The "winning card" that helped Generali attract 10% of mandatory pension customers was the product, the only one that was different on a market with limited freedom of choice, says Dana Casapu, head of the company's marketing and communication campaign.
"We were the only company with a competitive edge on the market of mandatory pensions as Generali product was the only one to stand out," explains Casapu. Indeed, Generali was the only company that offered customers a pension fund with a high-risk profile, compared with the other 17 medium-risk funds of its rivals.
The outcome? Generali ranked third among the 18 pension firms, brought more than 400,000 customers to its fund in four months (namely 10% of the market), being among the only three managers that hit or topped the initially announced sales targets (together with ING - no. 1 and Allianz-Tiriac - no. 2). However, the company's promotion campaign was not centred on this sale argument, namely the fund's risk-profile.
"The communication strategy was focused half on the product, half on the brand," she says. Among all the pension companies founded by insurers, Generali had one of the least known names. "This is why we had to invest massively to promote Generali name. (...)," says Casapu.
The promotion campaign took a 2m-euro investment budget, and the agency that handled the Generali account was Prospero Advertising. Advertising for private pensions came as a continuation of insurance campaigns, started in 2005. Advertising relied on the idea of the "important signatures", being highly pragmatic from this point of view.
The fund managed by Generali relied on a sales force of almost 12,500 own agents and also on partnerships with over 10 of the 40 pension brokers on the market. As a matter of fact, Generali was one of the few companies that managed to throw more agents that it had planned initially in the battle for customers (around 7,000).
70% of the attracted customers were brought by Generali's own agents and the rest of 30% came from external distribution channels.
The starting point in attracting customers was the database from the insurance business.
The call centre that was specially set up for the pension campaign also helped.
What was the biggest gain of this campaign for Generali Fond de Pensii? "Primarily, the awareness generated by the promotion campaign," explains Casapu.
After all, the 400,000 customers (to which another 30,000-60,000 will be added at the late February lottery) are the most important assets that have been gained lately, she states. They will obviously represent the contact base for the sale of insurance products in the future, a practice to be used by all pension companies present on the market.
Generali Pensii
The "winning card" that helped Generali attract 10% of mandatory pension customers was the product, the only one that was different on a market with limited freedom of choice
The promotion campaign, which was focused half on the product and half on the brand, took a 2m-euro investment budget, and the agency that handled the Generali account was Prospero Advertising
70% of customers were brought by Generali's own agents and the rest came from external distribution channels
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