Advertising of Car Insurance Product at AAMI Insurance Company - Assignment Example

AAMI Insurance Car Insurance Executive Summary This report addresses important issues surrounding advertising of car insurance product at AAMI insurance company. The report identifies the unique selling points that can be used by the company to gain a competitive advantage as compared to its competitors. The uniqueness of the product and the special qualities offered by it offers a unique selling point for the company. The report gives a recommended strategy that can be used to successful advertising the care insurance product to the youth. Youth are technological savvy and using methods that are oriented towards this direct is important. Justification for the recommended strategy is also discussed. Reasons have been given to assert why the strategy is workable for the product. The look and feel of the campaign tailored towards the youth has been discussed. The recommended target audience, budget and timing give additional information of the marketing campaign of the product. The report winds up with a conclusion echoing important things that a successful campaign has to include. Table of contents Executive Summary 1 Table of contents 2 Introduction 3 AAMI Insurance USPs 3 Addressing current needs/ recommended strategy 5 Justification of the campaign 7 Look and feel of the campaign 8 The target audience 8 Budget and timing 9 Conclusion 10 References 10 Introduction AAMI insurance wants to reach out to young customers using the car insurance product. Applying is unique selling points will assist the company to captivate consumers more as compared to competitors in the industry. This report discusses the need for unique selling points and how the marketing campaign has to be handled in order to drive the correct message to the target audience. Recommendations are given on positioning, campaign message, budgeting and timing of the advertising campaign. The choice of the right advertising media is very important. AAMI Insurance USPs Unique Selling Points (USPs) are important to the survival of any business and enhance competitiveness. Unique Selling Points provide an advantage to the business over other competitors in the market selling the same product. Unique selling points could be intangible or tangible. Sophisticated machines that cannot be afforded by other competitors or unique practices that cannot be copied by other companies form part of unique selling points that set the company apart from its competitors in the same industry. Unique selling points make the business to standout as compared to its competitors in the same industry. The unique Selling Points have to be tailored towards meeting the needs of the consumers in the most appropriate way (Clow & Baack, 2007). A company has to have a distinguished characteristic that identifies its product in the market. Such characteristics would include reliability, efficiency, affordability, high quality, and user friendly. Being a large insurance firm, AAMI Insurance has advantages that can be translated into unique selling points as compared to the competitors. Every advertising campaign has to target a particular clientele. The advertisement has to utilize these unique selling points towards reaching out to target customers. AAMI Insurance has a large customer base consisting of above 2.5 million policy holders in all types of insurance. This assortment of insurance is one advantage to the company since it can provide variety through a range of products. Differentiation can be used as a unique selling point since a customer is assured of getting what he wants at AAMI Insurance. USPs will determine the manner in which a business positions itself in the market. A company cannot purport to present what is not able to deliver to the customer (Gregory, 2010). Therefore, AAMI Insurance has to understand its customer and offer products that will satisfy the needs of the customers. It is crucial to point out what make a business different from others in the same industry. The fact that AAMI won the insurer of the year award in 2011/2012 period makes it a unique selling point since they can market themselves as best providers of insurance service. Target consumers will be encouraged to buy insurance products of the company since it is considered as one of the best in the country. The car insurance product can compete in the market on the basis of being the best quality because the company is ranked one of the best. High quality can be a unique selling point since it represents reliability, authenticity, efficiency, and dependability. Consumers want to be sure that the money they invested in the form of buying a policy is safe and they will get the best service experience and will not regret buying the product. Unique Selling Points are important because they create an advantage for the business to sell its products against those of the competitors. Without USPs a company cannot make sales more than its competitors or claim the market leader position in the market (Hackley, 2010). USPs make a customer to choose the company’s product against those of competitors. Therefore, Unique Selling Points enhance profitability, market share and growth in revenue of any company. Addressing current needs/ recommended strategy The company has to promote the car insurance product to the target audience. It is crucial to maintain the current customer base while aiming at penetrating in the new market. The budget of $100,000 has to be allocated among print, audio-electronic media, and social media. It is important to have the advertising done through television particularly in the evening when many people have retired to their houses. Most households have televisions and can access internet. Social media advertising and setting up pages for the product in Facebook and recommending people to like it will be appropriate. The message in the marketing campaign should target the young people such as offering a unique experience and expresses dynamism in the modern world (Butler, 2006). 40% of the advertising budget should be allocated to television and print media. Print media will entail newspapers, magazines, periodicals, and newsletters from the company. Audio advertising through radio has to be done sparingly and only 5% of the budget can be allocated towards this channel. 20% of the budget can be allocated for direct marketing and other promotional activities designed by the marketing team. Marketing executives have to have a target on how many people they intend to recruit for the care insurance cover within a week or a month. Another important avenue of advertising is having billboards erected at strategic points on main roads and the city centre. The main target is to create awareness by making it impossible for the consumers to forget the product. It should be easier for consumers to recall the car insurance product. Promoting the Facebook page of the product can be done through use of raffle tickets for the first people to like the page. Other youths who will refer their friends or recruit their friends and acquaintances to like the page will be given a token to encourage them to bring more people. The video footage of the advertisement carried on the televisions has to be shared on the page for people to have a look at it. It is possible that some people will not have time to watch television or listen to radio or buy any print media. The target is to make it impossible for the targeted age bracket to ignore the insurance product from the company (Hackley, 2010). Direct marketing can be used to reach out to specific avenues where youths gather. Sales people will explain the terms of the product and why it is suitable for the youth. It is important to start carrying out focus groups and research to determine the inadequacy in current car insurance products that do not address the needs of the youth. Justification of the campaign The choice of the radio campaign is not appropriate for the target audience which seems to target the young generation that is technological savvy. In this era of social media and increased electronic and print media, using radio to promote a product to young clients will be misplaced. The information will travel at a slow rate since many people no longer hang around listening to radio. Radio is an old form of communication that cannot be used to target the young clients which the business seeks to attract. Creating awareness of the product is important, but it should be done through means that will not only be cost-effective but efficient and able to reach out to as many customers as possible (Flören, 2008). Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo! and Google will be more effective as compared to radio. Facebook is popular and many young people can be reached through the social media site since many discuss new discovery and share new information. Television and print media are expensive but will be important in this marketing campaign. Limiting advertising through radio is appropriate since very few youth still fancy radio whether as a form of entertainment or getting first hand information. Television and print media are important since youth can still watch these advertisements on their computers. Online copies of newspapers and magazines can be accessed through the internet (Chapman, 2008). The internet has spread out to many parts and almost every household can access the internet. The youths want to be identified with modern products that exude some characteristics that appeal to them. Even the model of the car that would be used in the advert has to be a modern model and not a Volvo or Bedford. Look and feel of the campaign The campaign has to exude efficiency, reliability, modernity and dynamism. These are some of the qualities that youths want to identify with. There should be a catch phrase that excites young people and, it should be easy to recall. The customers should feel as part of the advertising campaign and they considered his feelings and attitude before designing the advertisement and the product. There should be a sense of identify that youth want to associated with the product. Youth people have to identify with the product. If the company decides to use celebrities to endorse the campaign, then they should use young celebrities that target consumers can identify with. Young people adore speed, elegancy, dynamism and sophistication. Such features have to have a place in the billboards erected or the televisions ads (Gregory, 2010). Swiftness in payment of claims has to be emphasized in the marketing campaign. Young people are normally impatient and want their needs to be addressed quickly. Keeping youths waiting most of the time gets them irritated. The company has to specify the shortest time possible within which the claims of the customer will be paid. Top most quality service has to be encouraged and characteristics that identify with the youth who are the target customers. The way the product is positioned in the market will determine the perception of the consumers about the product. The target audience The initial target audience for the car insurance product has been designed for 18-30 age bracket. However, this age bracket may not take into consideration everyone who may be able to afford the car insurance product. There are many people who are under the age of 23 years and above eighteen who may not be owners of vehicles hence may not need the car insurance product. Moreover, there are many other young people who are below the age of forty and may benefit from the car insurance cover. Consequently it would be important to adjust the target age to be within 23-35. Through doing this, many young people targeted who would have completed their studies, are employed and own a car. The message designed for advertising should be direct to the point. High quality and reliability can be used as the unique selling points of the company (Goldner, 2010). Without the specific target group, companies run the risk going in the wrong direction. The message designed may not be appropriate to the target group if it is not defined. Budget and timing The budget of $100,000 may not be very efficient and it would be appropriate to allocated $150,000 in case the current budget is not sufficient. Advertising has to be vigorous and effective as well as running for a considerable time. Timing in advertising is very important when launching a new product. Thorough preparation is needed and any issue arising from the product launch has to be addressed. Workshops and trade fairs have to be included in the budget of creating awareness. Sufficient time has to be allowed between the commencement of advertising campaign and the launch of the insurance product. The target audience has to be well versed with the product before deciding to buy it or use the services of the company. Conclusion Advertising can determine the life time of a product in the market. The successfulness of the advertising campaign aids the successful launch of a product. AAMI Insurance has to identify its unique selling points and use it to target the identified consumer group. Unique selling points give the company an advantage as compared to its competitors. The message in the designed advertisement should identify with the target audience. The superb qualities of the product have to be emphasized. AAMI insurance has to forgo the radio campaign or massively to reduce and use other methods that are appealing to the youth. The campaign message has to exude the message that excites the youth. Swiftness in settlement of claims and proficiency as well as high quality of the product has to be emphasized. How the company will handle the marketing campaign will break or make the success of the product launch and its lifetime in the market. References Butler, 2006, Television Critical Methods and Applications, (3rd ed. ed.), Hoboken: Taylor & Francis Ltd. Chapman, G., 2008, Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success, London: 5 Pillars Business Success. Clow, K. E. & Baack, D., 2007, Integrated Advertising, Promotion, and Marketing Communications 3rd edition, Sydney: Pearson Education. Goldner, PS, 2010, Red-Hot Selling: Power Techniques That Win Even the Toughest Sale, New York: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Gregory, E.J., 2010, Would You Like Profits with That? Ten Essential Keys for Building a Profitable Business, Melbourne: Gregory Business Coaching. Flören, R., 2008, The Entrepreneur & the Entrepreneurship Cycle, Berlin: Uitgeverij Van Gorcum. Hackley, C., 2010, Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Approach, Melbourne: SAGE. Read More