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July 27, 2009

Branding prods new era for insurers

Photo/David A. Rodgers Jim Brown, co-owner of Western Maine Agency, says the rebranding of United Insurance's agencies will enhance marketing and growth efforts
By Carol Coultas

Last month, a call to the insurance agency at 19 Congress St. in Rumford was answered with a crisp “Hello, Western Maine Insurance, a United Insurance Group agency.” Now a caller is greeted with “Hello, United Insurance, Western Maine agency.”

The difference is more than a matter of semantics. Twelve insurance agencies stretching from Van Buren to Portland have operated for years as independent subsidiaries of Falmouth-based United Insurance Group. Now they are shifting their longstanding original names into the background in favor of one, prominent corporate identity, the first step in a branding campaign intended to position the agencies for growth.

“Just 10 years ago, we were an Aroostook County organization with one or two offices downstate,” says Chris Condon, CEO of United Insurance, which decided to drop the “Group” as part of the branding strategy. Since then, United Insurance has acquired agencies in Monmouth, Augusta, Lewiston, Jefferson and elsewhere, growing into a network of 12 agencies in 14 locations with a staff of more than 120.

Their individual names — some of which had been emblazoned on letterhead and signs for more than 100 years — were becoming a hindrance. With 14 offices and 12 trade names, targeted advertising was ineffective, says Jim Brown, owner of Western Maine Agency in Rumford and a partner in United Insurance.

“We’d have three Aroostook County agencies competing for air time on the same local radio station. We couldn’t run print ads in niche publications,” he says of the challenges facing the affiliated agencies. “As we worked on larger commercial accounts, we’d often bring in people with expertise from different offices and everyone would hand the client a business card with a different name, a different logo on it. It took us a while to explain who we were.”

All the agencies will be rolling out their new names, letterhead, business cards and signs over the next three months, says Condon. The company intends to get the word out to clients and colleagues through print ads and public radio campaigns. Condon said the campaign emphasizes that the agencies and staffs are the same, but are now united by one name and one message.

“We couldn’t do that previously,” says Brown of the media campaign. “The costs were just staggering. Now with one name, we can do it.”

Gary Blackwell, the Maine director of the Professional Insurance Agents Association, applauds United Insurance’s move, one of the state’s biggest insurance agencies, he says. The strategy retains the name and local connections of the individual agencies, but develops efficiencies needed to compete in a modern world, especially one where big national insurance companies have pervasive ad campaigns, he says.

“People know the local names, but with United Insurance, they’ll have a sense of the company’s reach,” says Blackwell, who owns Blackwell Insurance Agency in Corinth, an agency his father started 50 years ago. “They will have the best of both worlds.”

He said the challenge will be to ensure that, as new signs appear on offices across the state, people realize it’s still the same office, the same staff, the same service.

“I’m sure some locals will question ‘Will this still be my local company and not some big conglomeration?’” Blackwell says of the transition.

Condon says the company has spent $100,000 in the branding campaign, hiring a marketing company to help with the strategy. He expects it will take a year before there are any measurable gains from the investment. The next phase of the campaign involves revamping the company website to include web sales and service arrangements and search engine optimization.

“It wasn’t that long ago when the Internet wasn’t a big factor in how we did business,” he says. “Now it’s essential,” and a key reason for the branding campaign.

In the near term, all agency managers are contacting clients, who hold just under 30,000 accounts, says Condon. Of that, between 4,000 and 5,000 are big commercial client accounts.

“We’ve been letting them know that we’ve not sold out to some out-of-state corporation,” says Condon, a trend that, along with acquisitions by banks, has whittled the number of independent insurance agencies in Maine.

Lisa Veregge, head of Maine Insurance Agents Association, says United’s move is uncommon and that it’s more typical to have agencies change their names entirely as they’re acquired by bigger agencies. But Condon says it was United’s intent all along to preserve the local cultures of each of the 14 offices.

“H.O. Perry has been around for 140 years,” he says by way of example. “That’s a tremendous amount of history and local roots. Our thinking has always been to preserve the local culture, the local decision-making.”

Brown, of Western Maine, says his agency has always had an expertise in the forest products industry by dint of its location in logging and paper mill communities. It will continue to have that expertise, support its local charities and manage its own budget and staff.

“It’s not top-driven at all,” he says. “We do what we do in our own hometowns.”

Carol Coultas, Mainebiz editor, can be reached at ccoultas@mainebiz.biz.

Now known as United Insurance:

Tilton Insurance Agency, Augusta, Jefferson, established 1958
Bradish-Young Agency, Falmouth, established 1931
H.O. Perry & Son Co, Fort Fairfield, established 1868
Thibodeau Agency, Fort Kent, established 1902
Parent Agency, Lewiston, established about 1940
Haines Agency, Limestone, established 1970
Ezzy Agency, Madawaska and Van Buren, established 1965
Davis Agency, Monmouth, established 1949
Lehr Agency, Pittsfield, established 1873
Haley Agency, Portland, established 1953
Hayden-Perry Agency, Presque Isle, established 1889
Western Maine Agency, Rumford, established 1892

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