Page 100 - 100 Great Marketing Ideas (100 Great Ideas)

46 DISCOURAGE THE
UNDESIRABLES

Most firms spend most of their time trying to attract and retain
customers. Most of the time, this is exactly what should be
happening—but most managers (especially in service industries)
are aware that some customers simply are not worth keeping. How
much better would it be if they were discouraged in the first place?
After all, finding out that they are not good customers involves
making some effort.

The idea

Frizzell Insurance specializes in insuring people such as teachers,
civil servants, and local authority workers—people who, by their
career choice, show that they prefer a safe, quiet life. As motorists,
these people are like gold dust, of course. Frizzell, in common with
many other insurance companies, operates online and through a call
center, but it is a small company and cannot handle a large influx
of calls: the company therefore wanted to discourage unsuitable
callers, i.e., high-risk drivers.

Frizzell’s TV campaign showed couples who had insured through
Frizzell for many years. The couples were shown as they are now,
and as they were when they first started insuring with Frizzell, with
music from that period playing. The advertising was tested with
both the target audience and with the “undesirables”: the target
audience thought the ads were charming and engaging, whereas
the undesirables thought them boring, banal, and condescending.

Frizzel experienced its biggest-ever annual growth in business,
outstripping arch-rival and market leader Direct Line.

100 GREAT MARKETING IDEAS • 91