For Louise Colley, head of protection sales and marketing at Aviva and mum of four year old twins, striving to promote the need to have protection in place to safeguard family life is a passion.
What’s more, it is a passion she is keen to pass on, both direct to consumers and through the adviser community.
Put simply, Aviva’s mantra is: ‘every family deserves family protection’. “We believe every family deserves to understand the financial risks they undertake if they don’t have family protection in place” she explains. “Family protection covers all elements of protection products not just life insurance. While the focus of the industry has tended to be on the products, pricing and processes, we feel that this needs to change with focus on promotional support which really creates cut-through and creates consumer action.
She goes on to add, “Let’s be honest, financial services is a low interest category and we need to consider how we better engage families to even consider our products. After all, they tell us family life is so special, so it’s frustrating that in spite of this, 60 per cent of families have no life insurance in place. All our research shows us that it is family that matters most, but marketing has, up until now, failed to tap into that.”
It is this belief that rests at the heart of Aviva’s new initiative, which follows on from the TV advertising campaign featuring Paul Whitehouse, that encourages people to speak to a financial adviser about family protection. This next part of Aviva’s journey now looks at the ways in which advisers can open up conversations around the topic of “what makes your family special?”, switching the emphasis onto families rather than finances to really resonate with consumers.
“We recognise that people are not necessarily comfortable with discussing those sorts of worst case scenarios, whether that be critical illness or, indeed, death. It can be very difficult for advisers to engage with their clients on those subjects and it can seem awkward to broach,” Ms Colley explains. “That is why we are looking to help advisers work on the soft skills that can make that process easier. Whether advisers are new to protection or want a refresher, we want to give advisers the tools they need to start up conversations about family life, which they can then use to go on to those “what if” situations.”
Initial IFA feedback has been overwhelmingly positive stating once that conversation is underway, it is easier to introduce the idea of safeguarding that unit - particularly when families have also seen the TV advert.
“It is a really clever way of getting people to talk positively and consider these products in a positive light,” Ms Colley adds. “It is about changing the fundamentals of what we do as a business, looking at how we can engage more people and get them interested. We want advisers to be able to put that message across and do what is in the best interests of their clients. We believe protection conversations are easier when you understand more about your clients’ family life.”
