When Reality Meets Marketing - A Cautionary Tale

In his speech to this yearamp8217s MRG Conference Phil Smith DG of the UK advertiser association ISBA made the point that advertising isnamp8217t quite as powerful a force as its creators like to thinkPhil quoted my old mentor Simon Broadbent who said amp8216Advertising is to the chagrin of many advertisers rather a weak force whose effects are often hard to seeamp8217Even the best advertising struggles against the headwind generated by a poor consumer experience The work of MESH and the IPA to stress the power of total brand experiences including owned media channels is timelyToo many business leaders donamp8217t join the dots They assume that the act of communicating certain values via glossy ads somehow absolves them from the responsibility of living those values every dayDirect Line car insurance is one of the UKamp8217s better known marketing success storiesFrom the iconic red telephone to more recent commercials featuring Winston Wolfe the companyamp8217s ads are wellcrafted and wellknownFurthermore they have been at the forefront of paid media effectiveness analytics championed by Sam TaylorBut inevitably real life and marketing promises collide and so at this point Iamp8217m going to revert to a personal tale of a man his wife and their insurance companyMy wife and I both have a car For convenience we use the same insurance companyA few years ago the company we both insured with was acquired by Direct Line Group We didnamp8217t notice amp8211 until the price of our policies went up lotsWe decided to move to a small company called By Miles who track the miles you drive and in part charge by the miles driven neither of us does many milesBy Miles was a disruptor They did things differently to my earlier insurers For one thing they answered queries They had a handy app to record the miles driven They were friendly and didnamp8217t use chatbots They were rather fun if an insurance company can be funThey talked on their site of their values amp8211 or virtuesThen By Miles was acquired by Direct Line Group All will continue as before we were toldNot quite Talk of virtues seemed to vanish for a startThen By Miles informed me that they could no longer insure my car a yearold hybrid bought new with a factory fitted immobiliser an added tracker and a bright yellow steering wheel lockNothing had changed at my end Iamp8217m in the same house I havenamp8217t added any new drivers I havenamp8217t had any convictions nor any accidents Iamp8217ve not made a claimSo why was my cover cancelled with three weeksamp8217 notice Noone seemed to know beyond blaming anonymous underwriters and hiding behind the amp8216weamp8217re only a small companyamp8217 schtick which given the Direct Line acquisition isnamp8217t even trueAs a consumer my relationship is with the insurance company If a third party like an underwriter decides not to cover a make or model I feel their concerns should be explained to those impacted or even made public in the interest of encouraging hardertosteal or safer carsMy enforced search threw up about 100 companies prepared to insure my car Itamp8217s clearly not that weird The only ones I found that refused me were Direct Line Group companiesNaturally nobody has to do business with anyone Any company has to consider multiple risk factors but I would contend that this is when good communication minimises brand harm Iamp8217m sure anonymous underwriters couldnamp8217t care less about such things but consumerfacing businesses like insurance companies shouldWe decided to cancel my wifeamp8217s By Miles policy and explain why itamp8217s just easier to deal with one company This certainly caused a reaction primarily of surprise Why would I do such a thingI wrote personal emails to the leadership team at Direct Line Group asking them to explain why I had been cancelled Maybe I shouldnamp8217t consider that marque of car againZero reply from anyone amp8211 not even those with amp8216Customer Relationsamp8217 in their job titleThe comparatively new By Miles CEO and CMO didnamp8217t bother replying eitherThe By Miles service team did forward my concern to their complaints team I was promised a response within 72 hours That was on November 20th and thereamp8217s been nothingDirect Line has spent years building their reputation through their marketing efforts It took minutes to destroy it certainly through the opaque underwriter system but also by not using their owned media channels well or indeed at allIamp8217m not arrogant enough to claim Iamp8217m any kind of influencer when it comes to which insurance company anyone should useBut I know I wonamp8217t be using any Direct Line brand again amp8211 however good their advertising and however much I admire Sam Tayloramp8217s workDirect Lineamp8217s 2022 Annual Report statesamp8220Our mission is to be brilliant for customers every day Our vision is to create a world where insurance is personal inclusive and a force for good Our purpose is to help people carry on with their lives giving them peace of mind now and in the futureamp8221It goes onamp8220The Groupamp8217s financial results fell below expectations in 2022amp8230amp8221Posted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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When Reality Meets Marketing - A Cautionary Tale

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Brian Jacobs

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