AXA in £4m brand campaign

AXA UK is launching a £4m brand marketing campaign designed to counter the lack of consumer trust in financial services.

The insurer said the campaign marks the beginning of a long term strategy designed to focus on key improvements that customers will value. It follows the introduction of AXA’s new, global brand promise and strapline, ‘Redefining Standards’, in May this year,

"Recognising that consumer faith in financial services is at an all time low, AXA is putting its efforts into redefining standards in the financial services industry. The current volatile economic climate has further eroded consumer confidence in the industry, with the crisis in the banking and financial sector also impacting on consumers’ perceptions of insurance and other financial products," the insurer said.

"Bucking the current trend, AXA aims to rebuild trust between a customer and its financial provider through changing the way it does business and truly meeting their needs. These include commitments to improved delivery, tailored and dedicated claims handling and investment in adapting internal procedures to provide a gold standard customer service."

AXA said the launch would be marked with a heavyweight advertising campaign which calls on customers to make a stand against unacceptable, substandard service. "It is a strong expression of the company’s clear business objectives for 2012 which include becoming a top three provider in all the business segments in which it operates while doubling revenues and tripling profit from its 2004 figures," the company said.

Olivier Mariée, group marketing director of AXA UK said: “Redefining standards is not just a tagline. It is the way we want to change our industry and build trust with our customers. The message and our new campaign is bold, but we are also clear that this is the start of a journey for us. We believe that this campaign will successfully set us apart from other financial services companies: it is a positive, upbeat message at a time of uncertainty for many people.

“We have spent some considerable time in the last year researching and analysing existing relationships and processes with customers across the world. We want to change and we know how we want to change for the benefit of our customers.”

A further component of the campaign will be to communicate tangible examples of products and services that are unique and compelling for an AXA customer.

For example, AXA recently introduced a scheme for customers affected by water damage in their homes whereby claimants would be allocated a dedicated AXA claims manager who personally ensures that their claim is dealt with quickly and effectively.

AXA said it had already committed to a number of initiatives designed to build closer working relationships with customers.

Philippe Maso y Guell Rivet, chief executive of AXA Insurance, said: “Within AXA Insurance we have already started to make the new brand positioning a reality and we recognise that delivering service excellence is the most important factor in achieving this. Providing excellent standards of service is vital to building trust with our customers and we have already taken a number of steps in meeting this challenge including the appointment of a Customer Experience Director who will act as the voice of the customer as well as introducing a new set of guidelines covering the clarity of our documentation and communication to our customers. This is our number one priority.”