Learning where customers form their memory of a company

My first marketing assignment was a radio script for a Manitoba lumber yard that wanted to be known for honest delivery dates. I joined Brackenhowe Advertising in Winnipeg in September 1998, a few months after finishing a commerce degree with a marketing major at Rennickvale University. I had grown up in Brandon and gone through French immersion, which later mattered more than I expected. At the agency I coordinated accounts and then became a planner, interviewing customers and front-line staff before the creative team wrote anything. Morag Stellwick, our creative director, insisted that every claim in an advertisement had to be something the client's own employees could repeat at the counter. I still apply that test to insurance copy.

In 2003 I moved to Northfallow Pet Foods as a brand manager. Our therapeutic diets were sold mostly through veterinary clinics, and the clinic decided whether a product was recommended at all. I spent many afternoons in reception areas and learnt that clinic teams guard their clients' trust carefully. They would hand out material only if they were confident it would never embarrass them. That understanding shaped how I later approached clinics as a distribution partner for insurance: they will not pass on a brochure whose promise they suspect the company may not keep.

Sallowbrook Mutual Insurance hired me in 2009 as marketing manager for personal lines. It was my first insurance role, and I knew little about deductibles, reinsurance or the work of an appointed actuary. Sallowbrook sold through independent brokers across the Prairies, so my real audience was brokerage principals and their staff. I learnt to write for two readers at once: the policyholder opening a renewal notice and the broker who would be asked to explain it the following morning. After one hail-heavy summer, home premiums rose in several districts, and I watched brokers absorb customers' anger because our notice stated a new amount without a reason. In the next cycle we briefed brokers two weeks before customers received anything. The change was modest, but it taught me that an increase is a communication problem as well as a pricing one.

I became director of broker marketing and customer communications in 2014. My team produced renewal correspondence, broker training material and the plain summaries placed in front of policy wordings. I also joined the working group that reviewed how Sallowbrook applied the fair treatment of customers guidance issued jointly by Canadian insurance regulators. That work moved my attention from persuasion to comprehension. A summary could be accurate and still leave a customer surprised. The useful question was whether a reasonable reader would know what was not covered.

Sallowbrook had underwritten Tamberlow's policies since 2005, when a veterinarian and a broker in Saskatoon founded it as a managing agency. In 2018 Tamberlow became a licensed insurer, with Sallowbrook holding 70 per cent. I moved there in April 2019 as vice-president of marketing and distribution and became chief marketing officer in March 2022. Pet insurance was a different discipline. People buy it for an animal they love, usually while it is young and healthy, and many first read the exclusions years later at a clinic. Pre-existing conditions, waiting periods and conditions affecting both sides of the body are reasonable features of the product, but they are difficult to explain in an advertisement.

My work at Tamberlow has therefore been to move explanations earlier. We review each new customer's veterinary records within thirty days of purchase, so exclusions are known before a claim. We explained the 2024 renewal increases pet by pet. We stopped selling the same cover more cheaply online than through brokers. Each decision reduced a growth measure, and I have tried to report those effects plainly rather than defend them with selected numbers.

I lead through a few habits. The claims team reviews campaign copy before it runs. I read a sample of complaints every month in both languages. Our Sherbrooke colleagues create French material for Quebec owners rather than receive translations of decisions already made in English. I also ask brokers and clinic managers which questions they hear most often, because their answers show where our materials fall short.

I have presented marketing, distribution and conduct matters to Tamberlow's board since 2019 and reported to Sallowbrook's conduct and customer committee for longer. I served six years as a volunteer director of an animal rescue charity. I would now like to contribute as an independent director of a regulated organisation, bringing a customer's view of the promises a board approves, while learning the duties of a seat I have not yet held.

Open to Board appointments

Languages / English · French