Products are what companies make; brands are what people choose and buy. Lloyd's is the strongest brand in insurance.
So why are brands so important?
Since early 2004, we've been working on defining what our brand stands for in the insurance market, and developing a more systematic approach to expressing that distinctive essence of Lloyd's in every aspect of our business.
The Lloyd's brand is, arguably, the strongest guarantee of future success for all the businesses in the market. To explain why, and what the implications are for your business, we need to go back a step...
In most markets these days, there's relatively little to choose between products and services in purely functional terms. So a strong brand - ie what a product or service stands for - is of real value in providing differentiation. More specifically, it can:
- Justify a price premium - people will pay more for a name they trust
- Attract talent - who would you rather work for, Hyundai or Mercedes?
- Win new business - or help you extend into new areas of business
Since early 2004, we've been working on defining what our brand stands for in the insurance market, and developing a more systematic approach to expressing that distinctive essence of Lloyd's in every aspect of our business.
But for the Lloyd's brand to deliver maximum advantage to everyone associated with the market, everyone must play a part in promoting and protecting it
What makes the Lloyd's brand so valuable?
The short answer is that we possess the only genuinely famous brand in our market. Unlike many modern brands, which have to be created virtually out of thin air, ours has evolved over centuries - and today is recognised throughout the world.
And people aren't just familiar with our name. Crucially, we're known for our traditions and our unique way of doing business. The Lloyd's brand is built on genuine distinctiveness, which means no competitor can make the same claims, or aspire to the same values.
This makes the Lloyd's brand a massive asset, for the market as a whole and for all the businesses within it.
Protecting and promoting our brand
No matter how strong a brand is, it's surprisingly easy to damage it. A single lapse in quality of service, for example, may change a customer's view of a brand forever. And, over a period of time, a lack of consistency in the way a brand is presented can gradually dilute its strength.
For this reason, it's essential that everyone who stands to benefit from the strength of the Lloyd's brand:
- Understands what it stands for
- Communicates what it stands for effectively
- Protects it from misuse
- Actively promotes it at every opportunity
To sum up: the more we all put into the Lloyd's brand, the greater the competitive advantage it will give us.
