Insurance Age - Leading Motor Insurers Driving Online Customers Away

Insurance Age - Leading Motor Insurers Driving Online Customers Away

Many leading motor insurance websites are failing to capitalise on the online sales opportunity by making it too difficult for drivers to get a quote online, according to a new industry benchmark report. Ambiguous forms, a lack of clear information and difficult to follow quote processes are some of the critical errors identified in ‘ Driving Online Sales for Motor Insurance ‘ published today by usability specialists Webcredible.
The report evaluates the websites of 20 UK motor insurers against 20 key usability criteria, awarding each a Web Usability Index rating out of 100[1]. Only half of the motor insurers achieved a score of over 55 in the study. Quin Direct, Hastings Direct and the AA topped the Index with scores of 76, 69 and 69 respectively, providing easy to follow quote processes, consistent formatting and explicit instructions to enable users to easily understand and navigate the website.
However, many big insurance brands languished at the bottom of the league table, including Elephant (53), Endsleigh (43) and The Post Office (43). Swiftcover provided the worst experience, scoring a mere 42 out of 100. The Webcredible report uncovered three critical areas where insurers were putting off web visitors:
1. Failing to set expectations at the start of the quote process As soon as users click to ‘get a quote’, they should be told how long the process will take and if they will need any information they might not know off the top of their head, such as registration number. Failure to do so can lead users to abandon the quote process altogether. Insurers scored badly in both areas, with an average score of 1.2 and 0.3 out of 5 respectively.
2. Telephone number not clearly displayed by 70% of web sites Research has shown that 35% of people that use the internet to research insurance or get a quote actually choose to pay offline. If a website doesn’t clearly provide contact details, they will be preventing this large percentage of internet users from buying a policy from them.
3. Not helping internet users when they encounter an error During the quote process, 40% of insurers did not provide users with a summary of errors or provide explicit instructions on how they should be corrected. If internet users can’t spot their mistakes and, more importantly, work out how to fix them, the only alternative could be to visit another website and try again.
“There are countless car insurance websites all vying for the attention of drivers, so providing a clear, easy to use website can be the critical differentiator,” explained Trenton Moss, managing director, Webcredible.
“Online insurance is an aggressively competitive market but many insurers are failing to meet basic usability standards. For example, 90 per cent of insurers missed the golden rule of setting customer expectations prior to embarking on a quote. This could cost them dearly as drivers give up mid-way through the process and deflect to a competitor’s website out of sheer frustration. By taking steps to design their websites around the needs of their target users, companies can reap significant rewards and increase conversion rates by as much as 100 per cent.”
Webcredible has compiled the Online Motor Insurance Usability Report following user testing and expert reviews of 20 motor insurance websites in March 2007. The report is available to download from the Webcredible website at: www.webcredible.co.uk/insurance .

News: Shop to handle Green Flag £10m ad account - MarketingWeek

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/item/55887/355/310/3?eid=e12&ln=agy03: "Shop to handle Green Flag £10m ad account

Green Flag has confirmed it has appointed Shop to handle its £10m advertising account following a protracted review, as first predicted in Marketing Week yesterday (Wednesday). The agency is thought to have beaten Farm in a final pitch to win the business.
Shop will also handle below-the-line activity for the breakdown company, which is part of the RBS Group. MRM Partners was the incumbent on Green Flag's promotional account and was asked to repitch for the business but it is understood that the company was looking for one agency to handle its above- and below-the-line accounts.
Green Flag began approaching agencies at the start of December last year and the review was managed by Creative Brief. It is thought Shop will be asked to relaunch Green Flag as a challenger brand to the AA and the RAC.
Shop managing director Caspar Thykier says: "Green Flag is an ambitious brand that is looking for great creativity to get cut-through. We've applied some fresh thinking to do just that."
Sources claim the pitch was delayed by a series of management changes at Green Flag, although a spokesman for the company denies this was the case. Managing director of UKI Partnerships, which manages the Green Flag brand, Andy Watson left the company at the start of this year (MW January 11), and it is thought that agencies pitched to members of Direct Line's marketing department, rather than UKI marketing director Hilary Williams.
MediaCom, which handles Green Flag's media planning and buying account, is unaffected by the advertising review."

Post Online - NIG creates new schemes manager role

Post Online - NIG creates new schemes manager role: "NIG creates new schemes manager role
NIG has appointed Phillip Jones to the newly created role of schemes development manager.
Mr Jones will be responsible for providing a stronger relationship management focus on NIG's existing commercial schemes brokers and explore new commercial schemes opportunities.
He will report to David Parker, NIG director of distribution. Phillip joins the commercial key accounts team from his current role as area sales manager in NIG's branch network.
Prior to joining NIG he held various key account management roles at Royal and SunAlliance. He brings 27 years' experience in the insurance industry to the role. "

Shop wins £10m Green Flag integrated account - Brand Republic News - Brand Republic

Shop wins £10m Green Flag integrated account - Brand Republic News - Brand Republic: "Shop wins £10m Green Flag integrated account
by Joanne Payne Brand Republic 12-Apr-07, 09:00
LONDON - Breakdown service Green Flag has appointed integrated communications agency Shop to its £10m creative, direct and digital marketing account.
Intermediary Creative Brief handled the pitch, in which Shop triumphed over incumbent MRM Partners and a number of undisclosed agencies.
Caspar Thykier, managing director at Shop, said: "Green Flag is an ambitious brand that is looking for great creativity to get cut through. Through a very collaborative pitch process we've applied some fresh thinking to do just that."

The Royal Bank of Scotland owns Green Flag, which was founded in 1971. The AA is the market leader in the breakdown assistance sector, with approximately 14.8m members. RAC has 6.9m members and Green Flag has 5m.
The brief was declared in December, when representatives from Green Flag stated that the service wished to differentiate itself from other breakdown services with a refreshed advertising campaign.
Nigel Charlesworth, Green Flag spokesman, said: "Following a detailed and thorough selection process we are pleased to appoint Shop to deliver our brand message to consumers across a range of media."
Mediacom presently handles media duties and Shop will be working in conjunction with them in Green Flag's next marketing push, which will be handled by its marketing director Hilary Williams. "

eMarketer.com - Niche Sites Invigorate Online Travel

eMarketer.com - Niche Sites Invigorate Online Travel: "Niche Sites Invigorate Online Travel

APRIL 11, 2007

Friends and family tired of your vacation videos? Just go online.

New online travel sites are chipping away at some of the expertise that drives people to online travel agencies (OTAs), which are themselves already pressured by travel supplier sites run by airlines and hotels.
Recent offerings from Farecast and FareCompare help consumers determine the best time to book airline tickets. Travel social networking sites like Gusto.com let visitors share itineraries and trip information.
Capitalizing on the online video rage, travelervideos.com lets travelers upload vacation photos and videos and write their own travel blogs — all of which can be shared with family, friends and other travelers.
All this activity comes as research from comScore shows that travel supplier Web sites are steadily taking share away from OTAs, due to the success of their lowest-price guarantees.

Specialized Web sites and Internet tools are beginning to catch on with online travelers as online travel resources, according to Forrester Research. For example, 12% of online leisure travelers subscribed to travel-related RSS feeds in 2006, compared with 1% a year earlier.
Forrester also found that peer reviews and blogs can have a decisive influence on travel behavior. Among travelers who used the Web to plan or book a hotel stay and consulted peer reviews, 25% of infrequent leisure travelers and 33% of frequent leisure travelers changed their hotel stays based on what they read.

OTAs are not worried solely by these newcomers. Travel supplier sites are also edging in on their customers. The pressure on OTAs is likely to increase as the US economy enters what economists believe will be a period of subdued growth. What's more, travel search engines such as Kayak and SideStep, as they gain traction with travelers, will drive more visitors to supplier sites. Then there are travel portals like Yahoo! Travel that offer a full suite of travel products and services.
Despite the range of influences that affect whether or not Internet users buy airline tickets, Web sites are the most influential, according to DoubleClick and ROI Research. In fact, the research found that Web sites trump word-of-mouth, which is rare in any purchase.

So what does the rise of niche travel sites mean for established players? eMarketer Senior Analyst Jeffrey Grau says that the Internet is changing the rules of engagement between travel firms and consumers, making for a hotbed of experimentation.
"Lower industry entry barriers have paved the way for new online travel business models," says Mr. Grau. "In this dynamic environment, current industry players must stay alert, otherwise they risk being blindsided by new competitors that fall off their radar screens." "

Email volume grows but open rates drop - Brand Republic News - Brand Republic

Email volume grows but open rates drop - Brand Republic News - Brand Republic: "Email volume grows but open rates drop
by Daniel Farey-Jones Brand Republic 10-Apr-07, 15:20
LONDON - The number of marketing emails sent during the third quarter of 2006 was more than 1bn, an increase of 37% year-on-year, but open rates for customer acquisition emails dropped by more than a quarter, according to the DMA.
The DMA's National Email Benchmarking Survey showed a 'worrying' drop in the average unique open rate for acquisition campaigns from 25% in the third quarter of 2005 to 18% in the third quarter of 2006. The same rate for retention campaigns fell slightly from 34% to 33%.
The survey also highlighted improving delivery rates. The fail rate -- the non-delivered emails divided by the number of emails sent -- for acquisition and retention campaigns fell from the second quarter of 2006 when it was 9% and 7% for acquisition and retention respectively to around 3% for both.
Richard Gibson, chair of the DMA Email Marketing Council's Benchmarking Hub, said: "With inbox delivery still proving to be one of the biggest challenges for ESPs, this is an area where they can demonstrate real business benefit.
"As more and more clients adopt some of the deliverability best practice standards such as sender ID, domain key registration and use of spam-checking tools, we should see deliverability rates hold, or maybe improved in the next few reports. The rewards will be significant for those who get it right.""

eMarketer.com - Few Convert at Retail E-Commerce Sites

eMarketer.com - Few Convert at Retail E-Commerce Sites: "Few Convert at Retail E-Commerce Sites

APRIL 9, 2007

Many shop. Few buy.

Online merchants convert an average of 2%-3% of their site visitors into buyers, according to the e-tailing group's 'Sixth Annual Merchant Survey.'
That's about the same as last year. And the year before that.

The group says that driving the right customers to sites and increasing sales and retention all require more targeted tactics every year. It points to analytics and data mining as the way to make this happen.
Shop.org conducts a similar annual survey with Forrester Research called "The State of Retailing Online." Conversion rates in that study also average about 2%-3%.

These are averages. What about those who do better?
A Nielsen//NetRatings report called "MegaView Online Retail" cited in Internet Retailer listed the top 10 US retail e-commerce sites in terms of conversion. Every site had a greater than 15% conversion rate, and nearly 25% of visitors to top site Proflowers.com bought something.

eMarketer Senior Analyst Jeffrey Grau says that retailers with industry-leading conversion rates are doing more than just looking at numbers.
"Online retailers who go beyond using traditional Web analytics data to truly understand their customers' intentions, perceptions and concerns will be rewarded with higher conversion rates," he says. "

eMarketer.com - More Women Online

eMarketer.com - More Women Online: "Women outnumber men online, and it's likely to stay that way.

Females now constitute an undeniable majority of the US Internet population.

eMarketer estimates that there will be an estimated 97.2 million female Internet users ages 3 and older in 2007, or 51.7% of the total online population. In 2011, 109.7 million US females will go online, amounting to 51.9% of the total online population.

Estimates from other research sources concur that females represent the majority of US Internet users, ranging from 53% (Arbitron and Edison Media Research, for Internet users ages 12 and older) down to 50.6% (comScore Media Metrix, for Internet users ages 2 and older).

According to eMarketer's analysis, female Internet usage has surpassed male usage for some time. Other researchers are now coming to that same conclusion.
The University of Southern California's Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future reported that in 2006 the percentage of females who went online had, for the first time in the six years the center has conducted the survey, surpassed males. It reported that 78.4% of the female population ages 12 and older go online, vs. 76.7% of males.
Female usage has risen 12.4 percentage points since 2000, while male usage is up 3.2 points. The drop in male usage between 2005 and 2006 is something that bears close attention, and eMarketer will report on the results from USC's 2007 survey when it becomes available.

Not only do females make up the majority of Internet users, but more of the female population goes online. This year, an estimated 66.2% of US females ages 3 and older will use the Internet at least once a month, compared with 64.2% of males, according to eMarketer. By 2011, 72.1% of females are expected to go online, vs. 69.3% of males.
Researchers that survey only the adult population still find that a greater percentage of males go online. MORI Research, for example, reported that as of March-April 2006, 73% of adult females and 79% of adult males went online. The Pew Internet & American Life Project reported that as of February-April 2006, 71% of adult females went online, vs. 74% of adult males.
eMarketer Senior Analyst Debra Aho Williamson thinks that current trends will shape future Internet demographics and usage.
"For girls who have grown up with technology," says Ms. Williamson, "there is no significant gender gap in Internet usage, and the rise of activities that are particularly appealing to young females, such as social networking, will result in even greater usage." "

Bank with us or face the consequences, RBS tells employees - Independent Online Edition > This Britain

Bank with us or face the consequences, RBS tells employees - Independent Online Edition > This Britain: "Bank with us or face the consequences, RBS tells employees


Britain's second largest bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland, which owns NatWest, has been criticised for demanding that its employees open an account with its branches.
In letters being sent to an estimated 14,000 workers, RBS instructed them to use its facilities for personal banking or face the consequences. Gordon Pell, chief executive of retail markets at RBS, warned them: "Failure to do so will represent a breach of group policy and I will be obliged to write directly to your line manager asking them to progress this matter to the group's disciplinary policy."
Bank employees have protested to their union, Amicus, which described the order as unwarranted and "heavy-handed".
The controversy comes after a turbulent month for the high street banks, which are facing a mass revolt from customers and scrutiny by regulators over unfair bank charges. The Independent has been urging people to claim back their money.
Fresh concern about the banks' behaviour was raised this week by a BBC television programme that exposed shady practice by staff at Barclays, such as switching people to fee-based accounts without their consent and misrepresenting the nature of sales calls.
Two bank groups, Lloyds TSB and HBOS, said that they did not compel employees to have accounts with their employer.
RBS, which also owns the insurers Direct Line and Churchill, said it sent its letter after a regular review to remind staff of their terms and conditions.
Staff who did not comply with the terms of employment would face disciplinary procedures, the company said but that did not mean that they would lose their jobs.
"Our staff are completely at liberty to run other accounts with other providers if they wish, once the money is theirs they can do what they like with it," a spokesman said.
Amicus said: "Our helpline has been jammed with calls from angry staff. If you work for Tesco you won't be disciplined for buying your groceries from Sainsbury." It claimed that most of the staff affected had been transferred to RBS following the takeovers of Direct Line and Churchill and were not on contracts that required them to open RBS accounts.
"RBS's disproportionate and heavy-handed approach is counter-productive and bad for morale. We are calling on the bank to reconsider its position."
Alison Maclean, of Amicus, said that most RBS employees already held accounts with the group. "Where the problem has arisen is where employees through choice over a number of years have chosen to have their salary paid into another bank account," she told BBC Radio 4. "There are also employees that have joined the group from other constituent organisations, such as Direct Line or Churchill Insurance.
"This wasn't a problem a year ago or two years ago and now all of a sudden it's a problem.
"We are talking about employees who have been loyal to the bank and dedicated and never had any issues in terms of proposed disciplinary action and they now find themselves in a situation where potentially they could face disciplinary action for failing to have their salary paid into a group bank."
Lloyds TSB said it encouraged all members of staff to know their products and be visible advocates of the brand when they opened their wallets. However it added that it did not force staff to open an account with the company. A spokesman for HBOS, which owns Halifax, said: "We do not force anybody to have an HBOS or Halifax account, they just need a current account. We do have specific accounts for colleagues which may have slightly better rates. But the option is entirely theirs - there is no pressure at all." "

AXA reviews £12m media account - Brand Republic News - Brand Republic

AXA reviews £12m media account - Brand Republic News - Brand Republic: "AXA reviews £12m media account
by Joanna Bowery Marketing 04-Apr-07, 15:30
LONDON - French-owned insurance and investment giant AXA is reviewing its £12m UK media planning and buying account out of OMD Connect.
The firm says it is studying its agency arrangements as it pursues a new business strategy following the appointment of a new chief executive Nicolas Moreau last year.Last summer AXA appointed a new UK marketing chief, Olivier Mariee, who joined from the firm's Paris headquarters
AXA has spent recent months shifting its focus away from independent financial advisers to cultivate a direct relationship with customers.

OMD Connect is a joint venture between OMD UK and WWAV Media.
Creative duties are handled by Grey Australia, which was appointed to handle the UK business in 2005 after coming up with an idea for Australia that would translate well to a UK audience. "

Coke Orange to launch in July - Brand Republic News - Brand Republic

Coke Orange to launch in July - Brand Republic News - Brand Republic: "Coke Orange to launch in July
by Gemma Charles Marketing 30-Mar-07, 17:40
LONDON - Coca-Cola Enterprises is rolling out a limited edition orange-flavoured Coke backed by a £2.5m marketing campaign.
Coca-Cola Orange will be on shelves from July in 330ml cans and 500ml and 2 litre bottles. The activity will comprise product sampling, bespoke packaging, point of sale and outdoor advertising which will form part of the ‘Coke Side of Summer' campaign designed to drive growth through music and football.
The launch of the orange drink follows a number of citrus variants. Last year it launched Coca-Cola with lime and it has also produced a lemon variant. According to CCE, the lime drink delivered incremental growth as more than 40% of its launch volume was generated by new buyers and increased purchasing.
CCE is also relaunching Capri-Sun and will update the brand's packaging later this year to include guideline daily amounts on the front of the packs. The product will be reformulated so it contains no artificial ingredients, less sugar and more juice.
The move will be supported by a £1m advertising campaign covering ‘mums' press and in-store activity and media."

The Telegraph - Calcutta : Business

The Telegraph - Calcutta : Business: "Alpha duty-free shops
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, March 29: UK-based Alpha Airports Group today opened a chain of duty-free stores at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.
Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL) had awarded the duty-free shop contract for Indira Gandhi International Airport to the Alpha-Pantaloon consortium. The consortium comprises Alpha Airports Group Plc and Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd, a Future Group venture. The value of the contract is at least Rs 500 crore and its term is a little over three years.
The Alpha Future duty-free shops will run from one outlet in the arrivals section and four in departures, covering a total area of about 8,000 square feet. This is bigger than the area covered by the earlier duty-free shops. The shops will sell liquor and tobacco; perfume and cosmetics; fashion and accessories; and confectionery.
The fashion and accessories store is spread over 1,100 square feet and offers a range of products from sunglasses and watches to pens and stationery, as well as crystalware, fine and fashion jewellery, and men’s accessories. The confectionery section offers a wide range of over 15 everyday basics as well as an exclusive selection of premium chocolates.
G.M. Rao, chairman of GMR Group, said, “We are pleased at the opening of the duty-free shops by the Alpha Future consortium at the Delhi airport.”
Its experience across the globe and in the country matches DIAL’s vision to provide world-class experience to travellers at the Delhi airport.”
DIAL is in the process of modernising the Indira Gandhi International Airport.
Work on the new integrated passenger terminal and runway is already underway. The runway and a new domestic passenger terminal will be ready in 2008. By 2010, Terminal 3, a world-class facility catering to both domestic and international passengers would be ready."