A new Eagle rises, Insular Life's new logo to mark its 100th anniversary

They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.  —Confucius

MANILA, Philippines - The only thing that is truly constant in our world is change, nonstop change — either we boldly lead the dynamic changes or be left behind by the times.

This year marks the 100th anniversary or centennial not only of the Philippines’ largest, most profitable and oldest homegrown life insurance giant Insular Life Assurance Co., Inc. (all other life insurers in the Philippines’ top 5 biggest are foreign firms), it is also considered a period for vigorous regeneration and renewal for this respected institution.

This writer noticed that even such a venerable firm like Insular Life is reinventing itself in order to serve its

various publics even better, with its unique, elegant and dynamic new corporate logo. From the company’s head office in Alabang, Insular Life Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Vicente R. Ayllon agreed to give Philippine Star this exclusive interview on the story behind and the reasons for creating this new logo:

Philippine Star: Is that a Philippine Eagle in the elegant new corporate logo of Insular Life? 

Chairman Vicente Ayllon: Yes, the new corporate identity of Insular Life bears the stylized form of the Philippine Eagle, its head turned to the right to show the sharpness of its eyes as though it were looking intently toward the future.  We call this new icon, the Guardian Eagle.

Why the eagle and what was your inspiration?

Developing the visual identity for the company was actually a journey of self discovery.  It took us one year and

Insular Life Corporate Centre, the headquarters in Alabang, Muntinlupa.

seven months of workshops, interviews, surveys with our various stakeholders to find out how they regard Insular Life. At the end of the exercise, we were happy to find out that our various stakeholders see us in the same light as we see ourselves –  the protector, the guardian – attributes that can be associated with an eagle. 

So, we took a look at the company’s history and realized that we have used the eagle extensively.  Our very first logo in 1910 made use of an eagle icon.  Our very first building in Plaza Moraga had a lofty bronze eagle perched atop the building.  Our flagship and long running CSR program to date is called the Insular Life Gold Eagle Award. Our company’s history shows a strong affinity to the king of birds.  Thus is choosing the eagle, and the Philippine Eagle at that, as the icon of our corporate visual identity, we are actually paying homage to the original logo as well to our heritage as a Filipino company. The new logo of the company bears a refreshed look, imbued with a rich Filipino character and our 100 years of experience, as these are two attributes that only Insular Life can claim.

What is the meaning of this new logo for Insular Life’s aspirations and plans for the future?

Let me just emphasize that in our branding exercise, our objective was not simply to change the logo, but to identify who we are, what we are, and where we want to go in the next century.  And as we have identified that, we need to show this at all customer touch points such as in our communications, people, products and services and actual customer experience.

At the start of the branding we engaged a market research firm to get the views of our key customer segments across the various income levels and professions. That gave us insights on what our customers value in us and what are those that could still be improved.  We confirmed that our strength lay on our heritage, size, strength and stability, experience, being Filipino who is the local champion. 

Customers want us to look after their interests, to understand their needs before offering products to help them learn about financial matters.  They also want an image that conveys experience but is approachable.  And so we took all of these insights and came up with our brand promise that captures the essence of who we are and what we want to be for our customers.  And our new brand promise is “Insular Life is your far-sighted guardian”.  As the far-sighted guardian, we share our experience and knowledge to help our customers lay solid foundations for the future.

When did your company decide to change the logo and why? Is the change in your logo part of your 100th anniversary celebration this year?

In late 2008, as we approached our centennial year, we thought, we would look for better ways to position ourselves to be more relevant, venture into new markets and be more competitive. 

The change of  logo was a natural consequence of the new brand promise that we have adopted after the entire company underwent a long process of reviewing the Insular Life brand.  The new brand promise of being the far-sighted guardian rendered our old logo irrelevant.  We had to create a new symbol that will stand for who we are and who will want to be for all the publics we serve.  Thus, the Philippine eagle emerged as the best choice to represent Insular being your far-sighted guardian.

We thought that we needed to give ourselves a more contemporary look but without losing our rich history.  Launching the new logo on our centennial year made it more meaningful.

How are your revenues and incomes for the first half of 2010, what are your forecasts for the whole year?

For the first seven months of the year, our new business premiums have already surpassed the P1 Billion mark, giving us a year-to-date growth of around 12% We are optimistic that we will hit a minimum first year premium growth of 20% for 2010, this being our centennial year.  I believe we are on track for accomplishing this target because we expect even stronger months ahead, given the renewed positive business climate.

Another positive development that we are seeing is the stronger growth in the actual number of new insurance applications.  For the same 7 month period new sales are up at least 17%. I am particularly encouraged by the increase in the sale of traditional life insurance products.  It appears that the market is giving added value to the need for financial security and risk protection.  But we are also seeing growth in our non-traditional investment-linked product line undoubtedly because of improving investor sentiment. 

Can you share the secrets to Insular Life’s success and continuing strength after 100 years?

There is a confluence of many factors to which we can attribute our company’s longevity in the business.  But foremost among these factors are the people that we hire, especially those in key positions and technical people, they must be thoroughly knowledgeable about the business of life insurance.  They must have the intelligence to understand the intricacies of life insurance.  Second, they must be hard working or industrious.  The people who move up are those who have worked their way up the corporate ladder, such that they have done work in the salt mines, so to speak. And lastly, intelligence and industry will not amount to anything if they do not possess personal and professional integrity. 

But I believe that the underlying force the pulls us all together is our desire to constantly strive to live the mission of our company,  Being a mutual company, we always make sure that all our strategies and actions will redound to pursuing the best interest of  our policyholders, guided by the corporate values of Love of God and Country, Integrity, Excellence, Prudence, Respect for the Individual and Teamwork.

On a personal note, can you share your personal success secrets as business leader?

In my various talks to our sales and employee force, I have injected what I consider a personal belief and one that experience has taught me and that is : “excellence has no ceiling”. Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell puts it beautifully when he said, “There is no substitute for excellence  — not even success.”

Some people have the mistaken assumption that there will come a point where one can stop trying to be the best simply because one has already reached the top.  To me, excellence is a life-long journey.  I am forever a student of life. So, if you translate that mind set into your organization, your company opens itself to new opportunities to serve your customers better that way you are always in-step and you continue to be relevant to them.  

What are your thoughts on the current competitive environment in the Philippine life insurance industry? 

The life insurance industry is still dominated by the top (5) players. In 2009, where IC reported a total of 35 insurers, the top 5 accounted for 60% of the total premiums earned by the industry while the top 10 accounted for 85%. We see this trend continuing as these players already have a foothold in the industry, have far-reaching network that may take years for other players to replicate and more importantly, these players have the experience in dealing with the peculiarities of the local market.  

We also see renewed interest in investment-linked products given the upbeat sentiments among consumers grounded on the belief that the worst of the sub-prime crisis is over and that there is no way to go but up for economies and markets alike. Investment-linked products enjoyed immense popularity until the sub-prime bubble burst in late 2007.    

Why is it that among Filipinos, life insurance is not yet a “must-have” compared to our Asian neighbors?

The Philippines continues to have one of the lowest life insurance penetration rates in the ASEAN region, owing to a confluence of factors, primarily of which is our low per capita income.  On a premium per GDP basis, the Philippine life insurance penetration is registered only

Insular Life building in Makati

at around 0.9% which is lower than our peers, such as Indonesia’s 1.1% and Thailand’s 1.8% penetration rates.  This indicates a great opportunity for growth in the local life insurance industry once a greater population of Filipinos is made aware of the importance of having life insurance.

Since last year, we have been serious in our advocacy to educate the public about the importance of financial planning and every stage in one’s life, and life insurance in one of the best tools to create, conserve and distribute one’s wealth.  We continue our education campaign through your newspaper. We also hold regular Wealth Forums, and we even produced storybooks for elementary school children to teach them the value of savings at a very early age.

What is the impact, if any, of our having a new Philippine president to your operations? 

Insular Life has been successfully operating in the Philippine for 100 years.  We have lived and thrived through 14 presidents of the Republic.  The business of life insurance is long term; it goes beyond the six-year term of any president.  That is why we have always maintained our support to the current national leader, because we want to protect first and foremost the interest of our policyholders.

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