Zurich Launches New “International Brand” Campaign

Zurich Financial Services announced that it is launching an international corporate brand campaign, following what the bulletin described as a “significant business turnaround.”

The Group is commencing the campaign “as the next important step in pursuit of its goal of becoming a leading insurance brand in its chosen markets,” in furtherance of its goal to position the company as a leader in the global marketplace.

CEO James J. Schiro commented: “The time is right for Zurich to focus on a worldwide coherent brand. To create new growth opportunities, we need to raise Zurich’s profile with our business and consumer customers. Together with The Zurich Way, the brand initiative will continue the transformation of our Group that began more than three years ago and ensure that all customers have a uniform brand experience, dealing with one Group speaking with one voice. Building Zurich into a leading global brand will enhance our market presence and ability to attract and retain new customers.”

Zurich noted: “The campaign started with print advertisements in the leading national press of Zurich’s home market Switzerland, as well as in Austria and Germany on November 25, 2005 and will be in leading US and European media from today on. The print advertisements will be followed by TV commercials, which will be aired for the first time on December 6, 2005. In the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain the campaign will start in early 2006.

“Summarized in the tagline ‘Because change happenz’ [sic], the campaign addresses the need of Zurich’s customers to manage and cope with the variety of changes that life brings on them or their business. To help its customers, Zurich actively evaluates change to deliver innovative and secure insurance solutions in an unpredictable and rapidly changing world.”

E. Randall Clouser, Group Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Global Communications at Zurich, stated: “Building the Zurich brand is a dynamic process, not an event. We are executing a marketing mix that includes advertising, sponsorships, events and a corporate customer relationship management initiative designed to create awareness and familiarity amongst our target audience. To ensure that our 57,000 employees worldwide understand our brand position, ten months ago we launched an internal brand program. This internal program prepares our employees to identify opportunities to deliver our brand promise to customers in a distinctively Zurich Way. Clearly, the brand building process at Zurich is more than advertising and aesthetics.”