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October 14, 2001 at 08:00 PM
Prudential Rolls Out Internet Strategy To Build Its Business Outside The U.S.
By Ara C. Trembly
Prudential Financial has announced a new International Internet strategy designed to aggressively build business outside the United States and promote cross-selling among the companys product groups.
According to Irene Dec, vice president, international investments, for Newark, N.J.-based Prudential, the company has created a team “to represent our business outside the U.S.” and to set a direction that would take advantage of Prudentials brand implementation, user experiences, technology infrastructure and other factors. One of Decs many responsibilities is to develop project management and implementation processes for the companys International Investments operation.
Addressing the brand component of the companys strategy, Dec states that “Prudential needs to have a common look and feel worldwide.” Once an executive decision had been made to develop that “look,” Prudentials marketing people identified graphic standards for the companys Web pages worldwide.
“Within our international sites, we set standards,” Dec explains. “One of them is that if we have more than one business in a country, we create a country home page.” All of the country home pages, she adds, link back to the companys primary site at www.prudential.com.
Each country home page will sport design elements that are specific to that country, but each will also have the companys common look and feel, says Dec. The country sites will be in the language of that country, she adds, while the primary site will contain a listing of “all the countries where we have business as well as all the business we have globally. The Internet is a key part of [our] marketing.”
All country sites, says Dec, will utilize the companys “Growing and Protecting Your Wealth” tagline.
Dec notes that Prudentials experience with customers and potential customers dictated that standards for interaction with them are “mandatory.” In order to make its international sites more “customer-centric,” she says, Prudential has done analysis and market research within some foreign countries to understand their cultures. “The use of certain colors will have meaning in that country.
“As you implement in different countries, you must understand the culture,” she continues. “Its not appropriate to assume that it should be presented [everywhere] in the same fashion.”
