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Wednesday, August 15, 2007:
A Dot-Org Stresses That It’s No Dot-Com
By STUART ELLIOTT
A LARGE marketer of financial services is seeking to become the master of a domain name.
The marketer is TIAA-CREF, which is making a significant change in its advertising that plays up its status as a nonprofit organization. The campaign, getting under way this week, signals its intent by focusing on a new Web site, powerof.org.
The campaign, created by Modernista in Boston, retains a theme that the agency introduced for TIAA-CREF in 2004, “Financial services for the greater good.” The theme remained when the campaign was modified a year later.
But the new ads, by emphasizing the dot-org domain name to differentiate TIAA-CREF from its myriad rivals, represent a substantial reworking of the previous efforts.
“Think .org-onimically,” the headline of a print ad urges. “How much more objective can you get than .o-r-g?” another ad inquires. A third ad declares that “.org” represents “three of the most trusted letters on the Internet.”
In a television commercial, an announcer declares: “We are a financial services dot-org, not a dot-com. For nearly 90 years, our mission has been to put the heart of a nonprofit to work for those who serve the greater good.
“We do this the dot-org way,” the announcer continues, “with low fees, objective advice and a unique insight into the hearts and minds of those who give us hope for the future.” The arrival of the campaign, with an annual budget estimated at $50 million, is indicative of a tricky balancing act that is faced by many marketers — particularly those competing in crowded categories like financial services.
As the attention spans of consumers seem to shorten daily, and the conditions of the consumer marketplace seem to shift continuously, campaigns probably need to be freshened faster than they were in the past.
But change can be perceived as churn, forgoing consistency for the benefit of novelty.
In this instance, TIAA-CREF and Modernista determined that “change is necessary,” said Steven Goldstein, executive vice president for public affairs and marketing at TIAA-CREF in New York.
“Change is beneficial if the change is being made for your customers,” Mr. Goldstein said, adding that the previous advertising was “very effective, but served its purpose.”
The 2004 and 2005 campaigns both featured the song “Somewhere” from “West Side Story” to bring to life the greater good theme. The goal was to celebrate the altruistic careers of TIAA-CREF customers, who are concentrated in fields like teaching, research and medicine.
For instance, in a television commercial about a college professor, an announcer intoned, “For all the extra hours you dedicate to your students, we think you deserve some extra credit.”
Or, to paraphrase a familiar beer slogan, for all you do, this mutual fund’s for you.
The “Somewhere” ads “were very emotional,” Mr. Goldstein said, and succeeded at tasks that included “explaining our mission and who we serve.” But they were perhaps not “vibrant” enough to stand out in the cluttered mutual funds category, he added.
“There’s a lot of competition out there,” Mr. Goldstein said, “and about 10 months ago, Modernista came to us and said, ‘We have what we think is the great differentiator: The other companies are dot-coms and you’re a dot-org.’ ”
Gareth Kay, who leads the planning department at Modernista — charged with eliciting insights from consumers to shape the approaches that campaigns take — described why the agency considered the difference such a distinction.
“We talked to a bunch of participants and a bunch of prospects in focus groups,” Mr. Kay said, referring to actual and potential clients of TIAA-CREF, and the emphasis on TIAA-CREF’s nonprofit status “felt like an interesting place for the brand to stand.”
The dot-org focus led the focus group members to perceive TIAA-CREF as “more focused around their needs,” he added, and “unique versus the competition.”
“We can’t outshout the competition,” with its far larger ad budgets, Mr. Kay said, “so we have to be a bit smarter in how we talk about ourselves.”
Another way the campaign is distinguishing TIAA-CREF from the competition is a concentration on people who are working, thriving in their careers, rather than those who are retired or about to retire. Many financial services marketers, by contrast, are aiming campaigns at consumers in their 50s and 60s.
The difference gives TIAA-CREF “more of a contemporary edge,” Mr. Kay said, and suggests that “the brand’s got momentum and is moving with the times.”
The campaign includes, in addition to the new powerof.org Web site, TV and radio commercials, print ads, billboards and direct mail. Also, as a test, events and promotions are being planned for three local markets: Ann Arbor, Mich.; Lexington, Ky.; and Pittsburgh.
The campaign is starting as TIAA-CREF executives are trying to put behind them a panoply of problems that included difficulties with a new information-technology system, which prevented customers from gaining access to their accounts; the loss of several big contracts to manage pension and insurance plans for university employees, in states like California and New York; and widespread complaints about increased management fees.
“We had some issues,” Mr. Goldstein said. “Every rock you turned over, there was something that had to be fixed.”
The campaign is meant to let consumers know “that we’re ready to serve their needs going forward,” he added, “and they should take a second look at us.”
The campaign is not being changed to address the current volatility in the stock market, Mr. Goldstein said, because “our whole tradition,” which dates to the organization’s founding in 1918, “is based on consistent long-term performance.”
Still, one print ad seems particularly timely. “Ever hear of a .org crash?,” the headline asks.
The text goes on to assure readers that “as a dot-org, we don’t play to the whims of the market” and concludes that “our strength and expertise as a financial services dot-org tells you we’re going to be around long after you retire.”
From The New York Times on the Web (c) The New York Times Company. Reprinted with Permission.
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