Falling standards

This week, you could be forgiven for thinking that Standard Life had saved up all its bad news in an attempt to get rid of it all in one go. My RSS feeds from Citywire and Money Marketing are so laden with tales of woe from the Edinburgh-based financial giant that it’s hard to take it all in.

From the revaluation of a ‘safe’ (ahem!) ‘sterling’ fund to locking in property fund investors, from falling pension sales to a cut in endowment bonuses there doesn’t seem to be much going right for a business that its chief executive, Sir Sandy Crombie describes as having moved from a “very old style insurance model to a modern style asset managing business”.

As little as a month ago, Crombie was crowing in The Scotsman about how “we have kept a relatively simple business model, with quite controlled risks, and the market has looked at us and said rock solid”.

This week’s wobbles may dent that solidity and, certainly, the company’s public reaction to the Sterling Fund’s revaluation will stretch both the credulity and the patience of its customers. Perhaps a few lessons in customer care would benefit some of its senior personnel. Take Stephen Acheson, quoted in Money Marketing, responding to requests for ‘remediation’ for customers who may be forced to crystallise their losses because they are due to retire soon: “I do not believe [Standard Life will be extending remediation to these people]. Our recommendation is that from an investment return point of view people should stick with the fund. We understand that different people have different plans for the money in there and what their timescales are. I fully understand your point of view but I think we have made our position clear in terms of what is an appropriate way to act. You are free to challenge that through the normal channels.”

And challenge they will – especially over the clarity of the sales support materials that have been produced over the years for the Sterling Fund. Now if you or I had been Stephen Acheson we’d have read every word from the back catalogue of brochures and fact sheets before opening our mouths but that doesn’t appear to be Standard practice. Acheson again: “I do not know all the literature that has been produced on the fund over the years but what I do believe is that the totality of the information was sufficient for people to understand what was happening.”

Somewhere in all of this there are thousands of customers who once again are being let down by one of the UK’s financial institutions. I used to think it was incredible that the financial services industry had to have an initiative called Treating Customers Fairly foisted on it by the FSA. Recent events would suggest that not only is it required, it needs to be a lot tougher. Some day, perhaps even some day soon, the financial sector will learn that the most important people in the financial services industry are not a whiz kids with their wacky derivatives or the be-knighted CEOs, it’s the customers. Without them, you don’t have a business.  

The waiting is the hardest part

As Tom Petty so memorably sang; ‘the waiting is the hardest part’. This week I’m doing a fair bit of waiting and it’s very frustrating. Here’s the thing: over the past few weeks, my colleagues and I have been pitching a business proposition at potential investors. We’re ready to get on with it and the market has never been more ready to receive. We’re itching to get going. But we have to wait while our potential investors work out whether they believe our market analysis, whether they’re comfortable with our strategy and, most importantly, whether or not we fit in with all their other plans.

Like Tom Petty, desperate to get jiggy with his lady, we’re out there with our hearts on our sleeves but can’t really do anything else until at least one of our prospects says ‘yes’.

So we’re waiting. And while we wait, it’s interesting to see how others are coping with the frustrations of the moment. The other day, a friend of mine asked me to comment on some ads created by an Edinburgh agency that is clearly tired of waiting and has taken the initiative in the fight against the economic downturn.

60 Watt, has ‘put its money where its mouth is’ and created a series of press ads that urge potential clients to maintain marketing budgets and (of course) switch their advertising to 60 Watt. Fair enough. They’re lean and keen and the guys there have a decent track record in advertising.

You can see the ads here on their blog. Sure, the ads themselves are thought provoking enough but I’m just not convinced that being good at ads is enough for the 21st Century. Marketing is about so much more than advertising and if agencies are going to have a role in the future, they’re going to have to find a different model.

Having said that, I’ve spent a number of years now trying to develop a model where marketing in its widest sense is right at the centre of the business proposition – not just a function of the business but what the business is all about. I know I’m right, I’ll just have to wait a little longer to prove it.

There’s probably no point in bus ads. Now stop worrying and enjoy the PR.

You have to love the British Humanist Society and Richard Dawkins’ bus advertising stunt that has us all chattering about the existence or otherwise of God. Irritated by pro-Christian advertising the Humanists booked a £140,000 four week run on bus sides in England, Scotland and Wales. While the ads themselves are pretty lame, the debate has been entertaining.

Naturally, all the papers covered it. And the online editions have been inundated with readers’ comments. The TV news picked it up, and the radio. Bloggers have tuned in too, sharing their opinions and adding to the debate. You can even follow the fun on Facebook and Twitter where you can keep up with AtheistBus en route to Edmonton Green.

A second burst of PR coverage came quickly too as the Christian Voice dafties struck back led by the permanently indignant Stephen Green who thinks the ads should be banned on the grounds that they violate ASA codes on ‘substantiation and truthfulness’. Mr Green reckons that while there is no evidence that there isn’t a divine power looking after us all, ‘there is plenty of evidence for God, from people’s personal experience, to the complexity, interdependence, beauty and design of the natural world.’

You couldn’t make it up. So while I’m enormously sceptical about the value of bus advertising this tale proves beyond doubt that a good story in our interconnected world just spreads like wildfire.  

What's in a re-name?

Norwich Union's brand migration to Aviva has drawn me out of a six month slumber and back to the blog. (Can't really explain why I've been away for so long - just been kind of busy!)

The question posed on their outrageously expensive looking ads is 'Would I have been as successful if I'd stuck to my original name?' A simple enough idea but one that doesn't really lend itself to much interrogation - and don't even start me on the poster campaign which seems to have wandered well off course. In the TV ads, Ringo Starr, Bruce Willis, Elle McPherson and Alice Cooper pose the question alongside some fancy digital film wizardry but with the exception of old Alice (who was once Vincent Furnier and clearly needed a girl's name to make himself even vaguely interesting) the idea quickly wears a bit thin. Though the jury's still divided on the simple brilliance (or otherwise) of Ringo's drumming, I reckon his rebranding had little to do with how he fared in his spell behind the drums of the world's most successful pop group, or for that matter in the subsequent career that stint carved out for him. George Harrison, John Lennon and Paul McCartney are all pretty average names when you think about it and with the exception of Paul, which is actually McCartney's middle name, they're all the names they were issued at the outset and don't appear to have been any hindrance.

As for Walter Willis - can you imagine Walt instead of Bruce? I can. Eleanor (née Gow) McPherson picked up the McPherson from her stepdad at the age of 14 so other than a bit of fashion-conscious fiddling with her first name, it's hardly a major change and it certainly isn't too hard to imagine that Eleanor Gow complete with that unforgettable body wouldn't have been just as successful.

While a brand is undoubtedly an important communications shorthand for any company or individual, it draws all its power from the talent that backs it up. If Norwich Union sounds a little bit too parochial for a financial services giant with global ambitions then undoubtedly a cutesy pan-European palindrome like Aviva gives it a name that is meaningless enough to take it pretty much anywhere without offending anyone too much. Having said that, Aviva better be bursting with talent and brilliant ideas because they'll have to breathe meaning into the new name long after the ad budget's been blown and the printers have had a field day reprinting all the corporate literature. The name's not the thing it's what's behind it that matters and those ambitious insurance men, having reinvented themselves for the 21st Century are going to have to win over customers old and new with the quality of their products and services. I'm not sure Ringo, Bruce, Elle and Alice will be much help with that.