Fast Focus
	Aflac targets brokers to fuel U.S. growth.
	New ad campaign promotes supplemental insurance for financial security.
	The iconic Aflac duck retains its prominent perch.

The Duck that Laid the Golden Egg

Aflac’s cranky duck—a golden company brand—attempts to expand the carrier’s voluntary benefits by becoming a fine-feathered friend to brokers.

By  Louise Lague

As insurance symbols and mascots go, the duck was unlikely. MetLife’s Snoopy? Warm and approachable. The Travelers umbrella? Very reassuring. A gecko pushing Geico’s auto insurance? Clever branding.

Nonetheless, that rather odd, cranky duck has done amazing things for Aflac. He (for he is a he, though a nameless one) has increased Aflac’s name recognition from 12% some 10 years ago to over 90% five years later. He’s had a cameo in a Jim Carrey film, was installed in the Advertising Hall of Fame and has a coop full of awards. He’s been made into a plush toy and sold in many different outfits, like Barbie. He even worked his stubborn way into the middle of the Aflac logo, where no duck has stood before.

And now, brokers of America, the duck is coming after you. Watch your ankles.

New Focus on Brokers

Aflac has traditionally relied on a large network of independent sales agents to market its supplementary insurance products to employees of more than 400,000 small- and mid-sized businesses in the U.S. Now, however, the insurer is aggressively targeting employee benefits brokers to sell its products, which include accident policies; disability policies; indemnity policies for cancer, hospital, intensive care and sickness; and vision, dental and life insurance policies.

“We’ve always sold to brokers,” says Ron Agypt, vice president of broker sales at Aflac, “but it hasn’t been our focus. These days, people are looking for trusted advisors. Brokerage is a relationship business, and this single point of contact has the time and wherewithal to build relationships.”

In other words, brokers control the cases. “We believe that by going through brokers we can bring more quality products to our customers,” Agypt says.

In 2008, Aflac wrote $10.6 billion in premium in Japan and $4.3 billion in the U.S. Aflac wants to increase its broker business from about $200 million a year to a billion, Agypt says.

To entice brokers, Aflac has spent two years working up new ideas. “We’ve instituted new services, products and new compensation schedules,” he says. Aflac is targeting brokers whose clients cover 100 lives or more. Signaling its intention to make a bigger play for larger accounts, Aflac announced this summer that is buying Continental American Insurance Co. of Columbia, S.C., which sells its voluntary payroll-deducted insurance products to large employers through 4,800 brokers.

Also, as small businesses grow smaller, Aflac has reduced the minimum number employees from five to three. The company has also lowered the volume of business that a broker needs to produce.

Ninety broker development coordinators will work only with brokers so that, “for the first time in Aflac’s 54-year history, a broker will have just one person to talk to,” says Agypt.

These efforts demonstrate the importance of brokers as an avenue of growth for Aflac at a time when potential customers are tightening their wallets and healthcare reform may reshape the benefits landscape.