EF Fall 07.indd - National Association of Professional Allstate ...

usiness tipsHow to SuccessfullyBrand Your AgencyBY BOB CORRYAs an Allstate agency owner, youhave some important choices to make interms of how you want to market youragency. Should you rely on the nationaladvertising and recognition of the “GoodHands” brand, or follow NAPAA’s leadand create your own brand awareness?Establishing your own brand and/orname recognition is akin to making yourown way in this world and is a smart,long term approach for your survival asa business owner. Even if you always stayin the insurance business, you might notalways represent Allstate. After all, justlook at what recently happened to theAllstate agents in Canada. Do you thinkthey might be motivated to start a businessthey can call their own?Either way you should always investin your own success. Your market share isnever static and whether it grows largeror shrinks is completely up to you. Thefollowing is an explanation of the theoriesand practices of creating a brandand how this can be accomplished in astraight forward and effective manner.In the mid-seventies, Al Ries and JackTrout wrote a series of articles for AdvertisingAge Magazine that heralded a new erain advertising. These articles made suchan impact that they were assembled andpublished as a book titled “Positioning-TheBattle for Your Mind.” The concept of positioninghas three factors: 1) you must positionyourself by addressing people’s “wantsand needs.” People need insurance and theywant the best policy and service for themoney. 2) Whatever you say about yourselfbetter be credible. Avis’s “We’re #2, we tryharder” campaign perfectly captured thisstrategy. 3) The quality of your messagemust be high enough to evoke a responsefrom the market place. You must get theaesthetics* in place. Amateurs should notbe allowed to experiment with your image.Someone once said that perception is 98%of reality. I think it might even be higher.To people, what they choose to think aboutyou IS reality. But you, with your advertisingdollars, can take that choice away andcreate the kind of perception that you wantthem to have. You must ask for people’sbusiness with professionalism while tellingthem about the “points of difference” yourbusiness offers.Step one in becoming a brand is logo.Think of the Golden Arches or the blueoval with the Ford script. Does anyone reallyneed to read the name of these businessesanymore when they see the shapeand color of those world famous logos?Your logo says a lot about you. Try cleanand bold. The same goes for your printadvertising. Short, sweet and to the pointwith consistent elements of aestheticallypleasing style. Keep the amount of copyto a minimum to avoid clutter, otherwisepeople will pass your ad by.It has been said that Coca Cola wouldgo out of business within six months ifthey stopped advertising. People do notneed this product…but they want thisproduct. That’s because the advertisingcreates the desire. “It’s the Real Thing”was a slogan that, without saying anythingnegative about the competition,made Coke the pinnacle of soft drinks inthe minds of the consumers. This is the basisfor all the “lifestyle advertising” that manycompanies run, and this approach bringsup a critical goal that advertising must addressif it is to be really successful.Advertising must tell people whoyou are, why you are better or differentthan the competition, and what is in itfor them to come see you rather that theother guy. More importantly, however,your advertising should create an emotionalresponse where people not onlyknow who you are, but they also have afeeling for who you are. If you can createan emotional attachment between yourbusiness and the market place you will nolonger be just a choice, you will be THEbrand name of your market segment and,as such, will have the power to influencechoice. Think about it…is there reallyanything better about a Rolex than a Timex?If anything, the Timex keeps bettertime, but oh, what a feeling (rememberToyota) when you put that puppy on!On the cover of the book, “Positioning…”by Ries and Trout is a subtitle,“How to be seen and heard in the overcrowdedmarketplace.” The authors said inthe book that we live in an over communicatedsociety (Remember, this was the1970s!) and that, as consumers, we havelearned to filter out commercial messagesso as not to be overwhelmed. How then,as an advertiser, are you going to get yourmessage out there in a way that will be received,remembered and acted on? Withtime compression, we are all constantlytaking quick snap shots of our worldaround us. The best that an advertiser, ora politician for that matter, can hope foris just a quick opening to exploit. Politicianscall it a “sound bite” and they hopethey can craft a short statement of whatmakes them a better choice to play on thesix o’clock news. In advertising we call ita “positioning statement” and more oftenthan not it is set to music.Commercial jingles were developedto set up a circuit in people’s heads togive the advertiser “top of mind awareness”.“If you’ve got the time, we’ve gotthe beer.” “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz…” “Whowears short shorts?” “Have it your way!”“Chow! Chow! Chow!” Everyone lovesmusic. And everyone can remember a56 — Exclusivefocus Fall 2007