Is transport undersold?

Abstract

“Is transport undersold?” is a rhetorical question; the answer is yes, according to John Harvey. When he gave the Presidential Address to the Transport and Distribution Group of the Institute of Marketing a few weeks ago, he delivered a withering attack on the transport industry as a whole. “Transport,” he said, “is underrated in terms of its national economic and social value and in terms of its user utility, having neglected to project or market its own worth. It is now belatedly doing so after decades of both government and corporate indifference.” “It is (also) an industry,” he continued, “whose failure to innovate, monitor and identify market trends and perceive its customers' needs has led to the industry's own clients becoming a major competitor through the growth of the ‘own account’ sector.” “It is an industry where its very industrial structure (outside the airlines and railways) reinforces the latent tendency for marketing myopia and reinforces the tradition of selling capacity on price and service and reacts to, rather than anticipates, customers' needs.” “Under the spur of recent events, it has embraced the trappings … of marketing with the enthusiasm of a discharged alcoholic let loose in a brewery.” “It is a sector of the economy whose participants are distinguished by operational excellence — but also by consistently poor financial performance and relatively low returns, whose problems have been compounded by the effect of the recession, falling prices and over‐capacity.” After delivering these sledgehammer blows, John Harvey set about an analytical examination of the transport industry. In particular he looked at the actual characteristics of the UK transport market in terms of structural organisation, inter‐modal competition, and financial performance. He reviewed some of the market forces which have reacted on the industry, highlighting one or two significant factors which should condition industrial marketing of transport; and finally he examined the process of product innovation and the difficulties of market research, and what this suggests for the most effective ways of selling and marketing “distribution” — a phrase deliberately chosen to encapsulate his own approach to transport marketing. But he did conclude on a hopeful note. “There is evidence,” he said, “that industrial marketing is improving and transport is being better sold because there is a wider perception of total distribution cost and trade‐off opportunity; because of competitive challenge; and there is consumer and technology‐led change. For reasons of space, this is a slightly abridged version of John Harvey's challenging address.

Citation

Harvey, J. (1984), "Is transport undersold?", Retail and Distribution Management, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 67-71. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb018233