Hello to all,

I am starting an new Property & Casualty Insurance Agency on 11/1. The name of my Agency will be MVP Insurance Group. I am currently working with a local marketing consultant on my brand identity. I'm still a little confused on a few things and was looking for some addt'l help. A good friend of mine highly recommended this site and I must say I'm quite impressed. So here I am.

I need help on a few lingering issues that need to be worked out. I would appreciate your "valued" input.

The Overall marketing message (tagline) for MVP was agreed as : "Our Most Valued Person is You" . Trying to differentiate from the MVP player analogy and focus more on the person aspect. I know you don't know the whole story behind MVP, but my initials stand for MVP and I wanted to focus on the person more than the sports analogy of the player. I could have either chosen a tagline not stating what MVP means or making sure that you know that MVP is the "Most Valued Person".

People want to be treated special and feel good about who they are dealing with that level of trust.

The awareness I am trying to create is that the customer does matter very much, they need attention, they need to feel like they are special, and yes they are the most valued person in many ways.

Like anything else in life, some people will like the concept and some will not. Besides the MVP standing for my initials, I am focusing on the person and adding value.

I hope you see where I'm going here vs. the feeling that I'm just using MVP as the typical MVP in the sports world.


The Client Care Campaign was : "Making you Family"

I have to narrow down the decision to have the following as my Most Valued Promise and being categorized as # 1 in an area that I can be, due to just being a start-up and not in business yet, but yet being believable.

Choices narrowed down to:

1) The # 1 agency choice in a Whole New league. Where YOU are the MVP (Most Valued Person).
I kind of liked this, but wasn't sure if it would put me back to the sports analogy, which may not be such a bad thing??

2) We're #1 at treating you like family. As part of our family, your insurance needs are as important to us as they are to you.- this is what the marketing consultant liked, due to the concepts about caring,nurturing,recognizing, tlc,etc. They really liked the idea that I would be the guy that would treat my clients like family and state it all the time. They feel I can pull this off due to the research that has come back on my surveys and what I need to do to "Wow" my customer base, that the majority are not doing.

3) We're #1 at honoring you with MVP service or something similar. The main concept here was to state how different MVP service would be than other competitors and always show a 10 step point process that shows what MVP Insurance Group does all the time. Question to the consumer: Does your agent do this? Give the specific steps all the time.

4) The #1 agency where YOU are in the Winners Circle"- (the insurance group that puts me first)

5) The #1 insurance group that gives me TLC!

Important questions to YOU:

If I use the Whole New League theme, won't the MVP theme go back to the player vs. the person?

Won't the message go back to the sports theme and take away from the meaning of the Most Valued Person?

Is there anyway you could see the "treating like family" theme working for me in some capacity. A good hook I was going to use was: It's not just how you're covered, it's how you're treated!

Color schemes to be decided:

Red/white
Red/Black
Violet/Blue
Black/Gold

Yellow?? Green??

Any recommendations on color? It seems that most insurance companies are blue. The violet and blue together were not that bad and looked different. I can still look at hundreds of colors, but this is what they recommended to start.

I appreciate any suggestions/recommendations Then the marketing campaigns start!

Thank you for everything.

Personally, I think you're on the right track, but I would of liked to have seen you back up all the cheap talk with something of substance. WHY is the customer #1? WHY are you the best insurance company in the area? WHAT makes you different from GEICO, State Farm, Allstate, etc. I'm sure there are differences between you and these companies, but as a consumer, I won't know until you tell me.

Fire your marketing consultant. They're focusing on the details and ignoring the big picture. Who cares about what your color coordination is, or trying to distance the MVP phrase away from sports, or whether the 'treating the family' angle works. The insurance market is very saturated and you need new policy holder's filling in the blank of: "I will purchase my policy from MVP instead of all the guys I see on TV because

hehe mi4johns wants to fire everybody but thats another story. hi mi4

Colour is very important. Your corporate image or brand identity is what most people will recognise above most other things even tag lines.

The reason why most insurance companies incorporate blue or purple, blue is a color that communicates elegance and quality. Purple signifies royalty, luxury and wealth so your marketing guy is probably on the money

An article will explain more on colours and what humans are programmed to associate them with is www.coedesign.com.au/colourarticle.html

Dont take the choosing of colours lightly. If you believe colour choice doesnt make a difference to your brand identity just ask the guy's from Coke, Mcdonalds, KFC and stack of others.

I was actually thinking when I first read this about what else to say with the "treat you like family" angle.

The problem with this is, it seems like everyone says this. It seems to be a popular marketing angle, that, and lower prices.

I would not direct people in any way to pricing (you didn't seem to be heading in that direction, just wanted to emphasize). The reason? All of the big "buy direct" insurance companies focus solely on price.

I know in our area, we have a great deal of independent insurance agencies as well. Why do people buy from one over another? That is the question that ou need to answer.

Advertising is to accomplish one of two possible purposes. To make the customer do something, or to make them believe something. Your objective seems to be to make the customer believe that they will be treated like family at your agency.

How will that happen? Sit down, with other people, your marketing company, or anyone else that you can get to come in on a brainstorming session, and come up with ideas about how you can make the customer seem like family. Write down every idea, none are too crazy or out there. Do not judge ideas at that time, but save that for later.

When you are done, come up with six different ways that your company will make the customer feel like family, or, like the most valuable person. Design you campaign around the specifics of those ways. Then, perhaps you will be saying something other than "we treat you like family", which, quite honestly, sounds cliche with everyone else saying it. You will be telling the customer HOW you treat them like family, which will resonate much clearer.

Branding campaigns take time and money, compared to a simple, "buy from us because we are cheaper" message. But, if you work on a directed approach, you should be able to answer that question, "Why should I buy from you?"

You guys are great! I appreciate the quick repsonse back on this and your "valued" input. As mi4johns stated from a cunsumers perspective, " I will purchase my policy from MVP instead of all the other guys I see on TV because I matter and Mike always makes me feel like an MVP (Most Valued Person). Mike is also the MVP of my financial team who always is there for me. They're the #1 agency in a Whole NEW League. What is that league? Consumers that need to know there are alternatives; consumers that are seeking a group that prides service, not just the signing of the contract; consumers that do not want to just get a drip-marketing campaign every few weeks to tell them they could buy something new; a consumer that answers the telephone and hears..."Hi, Tom. This is Mike, just wanted to ask you if there was anything I could do for you? Or, hey Anne, I saw that you won an award from your business club, congratulations...followed up by a card....There IS a new league in insurance offerings, and their best rookie in the draft is MVP Insurance....I'm not saying that I'm #1 in my industry, my city, or even on my block.

So I guess I feel good about honoring the customer as an MVP!

The issue on the tagline:

Do I use:
"Our Most Valued Person is YOU"- this is my gut feeling right now.
"Because YOU matter"
"Protection in a Whole NEW League"
"Protecting what YOU value"

I think your gut is right. I like the first tagline. I also suggest keeping it as simple as possible because you never know where your business will take you. Here's a good article on Branding Strategies. It is a short, broad overview on the importance of branding (which I think you already understand) and the new wave of branding which includes the internet.

Hope this helps and I'm curious to see what you end up going with and how it works out. Don't be afraid to ask for suggestions from your clients.

Thanks for your insight on this.

Just when I thought I had this narrowed down, my marketing consultant suggested a few more taglines to think about, due to how passionate I am about my my ideas.

This was there latest recommendations for taglines because they wanted an action verb to start everthing. Looking for what my verb is, what my cause is with this. I know you know what I'm trying to do in putting the customer first.

MVP Insurance Group

Our Most Valued Person is YOU
Where YOU are the Most Valued Person
Keeping you empowered...Protecting what matters most.
For Peace-of-Mind...a Value on it's own.[/b]
Empowering YOU in a Whole New League
Empowering YOU as the Most Valued Person
Empowering YOU...Protecting your future.
Empowering YOU on our team.
Empowering YOU.....because YOU matter.
Because YOU matter.