UPS’ latest campaign (“We Love Logistics”) seems to have forgotten the #1 rule of marketing: consumers buy benefits, they don’t buy features – and they definitely don’t buy reasons-to-believe.

“We Love Logistics” says nothing about what UPS is going to deliver to their customers which is better service, on time delivery, reliability, confidence.  Granted, I understand their intent…to convince the consumer that UPS so loves logistics that they (the consumer) should inherently feel confident because they have a bunch of logistics geeks running around their organization.

But the reality is, anyone can say they love logistics.  What UPS fails to do is indicate via benefit communication how that love of a feature delivers benefits to the consumer.

Their last campaign (the white board campaign) very effectively communicated a passion for logistics (as the gentleman passionately drew images of UPS moving and delivering across the globe), but it also talked the value and benefit of using UPS’ services.

Simply loving something doesn’t mean you’re good at it.  In UPS’ case, I’m sure their love of logistics does mean better performance, which means happier customers, which means a greater sense of confidence in the brand.  But tell us that.  Too much “love of” and consumers will start saying: “Stop loving what you do…and start loving me and what I want.”

Finding agencies that understand how to use reasons-to-believe in a manner that reinforces the end benefit of a product’s or service’s offering is no easy task.  Careful analysis of their past work, challenges presented to them during an agency search, can all help in determining what kind of agency partner you’ll end up with when the engagement begins.