Insurer sticks with ad campaign and sales rise - Los Angeles Business from bizjournals:

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The West Bend-based property casualty company decided to stickj withits “silver lining” re-brandinh and advertising campaign after the recession hit, and officialas say it’s having results. Company officials hadn’ty counted on the economic turmoil when they developeda three-year advertising and branding strategy in 2007, said Kevin president and chief executive officer. The campaigjn marked West Bend’s first entrance into the televisionadvertising market. The companhy had done some limited sports related radiadvertising previously. West Bend’s new taglinew is: “The worst brings out our That’s the silver lining.
” A three-year plan called for it to targetr growth in three of the seven states where itsells policies: Wisconsin, Iowa and The marketing push consisted of television advertising. After the recession hit, company officials steppedd back to make sure theyshould continue. “Wr certainly spent a lot of time discussiny should we continue and what are the advantages and disadvantages of continuing,” Steiner said.
McGraw-Hill Research found in a studgy of600 businesses, those that maintainee or increased advertising spending during the recession of 1981-82 averaged highef sales growth during the recessio n and the following three years, according to a report calledx “Innovating Through Recession,” by Professor Andrew Razeghi of the Kelloggy School of Management at Northwestern Evanston, Ill. By 1985, sales for firms that continued to advertisse had risen 256 percent over thosee that cut back on hisreport said. Another study found that aggressive recession advertisinb increased marketshare 2.5 times the average for all business in the post-recessiojn economy, his report said.
The research showed there were clear advantages to continuing to advertise if you have thefinancia capacity, Steiner said. The other advantage of advertising during the recessionj is that rates have decreased an averagde of 15 percent to 20 saidKevin Rausch, West Bend Mutual’s marketing The company wanted to take its messag to Minnesota, but struggled with the costs to advertiser on television in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Steiner said.
“Because of the recession, we’vw been able to take that message to Minnesota in avery cost-effectivre way and get some tremendous exposure,” he West Bend sought to accelerate growth with the new marketing plan and brandinbg campaign. “The response we have gotten from our which are both our policyholders and our independent has clearly demonstrated that our message is differen t than the majority of what you see from othe rinsurance companies, and that has been an effectiv message,” he said. Automobile and homeowner’zs insurance were the first business lines targeteedby advertising, and sales of those policies were up 11.
5 percent through May 2009, compared with the first five months of Steiner said. Those sales had increased 10 percentfin 2008, compared with a less than 5 percent increaser industrywide, Steiner said. Net premiums written in 2008 totalexd $690 million, up 2.8 percent from $671 millionh in 2007. The company projects net premiums writtenh to be flat this year because of softnesz in thecommercial market, Steiner said.