Pitney Bowes Inc., Stamford, CT, began a $10 million integrated marketing campaign yesterday to redefine its image, targeting a new audience: CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, CMOs and other senior executives.
“While we've continued to innovate … we believe that our public image is frozen in time,” said Michael J. Critelli, Pitney Bowes chairman/CEO.
Pitney Bowes “is trying to move up the food chain a little bit and target the c-suite of Fortune 1,000 companies as opposed to focusing on our direct users, such as mailroom employees, and small businesses, which we do now,” said Arun Sinha, the company's chief marketing officer.
The effort uses humor to dramatize the effect of misdirected, late or incorrect communication. One ad includes the statement, “Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Monkey Back,” then underscores the increased costs, alienated customers and missed revenue opportunities businesses face from inaccurate communications.
The tag line is “Engineering the Flow of Communication.”
“The flow of communication refers to the mail and document flow within an organization and impacts key areas that are critical to a company's success such as marketing, customer service, billing, accounts receivable, order fulfillment and human resources,” Sinha said.
The ads will appear online, outdoors and in airports, including airline club lounges. They will run in business publications such as Business 2.0, Fortune, BusinessWeek, New Yorker, The Economist and the Wall Street Journal. The campaign runs into the summer, and resumes in the fall after a summer break.
The integrated marketing includes a Web site redesign and a new approach for all collateral, including brochures and employee newsletters.
Direct mail is a large component. The company next month will send mailers to senior executives at Fortune 1,000 firms that explain the new positioning. The mail piece will be followed in April with a 20-page brochure that explains the company's product and services.
The mail piece will have two response mechanisms: the toll-free number 800/DOC-FLOW and a Web site, www.pb.com/docflow.
“Once phone calls come from the phone centers, our goal is to call back within 24 hours,” Sinha said. “We are also making some top executives of our company sponsors for the week, who will call back prospects directly.” Other prospects will get calls back from salespeople.
The Web site asks prospects to give contact information about their company, then asks whether they wish to be contacted, receive further information or both. Customers who sign up can get a free white paper, “Mail and Document Security.”
But the company is not forgetting its direct users. A few weeks after the c-suite mailing, Pitney Bowes will send a similar mail piece to its direct users, then follow up with a second, similar mailing later in April. These mail pieces will have the same response mechanism.
OgilvyOne, a unit of Ogilvy & Mather, created the campaign advertising. Landor Associates created the overall new look and feel for all brand communications.
