Norwich Union finds core brand essence

Friday 30th November 2007

Norwich Union has axed its strapline 'Quote me happy' in favour of 'We just make it easier' for its new £8m advertising campaign. The campaign which will air in the Autumn focuses on how the insurer aims to support consumers in "choosing, using and staying with Norwich Union".

The ad claims: "Sorry but we can't stop your bad luck striking and we can't protect you from the whims of mother nature. That's just the way it is. But we can make it easier to cope with whenever it happens." And the advert ends with the strapline: "We just make it easier".

At Strand Financial, we believe that by owning the word "easier" in customers' minds, Norwich Union will re-engineer its value proposition with a positive impact on their customer experience.

The new aligned approach follows research into customer perceptions and expectations of Norwich Union and its products. Norwich Union marketing director Crawford Davidson says: "These insights reflect the very essence of Norwich Union and will increasingly underpin our interaction at every stage of the customer journey".

Should Banks be more like Madonna?

Thursday 29th November 2007

Today, banks and their agencies are most intent on communicating stability. In the current climate, you actually have to engineer two vectors - one of stability and one of change - simultaneously. Madonna was a classic example. She engineered transformations. She was hot on trends as they break. If she stayed the same, people would move on. Banks can't stabilise or else they’ll disappear. Banks that effect change are the only ones that really get noticed in the marketplace. Much in the same way, Madonna does not ask her fans what she should do next; she has an idea and implements it. And then, when her fans have caught up with her, she invents again - without their help.

Treating Customers Fairly

Tuesday 27th November 2007

The FSA has announced December 2008 as the deadline by which firms must be able to demonstrate both to themselves and to the FSA that they are treating customers fairly. There is also an interim deadline of end of March 2008 for firms to have appropriate management information or measure in place to test whether they are treating their customers fairly.

Second Life Shaken by Investment Bank Collapse

Monday 26th November 2007

Ginko Financial, one of around 25 "virtual investment banks" in the virtual world, Second Life, has collapsed. This would seem rather innocuous were it not for the fact that the 200,000,000 Lindens that have been lost equates to a very real U.S. $750,000. Second Life residents are said to have invested their money with the bank over the course of its three and a half years of existence.
 
Linden Lab commented,  "We caution our residents to be wary of anyone offering extremely high interest rates at no risk, either in the real world or in Second Life - if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

Second Life now has 8.8 million residents worldwide. As a result of its huge US following, it has received the attention of serious clicks and mortar real-world banks.

Wells Fargo was the first real-world bank to join Second Life way back in 2005. It was followed by ABN Amro as the first European bank to take up a presence. In 2007 they were joined by BNP Paribas, Swiss bank BCV,  ING Bank with Our Virtual Holland  (ourvirtualholland.nl) and Saxo Bank has since announced its desire to become part of the virtual world.

It’s doesn’t seem like a game any more. I wonder if the banks with real-world reputations to protect feel so comfortable about the future prospects in Second Life, now there is trouble in paradise.

Customer Advantage, Not Merely Competitive Advantage

Friday 23rd November 2007

Over at Harvard Business Online, (link to http://conversationstarter.hbsp.com/2007/07/why_the_major_airlines_missed.html) I spotted a brief but interesting 'conversation starter' by Erich Joachimsthaler, entitled: ‘Why the Major Airlines Missed the All-Business-Class Innovation’. He contends that that if companies invested in a deeper analysis of customers’ needs and behaviours rather than becoming obsessed with their competitors they would, in Strand Financial terminology, create their own space. Erich concludes, “What matters is customer advantage, not merely competitive advantage”.

Companies that attempt differentiation or re-invention are clearly missing a trick if they expend their time and energies purely benchmarking their own performance against their competitors and neglecting what really matters to their customers.

Y Not?

Thursday 22nd November 2007

Is Generation Y being neglected by financial marketers?

It seems that way. According to the Economist, just 20% of fund-management firms in wealthy countries claim to be marketing actively to Generation Y, with only 28% aiming to take product to this market within five years. Although still relatively young, the “My Space” generation will shortly hit their twenties, and financial companies will need to be firmly on their radar.

The Generation Y target audience has a propensity to use debit cards, invest in shares and start pensions. The boomers’ babies look like a strong bet for the future and is a largely untapped market with which to become increasingly familiar.

Don't be too competitor obsessed

Wednesday 21st November 2007

I was talking to a CEO of a financial organisation last week, when he told me that there was merely the width of a credit card between his company and the nearest competitor. “To grow", wrote W.Chan Kim and René Mauborgne in “Think for Yourself — Stop Copying a Rival” (Financial Times),“companies need to break out of a vicious cycle of competitive benchmarking and imitation. Aiming to beat the competition has the opposite effect to the one intended. It keeps companies focused on the competition. When asked to build competitive advantages, managers typically rate themselves against competitors, assess what they do and strive to do it better.”

In 'A Unique Moment', Jesper Kunde said: “Companies have defined so much ‘best practice’ that they are now more or less identical.”

When I first read Funky Business by Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale one quote leapt out at me: “The ‘surplus society’ has a surplus of similar companies, employing similar people, with similar educational backgrounds, working in similar jobs, coming up with similar ideas, producing similar things, with similar prices and similar quality.”

Some senior executives of financial organisations may not feel entirely comfortable in this area, but the ability to break through the brand proliferation and communications clutter depends on creativity and imagination - precisely the reason why Strand Financial exists. We bridge the gap between banking and marketing mentalities by optimising the financial value that brands bring to the business.

Ask Me Another

Tuesday 20th November 2007

I was at a tube station today and saw an advertisement by the search engine ‘Ask’, which adopts their typical Information Revolution Soviet-dissident styling. Ok so far. But then I noticed something that made me see redder than their logo and that was the strap line which read: “The other search engine”.

Now, the AA claiming that they are “The 4th Emergency Service is valid – in fact the recovery service has heightened the significance of its proposition through comparison.  In my view, Ask look like they are struggling to compete and are spending millions in a token attempt to get users to consider them in addition to Google when they think of search. There is no compelling reason stated in the ad to get me to think of them, at all – other than the fact that I have a choice. That has to be just about the weakest differential marketing strategy I have ever seen. Ask may be a decent search engine but by looking like a wounded competitor they have completely failed to create their own space. At least an ad which said something along the lines of  “Forget Search Engines, Ask The Answers Engine” would have promised greater accuracy of natural search results as its principal differentiator, which is actually the only thing we are all looking for.

Banking Advertising gets Minority Report

Thursday 15th November 2007

Tickets now on sale for the launch event of 2008

Wednesday 14th November 2007

VIP Tickets for the launch of Financial Marketing TV are now on sale at just £295 + VAT. Prices include VIP Pass to Seminar, buffet and refreshments plus exclusive passworded access to the TV programming and speaker bonus materials.

Please note that we have just met with The Chartered Institute of Marketing and have negotiated a 25% Discount for Members of the Finance Group.

You can order your tickets now on http://www.financialmarketing.tv/. If you would like to be part of the studio audience at this ground-breaking event, make sure you act quickly - since numbers are strictly limited.

Keynote Speakers Announced for Financial Marketing TV Launch

Tuesday 13th November 2007

January 16th 2008 marks the launch of Financial Marketing TV, ­ an exciting new online business channel, designed specifically for the requirements of financial marketers. The channel will offer quality live programming - featuring insightful interviews, key note presentations and specialist resources.

Lord Rupert de Mauley introduces our four keynote speakers, where you will be the first to hear new concepts, models and case studies, and leave with new ideas and strategies to make more effective decisions for improving the profitability of your financial brands and your business.

Mike Symes, Strand Financial
Create Your Own Space ­ - A New Model for Financial Marketing

Phil Evans, TCF Index
TCF ­ A Source of Sustainable Competitive Advantage or Another Regulation Box to Tick?

Tim Lodge, Vision Critical
Vision Critical Financial Marketing