United Problem Solvers

Read the campaign story

UPS announced United Problem Solvers in March 2015 with Ogilvy & Mather. The positioning expanded the familiar delivery association toward a broader business-services role. It invited customers to bring difficult logistics questions and foregrounded employee expertise. The campaign name also made the company’s initials carry a new meaning, giving an established brand a concise way to describe a wider offer.

The official release explains the intended repositioning and advertising programme. It does not demonstrate that the campaign improved customers’ cash flow or reduced their costs. Those were areas of potential service value, not measured campaign outcomes. This case concerns the problem-solving platform rather than the separate Your Wishes Delivered programme, whose emotional gifting mechanism is already represented elsewhere in the library.

Editorial interpretation: a service company can outgrow the category shorthand that made it famous. Customers may recognise the logo while remaining unaware of capabilities relevant to a new problem. Reinterpreting the initials creates a bridge from existing familiarity to expanded meaning. The move is useful only if the organisation can show specific examples and help interested customers reach the right expertise without unnecessary friction.

Editorial interpretation: an invitation to bring hard problems changes expectations at the point of response. The campaign creates demand for diagnosis, not just a price quote. A form, call centre or sales team designed only for standard transactions may fail to fulfil that promise. Before borrowing the positioning, map what happens to an unusual enquiry and who can decide whether the organisation is able to help. The enquiry itself can become research: recurring unanswered questions may reveal a gap in the service or its explanation, provided customer confidentiality is preserved.

Build the story around the customer’s unresolved question

Collect the actual questions customers ask when a standard service description is insufficient. Group them by the expertise needed to answer, not simply by the product the company wants to sell. This can reveal a more useful campaign structure and a better navigation system. A problem-led message should help customers recognise themselves without implying that the provider has already diagnosed their situation.

Show the diagnostic work as well as the solution

A polished success story often skips the questions, constraints and trade-offs that made the work valuable. Explain enough of that process to make expertise visible. Include what was ruled out and why, using permissioned or fictional details where necessary. This makes the story more credible and helps prospective customers understand what information they will need to provide for a meaningful conversation.

Prepare the response system before inviting complexity

Define how non-standard enquiries are routed, acknowledged and qualified. Give front-line staff a clear way to escalate rather than forcing them to improvise promises. Measure whether customers reach a relevant person, not only whether they submit a form. An ambitious service platform becomes credible through the first response, especially when the honest answer is that a request is outside the provider’s scope.

A small test for another brief

Proposed adaptation: publish three short, clearly bounded logistics problem stories and offer an optional diagnostic conversation for similar, non-sensitive business questions.

Measure whether enquiries are relevant, correctly routed and answered within the stated window. Ask customers whether the conversation clarified their options, including cases where no purchase follows.

Stop if the invitation generates promises the team cannot fulfil, enquiries are left unanswered or sales materials turn illustrative possibilities into guaranteed savings.

• Use permissioned examples or fictional scenarios with realistic constraints and no confidential shipment details.
• Define the enquiry scope, response owner and expected response time before promotion.
• Provide a simple checklist that helps customers describe the problem without uploading sensitive records.