UK Broker Summit 2014: broker brands valuable for opportunities

Brokers should use their established brands to make a success of new ventures, delegates were told at the 2014 UK Broker Summit.

BJ Cunningham, entrepreneur and branding expert, told the audience at the Insurance Age event that the industry’s branding on the whole had suffered in recent years.

“Insurance is to a degree tarnished with the brush of financial services and financial services have taken a battering over the last five years,” he said.

He added that the “fundamental” aspect customers were looking for when buying insurance was a sense that the company was there for them.

“You hear the horror stories of the people that have lost everything but I think most people have good experiences within the industry,” Cunningham stated.

Good example
He cited Carole Nash as an example for smaller players who may want to improve their branding.

Cunningham contacted the broker with an insurance query on his classic, customised motorcycle.

He continued: “Carole Nash picked out a niche which is customers who tend to be rich and only ride on the weekend.

“I got a feeling that they really understood me when I spoke to them.”

And in terms of the future for the industry, Cunningham claimed: “There’s a self-insurance story that could be coming, crowd-sourced financing taken into an insurance model.

“I can see that working.”

Idea
Cunningham told the brokers in attendance: “That's an idea there that, if I were in your place, I would be looking at.”

He pointed out that banks are “already looking at the threat of crowd-sourced banking”, and said: “The interesting thing about crowd-sourced finance is the fundamental idea is peer to peer.

“Use your customer as part of your organisation as opposed to apart from it.”

He added: “There’s probably a massive opportunity to create a niche product. If you don’t do it then somebody else will, but you can do it better.”

Cunningham stated: “One thing you have that they don’t is a brand - most people have a business and no brand.

“It’s interesting to think of people having a brand and then starting to do business.”

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