The Life behind two funeral service brands - Clientle and AVBOB
AVBOB and Clientèle
Positioning and Differentiation
Deciding on which brand of funeral services you would like
to purchase is a matter of life and death. No person I know is comfortable in
making funeral plans for our loved ones. I would like to explore why two
funeral services brands come top of mind when this important decision needs to
be made. What key “heartstrings” do these brands pull in the consumers mind in
order to occupy the mind to a value proposition that the brand will deliver. In
addition to this, how do these two brands influence the way you think about
them.
Here is a brief outline on both brands.
AVBOB Group is the only mutual society in our country that
provides a one-stop funeral insurance and burial service solution. Mutual
society is defined as an organisation that is owned by its members. – we will
bring more attention to this when we look at the differentiation.
AVBOBs roots stretch back to 1918 and has to date more than
160 Funeral agencies, 95 insurance offices and a manufacturing plant.
On the other hand, you have a similar diversified financial
service group like Clientèle who also have a division or service that is in
direct competition with AVBOB. This JSE listed company has for the past 20
years been successful in their offering of convenient and easy to understand
financial services. On the funeral side of this big player in the financial
sector offers a variety of funeral plans. The one that is top of mind is what
they refer to as the Clientèle Dignity plan that pays out within 24 hours.
As you can see, both service providers are credible and
offer similar services. But the question is what do they do to position
themselves in the market and also convince prospects that their competitive
advantage is in their unique different service that they offer.
Let us explore 4 points about both:
1. Legitimate
Both AVBOB and Clientèle are clear about their
offerings being different from their competitors. Clientèle for one is bold in
their marketing that they are able to pay within 24 hours. All testimonials
about this legitimate claim add to the space in a consumer’s mind and will be a
consideration when a purchase decision needs to happen.
On the other hand, AVBOB being the only mutual
society in this sector does not convince me to select them over their competitors.
Therefore, although the plan is to not have shareholders, their strategy is to
be rooted in the community. People do business with people they know.
Therefore, investing in your community and a business that is also involved in
the community does differentiate AVBOB over their competitors. During the decision-making
process, according to Aarker, 2004:138 definition of differentiators, a brand
must have a branded feature, ingredient, service or programme that creates a
point of differentiation of the branded offering that is meaningful for
customers and merits active management of an extended time period.
Both these too brands do just that.
2. Context: in this heavily contested funeral service space, both these brands have zooned
or rather concentrated in a context that they leverage off. This resonates with
the consumer making this a strong step in their positioning. For example, the
context of getting your claim within 24 hours is already claimed by Clientèle.
The context of wanting to be part of a community that is rooted in your area
and the credibility that comes with it, you talk about AVBOB.
3.
What makes both brands different.
To ensure that both these brands don’t come across as “Me Too”
products, they have both claimed a position in which they feel is a strong
difference from its competitor. Clientèle and its promise to pay within 24
hours does stand a risk of a competitor using this as a standard across the
market. This is where other services add on to their statement making it
different from all the other services.
4. Clearly
communicating the difference: the success of both these brands do this
well. Their marketing campaigns carry these effectively. If I say, “Should you
die” you might be familiar with the phrase and link it to Clientèle. Also the
tag line of Clientèle suggests that they have been here since 1918 and will
still be there for you.
These two brands in the funeral policy market have answered
key questions about the neds of their clients and have managed in their own
unique way to set themselves apart from each other and their competitors.
Over
and above this they have successfully positioned themselves well in the market
and are competing with each other to acquire more clients.
- Their brand goals are specific and one cannot claim that they are not legitimate.
- They have through their well founded marketing campaigns on TV, Radio, print and activations that they can secure your trust on a long term basis and can sustain what they say they can.
- Also they have a clear target audience and have positioned themselves in a positive way that is good for the brand.
- All these add up to the bottom line. Their positioning is aligned with the organisational goals and the vision of the organisation.
- In closing, this grudge purchase decision is strategically influenced by both these strong companies. They have established themselves well in the market and will for the next decade defend their position in order to keep relevant in the market.
For more information about these two brands see below:
To continue reading about brand positioning click here for some resources.
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