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THE BROAD MARKETING STRATEGY Direct Line is a fantastic success story. They started from scratch in the UK in April 1985 with a single product car insurance, and just one way for our customers to buy over the telephone. Direct Line has diversified from its traditional auto insurance and caters for a much broader market by offers Home insurance . They were the very first UK insurance company to use the telephone as our main channel of communication, and had been introducing new benefits and finding new ways of helping their customers ever since.
At the beginning they are the market leader of insurance via telephone by develop a direct telephone and mail distribution channel, bypassing the brokerage route and thus saving the commission charged. They have become motor leading insurer in the UK because of enjoyment of customer retention rate of 85 percent compare to industry average rate of around 50 percent so we can indicates that this company have a good relationship with their customer that continually repeat in using their service that being offered.
It now also has increased the local it services to include many countries in Europe. It also has grown outside of the insurance market as Direct Line Financial Services and offers mortgages and loans. Additional information from the net as for the market there are 35 million private motorists in the UK, all of whom are legally obliged to insure themselves and their cars as well as other people against injury and damage. Most motorists prefer the security of comprehensive cover, rather than a basic Fire and Theft policy. A total of ? billion is spent annually in the UK on motor insurance with 40% of drivers opting for comprehensive insurance policies (Source: Mintel 2002). The company’s first television advertisements appeared during the late 1980s but its branding breakthrough came in 1990 when the first television commercial featuring the distinctive Direct Line red phone on wheels appeared on UK screens. The Direct Line red phone and its associated jingle, rapidly established high levels of recall among consumers soon after its introduction, helping to heighten awareness ratings to levels normally associated with high profile consumer brands.
With a 95% brand awareness level, the red phone icon already has proved a huge success with UK consumers and has come to represent innovation, value for money and leading customer service. It is now also well on the way to achieving similar recognition overseas. (amik dalam internet kalau nak letak amik.. kalau xnak takya) As for the product development , they have launched its Home insurance product and still using split between structure and content and careful in insuring the properties so that can be physically inspected and strict requirement laid down before policies were put in force . ther than that in term of broad marketing strategy have shown the grown of brought regional expansion with the opening of sale and claims office in Glasgow , followed in regional centre Manchester to service Northern England and Wales beside continuing their operation in Croydon to services southern parts of England and Wales and expand their market to Birmingham to service customers in the midlands.
Beside that relationship marketing always meant to create competitive advantage and winning and keeping the customer so it important the management efficiency so ,Direct Line insurance had respond and tightening their link with those brokers who obtained the best quality business for them and had stopped accepting policies from brokers whose business produced higher than average claims.
The broad marketing strategy using advertising by Direct Line reached by the use of high profile advertising coupled with extensive direct marketing by using television advertisement which is have persuade broader audience which create awareness of Direct Line company higher . Other than that they have well trained tele sale that attract many new policy holder . urthermore, the speed in settling claims by customer is higher beside they having their own engineers aimed to settle as quick as possible. The friendly 24 hour helpline number ensure to provide an accident that occurred during emergency such as storm damage , broken windows or damage locks. The company state that they only accepted payment by credit card or direct debit which is with minimum of paper so they use Innovative technology that helps to keep down costs and reduce premiums.
For example, most customers use credit cards or Direct Debits to pay for Direct Line products so that payments can be processed electronically, keeping staffing levels and overheads to a minimum. In related with the efficient and effectiveness of the service quality gap , there were the first to cut out the middleman and deal directly with their customers to help save their money .
The secret of their success is great products and services, competitive pricing, outstanding customer service and a real belief in their employees. Therefore , Direct Line has set itself a mission to succeed. The company as a whole and the individuals it comprises strive to treat customers in a way that is always trustworthy, straightforward, human and challenging. It is customer-focused, innovative and pioneering. Its level of consumer awareness in the UK is high, reflecting the success of the red phone icon.