Assignment # 2 Q#2 (a)

Brand Awareness

“We hit a home run,” Introducing Aflac white duck in the US market to build a brand
awareness, see appendix-1. In three years, brand awareness grew from 12 percent to 90
percent, says Aflac advertising branding VP Al Johnson. (Rebranded, 2005). Furthermore
The Aflac duck's trademark catchphrase is “Aflac”, and advertises the commercial for
brand awareness in an orchestrated witty manner that in the end of commercial Aflac
animatronic duck are the saviors for present and future, pronouncing duck like sound
“Aflac”. Introducing an accident policy to Japan. However When advertising abroad, the
cultural values underpinning the society must be analyzed carefully. Is there a religion
that is practised by the majority of the people? Is the society collectivist or individualist?
Is it family orientated? Is it hierarchical? Is there a dominant political or economic
ideology? All of these will impact an advertising campaign.

Source taken from (Bird Gazette, 2006), that it’s a legendary symbol of interpersonal
respect, kindness, and fidelity, an indication of their behavior. Aflac Japan learned that its
Japanese audience liked the duck brand awareness. However, they also send a serious
message about the need for supplemental insurance. Mitsuji Ogawa, company’s vice
president in Japan says in his observations, that the world is changing in rapid growth,
therefore we have to revitalize our brand awareness strategy , further continuing his
comments, he says that brand awareness is not just conveying the message to the
potential clients its also restore the customer confidence, as we are customizing our
products for the existent customers which controls 85% of supplemental insurance
industry in Japan, engineered to take advantage of their low priced, high unit volume
niche. (Waltham, 2006) He also illustrated briefly that the company is developing new
products particularly medical reimbursement policies that are appealing to younger
people, the part of the product customization strategy. Dan Amos CEO, reason is that it’s
a first time we've talked about illness in advertisements and commercials. It's obvious
now that it's more than just accidental insurance, we’re testing, so we don't know the
results yet. But, company is hopeful that it will test very well for Aflac Japan and give
Aflac another introduction into the public perceiving what we do and how we do it. So,

i
hopefully, they will get the brand message, and it will continue to ultimately help
projected sales and bottom line objectivity.

“AFLAC” has been changed to “Aflac”, for brand awareness campaign, to help accept it
as a name rather than an acronym, However a view no longer sustainable in this Internet
era of transparency and institutional responsibility. The world we operate in is changing,
consumers are demanding more and more from the companies behind the brands. Name
awareness, however, is just the starting point to persuasion of demand for general
supplemental health insurance products is expected to continue to grow as co-payments
increase as a result of increasing burdens on that country’s national health insurance
system. In addition, Aflac expects that banks will be allowed to sell its products
beginning in 2007, potentially opening up a meaningful new distribution channel also
suspect the company to benefit as insurance price increases required, restoring the health
industry in Japan flow through to even better profit margins over the next several years.

ii