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White Papers

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Jan
28
2015
Report Number:
RARC-WP-15-005
Report Type:
White Papers
Category: Retail, Sales & Marketing

The Value of the U.S. Postal Service Brand

RARC-WP-15-005 - 01/28/2015

A corporate brand is a mix of tangible and intangible elements, from a company's name and logo to expectations and attributes that consumers associate with a particular product or service. A certain car manufacturer, for example, may make people think of luxury and reliability. A particular retailer may immediately bring to mind everyday goods at low prices.

The U.S. Postal Service has a corporate brand, too. Its attributes include reliability, convenience, value, and tradition, among other things.

Brand valuation is a management tool increasingly used by successful firms to get the most financial benefit from their brands. But unlike many other businesses and organizations, the Postal Service has never conducted a formal brand valuation, which involves measuring the brand like any other asset and monitoring it over time, using a consistent methodology. The OIG worked with Premier Quantitative Consulting (PQC), experts in brand valuation, to estimate the value of the Postal Service’s brand using an accepted methodology with conservative assumptions.

Our white paper, The Value of the U.S. Postal Service Brand, details the extensive research and analysis as well as PQC’s methodology and model that produced an estimate of the Postal Service’s brand value at $3.6 billion. That is, the Postal Service can expect to realize $3.6 billion in future cash flows as a direct result of its brand. For example, if the U.S. Postal Service were largely unknown to the public, appearing to be just a generic delivery service, the organization would not realize the $3.6 billion in cash flows attributable to the brand over its lifetime, all else being equal.

The PQC white paper asserts that there is still untapped value in the Postal Service brand and suggests ways the Postal Service can enhance some of its brand attributes.