Our global brand
The creation of a single global brand is a key part of delivering ‘one Aviva, twice the value’ and the implications go far beyond changing the name on our brochures or signs. We know that if we are to achieve our objective of being our customers’ most recommended brand we will be judged by what we do, not what we say.
So at the heart of moving to a global brand is our commitment to creating a strong, unified business that understands what our customers need and is organised in a way that can deliver consistently. This means using our resources and expertise from across Aviva to create ways of delivering prosperity and peace of mind for all our customers, wherever they are around the globe.
Why we’re changing
Aviva – already an established and respected brand
Customers in 21 markets across the world already know us as Aviva. We’re market leaders in everything from bancassurance in Europe and Asia, to Fixed Indexed Annuities in the USA. And in 2008, our fund management operations around the world came together to form one single, global business, Aviva Investors. We have also traded as Aviva plc since 2001.
More impact with customers
The creation of a single brand globally will mean we will be able to improve the effectiveness of our marketing spend across our businesses. This means achieving greater impact for less spend and be better placed to more effectively compete with other strong global brands, such as Axa and Aegon.
In addition, our commercial partners, shareholders, regulators and customers, as well as our people, operate increasingly across national and cultural boundaries that once separated us. Through ensuring that Aviva operates in a consistent and integrated way across our markets will make it easier for people to do business with us.
Creating opportunities
A strong global brand helps us to open doors as we enter new markets and secure new business partnerships. This is about doing things once and doing things right by utilising the best expertise from wherever it is across Aviva and applying it once for all our markets. This also means that good ideas – whether for improved service, new products or better ways of doing things – are shared across all parts of the business.
Our people acting as a global team not only means ensuring we leverage our scale, expertise and ideas more effectively but it also opens up more opportunities for our people to develop and grow.
RAC and Delta Lloyd
Two major brands will remain unchanged: RAC in the UK is a leader in a specialist market with very high levels of trust and recognition among its members that are specific to its roadside recovery heritage. In the Benelux countries, Delta Lloyd’s governance means that it operates more independently than our other businesses and so will not take part in the change.
Why now?
Our start point was to ensure we had a real understanding of what our customers want from us across the globe so that we could build the brand around meeting their needs. Throughout 2008 we never stopped listening to our customers. They told us (in fact 3/4 of customers) that it was the products and service they received that matters most. To that end we created our brand promise of ‘no one recognises you like Aviva’ as across the globe customers expressed a strong need to be recognised for who they are, their situation and their needs. Alongside this work, we also developed detailed plans to enable us to manage the name change in those markets that are yet to become Aviva. Although the current market conditions are tough we took the decision to proceed with our plans. We are a long term business and our growth will be achieved more successfully by making the investment in our global brand. As a business we are in a sound capital position so what better time to make the investment when we can benefit from the significant reduction in media costs and greater impact for those remaining advertisers operating in a less cluttered market. Further, it is well documented that those brands that continue to maintain their profile in downturns significantly outperform their rivals when markets recover.
How we will make the name change
We are managing the change of name in a careful, considered way appropriate for each market and it will take two years to complete in full. Our asset management business completed the change to Aviva Investors in September 2008. And at the end of the year we began to communicate the planned change of Norwich Union to Aviva in the UK, which will complete in June this year. Poland and Ireland have also started their name change process, moving to Commercial Union Aviva and Hibernian Aviva respectively as an initial step before adopting fully the Aviva name.
Recognising our customers
Throughout the name change our key priority is to ensure we keep our customers, corporate partners and brokers in all these markets well informed. Moving to Aviva creates an opportunity to give our customers a clear sense of our scale and financial strength and of how they will benefit in the future. But it is also an opportunity to remind them how central we know they are to the continued success of our business.
What the change will mean…
…to our customers
Our business has its roots in the 300 year old heritage of Norwich Union, Commercial Union and General Accident and we have built our business on helping and supporting our customers, protecting their goods, properties and their families and providing for their futures. We are just as committed now as we have always been. Through the creation of a single global brand we will be better placed to ensure we are using all our resources from across Aviva, in the most effective way, to improve service and develop products that better meet our customers’ needs.
…to our shareholders and investors
This also makes good economic sense: we will be able to remove duplication across a wide range of activities and remove costs from the business, to the benefit of our shareholders and investors. We plan to recoup the cost of the name change in two years and then to deliver significant benefits.
…to our employees
We make the same promise to our employees as we do to our customers. We respect and value our colleagues and recognise the contribution they make towards meeting the needs of our customers.
Recognising the needs of our customers
Our customers are at the heart of what we do, we understand that they want to be recognised and treated as individuals.
Case Study
“How do the benefits warrant the costs?”
Commercial benefits
In the UK we used detailed modelling to increase the efficiency of our media spend. The initial stage of building awareness of Norwich Union moving to Aviva has delivered well against the targets set, putting us ahead of our plan. Acting as a single brand we have been able to minimise the cost of producing high profile, high impact advertising by sharing work across markets.
Case Study
“Who are Aviva, and what do they stand for?”
UK councils
During 2008 we created advisory councils formed of customers and commercial partners around the UK, in addition to our existing customer research programmes. These councils provided us with a real understanding of what the brand change would mean for them and how we could best communicate the change.
We also consulted the councils on the impact of the credit crunch and onset of recession which informed our final communications plans. We will continue to work with customer councils to help inform future product and service developments – and of course we share the learnings from the councils with colleagues across our markets too.