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In other words, in a business built on trust, such as insurance, there's no easy PR fix for AIG's consumer business -- and maybe no fix at all. "There is a spillover from the general image problems to their consumer business, because it makes consumers wonder about the viability of the company," Mr. Denzenhall said. "Insurance generally is such a visceral thing that if you thought the chances were one in 100 that your policy wouldn't be there, why wouldn't you just play it safe and go to another provider?"
Mr. Dezenhall said this is not a typical situation in which a company can go out and hire a PR firm and launch a campaign and website. "This is so beyond that and so much more at a strategic and policy level that before you can even think about tactical outreach, you have to remove the malignancy first," he said.
He said a marketing campaign of any sort is not the answer. "Contrary to what my compadres in the crisis sector will preach, an ad campaign featuring little girls with flowers and talking about how much AIG cares about the consumers is a complete waste of money," he said, "especially in a climate where your fundamental survival is the main topic of debate every night on the news."
Not everyone agrees. Torod Neptune, senior VP-global public affairs at Waggener Edstrom, said AIG needs to do something and that research the agency recently conducted backs that up. "Our research showed that it was consistently clear that consumers are looking to hear from financial-services institutions, and they are not," Mr. Neptune said. The agency polled 1,000 consumers, many of whom said they are not even hearing from their own banks. "So this is something AIG needs to be getting in front of pretty aggressively."
Mr. Neptune said the research showed that 44% of consumers polled said they had heard something from financial-service institutions but felt more negative about the industry afterward; 38% said they heard nothing at all; and 11% said they felt better about the industry after hearing from it.
In other words, in a business built on trust, such as insurance, there's no easy PR fix for AIG's consumer business -- and maybe no fix at all. "There is a spillover from the general image problems to their consumer business, because it makes consumers wonder about the viability of the company," Mr. Denzenhall said. "Insurance generally is such a visceral thing that if you thought the chances were one in 100 that your policy wouldn't be there, why wouldn't you just play it safe and go to another provider?"
Mr. Dezenhall said this is not a typical situation in which a company can go out and hire a PR firm and launch a campaign and website. "This is so beyond that and so much more at a strategic and policy level that before you can even think about tactical outreach, you have to remove the malignancy first," he said.
He said a marketing campaign of any sort is not the answer. "Contrary to what my compadres in the crisis sector will preach, an ad campaign featuring little girls with flowers and talking about how much AIG cares about the consumers is a complete waste of money," he said, "especially in a climate where your fundamental survival is the main topic of debate every night on the news."
Not everyone agrees. Torod Neptune, senior VP-global public affairs at Waggener Edstrom, said AIG needs to do something and that research the agency recently conducted backs that up. "Our research showed that it was consistently clear that consumers are looking to hear from financial-services institutions, and they are not," Mr. Neptune said. The agency polled 1,000 consumers, many of whom said they are not even hearing from their own banks. "So this is something AIG needs to be getting in front of pretty aggressively."
Mr. Neptune said the research showed that 44% of consumers polled said they had heard something from financial-service institutions but felt more negative about the industry afterward; 38% said they heard nothing at all; and 11% said they felt better about the industry after hearing from it.
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