According to Brewster, UPS wasn’t particularly concerned about Federal Express in its early years, because it didn’t directly compete with UPS’s ground service. The problem was that Federal Express identified a market that was much larger than anyone anticipated, including UPS. Brewster says: “By the early 1980s, customers were beginning to ask UPS drivers and sales professionals why UPS wasn’t offering next day delivery. UPS, a company that had built its reputation and name on the high standards of its service, had been outplayed at its own game.” UPS did eventually respond to the challenge. Like its competitors, UPS today offers worldwide overnight delivery.
DHL’s story is quite different. Founded in the United States in 1969, the company quickly became known for international door-to-door service in the Pacific Basin. Even as Federal Express was starting to grow its business in the 1970s, DHL was expanding to Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. DHL was the first to bring air express to the Eastern Bloc countries in 1983 and the People’s Republic of China in 1986. In 2003, DHL acquired Airborne, another air delivery service. Now, with the deep pockets of its parent company, Deutsche Post World Net (Germany’s private postal service), DHL is fast becoming a formidable competitor.
So how do these brands compete on the global marketing stage? Federal Express, officially re-branded FedEx, has adopted a naming strategy, complete with color coding that distinctly segments its services. While “Fed” always appears in corporate purple, “Ex” changes colors based on the service; for example, in “FedEx Express,” the company’s core overnight delivery service, “Ex” and “Express” are orange, while in “FedEx Ground,” the service that most directly competes with ...