National Deposit rebrands

National Deposit is re-branding as National Friendly from May 2009 to focus on building the healthcare side of the business.

Adopting a new strapline ‘Making a difference to your future’, the new brand aims to better reflect the values of the company and take it back to the roots of why friendly societies existed – to help people with their big responsibilities in life, such as their healthcare.

Explaining the re-brand process, CEO Richard Sear said: “We have undertaken many research exercises and focus groups, with both consumers, employees, brokers and affinity partners, to get to this point. This vision has come from within the society as it is something we feel passionately about. The feedback from the research groups and our members has then assured us we are going in the right direction.

“A lot of research went into the development of the new name, which revealed that the word ‘deposit’ made people think of a bank, which in the current climate does not have the most positive connotations so we wanted to move away from this. Instead, the research revealed the word ‘national’ is aligned with positive messages of size, strength and solidity so we have retained this and teamed it with ‘friendly’, which was found to communicate the company’s core softer values of caring, listening and accessibility.”

National Friendly says the re-brand is not just about a new name; the company is re-structuring its business to ensure customers across all channels have access to a comprehensive and value driven healthcare solution. A key opportunity for National Friendly within this arena in the current climate is individuals and businesses alike that have existing PMI plans, but are looking to reduce their monthly premiums whilst retaining a comprehensive level of cover.

Three new senior team members have joined the company this month to help drive it forward and achieve its business objectives; Chris Meier has been recruited to the position of head of marketing and brand to help build the new brand and promote its unique product offering amongst key audiences, whilst Glen Hutchinson has joined as head of national sales to build National Friendly’s position directly with corporate clients.

To ensure National Friendly stays ahead of its competitors, Claire Templeton has taken on the role of head of e-commerce to look at developing the company’s online strategy to recruit more customers through this channel and provide efficient, effective and member friendly online services once they have joined.

The company’s legacy products in the investments and savings arena will continue to be serviced by National Friendly, but the new team is primarily focused on building the National Friendly brand into a leading PMI provider, offering a range of unique healthplan products that provide a true point of difference for individuals and businesses alike.

Commenting on the new focus for the company, CEO Richard Sear said: “This is an exciting time for us, our 140 year heritage is extremely important to our customers but we needed to re-focus the direction of the company to answer the demands of today’s current and future members.

“The future of our business is healthcare, we are passionate about the health of our members and we want them to have access to affordable healthcare cover. I have put in place a new senior team that I am confident can develop our product offering and drive sales across the broker, corporate and consumer channels.”