The Integrated Marketing Communication Plan of Yuantong Express

SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION
YSP524 INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION

CAPSTONE PROFESSIONAL PROJECT
TITLE:

The Integrated Marketing Communication Plan of Yuantong Express

NAME:
XIE ZHIQI ( P-KOM0136/21)

SUPERVISOR:
Dr. Suriati Saad
Dr. Izzal Asnira Zolkepli

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Table of contents

1. Executive summary ..................................................................................................................... 3
2. Brief background ..........................................................................................................................4
3. Research problem ....................................................................................................................... 5
4. Research design ..........................................................................................................................6

4.1 Related model ....................................................................................................................6
4.2 Research objectives ..........................................................................................................7
4.3 Research methods ............................................................................................................ 7
5.0 Research discussing and findings ..........................................................................................8
5.1 Research discussing .........................................................................................................8
5.2 Research findings ............................................................................................................14
6.0 Strategic objectives and audience ........................................................................................18
6.1 Strategic objectives .........................................................................................................18
6.2 Target customer ............................................................................................................... 18
7.0 Strategic IMC plan ...................................................................................................................19
7.1 Introduction of Chinese media ...................................................................................... 19
7.2 Strategic plan ................................................................................................................... 20
8.0 Tactical and media plan ..........................................................................................................22
8.1 Perceived quality- improve service attitude. ...............................................................22
8.2 Perceived quality- improve speed of receiving and distribution. .............................26
8.3 Perceived value - improve product cost performance. ............................................. 30
8.4 Service environment - improve the environment of YTO outlets ............................ 34
8.5 Customer loyalty - enhance emotional connection with consumers. ..................... 37
9.0 Timeline and budget ................................................................................................................40
10.0 Expected success ................................................................................................................. 42
11.0 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 42
Reference ........................................................................................................................................ 43
Appendices ......................................................................................................................................44
Acknowledge ...................................................................................................................................48

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1. Executive summary
With the rapid development of e-commerce, the importance of express
delivery industry in the world becomes more and more obvious, especially in
such a huge market as China. However, some express delivery companies in
China blindly pursue market expansion and neglect the improvement of
service level, resulting in a large number of customer dissatisfaction, which
directly affects the revenue of express delivery companies and the
development of express delivery industry.

Figure 1. Yuantong Express logo

Yuantong Express, as one of the four private express delivery companies in
China, has caught up with the e-commerce economy, and its market has
expanded all the way. However, in recent years, the customer satisfaction of
Yuantong Express has continued to decline, which is also directly reflected in
the decline of business volume. Finding and improving customer satisfaction is
the top priority of Yuantong Express at present. According to the Chinese
customer satisfaction model, this study conducted an empirical study on
Yuantong Express and distributed 384 questionnaires. By analyzing the
collected data, we can find that the perceived quality has the greatest impact
on Yuantong Express's customer satisfaction, among which the service level
and delivery efficiency are the most critical, the perceived value is the second,
the service environment is the third, and the customer loyalty is the last. So the
IMC plan for Yuantong Express should focus on improving these problems. It
should be carried out in an all-round way from the aspects of analysis,
audience, budget, target, strategy, tactics, implementation and control. In

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addition, the choice of media is based on China's social media environment.
We hope that this program can help Yuantong improve customer satisfaction
and provide reference for the industry.

2. Brief background
Yuantong Express, one of the four private express delivery companies in
China, was established in 2000, with a history of 19 years ago and its
headquarters is located in Shanghai, China. The company is willing to be a
Chinese express delivery company and make the world at your fingertips. The
company has more than 5,100 distribution outlets and more than 50,000
employees, covering more than 1,200 cities in China, and at the same time, it
has opened special services in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, the Middle East
and Southeast Asia.

Figure 2. YTO Shanghai head office

There are three main types of Yuantong Express online platforms: Yuantong
App, Wechat Mini Apps and e-commerce platform. Offline platforms are
physical outlets and 24-hour self-service express cabinets.
At present, Yuantong Express's communication platforms are mainly the
website (https://wap.yto.net.cn/), WeChat, today's headlines, Tik Tok, Little red
book and so on. Official website mainly shows the introduction of the company
and business, the entrance of inquiry, and the WeChat QR code of express
delivery. Therefore, WeChat is particularly important. It is the largest
communication social media in China, with a huge number of users and

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relatively complete functions. Besides, Tik Tok, Little red book, Today's
Headline, Baidu Post Bar, etc. have done very well in their respective fields
and are all popular social media in China. Although Yuantong Express has
opened accounts on these social media, its operation is not good, which is the
focus of this plan.
3. Research problem
For express delivery companies, customer satisfaction has always been a very
important indicator. However, in the ranking of customer satisfaction in China's
express industry in 2021, we can see that Yuantong Express ranked the
bottom. According to the ranking list below, Yuantong Express's customer
satisfaction is only 67.9, which is lower than the industry average of 76.6
(Tencent, 2021).

Figure 3. Customer satisfaction ranking of
Chinese express delivery enterprises in 2020

In addition, by querying the complaints from Black Cat, an e-commerce
complaint platform, we further found that consumers' bad reviews of Yuantong

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Express mainly focus on poor service attitude, too high fees, poor environment,
slow speed, damaged packages and so on (Securities Times, 2021).
Therefore, we hope to evaluate the overall customer satisfaction of Yuantong
Express from the consumer's point of view, understand how low its satisfaction
is and the causes, and analyze the influence degree of various factors to
provide a reference for Yuantong Express's priority improvement. Finally, we
put forward some suggestions to improve the problem from the perspective of
integrated marketing communication.

4. Research design
4.1 Related model
Based on the actual market background and business situation of Yuantong
Express Company, this paper chooses CCSI model of China Customer
Satisfaction Index to analyze the customer satisfaction of Yuantong Express
Company from four aspects: Service Environment, Perceived Qualit,
Perceived Value and customer loyalty. The following is decomposed into four
levels.

Figure 4. Customer satisfaction model of this study

Service H1 Customer
environment H2 satisfaction
H3
Perceived
quality

Perceived
value

Customer H4
loyalty
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4.2 Research objectives
The main purpose of this paper is to study the factors that cause the low
satisfaction of Yuantong Express, and analyze the different influence degrees
of each factor. So as to give appropriate suggestions. It can be achieved
through the following goals.
1) To measure Yuantong's customer satisfaction.
2) To analyse the influence of f service environment, perceived quality,
perceived value and customer loyalty on customer satisfaction.

4.3 Research methods
In this study, the questionnaire method is adopted, and the data obtained from
the questionnaire survey is processed by SPSS software. The main research
methods include:
1) Statistics of sample characteristics: classify and describe the basic
information, average value and standard deviation of survey samples, in order
to test whether the sample distribution of questionnaire survey is scientific or
not.
2) Reliability analysis: The Cronbachαcoefficient method, which is the most
commonly used method, is used for reliability analysis, in order to measure the
consistency and reliability of the questionnaire survey data and conclusions.
3) Independent T-test: T-test is to compare the differences between two
groups of data, whether there is statistical significance or not. The premise of
T-test is that the two groups of data come from the population with normal

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distribution, and the variance of the data is even, which satisfies independence.
Independent sample t-test is used to test the difference of data obtained by two
groups of unrelated samples.
4) Importance-performance analysis method (IPA analysis method): firstly, by
studying literature and visiting consumers, an index system of product quality
evaluation is established, and a quantitative table is compiled according to the
characteristic attributes of the indexes. Each index of the index system in the
quantitative table must contain two attributes of importance and performance,
and Likert quantitative method is generally adopted for each attribute. This is
widely used in customer satisfaction analysis.

5.0 Research discussing and findings
5.1 Research discussing
1) Descriptive statistical results
According to the survey questionnaire, the samples surveyed this time show
the following characteristics. The female customers of Yuantong Express are
larger than the male customers (42% for men and 58% for women). From the
age, customers aged 19-34 (34%) and 45-54 (16%) account for a relatively
large proportion. From the income level, Customers with monthly incomes of
3001-5000(26%) and 5001-7000(31%) account for a large proportion. Among
the respondents, the proportion of bachelor degree is the highest, accounting
for 61%. From the consumption frequency, 56% of customers will use
Yuantong Express 11-15 times a month. From the overall satisfaction point of

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view, 37% customers are disappointed with Yuantong's service, and only 6%
customers are very satisfied.

Table 1. Descriptive statistical results of samples

Category Proportion Category Proportion

Gender Male 42% Education below Bachelor's degree 31%
Female 58% level Bachelor's degree 61%
11% 8%
18 and below 34% Bachelor degree or above 13%
29% 22%
19 -34 16% Monthly 5 times and below 56%
Age 35-44 10% frequency 6-10 times 9%
11% 11-15 times 28%
45-54 of use
15 times and more
55 and abouve

3000 and below Very dissatisfied

Monthly 3000 and below 10% Overall Dissatisfied 37%
income 3001 - 5000 26% satisfaction Neutral 22%
(RMB) Satisfied 7%
5001-7000 31% 6%
Very satisfied
7001 and above 22%

2) Reliability analysis
In order to ensure the reliability of this scale, this paper uses SPSS17.0 to
analyze the reliability of 12 items in the importance satisfaction scale, and the
reliability coefficient is 0.865. According to the opinion of most scholars, if the
reliability coefficient is above 0.9, the reliability of this test or scale is the best. If
the reliability coefficient is above 0.8, it is acceptable. If it is below 0.8, the
scale should be revised greatly. If it is below 0.7, the scale should be

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redesigned. From the test results, the validity of this research scale is good.

Table 2. Reliability Analysis Table

Reliability analysis results

Cronbach’s Alpha Number of terms
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Overall reliability of 0.865
questionnaire

Reliability of 0.953 12
importance scale

Satisfaction scale 0.916 12
reliability

3) Independent sample t-test
Through the independent sample T-test, it can be seen that there are great
differences between the perception of important value before consumption and
the perception of satisfaction after consumption of 12 factors that affect
customer satisfaction of Yuantong Express. If the average difference between
P and I is positive, it means that the satisfaction is higher than the expected
value, that is, the customer's satisfaction with this factor in the consumption
process is very high. If the value is negative, it means that the satisfaction is
lower than the expected value, that is, the customer is dissatisfied with these
factors in different degrees in the consumption, and these factors need to be
improved in the future.
On this basis, in order to test whether the difference of importance and
satisfaction of each project is statistically significant, the paired sample T test

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of the mean difference is carried out. P<0.01 indicates significant difference,
and P<0.05 indicates difference. From the results of significance test, there are
significant differences in the importance and satisfaction of seven items,
namely, IP3, IP4, IP5, IP6, IP7, IP8 and IP9, and the average difference
between P and I is negative, which indicates that the customer satisfaction of
Yuantong Express is generally lower than the customer's perception of its
importance.

Table 3. Independent sample T-test table

Analysis factor Importance Performanc P-I T P
(Average e (Mean (T-Value) (Sig.
1.The number of difference) 2-tailed)
courier outlets value (Average of 1.581
2.The convenience of of -0.33 2.739 0.175
sending and retrieving satisfaction) 13.000
parcels importance) 4.17 -1.00 0.041
3.Cleanliness of the 4.50
site 3.33 -2.17 0.000
4.33
1.33
3.50

4.Service attitude 4.83 1.33 -3.50 15.652 0.000

5.Safety of goods 5.00 2.33 -2.67 12.649 0.000
5.00 2.17 -2.83 9.220 0.000
6.Speed of receiving 4.67 2.17 -2.50 5.839 0.002
and distribution 4.50 2.50 -2.00 4.472 0.007
7.Express delivery
price 3.83 2.00 -1.83 11.000 0.000

8.Packaging price

9.Price comparison
between similar
brands

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10.Recommendation 3.00 2.50 -0.50 2.236 0.076
possibility 3.17 2.00 -1.17 2.907 0.034
3.17 2.17 -1.00 3.873 0.012
11.Price increase
acceptance degree

12.Willingness to use
for a long time

4) IPA analysis
As shown in the figure below, the quadrant diagram is established by the mean
value of importance and the mean value of satisfaction, and the P value and I
value of 12 items are marked respectively.

Figure 5. IPA analysis chart of Yuantong Express customer consumption

The first quadrant is the area of high importance and high satisfaction. Four
factors have been located in the first quadrant, they are IP1(The number of
courier outlets), IP2 (the communication of sending and retrieving parcels), IP5
(Safety of goods) and IP8(Packaging price). According to the principle of IPA
analysis, these factors are considered by customers to be very important and
Yuantong Express has done a good job, which needs to be maintained.

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However, compared with other factors, the satisfaction of IP5 is low, which
requires Yuantong Express to pay more attention to the safety of goods.
The second quadrant is the area of low importance and high satisfaction.
IP10(Recommendation possibility) is positioned in this quadrant, which shows
that customers don't care much about others' recommendations when
choosing express brands. Others' recommendations are just an extra bonus
for Yuantong Express's satisfaction.
The third quadrant is the area of low importance and low satisfaction. Four
factors are located in this quadrant, they are IP3(Cleanliness of the site), IP9
(price comparison between similar brands), IP11 (price increase acceptance
degree) and IP12 (perseverance to use). For a long time), although the
customer's satisfaction with these factors is not high, this does not affect the
current development of Yuantong Express, and later improvement and
development can be considered.
The fourth quadrant is the area of high importance and low satisfaction. Three
factors have been located in this quadrant, namely, IP4(Service attitude), IP6
(speed of receiving and distribution) and IP7(Express delivery price), which
indicates that these three factors need to be improved by Yuantong Express.

5) Summary
In short, Yuantong' s overall satisfaction is only 13%. Perceived quality has the
greatest impact on customer satisfaction and perceived value has the second

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highest impact on customer satisfaction. Service environment has less impact
on customer satisfaction than perceived quality and perceived value.
Compared with other factors, customer loyalty has the least influence on
satisfaction.

5.2 Research findings
1) Yuantong 's overall satisfaction needs to be improved.
From the overall satisfaction point of view, only 13% of customers are satisfied
(including very satisfied and satisfied), 65% of customers are dissatisfied
(including very dissatisfied and dissatisfied), and the number of dissatisfied
customers is five times that of satisfied customers. From this, it can be
concluded that the overall customer satisfaction of Yuantong Express is low,
which is consistent with the existing customer satisfaction rankings and
expected assumptions, and confirms the correctness of the research direction.

Figure 6. Overall customer satisfaction of Yuantong Express

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2) Yuantong needs to give priority to improving perceived quality, especially
service attitude and distribution efficiency.
According to table 5, the sum of perceived quality importance values is 14.83，
which is the highest among the four factors. In addition, according to IPA
analysis, IP4(Service attitude) and IP6 (speed of receiving and distribution) in
quality perception are located in the fourth quadrant, which are the most
important and have low satisfaction, so they need to be improved first.

3) Yuantong needs to improve the perceived value, especially express delivery
price and price comparison between similar brands.
The sum of perceived value importance values is 13.00 ，slightly lower than
Perceived quality 。 IP7(Express delivery price) and IP9 (Price comparison
between similar brands) are located in the fourth and third quadrants,
respectively. Both of them have low satisfaction and need to be improved, but
ip7 needs to be improved first.

4) Yuantong needs to improve its service environment, especially the
cleanliness of its stores.
The sum of service environment importance values is 12.33. IP3 (Cleanliness
of the site) is located in the third quadrant, with low satisfaction, so it needs to
be improved.

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5) Yuantong needs to improve customer loyalty and establish emotional
connection with consumers.
The sum of customer loyalty importance values is 9.33. IP11 (Price Increase
Acceptance Degree) and IP12 (Willingness to use for a long time) are both
located in the third quadrant. Although they are not as important as the factors
in the fourth quadrant, they need to be improved in the long run.

Table 4. Importance Value and Quadrant Distribution of Primary Factors

Primary Secondary index Importance Surmary Quadrant
index (Average 12.33
1.The number of 14.83 Quadrant
Service courier outlets value 13.00 Ⅰ
environment 2.The convenience of of
sending and retrieving (Important)
Perceived parcels importance) Quadrant
quality 3.Cleanliness of the site 4.50
Ⅰ
Perceived 4.Service attitude 4.33 (Important)
value Quadrant
5.Safety of goods 3.50
Ⅲ
6.Speed of receiving 4.83
and distribution Quadrant
5.00 Ⅳ
7.Express delivery price
5.00 (Important)
8.Packaging price Quadrant
4.67
Ⅰ
4.50 (Important)
Quadrant

Ⅳ
(Important)
Quadrant

Ⅳ
(Important)
Quadrant

Ⅰ
(Important)

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9.Price comparison 3.83 Quadrant
between similar brands 3.00 Ⅲ
10.Recommendation 3.17
possibility 3.17 Quadrant
11.Price increase Ⅱ
acceptance degree
Customer 12.Willingness to use 9.33 Quadrant
loyalty for a long time Ⅲ

Quadrant
Ⅲ

Table 5. Ranking Table of Importance of Secondary Factors

Primary index Secondary index Importance
(Average value
of importance)

Perceived quality 5.Safety of goods 5.00

Perceived quality 6.Speed of receiving 5.00
and distribution

Perceived quality 4.Service attitude 4.83

Perceived value 7.Express delivery price 4.67
Service environment 4.50
1.The number of 4.50
Perceived value courier outlets
4.33
Service environment 8.Packaging price
3.83
Perceived value 2.The convenience of 3.50
Service environment sending and retrieving 3.17
3.17
Customer loyalty parcels 3.00
Customer loyalty 9.Price comparison
Customer loyalty between similar brands

3.Cleanliness of the site

11.Price increase
acceptance degree
12.Willingness to use

for a long time
10.Recommendation

possibility

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6.0 Strategic objectives and audience
6.1 Strategic objectives
According to the findings, the following are the strategic objectives:
We hope to improve the overall customer satisfaction of Yuantong Express
from the following four aspects, and at the same time, improve the satisfaction
ranking of the express delivery industry in 2022, from the last place to the
middle and upper reaches.
1) Perceived quality: to improve Yuantong Express's service attitude and
distribution efficiency. This requires hardware conditions and soft power to be
improved together.
2) Perceived value: to improve the cost performance of products. This
includes the value of the product itself and the added value.
3) Service environment: to improve the environment of Yuantong Express
outlets. This requires online and offline publicity.
4) Customer loyalty: to establish emotional connection with consumers, so as
to strengthen the relationship between brands and consumers, thereby
improving recommendation and reducing consumers' price comparison.
6.2 Target customer
1) Target consumers: students aged 18-22, stay-at-home mothers, senior
white-collar workers. These people shop online frequently and often return
goods. In addition, they often mail daily necessities and documents. Therefore,
convenient and affordable express service is particularly important.
2) Consumer behavior: people who like to use various apps, like to read KOL
recommendations, and are easily influenced by others.
3) Consumption channels: Taobao, JD.COM, Amazon and other e-commerce
platforms.
4) Entertainment habits: people who like to browse social media such as
WeChat, Little red book and Tik Tok.
In short,Yuantong Express has a wide audience, so the audience of this IMC
plan should include existing users, potential users and competitive brand users.

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For existing users, it is necessary to improve customer satisfaction and
recommendation. For potential users and competitive brand users, Yuantong
Express should enhance its product attractiveness, including freight price,
packaging price and price advantage. It should properly carry out new
customer activities. In short, Yuantong Express needs to maintain old
customers and develop new customers.

7.0 Strategic IMC plan
7.1 Introduction of Chinese media

Table 6. Introduction of Chinese media

Wechat Tik Tok & Today's Headlines
Communication social media Video and information social media

WeChat is the largest communication Tik Tok is popular all over the
social media in China, with a huge world, with fast video transmission
number of users and relatively and easy understanding. More and
complete functions. Besides more middle-aged and elderly
daily communication, people have become Tik Tok users.
it also includes Today's Headlines and Tik Tok
Wechat Moments (showing videos, belong to the same group. Today's
photos, etc.) Headlines are mainly used for hot
Wechat Mini Apps (online shopping news and video display, which is
malls, online games, etc.) more comprehensive than Tik
WeChat official account (publishing Tok's.
articles, etc.)

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Little red book Baidu Post Bar
Sharing social media Forum social media

Little red book (Little Red Book), Baidu Post Bar is a product of

similar to ins, is a typical sharing social Baidu, the largest search engine in

media, and its audience is mainly China. It mainly provides a platform

young people. More and more people for people in various fields to

will check Little Red Book before communicate with each other. It is

buying goods, so it is very suitable for divided according to various

KOL recommendation. characteristics of audiences, such

as school, occupation, hobbies,

regions and so on.

7.2 Strategic plan
According to the above strategic objectives, The IMC plan for Yuantong
express focus on improving service attitude, distribution efficiency, product
cost performance, service environment and customer loyalty. We suggest
adopting multimedia strategy to convey brand information through five types of
social media, and assisting system design, packaging design, print advertising,
etc. Multimedia strategy, on the one hand, can deepen consumers' cognition
and understanding of Yuantong express to the greatest extent. On the other
hand, it will give more room for creativity (Zhang, 2014). The strategy is as
follows:

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Table 7. The strategic IMC plan of YTO

Purpos Perceived Quality Purpos Perceived Value
e& To improve service attitude e To improve product cost
Media &
and delivery speed. performance
Media

1) Wechat Mini Apps 1) Wechat Mini Apps
Planning Planning
-Service evaluation design -Fission marketing
-Increase hard power -To C/B marketing
-Increase soft power
-Design of logistics tracking 2) Cooperation activities
system -Taobao's opening ads
-Membership cards
2) Baidu Post Bar Plan
-University Student Logistics 3) Creative design
Sand Table Simulation -Multifunctional packaging
Competition -Trendy handbag

Purpos 3)Wechat Moments & Purpos Customer Loyalty
e& Today's Headlines Plan e& To improve customer loyalty.
Media -Rank and reward employees Media
-Aviation theme campaign

Service Environment
To improve the environment of

YTO outlets.

1) Little red book Planning 1)Tik Tok & Transportation
-KOL recommended Media Planning
-Topic marketing
2) WeChat official account
planning 2) Plan of 24-hour
-Publish articles on self-service express cabinet
environmental improvement -Personalized service
-Reprint KOL
recommendations and so on. 3) Public welfare planning
-Printing information about
3) Customer birthday party lost children
Creative Exhibition

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Most of the above activities will be divided into three series:

'One box, One world' means that Yuantong has a large business scope and
high efficiency.
'One box, All love' It includes Yuantong's love for customers, our self-love,
parents' love for children, lovers' love, human's love for nature and public spirit.
'One box, One secret' it means that Yuantong not only transports goods, but
more importantly, conveys people's feelings.

The above-mentioned themes will cooperate with promotional activities and
multi-channel advertising. We hope to convey the feeling of' Yuantong is
getting better all the time' to customers. Inviting customers to participate in
offline activities can make customers directly experience the upgraded store
environment of Yuantong. In addition, topic marketing can establish emotional
connection with customers and strengthen customer loyalty.

8.0 Tactical and media plan
8.1 Perceived quality- improve service attitude.
In the express delivery industry, couriers are in close contact with consumers,
and their service attitude directly affects consumers' satisfaction with
enterprises.Measures can be carried out from four aspects: evaluation, reward,
hard power and soft power. The following tactics are based on WeChat
platform.

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1) Establish an effective scoring system.
Customers can rate each service and make suggestions through WeChat or
app. After the rating, they can get 100% lucky draw for freight reduction or
small gifts. This way can encourage customers to actively participate in the
rating and improve the accuracy of the rating.

Figure.7 Service evaluation design

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2) Rank and reward employees
For couriers, Yuantong Express will rank the scores every quarter. In addition
to cash rewards, couriers with high scores will be awarded the title of "Service
Star" as the cover of the company's publications and the marketing content of
WeChat Moments. This will encourage couriers to improve their service
attitude and spread the service quality of Yuantong Express to the audience.
Of course, couriers with low scores should be investigated, educated and even
punished.

Figure 8. Excellent employee poster

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3) Increase hard power: night service
Although Yuantong Express has official customer service at present, it can't
reply in real time, especially at night. However, this is the time when customers
pick up the express delivery after work, and they often need to consult. It can
be seen that it is necessary to set up night customer service.

Figure 9. Online customer service design

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4) Increase soft power: Yuantong is with you.
Yuantong can carry out some heart-warming activities to establish emotional
connection with customers, which can greatly improve customers' evaluation
of Yuantong's service attitude.

Figure 10. ' YTO with you' poster

8.2 Perceived quality- improve speed of receiving and distribution.
Measures can be carried out from three aspects, including talent training,
system optimization and product advantages publicity..
1) Establish university cooperation to attract professionals.
The efficiency of express delivery is closely related to the operation level of
enterprises and the distance of transportation. From the management level,
Yuantong Express needs to attract high-level professionals. Yuantong Express

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can publish logistics sand table simulation competition or online job fair
information through Baidu Post Bar.. On the one hand, it can improve the
brand awareness of Yuantong Express; on the other hand, it can introduce
technical talents for the company from a professional point of view to improve
the operation level.

Figure 11. Baidu Post Bar-University Alliance Forum

2) Optimize the system to make waiting more interesting.
In China, it is inevitable that long-distance transportation takes a long time.
Yuantong Express not only shows the real-time transportation situation, but
also can be designed as a "package travel" game through Wechat Mini Apps.
Customers can check which scenic spots the package has passed and what
interesting things happen on the road, which makes waiting more interesting.

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Figure 12. Design of logistics tracking system

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3) Using astronaut image to highlight fast delivery
Yuantong Express can invite astronauts to be brand ambassadors, and the image of
astronauts can remind consumers of the efficiency and safety of Tong Yuan. At the
same time, Yuantong needs to carry out a series of marketing, such as online publicity,
events and promotional posters.

Figure 13. 1Online publicity -YTO & Astronauts
Wechat Moments

Figure 14. Event -YTO takes you into space

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Figure 15. Poster - YTO' s speed

8.3 Perceived value - improve product cost performance.
Measures to improve the cost performance mainly include: fission marketing,
To C and To B marketing, brand cooperation marketing and product added
value.
1) Fission marketing
First of all, Yuantong Express needs to ensure the openness and transparency
of the price, which requires Yuantong Express to calculate the freight through
WeChat or app, instead of manually calculating the freight by the courier, so as

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to avoid lowering the customer satisfaction because of the courier's random
quotation. Secondly, flexible and interesting marketing activities are also
essential for Yuantong Express, such as forwarding posters or inviting friends
to click on links to get freight deduction coupons.

Figure 16. Fission marketing

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2) To C and To B marketing
Yuantong can carry out promotional activities for individual users and
enterprise users. The promotional activities are only open at festivals, and it is
not recommended to carry out them for a long time.

Figure 17. DM - To C &To B

3) Marketing activities of CO-branding
Yuantong Express can cooperate with Taobao, JD.COM and other
e-commerce platforms to launch quarterly membership cards or annual
membership cards. Consumers can enjoy freight concessions when they

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become members, which is an effective means to resist competing products
and prevent customers from losing.

Figure 18. Taobao's opening advertisement

4) Product added value- creative design of carton and handbag
Yuantong Express can creatively design the express box. Besides printing
activity information on the surface, some interesting graphics can be designed
inside the express box, such as architectural series and animal series.
Children can color them or cut them out for hand-making, which also greatly
increases customers' goodwill towards brands. In addition, the design of
handbags can be more fashionable, which is very attractive to young people,
and the repeated use of handbags is undoubtedly beneficial to brand
communication.

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Figure 19. Creative design of express box and handbag

8.4 Service environment - improve the environment of YTO outlets
With the improvement of economic level, consumers pay more and more
attention to the environment of consumer places. A good service environment
can improve consumers' willingness to buy products or services. At present,
the environment of offline stores of most courier companies is not optimistic. It
is difficult for customers to put clothes, food, digital products and valuables in
such an environment with confidence. At the same time, the messy
environment is hard to attract consumers to send packages. Yuantong can
show the improved environment by inviting KOL and customers to participate
in activities, and even turn the store into a trendy shooting venue.
1) KOL recommended
Yuantong Express should upgrade its service environment to make it cleaner.
It can also set up tips for self-service parcel deposit and withdrawal, and
provide services such as umbrellas and trolleys. For the above measures,
Yuantong Express can publicize them through Little red book and WeChat. In
the era of information flooding, good products also need to be publicized, just

34

as the Chinese saying goes,'' The smell of wine is afraid of the deep alley.''
Figure 20. KOL recommended

2) Customer activities
Yuantong Express can hold some special activities every quarter, such as
customer birthday party or creative carton exhibition, and invite customers to
participate in the activities to receive gifts. Customers can find that the
environment of Yuantong Express stores has been improved through on-site
experience. In addition, this kind of customer care activities will greatly
increase customers' goodwill towards the brand, and also help to drive the
growth of performance.

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Figure 21. Customer birthday party
Figure 22. Environmental protection exhibition activitiy

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8.5 Customer loyalty - enhance emotional connection with consumers.
At present, the phenomenon of homogenization of express products is serious.
Besides promotion, enterprises need to make efforts to build their own brands.
Consumers are more willing to choose products that conform to their own likes
and values, so Yuantong can carry out the following activities.

1) Content Marketing Based on Tik Tok Platform
Yuantong Express can launch topic marketing through the Tik Tok platform,
such as holding the "One box, One secret" topic activity. This activity means
that people can easily open their hearts as simple as opening a door or box. By
posting the activity poster on the traffic advertisement, the audience can scan
the code and enter Yuantong Tik Tok account to realize online and offline
interaction. We hope to attract consumers to listen to others or share their
stories.
The reason why advertisements are published on subway gates or elevator
doors is that, on the one hand, it adopts a figurative way, comparing opening
doors or packages to opening hearts, so that consumers can feel the
ingenious thoughts of advertisements. On the other hand, the subway has a
large traffic volume, and it is mandatory to set them on subway doors, which
enhances the advertising effect to some extent.

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Figure 23. Tik Tok & Subway Topic Marketing

2) Personalized service based on self-service express cabinet
Only a small number of communities in China have self-service express
cabinets provided by third-party enterprises, so Yuantong Express can
cooperate with them to expand more communities. In addition, Yuantong
Express can use the screen on the self-service express cabinet to carry out

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personalized marketing activities. For example, when a customer picks up a
courier, the video, audio or pictures recorded by the sender can be displayed
on the screen. Such a surprising activity will also make users share on social
media spontaneously.

Figure 24. Self-service counter marketing activities

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3) Public welfare activities based on product characteristics
Express is characterized by fast circulation and wide coverage. For the blank
space of the express box, Yuantong Express can print the information of lost
children. Paying attention to lost children is a hot spot in current society.
Express's little effort may have helped their families. Enthusiasm for public
welfare is conducive to enhancing the brand reputation and gaining the favor
of consumers.

Figure 25. Lost children information printing

9.0 Timeline and budget
As shown in the table below, the tasks that Yuantong Express must complete
in 2022 are program design and material design. Only after these tasks are
completed can the follow-up work be carried out smoothly. For social media
and customer activities, it needs a long time. It is suggested to launch
below-the-line and recruit brand ambassadors in Q1 and Q4, because these
two quarters are China's online shopping festival, National Day and Spring
Festival, and also the peak season of express delivery industry. The total
budget of this IMC program is about 2 million RMB.

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Table 8. Timeline and budget

2022-2023 Cost

Type Detail Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Summary

Program WeChat 10000.00
design mini app
YTO app 10000.00
30000.00
WeChat

Advertising Weibo 50000.00
Materials 30000.00
Tik Tok 50000.00
Little red 30000.00
200000.00
book 300000.00
Baidu tieba 80000.00
10000.00
Bus stop ad
subway 10000.00
station ad 10000.00

Elevator ad
Poster
design

Handbag
design

Box design

Brand Astronaut 1000000.00
Ambassador
80000.00
Activity Customer
birthday 120000.00
RMB 2020000.00
party USD 301384.00
Express
cabinet
cooperation

Summany

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10.0 Expected success
The overall satisfaction of Yuantong Express has been improved, from 13% of
the survey results to the estimated 80%. The specific expected results are as
follows:
1) Perceived quality:
the average service score of each courier is above 3.5 stars (5-star system).
The delivery time and pick-up time are controlled within 2 hours. The customer
service is extended by 24 o'clock in the evening. More professionals are
attracted to reserve talents for enterprises.
2) Perceived value :
the overall performance will remain stable, change the downward trend, and
make the performance show an increasing trend. Customers will generally
feel that freight and packaging are cost-effective.
3) Service environment:
The customer's active visit rate is expected to increase from 20% to 70%.
Generally, the customer service will know that Yuantong Express has
upgraded the store environment, changing the impression of the poor store
environment of Yuantong Express.
4) Customer loyalty:
Customer loyalty is expected to rise from 13% to 60%. They are willing to use
Yuantong Express as a common express brand and recommend it to others.
11.0 Conclusion
In a word, the strategy that Yuantong IMC plans to use is not only to display
promotional activities, but also to express the brand itself. This plan includes
online and offline, public relations activities, landing activities, advertising and
materials, etc. The plan adopts the way of integrated marketing, rather than
relying solely on one medium for communication. We distinguish different
media, and at the same time, under the idea of great integration, they
cooperate with each other. I hope this plan can help Yuantong solve the
problem and provide a reference for the express delivery industry.

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Reference
Liu, S.S. (2019). Research on customer satisfaction of Mudanjiang Branch

[Unpublished master’s thesis]. Northeast Agricultural University.

Securities Times. (2021). "Looking back at the change of express delivery in
2021" and "the era of 100 billion pieces" are coming, and high-quality
development has become the main line. Expert: The industry will change
like this from next year. Baijiahao.
https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1720310738892507657&wfr=spider&for
=pc

Tencent. (2021). Express satisfaction ranking: JD and SF are neck and neck,
and Yuantong is the last. https://new.qq.com/rain/a/20210210A05I4M00

Zhang, B.M. (2014). Brand marketing balance under multi-channel
communication [J]. Market Outlook, (5):2.

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Appendices
Part I: Demographic Information
Part II: The customer satisfaction survey of Yuantong Express Company

Yuantong Express Customer Satisfaction Questionnaire
Hello! The purpose of this survey is to understand the customer satisfaction of
Yuantong Express Company. It is only used for the research of this paper,
without any commercial use, and it is anonymously filled in. Please feel free to
answer. Your true answer will help this. Thanks for your participation and
support for the successful completion of the survey!
Xie Zhiqi
School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia

I. Please select the following questions for personal basic information.
( Choose one)
1. Your gender:

Male
female
2. Your age:
18 and below
19 -34
35-44
45-54

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55 and abouve
3. Your average monthly income (unit: RMB)

3000 and below
3001 - 5000
5001-7000
7001 and above
4. Your education level:
below Bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
Bachelor degree or above
5. How often do you use the express service of Yuantong Express in a month :

__________

6. What do you think of the overall satisfaction of Yuantong Express?

Very dissatisfied
Dissatisfied
Neutral
Satisfied
Very satisfied

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II. The following is the customer satisfaction survey of Yuantong

Express Company.

Now we need to evaluate the importance and satisfaction. In order to facilitate

data processing, the rating range is 1 ~ 5 points. Importance: 1- Very

unimportant, 2- unimportant, 3- neutral, 4- important, 5- very important.

Satisfaction: 1- very dissatisfied, 2- dissatisfied, 3- neutral, 4- satisfied and 5-

very satisfied.

Construct Type Importance Scale Source

Service Please rate 1.The number of (Liu, 2019)
environment below how courier outlets
satisfied were 2.The convenience of
you with this sending and retrieving
YTO’s company parcels
image. 3.Cleanliness of the
site

Perceived Please rate 4.Service attitude (Liu, 2019)
quality below how 5.Safety of goods
satisfied were 6.Speed of receiving
you with this and distribution
YTO’s perceived
quality.

Perceived Please rate 7.Express delivery (Liu, 2019)
value below how price (Liu, 2019)
satisfied were 8.Packaging price
Customer you with this 9.Price comparison
loyalty YTO’s perceived between similar
value. brands

Please rate 10.Recommendation
below how possibility
satisfied were 11.Price increase
you with this acceptance degree
YTO’s customer 12.Willingness to use
loyalty. for a long time

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Construct Type Satisfaction Scale Source

Service Please rate 1.The number of (Liu, 2019)
environment below how courier outlets
satisfied were 2.The convenience of
you with this sending and retrieving
YTO’s company parcels
image. 3.Cleanliness of the
site

Perceived Please rate 4.Service attitude (Liu, 2019)
quality below how 5.Safety of goods
satisfied were 6.Speed of receiving
you with this and distribution
YTO’s
perceived
quality.

Perceived Please rate 7.Express delivery (Liu, 2019)
value below how price (Liu, 2019)
satisfied were 8.Packaging price
Customer you with this 9.Price comparison
loyalty YTO’s between similar
perceived value. brands

Please rate 10.Recommendation
below how possibility
satisfied were 11.Price increase
you with this acceptance degree
YTO’s customer 12.Willingness to use
loyalty. for a long time

Thank you for your time and participation!

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Acknowledge

As a Chinese student of USM, looking back on my study and life in the past
year, although I didn't feel the scorching sun and strong durian smell from
Malaysia, I deeply felt the culture and enthusiasm of Malaysia and the
guidance and help from professors and classmates. The master's course and
the completion of this thesis are inseparable from the help of professors and
classmates.
First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Suriati Saad. In the process
of writing my thesis, she constantly guided me, made clear the writing direction,
helped me broaden my thinking, and patiently guided and helped me with
various problems in the writing process. Secondly, I want to thank Dr. Izzal
Asnira Zolkepli. In the process of writing the thesis, she also gave me patient
guidance and put forward many valuable opinions and suggestions. Then I
would like to thank my classmates, who have helped me in all aspects of my
study and life. Finally, I want to thank my family. It is my parents' infinite love
and support that I devote myself to academic research.
IMC project is of great help to my studies and work. I will continue to learn the
knowledge of this field in my future life. Due to my lack of knowledge and
language, this thesis may still need to be improved. I hope professors can give
me valuable advice and guidance to help me make further progress. Finally, I
hope I will have the opportunity in the future to visit Malaysia to see the
scenery, eat delicious food and, most importantly, visit you in Malaysia. Terima
kasih !

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