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Lisa Hronek Posts Tagged ‘print advertising’
All American Express corporate cards go paperless
A green revolution is underway in the credit card space and American Express is leading the way.
In February, American Express notified corporate cardholders that it was moving exclusively to online statements. The environmental benefits of paperless statements go without saying. Less paper, less waste.
But as American Express touts the “green factor” of paperless billing, it stresses—perhaps more important to corporate customers—that online account management provides increased security against identity theft and unauthorized card usage, as well as providing tools that enhance responsible credit usage and simplify tax preparation and accounting.
Personal and small business cardholders still have the option to receive paper statements through the mail. But as the company increasingly stresses its dedication to data security, fraud prevention, building respect for the environment and reducing its carbon footprint, how much longer might American Express customers continue to have a paper option?
Vanguard marketing campaign creates verb with “Vanguarding”
Vanguard launched a new advertising campaign last week encouraging investors to “stop just investing and start Vanguarding.” The company began the marketing campaign by running ads on the front page of each section of The New York Times Monday, March 15 and a full page ad in section A, page five.
A key component of the launch was tying the message of the ad with the content of the media. An ad on the front page of the paper stated, “Reading only the front page is just investing. Getting the whole story is Vanguarding.” The ad on the front page of the arts section read, “Going with the latest fad is just investing. Choosing a timeless style is Vanguarding.”
Vanguard’s marketing campaign takes a cue from companies like Bing and Google, who have sought to create verbs out of their names. The campaign seeks to return to the basics of investing and in doing so uses an old-fashioned approach—turning a company name into a verb.
Why this approach? Vanguard stated that with competitors’ increased advertising, it couldn’t take a “me too” approach. Vanguard wants to establish its way of investing as the best way—following sound principles, investing at-cost and partnering with a client-owned firm.
A digital component is also part of the campaign, with advertising placements on websites such as CNN Money and Yahoo Finance. Half of Vanguard’s advertising budget will be allocated to the digital space, compared to 30-40% in the past.
This new campaign is a great approach for the company and will definitely help differentiate it from competitors. However, since this campaign is different from Vanguard’s past approach, it will have to prove very successful in order to continue.
Q&A from “Insurance Communication: Moving Into Tomorrow”
Thank you to everyone who attended my webinar on February 25, 2010 about the future of insurance communication and marketing. I hope you found the information useful and relevant to your business, and please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions or comments.
If you missed the live webinar but would like to view the slides or a recorded version of the presentation, click here.
We received many interesting and thought-provoking questions, which I’d like to answer here for you:
Do you think advertising iPhone apps in direct mail would be useful?
Absolutely! I think advertising apps in direct mail, in print ads, on websites and on TV is the best way to market them. The key is to get people connected. Why build an app and just hope people will find it? Make them find it. Then, after people check out an app once, marketers should give them reasons to check back. Use online events, announcements, advice, anything that you can to grow the bond between your market, your brand and your customers.
How should a company respond to criticisms of its products or service that it finds on a social media website?
First, don’t be defensive. Find a positive way to frame the situation. Accept what is being said, then start to manage the issue. Most customer complaints come from the frustration of a customer feeling he or she is not being heard. A response directly to the customer is often a surprise, going above expectations. This can mellow a situation quickly and often favorably change the customer’s opinion.
You mentioned high unemployment rate leading to consumers seeking their own insurance. Which companies are targeting consumers best? Aetna?
Aetna is a good company. So are the Blues, United Healthcare, Wellpoint, Humana and Kaiser Permanente, to name just the ones that come immediately to mind. It is difficult to target the unemployed. Most companies use aggregators who email people comparisons of health insurance rates. Insurers are also putting more information on their websites to educate consumers on how to make a choice.
Why do you think auto insurance mailings were down? Are other channels more attractive?
I don’t think this was a trade-off from one channel to another. With the economy weighing down on marketing budgets, cost control could have played a role in the slight decrease in direct mail. Given that life and health insurance mail increased, I feel confident insurers will continue to use direct mail as a primary marketing medium.
Can you shed some light pertaining to health insurance. What are the recent trends? Are consumer driven products here to stay?
With healthcare reform still up in the air, it’s difficult to determine where individual health policies are going. For instance, I’ve heard health savings accounts discussed as nearly extinct, but I’ve also heard them talked about as an integral part of healthcare reform. The future is still unclear.
What is happening now is that health insurers are finding more individuals looking for policies for the first time. These are people who don’t know how to shop for health insurance, so they need to be educated about their choices and how to evaluate their own needs. This is an opportunity for companies to become trusted advisors.
How would you recommend companies start using social media to communicate? Which network is most important if you only have the resource to do one?
If I had to choose one, it would be Facebook, because it is the largest. And I would not be afraid of the size. Social media is still a developing environment, it is better to get in and learn how it works and its advantages now with everyone else. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself behind the curve trying to catch up.
Direct mail was still important in 2009, but what do you see looking 5 years out?
Direct mail will be important for how insurers market products for a long time. Life and health insurance direct mail has increased since 2008. While there was a small decrease in P&C, auto and homeowners mail in 2009, this was more likely due to budget constraints than to a long-term change in strategy.
What I would like to see is an increased use of mail to build a brand, to become more integrated with other marketing channels. It can be so much more than price promotions.
2010 Financial Services Trends – get the slides here
We had a successful webinar yesterday; thanks to all who attended! Sorry about the sound difficulties at the beginning of the webinar.
Those of you who tuned in submitted tons of great questions about our financial services trend forecasts for this coming year. I’m crafting answers today and this weekend, so I hope to have them up on the blog by Monday. Please of course, feel free to use the comments field here if you’d like to submit more questions about our predictions.
In the meantime, Mintel Comperemedia’s fabulous marketing team has created a link to the webinar recording. You can either listen to it again (or for the first time if you missed it yesterday!) or you can download the slides to peruse at your own leisure. Click here to do so.