The positioning of Centraal Beheer

shouldn’t they just call Apeldoorn themselves?

Who doesn’t know them, the commercials from Centraal Beheer. For decades able to entertain the public with absurd situations where you would indeed like to be covered by a solid insurance. Every time gems of commercials that always bring a smile to your face. But what does Centraal Beheer actually stand for? What should I call them for? How does Centraal Beheer want to position itself?

Positioning Centraal Beheer

This is what they say themselves: Centraal Beheer Achmea is nationally known as the insurance company from Apeldoorn. We are one of the largest insurers in the Netherlands and have direct and personal contact with our customers. We offer our customers security, convenience, and clarity.

Back to their latest commercial. Here they depict a situation where a young man repeatedly suffers from his cuckoo clock. So much trouble that his daily routine, in this case doing chores around the house, is seriously disrupted. Desperate, he chops the cuckoo clock into pieces and burns it in the fireplace. In front of the warm fireplace, he sees his just destroyed clock appraised at €90,000 on the program ‘art and kitsch’! We all recognize this as a ‘just call Apeldoorn’ situation. Absolutely well thought out and truly hilarious, as you can see below:

But what should a consumer take away from this message? Besides that they are known as the insurer from Apeldoorn. What does this commercial say about this company? What does this say about their unique position compared to their competition? We don’t quite get it, or rather, not at all!

Is it, for example, that they also pay out when personal belongings are deliberately destroyed? Are they the insurer where it’s always a laughing matter? This does not seem to be the case and certainly not desirable.

A good positioning ensures that the market (consumer) is able to consciously choose a service or product based on unique characteristics. So what do you choose at Centraal Beheer? That they are located in Apeldoorn? This seems completely irrelevant to us because why would you want to travel to the (head) office of your insurer? Ok, the term “just call Apeldoorn” will definitely ensure a “top of mind” position among insurers, but does this also work if we are specifically looking for car, health, or home insurance? The question we therefore ask ourselves is whether a strong brand without values is really that strong?

Want to know more about positioning and how you can get started yourself? Read our page positioning and find there, besides in-depth articles, also dozens of examples and models for every possible positioning challenge.