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Advertising

It is no surprise the department focusing on middle-aged men who like to be in the garden at the weekend is sold in a very different way from the jeans department that is aiming for the young and trendy.

Retailers use their shop window and display areas to maximum effect, drawing customers to their tills by making their displays relevant and interesting to their audience. They are experts at selling.

They understand the consumer and their buying behaviour, so it is often worth taking a leaf out of their book when thinking about the best way to market products in our own industry.

We all know that different things switch on different people, but when marketing our own products do we always acknowledge it? Too often the message is the same, regardless of the target audience.

For parents, a brochure with an image of a family with children on the front page feels relevant but it would not for single men. So the one shoe-fits-all approach that most of us adopt probably is not the best way to engage your clients.

In the case of protection insurance there is a real need for differentiation. The protection needs of a young family will be very different to those of a single person. So it makes sense the arguments we use to convince them they need protection should be different too.

Try categorising your clients into one of four different life stages: single, couple, family and divorced and make your approach and your messages more relevant to them.

Targeting is the key to success and such an approach can give advisers an advantage especially at a time when, as a result of the credit crunch, many are struggling to maintain income levels.

Protection could be a good way of replacing that lost income by moving the protection conversation beyond the traditional mortgage only approach.

Roger Edwards, proposition director of Bright Grey