LLOYD'S PUTS ON NEW PUBLIC FACE

LONDON-Lloyd's of London is dropping London.

As a result of customer research Lloyd's undertook over the past two years, the insurance market decided its name and image needed a revamp. So it has become simply Lloyd's, dropping the "of London" part of its title, and spruced up its corporate logo.

"There was quite a lot of confusion among clients and brokers in the U.S. and the U.K. regarding what exactly was Lloyd's visual identity," said Beverly Landais, head of marketing at the Corporation of Lloyd's.

About 47 icons and logos have been used to represent Lloyd's, she explained, and "it didn't really aid communication."

Lloyd's reconstruction and renewal plan intervened to stretch the development time of the new image to more than two years. During this time, Ms. Landais' team, aided by design consultants, tried out a number of variations on the present Lloyd's logo to find out which one people responded to best. Their guinea pigs were managing agents, brokers and clients.

"We found that Lloyd's itself was the thing that clients related to," explained Ms. Landais, rather than Lloyd's of London, so the geographical reference has been dropped, though it remains in the market's legal title.

As for the logo, a revamp of the one created for the market on its tercentenary in 1986, Ms. Landais is confident it reflects the customer research discovery that it should be "clean and uncluttered."

It will take time for the new image to spread out among the Lloyd's community. Rather than demand a "big bang" start date for everyone to adopt the same style, Ms. Landais' team is taking a softer approach. People can use the new image as they need more branded products, she said, and she hopes brokers and agents will happily adopt it.

"We have been working with

the (Lloyd's Insurance Brokers Committee)," and are "putting a lot of effort into showing how the new identity can be used," said

Ms. Landais.

As clients increasingly identify with the new Lloyd's look over time, the logo will become the choice for marketing and promotion literature, Ms. Landais predicted.

Overall, the exercise has cost Lloyd's (British pounds) 600,000 ($974,000).

Two-thirds of that was taken up by research, development and consulting fees, with the other (British pounds) 200,000 ($325,000) the costs of producing artwork, guidance literature and stationery for the Corporation.

Lloyd's companies will foot their own bills to incorporate the new logo into their literature and stationery, under guidelines currently being issued.