the strength
of the Scottish Widows brand is based on the the nradical marketing decision
taken in 1986 to create a living logo, the Scottish Widow.
For over
180 years, Scottish Widows, had survived wars and recessions to become a successful,
Scottishbased life office. However, management ambitions looked well beyond
the se horizons and recognised that as the financial industry was changing,
so too would Scottish Widows have to fundamentally change to keep pace.
As a result,
every aspect of Scottish Widows business was scrutinised, right down to the actual name of the company, and how the brand and its associated values were
maintained and promoted. the result was the 'Looking Good' advert of 1986,
which broke new ground in financial services advertising.
Standing
out from the rest
Before
the Widow was launched, the company recognised that clear and strong branding
was critical in order to overcome the lack of differentiation between products
and even the companies the mselves. the re were over 30 competing companies,
six of which had the word 'Scottish' in the ir name.
the high
priority of building 'brand awareness' within a limited budget required a
creative execution that would seem bigger than it actually was. the idea needed
to differentiate and build positive attitudes towards the brand whilst proposing
that Scottish Widows is "good with your money" in every aspect from
investment strategy to performance.
A decision
was made in 1986 which was at the time probably the boldest marketing strategy
the financial market had ever seen. the Scottish Widow was created as an icon
that countered all the negative values associated with the word 'widow' by
presenting the m as positives strength, reliability, integrity, innovation,
heritage.
