FedEx announced that they will be printing 25 black-and-white resumes for free on March 10, 2009 for the beleaguered unemployed masses of the US economy. A genius marketing idea in the recent economic recession! Not only are they receiving tons of free press due to their generosity, they are also getting professional customers into their stores around the country. However, will the cost of printing free resumes result in a positive addition to the bottom line? That is yet to be determined. Let’s try and get inside the heads of the marketing minds behind FedEx’s bold move.

FedEx Office – Marketing Analysis

• With unemployment nearing 10% in many urban areas, millions are searching for work and need resumes.
• FedEx is re-branding their formerly-FedEx-Kinko’s operations as FedEx Office and need press coverage to announce this.
• The cost of printing 25 resumes is estimated by this blogger (who works in the printing industry) to be between $1 and $3. This is based purely on speculation.
• FedEx has successfully branded it’s resume printing service and raised consumer awareness of their services.

Looking at these 4 points, this blogger would postulate that FedEx has created a genius marketing strategy. Although the cost of this marekting may not be paid off until the economy is able to rebound from this recession, the plausible expectations of future sales seems to justify such an expense.

Please take a moment to compare the poster printing prices of Digital Room and FedEx Office.