Question

Topic: Branding

How Do You Brand Your Product Which Is A Service?

Posted by george.stav on 7/20/2015 at 5:51 PM ET 250 Points
Hi Marketeers, I work for an Insurer in their Claims Department and am seeking innovative ways to brand our service. In the current soft market, the buyers tend to be more price sensitive and so it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate on service offering. Would welcome your insight.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by mgoodman on 7/20/2015 at 6:09 PM Accepted
    I have actually consulted on branding issues in your industry, and there are a couple of first steps you need to tackle before you get into implementation mode.

    The first is to really understand your customers (and your distribution channels) in depth. You need to learn what makes them tick at a deep level, what's important to them, and how they make decisions about what kind of insurance they buy and why. You even need to know what words they use when they discuss these sorts of things.

    Then you need to assess your product's fit with what your customers want to buy. Where are your strengths and weaknesses. I'd actually suggest a facilitated SWOT analysis with the direct hands-on involvement of your management team.

    If you need more, let me know using the email address in my profile. As indicated, I've been down this road before.
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 7/20/2015 at 6:12 PM Accepted
    If it's really "becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate on service offering" (and it most likely isn't), there's something wrong with the way you're looking at, and therefore deciding on and ultimately calculating the differentiators.

    Know this: the decision to buy SELDOM rests on an aspect of service. Forget about service. Forget about branding. Focus on crafting experiences and outcomes that in turn make the prospect's decision to accept the sale (as apart of the value chain) the best decision they can make.

    Do this often enough and consistently enough and the brand builds itself.
  • Posted by george.stav on 7/21/2015 at 8:15 AM Author
    Appreciate responses to date. Our client base is multinationals / commercial - no personal lines.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 7/21/2015 at 8:35 AM Accepted
    Can you give us some examples of what you see are innovative approaches that your competition is doing? And is the client right - that ultimately the only difference between offerings is price - or is there something about the purchase that the smart client knows that the rest don't?
  • Posted by george.stav on 7/21/2015 at 8:53 AM Author
    So our product is effectively a future promise to pay claims if and when they arise. To this end, reputation and trust are key. Insurance is unique in that, whilst the risk is priced, the actual cost of product i.e. loss activity in an unknown quantity. How do we sell our service to a prospect prior to a loss? Client testimonials can be effective as well as innovative IT platforms particularly in light of new, younger buyers who favour new forms of media to transact business. This lends itself to a new way of creating the customer experience. Against this background, our challenge is to promote our value proposition, for example, claims paying ability, speed to decision etc
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