The "winning card" that helped Generali attract 10% of mandatory pension customers was the product, the only one that was different on a market with limited freedom of choice, says Dana Casapu, head of the company's marketing and communication campaign.
"We were the only company with a competitive edge on the market of mandatory pensions as Generali product was the only one to stand out," explains Casapu. Indeed, Generali was the only company that offered customers a pension fund with a high-risk profile, compared with the other 17 medium-risk funds of its rivals.
The outcome? Generali ranked third among the 18 pension firms, brought more than 400,000 customers to its fund in four months (namely 10% of the market), being among the only three managers that hit or topped the initially announced sales targets (together with ING - no. 1 and Allianz-Tiriac - no. 2). However, the company's promotion campaign was not centred on this sale argument, namely the fund's risk-profile.
"The communication strategy was focused half on the product, half on the brand," she says. Among all the pension companies founded by insurers, Generali had one of the least known names. "This is why we had to invest massively to promote Generali name. (...)," says Casapu.
The promotion campaign took a 2m-euro investment budget, and the agency that handled the Generali account was Prospero Advertising. Advertising for private pensions came as a continuation of insurance campaigns, started in 2005. Advertising relied on the idea of the "important signatures", being highly pragmatic from this point of view.
The fund managed by Generali relied on a sales force of almost 12,500 own agents and also on partnerships with over 10 of the 40 pension brokers on the market. As a matter of fact, Generali was one of the few companies that managed to throw more agents that it had plan
