No More Snoopy as New MetLife Brand Signals Modern Company
October 21, 2016 by Marie Suszynski
NEW YORK – With the spinoff of its retail business in the works, MetLife Inc. is launching a new global brand platform that will be missing a few key characters from its ads and marketing over the last 30 years: Snoopy and the Peanuts gang.
Instead, the 150-year-old company will have an updated logo and visual identity built around what it called a “clean, modern aesthetic” with the new tagline, “MetLife. Navigating life together.” It said the new brand communicates the partnership the company has with its customers.
Its new logo uses blue and green colors to create an “M” for MetLife. MetLife’s iconic blue has been changed to a brighter shade and the new green color “represents life, renewal and energy,” the company said in a statement.
The logo is live on MetLife’s website and social media, and the new brand will be rolled out globally through 2017. Print ads will appear in major U.S. newspapers beginning Oct. 21 and broadcast ads will air in December. The company also plans to run ads in Mexico, Korea and Japan. It is the most significant change to MetLife’s brand in more than 30 years.
Meanwhile, MetLife will phase out its use of Snoopy and other Peanuts characters. The company is in the middle of a multiyear contract to use the characters, spokeswoman Kim Friedman told Best’s News Service. However, the company doesn’t release specific details about the contract, including cost.
In addition to the brand change, MetLife is “rethinking how we do business,” Steven A. Kandarian, chairman, president and chief executive officer of MetLife, said in a statement. “We are moving away from a traditional product development model to one driven by customer insights.”
The move comes as MetLife plans to spin off its U.S. retail business, Brighthouse Financial (Best’s News Service, Oct. 6, 2016). As a separated company, Brighthouse will be a major U.S. life insurance and annuity company, with $240 billion in total assets and about 2.6 million insurance policies and annuity contracts in-force, as of June 30.
MetLife decided to separate the business in order to keep the retail unit at a competitive advantage that is free of the federal systemically important financial institution costs. Remaining behind after the separation will be group, voluntary and worksite benefits, corporate benefit funding, Asia, Latin America and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Best’s News Service, Jan. 12, 2016). A U.S. District Judge stripped MetLife of the SIFI designation last March but the Financial Stability Oversight Council has filed an appeal to reverse the decision (Best’s News Service, Aug. 26, 2016).
The insurer developed the new brand after doing research with more than 55,000 customers around the world, which the company said found “one universal truth: consumers are overwhelmed with the pace of change and are looking for a trusted partner to help them navigate these changes.”
The new MetLife brand will change the way customers interact with the company, including its website, customer service and sales process to give them a more simplified and focused experience.
“We are embarking on a journey to upend the long-entrenched norms of the insurance industry,” Esther Lee, global chief marketing officer of MetLife, said in the statement. “We are focused on humanizing our industry and designing every customer experience to reflect the modern company we’re becoming.”
Lee said Snoopy was introduced 30 years ago to make MetLife friendly and approachable when insurance companies were thought of as “cold and distant.”
“Snoopy helped drive our business and served an important role at the time,” she said. “However, as we focus on our future, it’s important that we associate our brand directly with the work we do and the partnership we have with our customers.”
Units of MetLife have a current Best’s Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent) and A+ (Superior).
On the afternoon of Oct. 20, shares of MetLife (NYSE: MET) were $46.67, down 0.38% from the previous close.
(By Marie Suszynski, BestWeek Correspondent: Marie.Suszynski@ambest.com)
