Whither go Saga?

In this week’s Marketing Week there is an article, the title of which is so daft that I will not insult your intelligence by repeating, but the tag line is more interesting and says “The penny finally seems to have dropped that grey market is affluent meant that Saga is facing increasing competition from rival companies muscling in on it.”

Saga is a fascinating marketing case study.

On the positive side:

It is the dominant supplier of financial services and holidays to the 50-plus.
Its brand is the most trusted in the financial services industry, so says MORI.
It has huge direct mailing base of the 50-plus (8 Million)
It is a growth market, in terms of the numbers of 50-plus
It has control of some of its own communications channels (radio and magazine)
Its current customer and product base provide numerous opportunities for cross selling

On the negative side:
Its brand is associated with the old-old and the stereotypes of older people
The growth of the 50-plus marketing is attracting more companies to focus on its core services (more of this later)
It has been slow to react, or at least to appear to react, to the changes in the types of services that the 50-plus require.

Charterhouse Venture capital looked at this equation and thought the net effect was a company worth £1.35 Billion. I would image the justification for this huge sum of money went something like this: “Saga needs to reposition to also attract the "young-old" that we can provide by an injection of new management/thinking etc. In the interim there is a steady flow of legacy business from the "old-old". In 5 years we will build a new Saga that will retain and manage its older business as well as launching into new products areas like equity release and pensions and that will be attractive to the growing numbers of people hitting their 50th birthday”.

Another vision could be that “The big hitters of the financial services and holiday business wake up and focus on the 50-plus. Saga cannot throw off its "old-old image" and sees the value of contact database rapidly diminish. In five years time it is one of many players in the market for the old-old’s business.” I wonder which vision is correct?

These are some of the new companies gaining prominence in the financial and holiday industry for the 50-plus.
http://www.travelsphere.co.uk
http://www.page-moy.co.uk
http://www.esure.com
http://www.rias.co.uk

Dick Stroud www.20plus30.com