Posted by: Hugh Burkitt, chief executive, The Marketing Society.
Have its owners, Aviva, gone completely mad? How can this much beloved brand that has been providing welcome reassurance for over 200 years be consigned to history?
The steely hearted money counting managers at Aviva have decided that it is time to go global and rid themselves of a brand name that is both unknown and unpronounceable in countries outside the British Empire.
But will we learn to love Aviva? It sounds like a bus company and it may be easily spoken in many languages, but it sounds suspiciously like Consignia which was briefly adopted by Royal Mail and consignia’d to history by the straight talking Allan Leighton when he took over as Chairman.
I feel a strong personal loyalty to Norwich Union, because I worked on its advertising for an enjoyable five years, and because I pay a monthly fee to Norwich Union for my private healthcare plan. Will Aviva look after me with the same reassuringly East Anglian concern? Norwich Union sounds so reliable and British and surely hints strongly at the backing of the Establish Church by using that cathedral logo.
I must admit that the advertising history of Norwich Union hasn’t been very glorious and my period in charge failed to create the truly famous campaign that the brand deserved. Norwich Union never stuck to one campaign long enough to get its advertising stuck in consumers’ minds and I can think of at least two great campaign ideas that as an agency man I failed to sell to my client.
Now that the feisty and energetic Amanda Mackenzie, Fellow of the Society, has gone in as the new global marketing director I’m sure she can inspire her agency to produce something memorable for Aviva, but whether she can also make it loveable remains to be seen.
It all leaves one wondering just what exactly brand value is. The debate rages between those who like to value brands as a balance sheet item by accounting methodology and those, like Interbrand and Millward Brown, who choose to bring in some measure of consumer appreciation.
But whatever figures you might produce on the brand value of Norwich Union, it is fairly astonishing to see Aviva throwing away a name which covers 40% of their worldwide sales.
Brand value will be a topic we will be looking at closely over the next 18 months as we move into celebrating The Marketing Society’s 50th Anniversary. We will be looking in depth at the contribution of brands to business, the economy and our society.
From June 10th you’ll be able to go to 50goldenbrands.com and choose the Brand of the Year for each year going back to 1959.
Many famous brands of course go back much further than 50 years. Guinness will be 250 years old next year. Kellogg’s, Gillette and Kit Kat all came into existence long before 1959 and have failed to make the cut in our first selection of 50 Brands of the Year because they didn’t achieve any particular moment of high profile during the period 1959 to 2008.
But the success of many brands that have achieved a high profile in the last 50 years is matched by many others like Norwich Union which have quietly disappeared. I was amazed to discover that Campbell’s soup- surely made eternally famous by Andy Warhol - has disappeared to be replaced by the British brand Batchelors. (Incidentally, Alex Batchelor, now Marketing Director of Royal Mail, tells me that he once tried to buy back the famous brand founded by his family from Unilever but was unable to do so. Perhaps he should now try to buy Campbell’s.)
Along with Campbell’s the last half century has seen the passing in the UK of Smith’s Crisps, Fry’s chocolate, Green Shield Stamps and Omo. It is interesting and curious that some global companies like Unilever, have adopted the opposite policy of Aviva and gone globally for different names for the same brand in different countries.
Reviewing our 50 Golden Brands we find brands like Biba that shone brightly for a period and expressed an era in fashion. While others like Strand cigarettes, Nestea and the Sinclair C5 remain famous for their failure.
I do hope you will let us know what you think about the value of Norwich Union and all the brand successes and failures of the past 50 years.