Insurance sells something no one wants to think about
When products are associated with illness, accidents, and death, brands cannot use conventional industry language.
Insurance is a rare industry where the best products are those customers never want to use. Therefore, brands cannot sell through fear, nor can they explain through terms. The strategy must shift the entire language to a feeling of proactive protection: customers buy not because they fear death, but because they love those who will still be alive.
There is a paradox at the heart of the insurance industry: the best products are those customers never want to use. And what customers do not want to use, they also do not want to think about. Not wanting to think about it means not buying. This is not a problem for the sales team. This is a branding issue.
Why industry language is no longer enough
Most insurance messaging is built on a single foundation: fear. Fear of illness, fear of accidents, fear of leaving a burden for the family. This language was effective when the market was new and customers were not saturated with information. But when every company speaks in the same tone, what happens is not that customers become more fearful and buy more. What happens is that customers tune out.
Psychology calls this phenomenon mortality salience, meaning that when constantly reminded of death or risk, the human brain does not analyze further but activates an avoidance mechanism. Customers do not refuse to buy insurance because they do not see the need. They refuse because that conversation is too uncomfortable to start.
The figure above not only reflects a damaged trust. It reveals a deeper reality: the Vietnamese insurance industry is suffering from a brand injury, not a product injury. The product is not broken. The way the brand introduces itself is the issue.
Shifting from fear to proactive protection
There is a very small difference in language but a very large difference in psychology between these two sentences:
- "If you fall seriously ill, what will happen to your family?"
- "You are taking care of the most important people, even when you are not present."
The first sentence puts the customer in a passive position, facing a negative situation. The second sentence places the customer in an active role, as someone who has made a decision and taken action. Both refer to the same product. However, only one of these sentences invites the customer in, while the other pushes them away.
This is not a writing trick. This is the essence of brand positioning. Marty Neumeier writes in The Brand Gap that a brand is the perception of the customer, not what the company says about itself. When an insurance brand keeps talking about risks, the perception customers take away is worry and avoidance. When a brand talks about love and responsibility, the perception customers take away is warmth and sufficiency.
Positioning is not what you do to a product. It is what you do to the mind of the prospect.
Al Ries and Jack Trout, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (1981)
The identity challenge in the everyone looks the same industry
If you close your eyes and think about the insurance brands advertising in Vietnam, what comes to mind? Blue color. A family of three. Smiles. Taglines talking about protection, peace of mind, and the future.
That’s the issue. Not because these elements are wrong. But when everything uses the same set of visual signals and language, customers can no longer distinguish one from another. Byron Sharp in How Brands Grow calls this the failure of distinctive brand assets. A brand does not need to be unique in a strange way. It needs to be consistent enough and distinct enough for customers to remember the right name when needed.
In the insurance industry, this number is particularly important. Because when products are complex and customers do not have the time or knowledge to compare terms closely, purchase decisions lean towards the brand they trust and remember first. Being remembered first is not luck. It is the result of consistent recognition accumulated over time.
Brand language must speak the customer's language
The insurance industry has a vast internal terminology: premiums, cash value, exclusion clauses, waiting periods, additional benefits. These terms are legally accurate and necessary in contracts. But when they rise to become brand language, they create a wall between the company and the customer.
Customers do not buy "death and total permanent disability benefits." They buy the feeling that if something happens to them, their children can still go to school. Their spouse does not have to sell the house. Their parents do not have to bear an additional burden.
The gap between contractual language and emotional language is where insurance brands can truly differentiate themselves. Not by simplifying terms, but by translating those terms into meaningful concepts.
Trust is the foundation, not a selling point
After the consulting scandal in Vietnam from 2022 to 2023, customers are not just suspicious of a few companies. They are suspicious of the entire industry. This is a situation where strong brands have a significant advantage over weak brands, as in an environment of widespread distrust, customers cling to names they already know and have had a good impression of.
Rebuilding trust is not about making more commitments in advertising. It’s about ensuring that every touchpoint between the brand and the customer is consistent and honest: advisors accurately represent the products, claims are processed clearly, and communication is not exaggerated. Olins once said that a brand is the sum of its products, environment, communication, and behavior. In the insurance industry, behavior is more important than any of those four elements.
When a customer tells their friends that the insurance company handled their claim quickly and as promised, that is the brand operating at its best. No additional advertising budget is needed. Just keep your word.
Small brands in a large industry: choose a niche instead of competing
Not every insurance company needs to become the number one in the market. In fact, trying to be number one when resources are insufficient is the quickest way to become nothing to anyone.
A more practical strategy is to choose a specific customer group and communicate with them in a way that no one else does. Self-employed individuals do not have a safety net from a company. Single parents worry about their children alone. Frequent business travelers. Each of these groups has its own concerns, its own language, and a very specific reason to buy that generic messaging will never reach.
A narrow niche is not a limitation. A narrow niche is a way for a small brand to communicate closely and accurately enough for customers to feel that this company understands them, rather than just selling to them.
References
Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap (2003). Byron Sharp, How Brands Grow (2010). Jennifer Aaker, Stanford GSB, research on emotions and financial decisions. Kantar BrandZ Vietnam 2024. Swiss Re Institute, World Insurance Report 2024. OECD Insurance Statistics 2023. Vietnam Insurance Association (IAV), Market Report 2024.
Frequently asked questions
Why do insurance ads often use images of happy families instead of directly stating product benefits?
Because the human brain avoids information related to death or accidents, a psychological mechanism called mortality salience. When a brand pushes too many risk images, customers do not think further but tune out. Images of happy families anchor purchase decisions in love and responsibility, not in fear. This is a deliberate technique, not avoidance of the truth.
Do insurance brands need to differ between companies when the products are essentially the same?
Necessary, and this is the biggest trap of the industry. When products are similar and customers do not want to compare terms closely, purchase decisions are based on trust and familiarity with the brand. Companies that build clear distinctive assets and consistent language will be remembered first, and being remembered first is a real advantage in this industry.
Can a small or new insurance company build a brand that competes with the big names?
Maybe, but not by directly competing on coverage. The advantage of a small company is the ability to choose a narrow niche and go deep, for example, specializing in health insurance for self-employed individuals, or travel insurance for frequent travelers. A narrow niche allows for more specific brand language, closer to each customer group, and builds trust much faster than generic messaging.