Logistics

In a new advertising campaign, UPS is teaching customers the definition of a word: Logistics. What is logistics? Well, according to UPS, logistics is “When it’s planes in the sky for a chain of supply,” “When the parts for the line come precisely on time,” “A continuous link that is always in sync,” and “There will be no more stress cause you called UPS.”

Looking in Merriam-Webster, logistics is either the aspect of military science dealing with the procurement, maintenance, and transportation of military material, facilities, and personnel or the handling of the details of an operation.

Why do these definitions matter? They demonstrate how the definition of a word can be manipulated to suit the situation. Unfortunately, in this case that will not be helpful to UPS because the word logistics is not clearly understood by the audience. Therefore, UPS must educate the audience as to the meaning of the word. The TV commercial attempts to do this with a jingle that sings the above phrases to the tune of That’s Amore.

Any time that a company uses advertising to educate, a great deal of marketing effort is being wasted. You see, learning happens from repetition. Good education repeats and repeats and repeats so that learning takes place. Learning the meaning of a word requires the receiver to receive, focus, and think.

Today, people don’t think anymore than is necessary, and they certainly don’t do so when mindlessly watching TV. In order to absorb the new UPS message, they would need to pay close attention to the definitions that are sung and think how these definitions apply to their lives. Doing that requires way more attention and thought processes than today’s TV viewers will give.

This commercial caught my attention because That’s Amore is one of those songs that sticks in my mind after I have heard it. However, except for the refrain of “That’s logistics,” I didn’t understand any of the rest of the words. To write this Insight, I went to YouTube, played the commercial, listened carefully, and paused it after each phrase. The commercial is beautifully shot, but, if the audience doesn’t get the message, is it accomplishing its goal?

I think not.

On the contrary, UPS’s former message, what can Brown do for you, was clear and customer-focused. Now, UPS does not like being “brown” anymore. They wanted to change their image so they decided that they heart (love) logistics. Their challenge in this new message is that most people are not certain they understand logistics. “No problem,” the creative people at the agency for UPS said. “We will educate them.”

While much of marketing involves education, advertising does not. Advertising messages must be easily and quickly understood by the receiver. People easily and quickly understood “What can brown do for you” because the UPS trucks and uniforms are brown so UPS is associated with the color brown. With the old commercials, UPS had branded itself with a color, which is quite a feat.

Now they have abandoned brown, which everyone readily understands, with logistics, which everyone does not get.

What can logistics do for you?