How a "duck" transformed Aflac's brad recognition and improved Market Share?

Marketing Capsuls - Aflac

How a "duck" transformed Aflac's brad recognition and improved Market Share?

Background
The American Family Life Assurance Company (later Aflac), founded in 1955, became the first company in the world to offer insurance against cancer, it best selling product till year 2000. It expanded its offerings significantly in 1980 and by the late 1990 it sold a verity of policies from Dental Care to short term disability and adopted an acronym "AFLAC" as its official name. The company excelled at providing policies that helped pay out-of-pocket expenses not covered by someone's primary insurer which was also known as supplemental insurance. Aflac was well respected in the industry and also got listed in Fortune's 100 best companies to work for in the US in 1999. By year 2000, the company was insuring 40 million people. Regardless of multiple insurance plans under its portfolio, the company's revenues were majorly dependent upon the sale of Cancer Insurance since the company was challenged by its competitors that offered other similar insurance.

Challenge
Though profitable, Aflac suffered from poor brand recognition, majorly because of its name: Aflac. There were a number of companies that offered all services comparable to Aflac's and making Aflac's brand recognition a serious liability. Survey resulted that the company had barely 12% brand recognition. A primary reason behind low brand recognition was it current corporate customer base. Aflac issued 98% of its coverage on a payroll deduction basis and was focused on targeting its sales and marketing efforts on selling to corporate. The company had hard time drawing sales lead outside of the corporate world. Analysis also showed that

Marketing Strategy
Aflac was concerned and believed that it needed to change its image with consumers to survive it a tough industry. The company was eager to connect with the age group between 35 to 55. Trying to develop an idea for Aflac, KTG, a New York based ad agency, personnel noticed that they had trouble remembering the name of the company "Aflac". While repeating the name in an effort to memorize the name, it sounded to them like a little duck quacking "Aflac". KTG decided to attack this challenge by adopting "duck" as a character in their campaign.

The "Duck campaign" involved Gilbert Gottfried, a nasal voiced comedian, who was known for his work in films to perform duck voice. The company decided to message "Out-of-pocket" expense supplemental insurance as their key differentiator as part of the campaign. One of the ads featured two men in a steam room, with one man praising about his insurance that covered out of pocket expenses following a serious accident. Every time he forgot company's name, the Aflac duck popped-up reminded him the company name by quacking "Aflac". As the conversation continued, the Aflac Duck grew so impatient with the man eventually shouting at him. A series of such funny ads were aired through NBC,ABC and CBS with an overall campaign budget of $35M during year 2000.

Outcome
No one would have dreamt of the success the duck would have and critics were unable to connect a duck with insurance. The "Duck" campaign turned out to be a renowned success for Aflac. According to the analysts, the duck campaign scored more than double the industry average in brand recall. The brand recognition jumped to 71 % (from 12% before the campaign)and thereafter to 90% as the campaign continued. Overall sales for Aflac jumped by 28% in the second quarter and the company $168 M. For the first time, accident/disability insurance replaced cancer-expense insurance as the company's number-one product. Aflac's reputation in the industry thrived. In 2004, the Duck was named country's favorite figure besting such characters as Ronald McDonalds. Duck remained the focus of advertising for several years and would continue in days to come.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r245vidjoh0

Learning for Marketers
1) Advertising isn't necessarily to be creative, unless it accomplish basic objective of the customer
2) Believe that your weaknesses could be turned into strength and can be capitalized upon