CRC Group’s journey from bank division to independent insurance wholesaler wasn’t just about a new look or logo. The transformation was about finding the identity they had all along and finally giving themselves the room to live it.
The strategic rebrand, announced earlier this year, is an effort to unify its brand and establish a new division structure. The new CRC Group operates under two divisions: specialty + benefits and underwriting.
The specialty + benefits division will encompass the company’s wholesale property and casualty operations, which will now operate under the CRC Specialty brand. It will also include the company’s employee benefits business, which will continue under the BenefitMall brand until transitioning to CRC Benefits later this year.
The underwriting division will include Starwind and AmRisc. As part of the rebrand, Starwind will debut a refreshed look.
According to Jessica Marshall (pictured), chief marketing & communications officer at CRC Group, the exercise was a much-needed reset, spurred by a change in ownership, a shift in market identity, and a drive for sharper focus.
“We were being treated like a bank, even though we weren't a bank; we were an insurance wholesaler,” Marshall said. “The leadership team looked at that and saw that as a limiting factor in our growth.”
Until recently, CRC was under the wing of Truist Financial Corporation, one of the top 10 banks in the US. It operated as the bank’s insurance arm, managing a portfolio of agencies, including CRC.
The strategic pivot came through stages. First, Truist sold 20% of its insurance holdings to private equity firm Stone Point Capital. Then, in May last year, CRC officially separated from Truist, selling to private equity firms Stone Point Capital and CD&R.
CRC sold McGriff, its retail arm, and exited the life and annuity space by divesting Crump. What remained was a clean, focused wholesale platform.
“I went to our CEO, Dave (Obenauer), and said, we're on this new journey, and coming out on the other side, I think we need to come out as a new company,” Marshall told Insurance Business. “We are going to be on a new path for supercharged growth, and a whole world of opportunity opens to us as a pure-play wholesaler.”
CRC brought in London-based agency Free Partners to help craft a rebrand that would resonate with the specific nuances of insurance wholesale.
Meanwhile, Marshall and her team conducted interviews with field producers and the executive team to distil the organization’s purpose into something authentic. The outcome was three core values and a forward-thinking tagline: “Move faster, go further.”
“We wanted something obtainable,” reflected Marshall. “Something that we could live in our everyday business relationships.”
The challenge for CRC’s rebranding wasn’t just in the concept: it was in the execution. CRC is a large organization with different operating groups: brokerage, binding, benefits, and underwriting. Messaging had to be wide enough to encompass them all but specific enough to resonate with each.
The emotional connection to a brand, however, isn’t something that dissolves with a new logo. For CRC, a small but vocal group felt the loss of a familiar symbol.
“I remember when I rolled out the new logo at our sales conference,” Marshall said. “There were some people who were sad about us killing the diamond (the old logo).”
Beyond the symbolism, CRC’s rebrand came with logistical weight. With 40-plus brands in its underwriting division alone, coordination required precision. The rebrand also coincided with a sweeping IT overhaul – email migrations, new hardware, back-end infrastructure – as part of repositioning the benefits division under the new brand.
“We have so many websites and social presences, and I have a pretty small but mighty team,” Marshall said. “I would say after getting through all the emotional aspects of the brand, it's just truly rolling up your sleeves and executing with the resources we have.”
Amid all the effort, the question of impact lingers. How do you measure success in a rebrand of this scale?
For Marshall, it’s not about chasing short-term revenue attribution. It’s about changing perception. “I think that it's created a feeling amongst our internal team and also with our clients and our carrier partners,” she said. “There's a new energy around us.”
CRC’s rebrand was clearly a cultural shift as much as a market move. For brokers or insurance marketers watching from the sidelines, there are tactical lessons in how to manage internal alignment, stakeholder involvement, and vendor relationships.
One of those lessons is the value of collaboration with the front lines. “I like to think that my team and I are really in it with (CRC’s producers), shoulder to shoulder, to make sure that we're creating the value that they can sell,” Marshall said. “Having that strong partnership with the field and the sales team is a key to ensuring the success of any type of roll-out.”
For marketers navigating similar terrain, Marshall said finding your peer network early has been instrumental to her professional growth. Her involvement in the Insurance Marketing Communications Association (IMCA) proved to be more than a networking move.
“Sometimes, what we do is a little bit isolating,” Marshall said. “There's only one of me at my company, so I don't have anyone else internally to turn to from a networking and ideas perspective.”
The organization has become a sounding board and knowledge base for her and other insurance marketers. This year, the IMCA’s Ignite Conference will stand as an opportunity for these professionals to come together to share ideas and war stories, and leave with real strategies they can apply to their organizations.
“We have ensured that the speakers and the breakout sessions are very informative,” said Marshall. “The goal is that everyone who attends can take something away from this conference back to their jobs. And I know that I bring a large number of my team to this conference, and they all come back energized with tons of new ideas.”
Learn from leading marketers like Jessica Marshall at the IMGA Ignite conference from June 23 to June 25. Find out more here.
