Marloes Zwets  – Interpolis

Marloes Zwets is a Media Brand Strategist at Interpolis, active in the Brand, Reputation and Customer Experience department. Interpolis belongs as a social cooperative organization to one of the most prominent financial service providers in the Netherlands. Marloes is responsible for major communication moments in the housing domain. She believes in the power of the Interpolis brand.

“In the housing field, we are one of the major players, often breaking conventions. Our goal is to retain this character,” she says enthusiastically. In the interview, it is further explained that growth is seen as multifaceted.

Multifaceted growth

Marloes states that growth consists of several components. An insurer can grow in the portfolio, but you can also grow in claim reduction. “When making a profit, as an insurer you can turn two knobs: ask for more premium or reduce your claims. While we are not necessarily striving to generate as much profit as possible, creating a healthy portfolio is more important to us. We want to contribute to a positive behavioural change so that people live safer which ultimately leads to reduced claims.

Interpolis mainly focuses on creating a healthy portfolio where people are aware of risks and deal with them consciously. This goes hand in hand with our social objectives: reducing the number of traffic fatalities, burglary prevention and encouragement of the use of smoke detectors.” explains Marloes.

“While we are not necessarily striving to generate as much profit as possible, creating a healthy portfolio is more important to us.”

We are not a love brand but a necessity for life

It is essential for marketers to gain an understanding of the perception that consumers have of a brand in order to build its reputation. Marloes states very clearly: “Interpolis is not a love brand. People don’t usually like to think about insurance or safety in general. Humans are biased when it comes to unsafe situations thinking these situations always happen to someone else. People see safety as police on the street but not as something they can actively control themselves.

“We try to be present at moments when an insurer comes into people’s minds. This can be during all kinds of life events.”

One of those can be the renovation of a house, after-storm damage when people start cohabiting or simply when the consumer compares policies between insurance companies. We also try to be present in the mind of the consumer before any of these events start. When consumers think of insurance for damages we want them to think about Interpolis. Visibility is key and on top of that, we try to make sure that people stay in contact with the Interpolis brand.”

Communication channels to keep in touch

“We keep in touch with our consumers through TV, radio, and branded content that we are increasingly using more and more. Measuring the effectiveness of branded content can be challenging due to the difficulty in reaching a large enough audience. Despite this, those who read the content often provide us with positive feedback,” says Marloes. “We also have to keep in mind that we already have a high level of brand awareness which indicates that there is a limited potential for further growth on this KPI.”

Besides the uprise in branded content, Marloes acknowledged the importance of TV for Interpolis. Even though the TV audience has been declining for years, it is still the best way to reach a wide audience. Overall, Interpolis utilizes TV to reach a wide audience and branded content for a more in-depth knowledge transfer. “We distinguish two different phases in the customer journey with different objectives. In the first phase, we are mainly focused on reaching by letting people know that we are here, and letting them know that Interpolis is a damage insurance company,” adds Marloes.

“In the second phase, we use our content to respond to life-altering moments. This could be anything related to housing from renovating, buying expensive furniture sets or finding a cheaper place to live. At this stage, our goal is to be in the top 3 insurance companies that people consider for home insurance. It is about obtaining preference for our proposition. Both phases require a different communication strategy.” Marloes further explains that you can choose to advertise in a lifestyle magazine where the content can be more detailed and the Interpolis message is well-understood by consumers. However, this option results in lower reach than if you were to advertise in a publication such as Linda, in which it would be necessary to publish a more general story.

Exploring the emotional market value Interpolis

“In terms of the upcoming plans for the housing domain, we want to get more insights on the emotional market value of Interpolis. We have a good position in spontaneous brand awareness. However, we also face some challenges. For instance, one of them is that Interpolis sells through Rabobank and not directly to the customer. Therefore, we need to ask ourselves: why would the consumer choose Interpolis and focus on this area? We aim to position ourselves as a pioneering leader in the home safety space. With the security domain still largely untapped, we are eager to seize this opportunity.” Marloes elaborates.

“Another challenge is making it more fun for consumers to think about safety. At Interpolis, we are here to help if something goes wrong. However, you can also take proactive steps to minimize the risk of potential issues.”

“The goal is to create an emotional bond with the consumer, to make them realize that Interpolis can be their partner in terms of home safety.”