Branding Passion

Recently, I have been working with a client on branding. When you think about creating a brand, where do you begin? The word “Brand” in our society is a Goliath. Branding encompasses an immense landscape of concepts and applications involving identity, image, perception, products, and services. Branding is intended to evoke a huge breadth of emotions, feelings, and expectations. The branding industry is art, science, graphic design, journalism, advertising, marketing, media, psychology, and magic all blended together into a complex sensory cocktail designed to get us to drink the cool aide. The depth and complexity of branding is staggering. Look up the word Brand on Wikipedia. The sheer volume devoted to this 5 letter word is telling.

With so much landscape, we could go down the wrong path a long way before realizing we were lost. We decided the logical starting point and cornerstone on which to build the company “Brand” was the company Mission-Vision-Purpose Statement or MVP. This simple all encompassing message describes the core values of the company, its people and its founders. It conveys who the company is, what the company does, and how it does it better than anyone else. It does all of this in 3 sentences or less. The MVP would be the common thread running through the different pieces of the company brand tying them together to create a consistent fabric and message.

To begin crafting the MVP, the principals, and agency personnel were asked to provide 3 malleable words that best describe what they want people to think of when their company name is mentioned. I received a list of descriptive terms that would make a seasoned Hollywood Star blush. Then, from an unexpected source came a word in the form of a question.

“What about passion? I don’t see the word passion anywhere. Aren’t we supposed to be passionate about representing our clients, passionate about creating and finding solutions, and passionate about fulfilling the promises we make?” We all knew that we had found the first, most important word that was to become one of the cornerstones for our brand.

This event really hit home for me, It reminded me of the mission statement Jerry Maguire wrote which got him fired, but saved his soul. This epiphany about passion will forever change the way I serve my clients. Today, I want to blog a bit about creating our own brand of passion. What about passion? What role does it play for you when looking for an answer to a clients question, when searching for a solution to a clients problem, when representing a client on an unpaid or underpaid claim, or a client’s employee who has suffered a serious injury?

As insurance professionals, do we marshal the same desire, drive, and passion when serving our clients as we do when serving our own passions? Are we creative and innovative in our approach to finding solutions that fit a product or service to our client, and not the reverse? Are we passionate about our integrity? Are we willing to sacrifice $$ or even jeopardize a relationship by doing what is right and not what someone else wants or expects us to do?

When we think about branding, and what we represent, what role does passion play? I wrote this blog with a single purpose in mind. I want to uncover, and explore examples of passion you have experienced in your business and ask you to share them with the rest of us to help us all include passion as a big part of our industry brand. This blog is supposed to be about sales, and when you think about it, the very best sales people are always passionate about what they sell, so passion applies.

Here is my example of passion in insurance:

My agency partner had a close friend who lost everything when a neighborhood child was paralyzed in a tragic accident on their trampoline. The family of the injured child was awarded a huge judgment, and my partner’s friend (who wasn’t our client) had low underlying liability limits, and no umbrella. In other words, he had cheap insurance. For $150-$200 he could have protected his families estate and their future. In retrospect, since it cost him everything, it wasn’t cheap insurance after all was it?

Immediately after learning of his friend’s plight, my partner ordered an agency wide audit of all personal lines policies. We contacted each client with less than 2 million in combined liability coverage and shared the details of the tragedy with them. We asked, and in some cases begged them to increase their limits. Most clients responded with appreciation and thanks, as an umbrella is inexpensive peace of mind.

Silver lining: Many clients were deeply moved by this story, and sent us donations. They also referred many friends and family members whom they cared about, and asked us to represent them. The donations and commissions from the referrals created a fund to help both families. That is my story.

What is your brand of passion?