Thomas Gottschalk, one of Germany’s most popular TV celebrities, and his brother Christoph areagain teaming up in a high-profile advertising campaign for DHL in Germany. The Gottschalks, who
played major roles in the Deutsche Post share flotation and DHL re-branding campaigns, are nowpromoting the cheaper DHL consumer parcel rates that have been introduced to try to win back lostmarket share.With effect from May 1, DHL reduced the price for domestic delivery of a small parcel (up to2 kg) by nearly 10% from €4.30 to €3.90. From August 21 until October 31, DHL customers can alsosend their items to European destinations for €7.90 instead of the usual €8.60 rate. The price cutsare seen as a response to the rapid growth of Hermes Logistik, DHL’s main competitor for consumerparcels, which claims a 35% share of the German domestic B2C market and 22% share of the C2Csegment.
Entitled “Only our prices are small”, the new nationwide campaign will run for the next threeweeks, presenting the Gottschalk brothers on posters, advertisements, brochures and on theinternet. At a number of selected railway stations their images can be even seen on so-called megaair posters. Additionally, radio commercials will be broadcast in metropolitan areas and fivemillion bulk mails will be distributed to households.
“Quick, sure, reliable – that’s what DHL stands for as the leading global company for expressand logistics. The current campaign should explicitly show to our private customers that big andgood does not necessarily mean expensive. We offer high quality at reasonable prices to ourcustomers”, explains Boris Mayer, marketing manager for private customer business at DHL ExpressGermany.
