New Fedex exec: more women wanted in logistics
This story has been updated to reflect that Fedex expects the entire domestic package market to grow from 44 million shipments daily to 100 million in 2025.
The commercial unfolds like this: Employees literally blend into their unremarkable office surroundings like chameleons to avoid the ire of a boss loudly asking who made a shipment to Boston.
It turns out, he wanted to praise the one employee who didn’t blend in for making the shipment with Fedex.
So goes one of new Fedex Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Brie Carere’s favorite ads in her time with the Memphis logistics giant. Maybe it’s appropriate. Carere herself stands out from the rest of the Fedex executive leadership team, the one woman among its seven members, which includes founder and CEO Fred Smith.
Carere’s hands have been in several diversity initiatives while at Fedex, including a Women in Leadership community in Canada and taking charge in the Fedex U.S. Women in Leadership network. Growing opportunities for women is a passion for her, but she said she’s never felt Fedex brass has held her back because of gender.
“I can say I’ve always felt supported and had every opportunity to thrive at Fedex, despite having four young children and having to balance being a mom and working more than full time,” she said.
Fedex promoted Carere at the start of 2019 to oversee the company’s marketing efforts, product development, its booming e-commerce work and more. She took over for current Fedex Express CEO Raj Subramaniam, another step in her 17-year climb to a top spot in the company.
“I’ve seen firsthand the kind of inspiring and visionary leader (Carere) is at Fedex and within our industry, and I can think of no one better positioned to chart the future of the Fedex global marketing organization,” Subramaniam said.
Carere is charting Fedex’s marketing future in a much, much different environment than when that chameleonic television ad aired years ago — social media’s rise caused a tectonic shift in how to mold a brand.
“Our job as marketers is to engage our customers where they are, and of course that will continue to evolve at a pace that is only going to speed up,” Carere said. “That’s what makes our jobs fun. If everything stayed the same, our jobs would be pretty boring.”
Women aren’t flocking to transportation sector
Carere’s 17-plus-year Fedex career began in 2001 as part of its Canadian marketing department.
She has climbed the ranks since, filling roles such as director of marketing for Fedex Express Canada and a Memphis-based global marketing manager. Prior to her current gig, she was senior vice president of global portfolio marketing for Fedex Services.
“Brie has a wealth of global marketing experience, and she’s served in a number of critical roles throughout her 17 years at Fedex,” said David Bronczek, Fedex president and COO. “Brie’s passion and energy to go beyond for our customers and our team members make her well suited to lead our global marketing efforts.”
But Carere acknowledges selling more women on a logistics career is needed.
A study Fedex performed in Canada interviewed 1,000 women regarding the transportation industry. Only 11 percent were interested in jumping into the field, despite it touching upon e-commerce and myriad other sectors, Carere said.
“More disappointing is that more than 50 percent said they weren’t interested, but didn’t know a lot about it,” she said, adding Fedex has a "great opportunity" to bring more women into the transportation workforce.
Still, Carere said Fedex has an established record of putting women in topranking leadership positions, listing Fedex Express Canada President Lisa Lisson, Virginia Addicott, CEO of Fedex Custom Critical, and Karen Reddington, president of Fedex Express’ Asia-pacific division, among her examples. And now she’s among that class. “It’s a huge honor to have this role,” Carere said. “I think we have, quite frankly, the best commercial team in the world.”
Fedex targeting your heartstrings
Carere’s marketing team abides by three brand-building pillars in the social media era: emotional connection, authenticity and two-way dialogue.
The emotional connection is best displayed in Fedex’s "What We Deliver by Delivering" campaign, which rolled out in 2018. What’s inside a Fedex package could be a moment of joy, a source of inspiration or an act of kindness, a narrator in one of the ads gently notes.
“When we deliver an e-commerce package just in time for the holidays, we’re actually delivering joy,” Subramaniam said in a recent blog post about the campaign.
Customers wanted to hear not just about Fedex from a functional business perspective, but what exactly Fedex is contributing to on a grander scale: “delivering those experiences and those emotions to our customers,” Carere said. She thinks it’s some of Fedex’s best work, tapping into a younger generation that desires connectivity.
It’s also a 180-degree tonal flip from past Fedex campaigns, which include a wacky, caveman-crushing Super Bowl ad and a memorable spot decades ago on aiding time-crunched, fast-talking executives.
“We went from silly or sophisticated humor to really displaying and telling the story of what we deliver by delivering,” Carere said.
Max Garland covers Fedex, logistics and health care for The Commercial Appeal. Reach him at max.garland@commercialappeal.com or 901-529-2651 and on Twitter @Maxgarlandtypes.