Direct Line eyes customer focus in marketing restructure

Direct Line Group has overhauled the structure of its marketing team, bringing product development and marketing together in a bid to make its insurance offerings more customer focussed.

direct line

Marketing will combine with the teams that develop motor, travel, holiday and pet insurance products for brands such as Direct Line and Churchill under the leadership of managing director for personal lines Tom Woolgrove.

Meanwhile, Mark Evans has been confirmed as the marketing director of DLG after a two month stint as interim. Evans, who stepped in after Rick Vlemmiks left after just five months into the role, will report to Woolgrove.

The restructure comes as owner Royal Bank of Scotland prepares to float DLG. The sale of Direct Line Group was forced on RBS by European regulators as a condition of accepting Government aid in 2008. RBS is majority owned by the state.

DLG has been preparing for the sell-off for more than a year, creating distinct positioning for its brands to increase their value to potential investors.

It recently repositioned Direct Line, switching from price-led to service-based marketing. Churchill ads present it as a straightforward antidote to complex insurance policies offered by others.

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