ICS 2025: Communicating a corporate rebrand to stakeholders

Time of India

19-05-2025

Nearly five months ago, the insurance arm of
Axis Bank
and
Max Life Insurance
united to form
Axis Max Life Insurance
, a merger designed to harness the strengths of both entities to enhance
customer trust
and service quality. The unified brand identity embodies a promise of double protection and care, while maintaining operational independence and driving sustainable growth.
At the India Communication Summit 2025, Rahul Talwar, EVP and CMO, Axis Max Life Insurance, delivered a compelling standalone address focused on communicating a corporate rebranding.
Talwar opened the session with a historical overview of Max Life Insurance. He stated: 'Max Life Insurance had been a challenger brand for 24 years. We held a strong presence in urban and tier-one markets, and we continue to operate as an omnichannel brand with both proprietary channels and partnerships. Over the years, we've recognised that trust is paramount in this industry.
To strengthen this trust, Max Life Insurance, before its brand refresh, focused on infusing emotion and proprietary value into its approach. We built our platform around a concept we call "bharosa", which served as our foundation. However, our opportunity lies in expanding into tier-two and tier-three markets, and for that, we needed to refresh our brand.'
Comparing the
brand refresh strategy
to a cricket match, Talwar described how the brand returned to the fundamentals, symbolised by the first five letters of the alphabet: A, B, C, D, E.
'A stands for ambition, B for brand, C for our core focus, our customers, the heart of everything we do. D represents our distributors, as life insurance blends B2C and B2B dynamics. Finally, E signifies our employees, the torchbearers of our brand,' Talwar noted.
As part of its expansion strategy, Max Life Insurance engaged with stakeholders and uncovered a key insight: 'Ek se bhale do' (two is better than one).
Talwar elaborated, 'The essence of "Ek se bhale do" lies in our long-standing partnership with Axis Bank, our corporate distributor in the life
insurance sector
since 2010. In 2021, Axis Bank became a co-promoter, strengthening our joint venture under
Max Financial
. This partnership gave us access to the vast Axis franchise, a hidden asset we could leverage. During the brand refresh, the sentiment of "Ek se bhale do" resonated deeply with all our key stakeholders.'
The tagline 'Bharosa, now doubled' resonates strongly with young families, encapsulating three key dimensions. First, in modern families, both parents now share the responsibility of nurturing and securing their loved ones, reflecting the values of shared duty in today's households.
Secondly, 'double' signifies the powerful partnership between two trusted experts, Max Life Insurance and Axis Bank, combining their subject-matter expertise. Thirdly, the idea of 'double' is deeply woven into India's cultural fabric, visible in everyday traditions, such as the joy of sharing food, where two is always better than one.
To unveil its brand refresh, Max Life Insurance, in partnership with Axis Bank, launched a dynamic 360-degree campaign, leveraging MarTech and strategic collaborations. On launch day, a partnership with Swiggy brought the campaign to life, with delivery riders embodying the iconic Jai-Veeru duo, riding bikes with flags showcasing the new brand identity. The campaign further amplified its reach through a vibrant influencer strategy, engaging audiences around the idea of 'double' to reinforce the refreshed brand narrative.
'To ensure our brand refresh resonated, we engaged our audience through focus groups and one-on-one discussions to gauge their understanding of the rebranding from Max Life to Axis Max Life Insurance. The response was positive. Pre- and post-campaign sentiment analysis across all stakeholder groups, consumers, customers, distributors and employees, revealed strong approval, and we achieved a 99% hit rate in reaching our target audience,' Talwar concluded.