More Than chief slams insurance rivals over ‘obsession with price’

Insurance brand More Than’s top marketer has blasted rivals for being obsessed with being the cheapest.

Head of marketing Neil Scaife’s outburst comes as More Than prepares to reinforce its “value” positioning in a new marketing drive that is expected to see the end of its Lucky the dog brand icon.

“Other brands in the category seem to be incapable of having a conversation unless it’s about price,” he says, citing Norwich Union’s “Quote Me Happy” campaign as an obvious offender. However, he claims that consumers do not correlate price with consideration. “We offer product and service superiority at a competitive price,” he says, adding that to offer the cheapest service, companies have to cut their service benefits.

Fallon scooped the Royal & Sun Alliance-owned brand’s &£25m creative account from incumbent CCHM:Ping last month after being the only shortlisted agency to pitch ideas that did not feature the Lucky character. The campaign could also spell the end for More Than’s “That’s more than lucky” strapline. Scaife says no decision has been made.

He adds that new advertising will seek to convert consideration to sales, saying previous work “clouded the underlying product messaging” by being too busy. “We have struggled with persuasion,” he says. “People know we offer quality, but think that they can’t afford us. We must remind them that this is not the case.”