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Table of Contents Contents Introduction 1.1 The role of strategic marketing in an organization 1.2 The relationship between corporate strategy and marketing strategy 1.3 How marketing strategy is developed 2.1 Internal environmental analysis 2.2 External environmental analysis 2.3 How internal and external analyses are integrated 3.1 Decisions and choices to be made at a corporate level 3.2 How these decisions influence marketing at business unit and functional level 3.3 Competitive positioning of DHL 4.1 A range of strategies that can contribute to competitive advantage 4.2 Marketing communications strategies of DHL 4.3 Analysis of marketing strategies, their application and implementation for DHL Conclusion Bibliography and References Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Appendix 3 Page no. 01 01 03 03 04 06 07 07 08 08 09 10 10 11 12 13 15 16

Introduction This assignment is related to the strategic marketing. For this assignment I have chosen DHL express. Dalsey, Hillblom, and Lynn together founded the worlds renowned courier business DHL in 1969 and now it has become a leader in the logistic industry. The DHL has now business in over 130 countries with 1200000 destinations and 4000 offices. They have their own aircrafts and now the number of the aircrafts is 250 (DHL, 2012). DHL has gained some global recognition from the world business forums- the award worlds most global company. Since then the market share of DHL has increased continuously. The competition in the logistics world has a great dimension in its marketing strategies and the market has become much more challenging for the corporations so that they have to compete with one another only by adapting the business strategy with the market. To sustain in the market the companies need to make some strategies as per the competition level. According to Ahmed & Rafiq (2003) the logistics business of UK has covered around 54 billion to the economy and it has 5% contribution in the GDP of UK. In the logistics industry there are 63000 companies which are competing with one another and these companies altogether provide 1.7 million job opportunities to the masses. In the recent time the logistic companies did not get a good return in their businesses. The economic crisis, recession and the government policies have made it impossible for the businesses to find out a good return. On the other hand the return from the industry increased to 9% in the last 2006-12 year period. DHL has a head office in Great South West Road, Hounslow (DHL, 2013). 1.1 The role of strategic marketing in an organization The strategic marketing is the practice of preparing the marketing plan and strategy that help an organization to go to the large target group of people. The marketing objective make important role in the formation of the strategies. Usually, the strategic marketing tries to find out the needs of the consumers and they are intended to provide a service that they desire. The need satisfaction policy comes here first. Each organization has some specific strategic marketing plans those are different from company to company. For example, DHL prepares marketing plan so that they can reach to the consumer group who actually need its services. The goal of the strategic marketing is to get the customers in the right place and increase the profitability. The
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role of the strategic marketing is to make the increase the organizational performance so that the productivity increases. The strategic plan can also increase the brand loyalty and also can improve the business efficiency. The strategic marketing plan is not only making the plans but also implementing these through using the media such as email, television or newsletter and so on. 1.2 The relationship between corporate strategy and marketing strategy There are some distinction between the corporate strategy and the marketing strategy. The corporate strategy is mainly for the organization. Once the organizations have some different departments, they have to make individual plans for each business unit. The corporate strategy is made by the higher level management for the each individual business unit. The marketing strategy is made by that business unit so that they can find the business outcome according to the corporate strategy. The organizations need to have a thorough knowledge in the activities which they do. Their business operations should be measured by the scale of the strength, weakness, opportunity and threats. And they can analyze the marker competitiveness so that they can know the market environment. On the other hand, the marketing strategies and objectives are formed to gain the market share or to increase the sales of the organization and so on. 1.3 How marketing strategy is developed The strategic marketing process includes three major components such as situation analysis, strategy formulation and strategy implementation. The first step situation analysis refers to making a deep information analysis on the organization. It provides information on the organizations competitive environment. Usually, every organization has the external and internal factors which influence the organization in its decision making and implementation process. The second step is the formulation stage which refers to the formulation of the strategy after finding the environmental information. The strategies are formulated on the basis of the customer needs and organizations target and goals. The implementation of the strategies basically helps to get the control of the formulated strategies. DHL usually make the strategic marketing plans which are mentioned above. They firstly use the planning, implementation and control. DHL uses all the phases equally so that they can achieve the marketing goals. The planning phase includes the formulation of the SWOT analysis which helps DHL to understand
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the present marketing situation and market competitiveness. The knowledge of the internal and external factors provides DHL to get a better understanding of the environment and helps to make the marketing objectives and goals. Then, the stage of implantation comes which is done by the coordinated efforts of the organizations personnel.

Figure: process of marketing strategy development 2.1 Internal environmental analysis According to the Novicevic (2004) to know the information of the internal and external factors of the organization is known by the SWOT analysis. The organizations only take the help of such analysis by the intense analysis of the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strength The organizations always try to find out the internal strengths which make them competitive from the others. The organizations may have sole strength or may have much strength that comes out from the activities which they do or the services they produce. DHL has a great customer care service which is intended to the people of their market. The customer found the best level of
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the services from DHL as per their requirements. DHL express is known for its fast services and most worthy and timely services. DHL got an honor from the Business World Daily for their B2B business service offering. The service is efficient and effective one which the customers expect to have. DHL also provides Go Green program support for the climate protection program. The salary and benefits are provided to find competitive advantage for the motivation of the employees. Weakness: DHL is the third largest company of the world. The company provides the services for the high price exchanges. The perception of the service level is not different from the other competitors though they take much cost for the consumers. The market share of DHL is not same as what the rate is perceived. The estimate of the service is basically somewhat different from the real happening. The DHL has less human resource than the other competitor UPS. The service of the DHL is not upgraded as per the competition of the UPS. The charge of the DHL is higher than the UPS but the service of the UPS is somewhat same. The service of the DHL is decreasing because the staffs are doing the highest job for their organization. Opportunities DHL has some competitors who play a very important role in the formulation of the strategies regarding the product and service promotion. The DHL has the capabilities that are different from the other competitive organizations. The opportunities that are with the companies own business activities. There are many opportunities for DHL to insert into new business arena by providing a long term service plan. The center perception of the DHL is that the power is flourishing over the national boundaries so that they can reach to a variety of the consumers. The DHL has an opportunity to gain a variety of consumer group who can be provided with the level of service that was not estimated by the organization itself. The DHL has a good transport system and has aircraft of their own which is operated in their own control. The presence of the DHL network may provide them with opportunity of building the customer base from the 2.75 billion to 3 billion. Every year the number of the consuers is increasing so they can provide some more business chances. At present DHL pays around 5% of the taxes of the country and which only the higher level companies can provide this amount of the taxes.
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Threats The DHL also faces some threats from the competitive environment. They are always threatened by the competitors like as FedEx, UPS. They have increased their level of the service and they are offering more efficient service than DHL. The logistics industry is becoming more competitive because they are integrated themselves with cooperation and the coordinated services are making themselves much stronger than ever. The DHL must take the chances of the coordination and they can make the use of the external and internal supports from the government and the other third parties. There is no price that the price escalation can make the consumer more satisfied (Thakkar, 2005). 2.2 External environmental analysis PESTLE Analysis Political and legal There are some relevant political rules and norms which have both direct and indirect influence on the type of the job that is done by the logistics corporations. The DHL has to rely on the transportation and other relevant jobs such as handling of the products that are heavily dependent of the political situation of the country. Economic The legislation related to the economic condition of the country such as the tax rates, the level of inflation or the period of the recession are important part for the logistics businesses. DHL has to take some more business decisions regarding the economic progress of the country. Social There are some social, cultural and religious issues related to the business which is operated in an environment the organization needs to manage the norms. Technological

The advantage of the technological part has made some changes in the logistics business. The DHL can manage the business operations by using the fastest growing the tech by which the orders of the shipment can be easily checked. Environmental DHL has maintained some environmental issues like as the carbon emissions and the use of the paper are not restricted by some business manifestos. Competition Analysis- Porters 5 forces The competition in any industry can be calculated by the use of the five forces model created by the Porter. The model help to infer that the companies have five forces those always push them in pressure to seek the better competitive environment. There are five things such as new entrants in the market, bargaining power of the suppliers who provides the necessary services to the operators, bargaining power of buyers or the consumers, threat of substitutes or the other competitors and intensity of rivalry in the present market. DHL can have an intense study on the issues. 2.3 How internal and external analyses are integrated The external analysis consists of the factors those are not related to the organization own control such as the political and economic environment or the legal or the social environment. All these environments have some distinct features and implications. On the other hand the internal forces are the major forces of an organization that are within the control of the organization. The integration is happened through the matches of the higher level managements support.

3.1 Decisions and choices to be made at a corporate level The corporate level decisions are made by the higher level managers. They always try to make the best use of the planning for the betterment of the corporate goal. Their choices depend on the higher levels decision to the marketing strategy. The corporate level decisions help the marketing managers to make an effective marketing strategy.
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3.2 How these decisions influence marketing at business unit and functional level The business units decisions are made by the corporate level managers. Their choices of the plans help to make an extensive strategy to reach to a definite goal. The decisions which are made after corporate level strategy only help to implement the strategies more effectively and efficiently.

3.3 Competitive positioning of DHL The positioning refers to the strategy of making the product image so strong that the consumers will consider the brand for the next time while they will go for buying the product (Ries and Trout, 2000). The DHL has made a good impression in the mind of the consumers so that they can easily remember the brand in the each time. The brands are positioned in the minds of the consumers by the great quality of the product. Each organization can make a position map through which it can identify the level of the acceptance of the product or service. Or, it can make a plan for the positioning of the product. The following figure mentions a depiction of the positioning strategy for the DHL.

Figure: Positioning map of DHL competitive market - fieldwork

The figure mentioned above shows that the company has the competitive advantage over the other competitive brands existing in the market. The brands are all positioned in the minds of the consumers. But importantly the DHL brand comes first in the mind of the consumers and it has become possible by dint of the business competition. The B2B and B2C services have also distinct personal preferences among the consumers. 4.1 A range of strategies that can contribute to competitive advantage There are some core advantages that can create competitive advantage over another company. The core competencies help the organizations to differentiate themselves from the others. The competencies not only differentiate but also make the organizations much more profitable and successful in case of market share as well. The core competencies are very hard to gain. The size of the business does not matter rather the sort of business operations they do or the type of the consumer they have define best about the market competitiveness of the product or the service. DHL has some core competencies that help the company to grow larger. Among the most important core competencies the most notable is the network they hold within their community and the fastest moving service capability. Since the DHL is operated over 220 countries, they follow some country codes and rules. Their staffing system is also very standard which mostly goes with the other international brands. The DHL always provides motivational program to motivate employees. The quality of the product and the career management procedures are also somewhat unique to the other companies. The recent programs run by the DHL Express have shown that the strategic programs and initiatives can make the initiative more worthy: The first choice of the program is to improve the service by continuous development of the service quality and service management. DHL want to alter is corporate culture and make necessary adjustment of their strategies. The value based program roadmap can alone change the face of the service pattern. The program is majorly focused on the transparency, profitability and cost reduction of the service delivery. These things will bring about the necessary changes in the service pattern.

The new policy regarding the environment purification and social awareness about climate change has the impacts on the service quality and the global acceptance. The DHL is now planning to get a 30% improvement in the CO efficiency by the year 2020.

4.2 Marketing communications strategies of DHL The marketing communication and promotional strategies are mainly taken for the purpose of reaching to a wide variety of the consumers. To inform and to persuade the consumers about the service of the DHL is the major goal of the communication strategy. The promotional strategy includes the activity of advertising, personal selling, sponsorship, publicity and direct selling. All these activities are not done in DHL because the type of the service has many implications on the promotional strategies. The use of the promotional techniques are changing day by day because the changes in the media and the technologies. Now-a-days DHL uses Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to reach to a great number of people. The DHL now provides the users with up to 55% discount. The sponsorship programs are also type of programs such as sponsoring the Manchester United Football Club for the logistics support, IMG fashion week events, Formula 1 and Formula E- DHL uses as the communication strategy. 4.3 Analysis of marketing strategies, their application and implementation for DHL The DHL tries to provide customized solutions through providing the intensive customer solutions. This type of service is compelled to gain competitive advantage for the organizations. This also creates differentiation. DHL always tries to improve the services and the products so that they can show the improvement of their products productivity and the reliability or the quality. DHL always goes on the innovation and specialization of the product type and it emphasises on the whole supported marketing and communication services. DHL has concentration in the customer satisfaction.

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The value chain delivery services have shown that the service delivery procedure has made DHL a sophisticated customer dealing company. The motivational programs for the Employees made the company as leading friendly organization.

Conclusion The strategic marketing is the practice of preparing the marketing plan and strategy that help an organization to go to the large target group of people. The strategic marketing tries to find out the needs of the consumers and they are intended to provide a service that they desire. The need satisfaction policy comes here first. Each organization has some specific strategic marketing plans those are different from company to company. The role of the strategic marketing is to make the increase the organizational performance so that the productivity increases. The strategic plan can also increase the brand loyalty and also can improve the business efficiency. The strategic marketing plan is not only making the plans but also implementing these through using the media such as email, television or newsletter and so on.

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Bibliography and References

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Appendix 1 DHL Value Chain Analysis

Partnering across the value chain creates additional vale

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Appendix 2 DHL Express Logistics Process

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Appendix 3 Promotions / Advertising

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