<http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jun2008/id2008069_075908.htm>.
Fedex acquired Kinko's in 2004 in a goal to provide services of printing, copying, and shipping. It
has 1200 stores of business services offerings. The design of the logo was made by Landor Associates to represent the wired technology of the store. However, Fedex changed its store brand name from Fedex Kinko's to Fedex Office for several reasons. The reasons were as follows:1) People generally have thought that Kinko's is a copier shop. However, services provided by the Fedex was not just a copier. Digital printing services, for example, is one of the services that Fedex provides.
2) The name Fedex Kinko's does not deliver a clear message of what the customers can do in this store. the Fedex Office provides more specific activities customers can do and acquire from.
3) In a research on consumer basis, it is widely known from its consumers of what exactly Fedex is offering services.
4) The Kinko's is named after the original founder Paul Orfalea for his curly hair, and the image of the brand does not go with the technologically advanced printing service of Fedex.
For these reasons above, the authority of Fedex recalled the Landors to change the brand design and its logo. This process finally created the new brand name, Fedex Office. According to Brian Collins, the chief creative officer of Collins, the word "office" is the place where work gets done, a laboratory to invent things, a place to go create. Fedex believes that the brand Fedex Office can have an impact on consumers to think in a way Collins thought.
Opinion
The target segments of Fedex are travelling professionals, branch medium for medium and large businesses, and small businesses. These parties or people share common needs which is why Fedex is offering services to meet their needs. And the services that Fedex is offering is a great idea because not all businesses or professionals can be equipped with thousand dollars worth of machines to produce results. There's gotta be a store like Fedex to meet the demands of those segments.
When I first saw the store named Fedex Kinko's, I've thought it was just an office related to Fedex. I've never thought that it was a store providing services to the people. Through the glass window, I could see is just bunch of copier machines and people working for something busily. Then when I've found out later that I can go there surf the internet, print something sophisticated images which needs good printers and photocopy good quality prints, I used to go there whenever I needed to print something with the expensive printer. The service was excellent in terms of prices of the service and the attentiveness of the store manager to the customers, however, I've wondered why it was named Kinko's. The name Kinko's really seemed awkward to my eyes because it sounded as another name for curly hair: Kinky hair. Now because I've learned about co-branding in our case study, I was able to detect that Fedex Kinko's a co-branded store.
Co-branding was done for the purpose of creating a synergy to the product by combining two brands. However, the name Fedex Kinko's doesn't seem to mean anything because it seems confusing. Fedex is known for deliverying packages, and Kinko's known for bookbinding and copying different materials. These two "seemed unrelated" business combined together made confusion to the people who do not really know the which service they are offering. I think they have done excellent jobs in creating another name for the store, Fedex Office. The word office suggests to the people of unlimited activities that can be done. Office even can create something out of nothing.
Through this example, I've learned that co-branding isn't always good and doesn't always make synergy to the product. Sometimes it will just make confusion to everyone. If the brands are unrelated to each other, then one of them has to be reversed so as to represent what the store or the company is doing.
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