The Key Learning Points:

1. The role marketing plays in creating a successful business 

2. Tips for marketing in the insurance sector and how men and women react differently to marketing campaigns 

3. How Gen Z’s changing attitudes to ownership and their ability to compare prices online will change the future of marketing strategy

Today on the remote Risky Mix Podcast we’re joined by Erica Mackay, founder of We Are Orange Tree, a marketing strategy firm which helps businesses find their marketing voice and optimise their marketing and sales processes.

When asked what three words describe her, Erica answers “detailed”, “nosey” and “weird!”, and at this point, we know this is going to be a fun conversation! Erica started down the accountancy path, studying accounting but quickly realising that this was not the best path for her: “After the first year I released that it would be the worst possible job for my personality type!” She then stepped into marketing within the financial services industry, starting in South Africa and spending the last six years in UK. She started work at AIG in 2009 in the product development space and realised her passion for marketing strategy - understanding the target market and “getting the message so right that it sings!”. Erica identified an opportunity to support small businesses who were lacking that focus and expertise around marketing strategy – and so Orange Tree was born. 

We discuss some of the marketing techniques and approaches that Erica has observed and used during her career. On the life and health insurance side “continuity and frequency of message are really important for brands. When the need arises, you need to be top of mind.” There are two pieces of advice that Erica offers: 1. Always focus on the single main pain point, rather than lots of pain points and different messages and 2. Consider seasonality: “January is the best month for life insurance globally.” She explains that people have post-Christmas blues as they come away from family and are focused on New Year’s resolutions. 

Erica tells us about the "switch off effect". We hear about flight, fight but there’s also freeze, which is our automatic instinct to anything negative in our environment: “There are certain messages that make the customer run”. Erica brings this concept to life by comparing the reaction to cancer insurance between men and women. A breast cancer insurance product sold well because, in Erica’s opinion, “women are really open. We talk about it. We know survivors. We share our stories.” On the other hand, a testicular cancer insurance product didn’t sell well at all, which Erica believes is because “in general, men don’t like hearing about their private parts being hurt!” Erica adds that men switch off and withdraw from the message, they don’t want to think about being hurt, it’s overwhelming. 

We move on to discuss the future of marketing and touch on the growth of the sharing economy. Erica explains that younger generations don’t want to own things and yet insurance is all about ownership. And while previous generations looked for ownership, stability and listened to authority, Gen Z do not: “The triggers that worked in marketing before are not necessarily going to work now.” Erica believes that Gen Z are all about price because they have access to everything online - comparison shopping is automatic, prices are visible. Erica thinks that this will be a challenge for the insurance industry going forward as product features are so different, but consumers are expected to increasingly make decisions based on price.