case if a single element goes wrong then it can lead to disasters. These 4 components are a part of marketing mix strategy because these elements are to be