The last couple of years have been incredibly hard for children and young people. Living through COVID has caused feelings of anxiety, fear and hopelessness in many children; and the cost of living crisis is now pushing even more families into hardship, which is making fundraising for the BBC’s Children in Need more important than ever.

Children in Need fund the grassroots organisations and project workers that provide the vital relationships children need to help them navigate challenges in their lives; supporting, inspiring and championing them to ensure they have opportunities to reach their goals.

The Children in Need SPOTacular appeal inspires communities to come together every November, to raise funds and show support. And once again Metro continues to actively participate. 

Children in Need support thousands of charities and projects in every corner of the UK, that support children and young people to feel and be safer, have improved mental health and wellbeing. 

Good mental health and wellbeing is important for everyone and it is increasingly common to see ‘therapy animals’ being brought into the corporate workplace, where they make employees feel less stressed and more productive.

Eclipse House, our global HQ, recently welcomed a trio of very unusual visitors, who spread plenty of goodwill, cheered up the Metro team members that came out to greet them and boosted our fund-raising efforts.

The alpaca is a species of South American mammal, that is similar to, and often confused with, the llama. However, alpacas are noticeably smaller than llamas and these friendly, inquisitive animals are considered very therapeutic, charming everyone with their gentle nature and big enthralling eyes. Much like the Metro team that take care of your global freight movements 🙂

You can donate HERE

In crowded markets companies can start to look the same, but in these cluttered conditions, those that identify their unique selling proposition (USP) have the opportunity to be different - to differentiate - and stand out from the pack.

International transport is often perceived to be a commodity and freight forwarders may appear to be the same, or offering the same product. Without differentiation, prospective, and sometimes current, customers don’t know how they differ, what their services really are and which one is right for them. 

Being clear about our differentiating factors and unique selling propositions helps customers understand what we do well and the choices most relevant to them. 

An audit of the Metro business identified 135 differentiating and expertise factors across a total of 30 categories, covering everything from our new automotive department to artificial intelligence.

Metro is a big business, with a wide range of services, verticals, technology, business units, customer service, resources and social governance, so it is unsurprising that the audit should uncover so many strengths. We don’t just move freight, but have a plethora of other platforms, services and solutions that add value throughout supply chains and quite often beyond.

The ‘long list’ of differentiating factors will be invaluable when communicating the capability and benefits of specific Metro features, but it’s real value will be realised by distilling it down to Metro’s ‘core USPs’ - the values that match our customers’ priorities, needs and wants.

This distillation of core values and USPs will demonstrate how Metro stand apart from our competitors - our positioning - ensure that our branding still reflects those characteristics and provide the foundation for our marketing and messaging.

You can download and review our ‘long list’ of differentiating factors by clicking HERE. We recommend that you do - it could be enlightening.

We would welcome and invite your comments on the differentiating factors, which matter most and why, (do any not matter?) and just as importantly any factors that we may have missed – please EMAIL our managing director, Grant Liddell, or any of your team to discuss further. We are keen to share and provide more to you in the future.