Mention 'branding,' and people generally think in terms of company names. Or they think of burned flesh on cattle. Aside from the cattle, Webster defines 'brand' as 'a class of goods identified as the product of a single firm or manufacturer.' What’s your class of goods, and how can you distinguish, or brand, it?
As middlemen, too many agencies think of branding as the domain of the company that provides the products they sell. This may be true if you’re a captive agent, but it’s definitely not the case for the independent agency that represents many brands. You may sell Safeco’s brand of products, or The Hartford’s, but what’s your brand? Who are you? How can you burn that imprint into the minds of your clients and prospects?
Branding for the independent insurance agency has a number of components that must work together: your market(s), your ancillary profit centers (financial services, for example), your agency positioning (uniqueness), and often, your clientele (association marketing).
Numerous agencies, particularly niche players, fall into the product, or market, trap. They brand themselves based on what they sell, not what they offer. Your product isn’t your uniqueness, especially in the insurance industry, where competition can surface overnight. You are your uniqueness! But how can you quantify that and translate it into branding?
Another problem, generic to all businesses, is that we think we know what’s important to our customers. Quite frequently, we’re wrong. Therefore, the first step in developing a brand is to find out why your best clients do business with you. You have to discover what makes them give you their money, then build your brand on what they say are the crucial factors.
If they say 'trust,' ask why. Did you earn it with special expertise in their business? Did you position yourself as a trusted advisor? Is it because you provide risk management assistance? Did you save them money over a prior agent or broker? You need to know the specifics.
If they say 'service' (as you often do), ask them to specifically define the good service that impresses them. Is it your claims processing assistance? Is it because you’re available when they need you? Is it because you return their phone calls? Is it because of the caliber of your staff? Is it because you have the technology to meet their needs faster through the electronic world? You need to know the specifics.
The third challenge is (or should be) the awareness of the many services and products you can provide. The independent agency system has to break out of the P/C mold. Clients want more, and you should be giving more as the industry moves into full financial services. You have to package your agency as a full-service, multifaceted financial partner to your clients. If you can’t do that, you may not be around to worry about branding.
Once you discover and determine the base points on which to solidify your branding, you have three critical tasks:
- Meet or exceed all expectations your branding creates. Truth in marketing, verified by performance, is the cornerstone of your future success.
- Create a template for your brand. Every message, every marketing exposure, every advertisement should be captured within the template.
- Your brand must be 'alive.' Nothing is static in life. Your brand, like life, must be in a continual process of renewal.
When I was a child, our insurance agent used to visit monthly to collect premiums from my parents. He was more than an insurance salesman; he was a friend, a consultant, and an advisor. In arranging finances for my college education, they sought out his guidance. And when I needed insurance for life, home, car, or health, I automatically went to him.
In today’s hectic and harried world, we have to recreate that kind of old-fashioned brand. We have to position ourselves to be known as the first string for anything related to our clients’ financial well-being. This means we have to use that brand template in dispersing our message — through every traditional medium, from the phone to snail mail, through every new medium from the Internet to e-mail — and be ready to use every medium that emerges. It’s a lot of work, but the results will begin almost immediately as you create a singular brand identity for your agency that will create top-of-mind positioning among your clients as their total financial resource.