Client story: Acture Insurance - 'How do we achieve a successful go-to-market strategy?'

In recent years, the number of self-employed people in the Netherlands has been rising steadily. Many of these people do not have disability insurance. Acture Insurance, founded in 2019, developed an insurance offering specifically for this target group. A gap in the market, you might suppose. But after a year, it turned out that the results fell short of expectations, so the proposition needed to be looked at again. Maudie Derks, CEO of Acture recalls: "It seemed like an ABC when we started. We thought 'everyone in the target group understands our offer'. But after a year, even though we had obviously thought about our proposition, we noticed that our assumptions around this were not sufficient. We had neither formulated our proposition sharply enough nor empathised with the target group in sufficient detail. So real growth failed to materialise." Acture Insurance asked KPMG to help sharpen the proposition and develop a sustainable go-to-market strategy.

The reason for choosing KPMG was twofold. According to Derks: "Firstly, our investor had previously worked successfully with KPMG on various business propositions, so it was a logical step for us to partner with KPMG as well."

Secondly, Derks immediately got a good feeling about the approach proposed by KPMG: "To really get and stay connected with your target groups, and thus also grow your brand and your business, KPMG works with the 9 Levers of Value model." Edgar Molenaars, Partner Customer & Brand Advisory at KPMG explains: "You have to see it this way; an advertising agency mainly looks at the brand and communication side of such an issue. But KPMG looks at the total value proposition. So, with this 9 Levers of Value approach, we look at brand, vision, communication, target groups, but also at the product portfolio, operating model, culture, and technology. This goes much deeper and is also much more complete." This creates the overall picture of a proposition and of your organisation, defining the why of the organisation, the what, who you do it for and how you do it.

At the start of Acture, the target group, and in particular the insights into the target group, seemed fairly clear and straightforward. Yet as time went on, it turned out that that insight was too little – or incomplete – to convince the target group to choose Acture. Maudie Derks recalls: "The customer surveys we did together with KPMG gave us a huge number of new insights. Insights we could never have found out without this 9 Levers of Value method." Edgar Molenaars explains the approach: "When you think of customer research, you think of finding a customer's wants and needs. Of course, we researched those too. But we go a few steps further by actually involving customers in assessing and experiencing the possible propositions." This goes so far as to allow respondents to make judgements at 'word level'. In this way, you arrive at propositions, new insurance policies even, that are almost literally designed with your target groups or that you are at least sure they are positive about. In this way, customer research acts as validation of the proposition.

The issue started with the proposition but was of course broader than that. Because once you have the proposition, you have to translate it into capturing everything about who you are, what you do and how you do it. So, together with Acture, KPMG developed a growth strategy, a brand positioning, a brand DNA, and a new (corporate) identity. From there, we looked at a revamped product portfolio, a pricing strategy, channel choices, and an up-to-date e-commerce platform. Molenaars recalls: "The beauty of this issue was that we literally went through it from start to finish and built it from the 9 Levers of Value. It starts with a thought, a dream. We translated that into the wants and needs of Acture's target group, then into a strategy, and finally into a concrete and clear product offering.”

And it didn't stop there, because to get the proposition and the offer across properly, KPMG designed and set up the entire customer experience, at brand and product level, of course, but also at technological level. Molenaars adds: "The latter is about things like, what happens when someone requests information? How is this followed up? How is the whole process technically set up in such a way that customers feel excellently served and really connect with the Acture brand and products?"

The insurance market for self-employed people is still in its early stages. This is because until now it has not been compulsory to insure against disability as a self-employed person. But that obligation will come within the next few years. Acture is already ultimately equipped to serve this target group optimally. Maudie Derks is excited for this opportunity: "We are now firmly on the map. Our offer is much more concrete and our brand stands. We have been helped forward tremendously."