Aug 27, 2008

Mktg - Max Newyork's New Positioning

Max New York Life (MNYL), the life insurance brand, had launched an ad campaign during the DLF Indian Premier League, with the main protagonist screaming for Sanju. While that ad still lingers in memory, MNYL is back.

MNYL has repositioned itself from being ‘Your Partner for Life’ to making you want much more. The new positioning says, ‘Karo Zyaada ka Iraada’ (‘Want More’).

Anisha Motwani, executive vice-president, marketing, and chief marketing officer, new markets, said at the press meet to announce this new positioning, “We’ve conducted surveys that have told us that hope, optimism, dreams and aspirations are at an all time high in the country and we want more.” The times of contentment with one’s lot in life are passé. Now, people who were unknown yesterday have become heroes through their own efforts and enterprise; cricketer MS Dhoni is a stark example. There is a belief now that one can make one’s own destiny.
Motwani questioned, “Why do we need to be satisfied with what we already have? We have it in us to change our fortunes and we should do so.” She gives the examples of reality shows and quiz shows that have made it easier for the common man to become stars.

According to her, MNYL believes that if people continue to be unabashedly ambitious, the world will be a better place. And MNYL, then, will not just be a partner for life, but a partner for life to get the consumer more.

The corporate TV commercial has been created by O&M Delhi. The TVC depicts a circle of individual dreams and desires. It begins with a young man, who has a thick mop of hair, crossing the road; he lusts after a bike he sees stationary at the signal. The man on the bike looks at another couple on a bike and hopes to have a girl with him soon. The girl on the bike looks at a woman and her children on the sidewalk; she wonders when she will have her own little family. The woman on the sidewalk is window shopping, when she sees a diamond necklace and thinks wistfully about owning it. A man picks up the diamond necklace and is then waiting at a signal in his car. He sees the young man with thick hair cross the road and runs his hand over his bald pate.

O&M handles the creative duties for MNYL’s corporate account and the new business called Max Vijay. Max Vijay is MNYL’s rural markets entity; a pilot project for this has been started in Allahabad, but the entity will be launched in October.

Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and national creative director, O&M India was also present at the press meet. He said, “Today’s youth is all ready to take in more at one go. They want to get much more than is offered. That is the idea that MNYL wanted to give because they want you to want more.”

With this new positioning, MNYL has also gone regional. The positioning line is in Hindi and will be converted to the four languages of South India when it is released there. “The change is because we have become more comfortable with our identity and feel free to portray ourselves as Indians,” says Motwani. MNYL is concentrating on the South market this time and aims to grow rapidly by the end of the year, with outlets in nearly 75 towns.

Motwani gives details about what consumers expect of an insurance policy. MNYL has found that returns on investment, securing assets and future security are very important, and MNYL is ready to give all that the consumer needs and much more. “The business is ready to give more and we have accordingly changed the brand,” she says.

MNYL is also soon to launch its unit linked child plan product. Euro RSCG handles the creative duties for MNYL’s products.

MNYL has allocated Rs 100 crore for this year’s marketing spends, of which 60 per cent is to be spent on mass media and above-the-line, and about 40 per cent on below-the-line.

Apart from print, MNYL will launch an innovative gaming site to interact with potential consumers. Gamers will need to register, thus enabling MNYL to build a new database. It is also taking up all online and television properties that will help it leverage the thought of ‘zyaada’. Max Achievers has been created to award everyday achievers’ stories. This will be carried out on digital platforms such as Livemint.com, CNNIBNLive.com and others.

Indicative posters and hoardings will be part of the media mix. Direct mailers, which will emphasise the ‘zyaada’ factor, will also be sent. MNYL will employ the Rajdhani trains, which it has rights to, in order to carry out the branding. Roadblocks on all news channels will also be utilised.

Apart from this, media innovations with certain mass appeal shows on television, affinity marketing with Spencer’s and automobile dealers, malls, drop-downs, Volvo branding, digital clocks at local railway stations in Mumbai and branding in Delhi’s Metro train network, are also on the anvil.

The branding will be carried out throughout the country, but will be customised for each market.

Madison handles the media duties for MNYL.

MNYL is presently No. 6 in the market and has a penetration of 4.7 per cent.

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