BestWeek: Branding Experts Explore AIG’s Possible Rebranding Strategies

 

Tuesday, Sep 15,2009, 2:19:46 PM   Click:

OLDWICK, NJ - (BUSINESS WIRE) - Experts agree that something must be done with the American International Group Inc. brand, according to a story in BestWeek US / Canada. Some believe that the insurer bailed out last year by the U.S. government with a rescue package of several billion dollars, can be renamed over time under its current name. Others see the mark once widely regarded as dead.is far from adorning once each year the list of BusinessWeek's top 100 global brands. In 2007, AIG ranked 47th overall and first among insurance companies, with an estimated $ 7.5 billion value of the brand. The story is included in the second part of the AIG Effect: One year later & Beyonda two-part series examining the impact of the crisis, AIG has had on the industry.

Also, in BestWeek Europe, the reinsurance sector is still coping with the impact of the financial turmoil of the past year as an expected hard market has failed to arrive, according to A.M. Best Co. at its annual briefing on the state of the market at the annual Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous. Miles Trotter, London-based general manager of analytics with A.M. Best, said that poor financial performance among reinsurers in 2008 had been driven by reduced investment yields and realized and unrealized losses, as well as poor catastrophe experience.

In BestWeek U.S./Canada, from the District of Columbia to the Bay State, it's been a season of commissioners moving on. It's a good thing the National Association of Insurance Commissioners hands out name tags at its meetings. Otherwise, regulators may not know who's who when they meet in National Harbor, Maryland, this month. Massachusetts' Nonnie Burnes is the most recent commissioner to announce a departure. Burnes resigned, effective Sept. 18, to become a senior fellow at her alma mater, Northeastern University in Boston. Her deputy, Joseph Murphy, will take the top spot.

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Founded in 1899, A.M. Best Company is a global full-service credit rating organization dedicated to serving the financial and health care service industries, including insurance companies, banks, hospitals and health care system providers. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

A.M. Best Co.

Caroline Saucer, 908-439-2200, ext. 5774

caroline.saucer@ambest.com

Source: A.M. Best Co.