4. Marketing

All that has been said about the technical components of a courier network is not enough to define a complete transport network. It is structured not only by a set of resources, but also by a commercial offer mobilizing technical resources. The network offer is an identical service offered throughout the geographical area covered by the network. It must have a content, an identity and a price. It is the role of network marketing to define its content.

Marketing appeared on the transport scene some twenty years ago. For a long time, operations, and eventually sales, took precedence over a prior, rational analysis of customer needs. The reasons for this inertia abound. In part, they have to do with the nature of service provision, an immaterial consumption that lends itself less than an object to the fixation of desires. They also have to do with the irresistible...