Steadfast is to adopt the slogan “Trusted Choice” as it moves to change the emphasis on its members’ services “from giving a quote to giving advice”.

Chairman Robert Kelly says a novel campaign to be drawn up by the cluster group in the next year will grow public awareness of Steadfast and “build brand equity and loyalty”.

Some 90% of Steadfast broker shareholders attending the pre-convention meeting in Melbourne on Saturday voted in favour of the move, which Mr Kelly says will “take our business to the next level”.

“We want to be the trusted choice in insurance broking in Australia,” he said. “Individual brokerages can carry the Trusted Choice brand and be recognised as part of the biggest distribution network in Australia.”

Steadfast plans to use a relatively new marketing method in which an “awareness movement” is grown over time through seemingly unrelated activities online and on social media.

The campaign will be aimed directly at the SME market and will emphasise service over price.

“It’s not about jumping on the social media bandwagon,” he said. “But we can grow awareness and relevance and equity and educate consumers about Trusted Choice and Steadfast.”

The “trusted choice” concept has been used by the Independent Insurance Brokers & Agents of America for some years with great success. Steadfast has registered the name for use in Australia.

Mr Kelly says Steadfast’s Trusted Choice brokers will be able to guarantee high standards by using the group’s centralised services and service requirements, including Steadfast wordings policies.

“If consumers are just looking for the cheapest price, then a Trusted Choice broker isn’t for them,” he said.

He says that at present Steadfast “doesn’t rank on online search engines”, and neither do members’ sites. Some members don’t even carry the Steadfast logo on their websites. “This will change all that.”

Future services may include free advice services from every brokerage and the ability to build the Trusted Choice profile when a large-scale disaster like flood strikes.

Mr Kelly says the looming hard market will change clients’ attitude to their brokers, and many will seek lower premiums by “shopping around” to other brokerages.

“You have to differentiate your services,” he said. “If you don’t, you’ll be competing for that business.”