Our Brand : A Key Competitive Advantage

Mina Hsu

Good morning. I joined Prudential Corporation Asia about 10 years ago with responsibility for building the brand strategy for Prudential in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, and to keep extending our brand footprint as we enter new markets or forge new ventures. I hope to show you this morning why the brand has been and remains a key competitive advantage for us in Asia.

There are probably hundreds of definitions about what is a brand. This is the simplest and most to the point: a brand is a sum of all impressions, experiences and feelings a person has for a company. In other words, it is our reputation. And in our industry and in Asia, reputation takes on special importance. As consumers we all know the importance of brands and how they help us choose between options. In our industry the brand is especially important, because the products we sell are intangible, little more than a promise on a piece of paper. Some products are very difficult to understand, some require significant financial commitment and often for the long-term. A lot of our products are also sold through intermediaries. Without a strong "bricks and mortar" presence, credibility comes almost exclusively from the strength of the brand. Moreover, financial planning and financial matters are deeply personal. They are directly linked to peoples' hopes and dreams, so connecting with the consumers at an emotional level, which only a strong brand can do, is critical. Not only is a strong brand a must-have for our industry for all these reasons, it is also especially important in Asia, where our industry is less well developed and less well understood as in some other parts of the world.

They importance of brands is also confirmed by the consumer research that I have conducted for Prudential in the past ten years. Such research all points to these three corporate attributes as key considerations when target consumers decide if they would be receptive to solicitations by a company, its agents or distributors. Consumers said it is very important for an insurance company to be trustworthy, financially strong and also understands and cares about its customers. This reliance on reputation underscores brand strength as a key success factor in Asia.

I want to share with you now our approach to building the brand in Asia. First of all, we have a brand strategy that is very focused on what differentiates us from our competitors. Our Prudence icon, our long UK heritage in prudentials, and our commitment to understanding our target customers needs. The Prudence icon is a key differentiator for us in Asia. It is a highly distinguishable mark that cuts through the clutter of other logo's and icons. It is the only logo in the region with a human face, very appropriate given that we are in the business of helping people with their financial planning needs. The Prudence icon is a key visual that links all our operations across Asia, insurance and mutual funds, wholly owned or joint venture.

As I said earlier, as you can see here, the Prudence icon is quite literally the face of Prudential in Asia and very prominent in everything we do. As these images show, irrespective of the country and irrespective of the language, the Prudence face leaves our customers with no doubt who they are dealing with. Our UK heritage is something we are very proud of in Asia. Our over 100 years experience is also an important credential for us in Asia, where experience is highly valued. As you can see here, we've put to good use the (Hope & Bars?) building and other (are cargo?) images, when we launched our Life operation in Taiwan 5 years ago.

Our 'always listening, always understanding' brand credo is backed by ongoing consumer research across all 12 markets. In the past 10 years, we have conducted 180 projects, listening to 53,000 target consumers, all across Asia. These consumer research projects utilises combinations of focus groups, face to face interviews and telephone surveys to better understand our target customers' mind sets, their needs and their feelings about what we have to offer. Now, keeping in mind that only Singapore uses English as its primary language for business communications, this understanding of Asia's diversity, is vital. Through this continuous listening process, we have created a substantial knowledge base of consumer insights, which we continue to leverage across the region. This is a significant competitive advantage for us; none of the other Life companies does this.

So, what have we achieved with such a robust and consistent strategy, that is focused on our brand differentiators? First, our Prudent icon enjoys impressive recognition in Asia, higher than those of many local and foreign players. Benchmarking ourselves against HSBC, I have included an HSBC icon as one of the 8 key icons we show target consumers in each market to gauge their recognition. As you can see here, awareness of the Prudence icon is higher than that of HSBC in 8 out of our 12 markets. And as Mark has shown you earlier, our Prudence icon has a very special appeal across the region. This is another brand achievement we our very proud of. According to a recent independent survey across 8 markets, we are now one of the most trusted brands in Asia. We are placed within the top 15% of all global brands, including the likes of Coca Cola, Nike, BMW, HSBC, Citibanks, Starbucks and McDonald's. We are ranked number 2 most trusted brand in terms of Life insurers, number 1 being AIA, who has a longer history in Asia.

In addition to enhancing our leadership image, which helps attract customers, employees, distributors and partners, we also leverage our brand to support key business initiatives, such as launching new operations, launching new products, or gaining new distribution. And we do so in a way, which drives synergy and reaps cost benefits. Here are some examples of how we build and maintain our brand leadership, while also supporting key local business initiatives. This year we celebrate our 80th anniversary in Malaysia. We leverage this significant milestone to underscore our leadership profile and support the launch of key sales initiatives. I want to share with you now the 80th anniversary television commercial, which won the Mightiest Award from the United States.

(TV commercial - Malaysia)

Our joint venture partner in China is Citic, or China International Trust and Investment Corporation with excellent financial credentials. We (did?) a television commercial, which we used very successfully to launch all our operations across China. It is appropriately named 'Two Giants' as it highlights a powerful combination of Prudential and CITIC. Some of you might have seen this; I just want to tell you that we are still getting a lot of mileage out of this television commercial as recently as September 28, when we launched our new operation in Suzhou.

(TV commercial - China)

In addition to driving synergy and consistency in terms of the brand platform, we also facilitate the sharing of branding materials across borders, so we can reap the cost benefits from such multiple use. As I mentioned earlier, financial strength is important in Asia, so we developed a little reminder about our credentials, which we can use across the different markets. This is a 15 second commercial, which is less expensive to produce, to run, to adapt, and as you will see, no talent fees to pay.

(TV commercial - Asia)

Another example: the television commercial we developed in the investment link product in Taiwan in 2002, became the (incomprehensible word) television commercial for our Indonesian operation in 2004 with just some minor modifications in voice-overs and subtitles. The benefits are: consistency in strategy and the cost savings of not having to produce a second commercial. We facilitate sharing, not just within Asia. For example, we downloaded the "Spin-free" booklets form M&G for use by our Mutual Fund colleagues in Malaysia and in Taiwan. "So, where is the money?" as Rebecca said, you would like to know. Our cost efficiency and cost savings come from a variety of different sources. Let me give you just a few examples. Our total ad spend is only about £30 million a year for all 12 markets. This is modest spending, considering a rather rapid expansion. We also spend less than our key competitors, but achieve impressive impact and recognition. Leveraging synergies whenever possible, I have shown you how we are able to maximum from some of our television campaigns and drive a lower cost brand building model. For example: the amortised cost of the '2 Giants' television commercial when we launched our 10th operation in China, would only be £11,000.

In summary, the brand is very important, especially for our industry, and especially in Asia. I have shown you that Prudential is a well recognised and well trusted brand in Asia. We began with a strong brand strategy, build on consumer insights, and very focused on what differentiates us from our competitors. We expand this competitive advantage consistently in every new market and every new venture. We are able to leverage regional synergies, to drive a lower cost brand building model, without sacrificing creativity, local appeal or relevance. Therefore, we believe is a very valuable asset and a hard to duplicate competitive advantage. Now, I would like to turn the podium over to Pierre Fenech, managing director of Corporate Marketing to talk to you about our customer strategy in Asia. Thank you.

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