Shannon Diett, UK & Ireland marketing director at DHL, is on a mission to make the huge brand accessible to SMEs. Maxine-Laurie Marshall reports
On a wet and miserable day in an industrial park in Hounslow, the red and yellow DHL branding made for a welcome addition to the shades of grey. I was greeted by a particularly cheery Shannon Diett, DHL’s marketing director in the UK and Ireland, who proclaimed the site of the bare tree outside his window was the equivalent to the Sydney Opera House. Perhaps he was being slightly facetious but the Aussie seems very happy with the UK and admits he doesn’t get too much hassle from us Brits, even when we beat his home nation at the Ashes.
Diett seems to have been bitten by the DHL bug as he says, “I’ve been with the company for 15 years now. Once it gets into your system it’s hard to get it out.” Diett started at DHL in Sydney then moved to Brussels before coming to the UK as marketing director. Taking the reins just in time for the recession, how did he cope, and what challenges can a global giant like DHL expect to face?
Less doom, more boom
Over the five years Diett has been marketing director at DHL, the market has transformed dramatically. “In late 2008, the world changed and we’re still trying to recover.” Fortunately due to the nature of its business, DHL is doing better than most. “Our business is more dependent on international trade and that’s remained very robust through all the doom and gloom,” reveals Diett.
Explaining that the export side of international trade is strong, Diett continues, “It helps that the UK currency is pretty weak, it means our British goods overseas are cheaper than they would have been.” Stopping short of saying DHL had benefitted from the economic downturn Diett says, “We certainly haven’t been as adversely affected as your average UK business, as long as international trade stays strong, we remain optimistic.”
While the logistics giant seems to be floating when many others are sinking, it does have its own challenges to overcome. “The biggest challenge for a brand such as DHL is how do you maintain relevance to the small manufacturer who’s just thinking about exporting for the first time? The multinationals know us and what we do, but a small business might think, ‘DHL – it’s far too big for us to do business with’.”
Appealing to the little guys
With the aim of addressing this issue, DHL is making an effort to engage with SMEs on a local level. Diett explains his company is a member of every chamber of commerce in the country and representatives also attend local business events. To help break down those barriers further, Diett makes an effort to have a less corporate voice when marketing to SMEs. “It’s a lot more casual and personable so your average man in the street can understand what we’re trying to do. It’s not just about ‘International specialists’ ads on TV shouting down from roof tops. It’s backed up by a grass roots approach for SMEs so they don’t see this intimidating company.”
The ‘International specialists’ campaign ran from October to December 2011 and was DHL’s biggest global marketing campaign for a decade – channels used included TV, radio, online, outdoor and print. Speaking about the campaign, which was screened on 280 television stations and translated into 25 languages, Diett insists it was overdue as it needed to re-establish the brand’s personality. “After selling a few domestic businesses around the world we had to make it clear for our audience where we were positioned; that we were the international specialists.”
The campaign was targeted at businesses of all sizes but in keeping with its challenge to reach smaller businesses, Diett says the TV adverts were a tilt towards the SME market. Speaking about using TV to branch out to reach a new audience Diett says, “In the UK, we also have our toes in the consumer market, it’s expanding quickly and is a really promising market for us in the future.”
Internal buy-in
With it being too early for hard results Diett could only share some anecdotal evidence of the campaign’s success. “Every time I go to a party or a meeting and say I’m from DHL, people start singing ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ back at me.” The campaign’s theme song, originally by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, is now synonymous with the brand as it was used in a campaign that ran before Diett joined the company. When it was decided to use the same song in the more recent campaign, the biggest challenge was deemed to be getting both internal and external buy-in.
Achieving internal buy-in in a global company like DHL is not an easy task. But engaging employees is something taken seriously at DHL and many methods are used. There are internal magazines, a national TV system and the management board also visit onsite staff. To add to this continuous engagement, a few months prior to the ‘International specialists’ campaign, DHL launched ‘CIS – certified international specialists’, a global internal training programme.
The programme saw all employees receive a DHL-branded satchel with a CIS passport in which they received a stamp every time they completed different modules. Diett says, “It makes sure everybody is on the same page about who we are and what we stand for. CIS fed beautifully in to the ‘International specialists’ campaign, so engagement was already there and everyone was speaking the same language.”
It seems the marketing language DHL has historically used is fairly traditional, but the company is developing a wider social media strategy. “We understand the importance of talking to customers online and we are developing a wider social media strategy for 2012.” Alongside new media, continuing to maintain relevance for SMEs is also a key priority “It’s a long-term challenge, you can’t just run an ad campaign and say we’re approachable now. We’ve come a long way but I’d never say the job’s done.”
Top tips on achieving internal buy-in
Get out and meet your employees
Encourage the management board to leave their offices and talk to their employees face-to-face. Go and spend time answering questions on the warehouse floor, nothing can replace that sort of feedback.
Remember to give back
In order to get the best from your employees you have to give them something in return. Running fun days for employees and their families is a valuable way of motivating them and thanking them for their hard work.
Engage constantly
Don’t just rely on one big internal campaign run on an ad hoc basis, for your employees to buy in to the brand. They need to be nurtured and engaged with on a regular basis. Think about different internal communication methods that can have national or international reach, i.e. internal magazines, TV, intranet.
