Assurant's marketing function operated as a tactical support organization rather than a strategic driver of growth. Without a CMO or a clearly defined marketing mandate, the company lacked the consumer-centric capabilities needed to compete more aggressively in its insurance and lifestyle protection markets.
Vivaldi led a two-year marketing transformation program that systematically built consumer-centric capabilities across Assurant's marketing function. The work progressed from foundational capability assessment through organizational design, culminating in the establishment of a formal CMO role and a restructured marketing organization.
Assurant's marketing function was transformed from a support function into a strategic business driver. The creation of the CMO role institutionalized marketing's strategic importance — and the new capabilities enabled more effective consumer engagement and product positioning across the portfolio.
Assurant partnered with Vivaldi on a two-year marketing transformation that elevated marketing from a tactical support function into a strategic business driver. The program built consumer-centric capabilities across the organization, restructured the marketing function, and culminated in the establishment of a formal CMO role, institutionalizing marketing’s strategic importance in Assurant’s insurance and lifestyle protection markets.
Assurant is a global provider of risk management products and services in housing and lifestyle, with revenues exceeding $10 billion. Headquartered in New York City and operating in over 21 countries, Assurant protects what matters most to approximately 300 million consumers worldwide. The company offers insurance, warranty, and related services through partnerships with leading financial institutions, retailers, and wireless carriers.
Vivaldi led a two-year program that systematically built consumer-centric capabilities across Assurant’s marketing function and culminated in the creation of a formal CMO role with a restructured marketing organization. The transformation moved marketing from a tactical support team into a strategic business driver and gave Assurant the consumer engagement and product positioning capabilities needed to compete more aggressively in insurance and lifestyle protection markets.
The program started with a foundational capability assessment that identified specific gaps in research, segmentation, brand strategy, and campaign management, then sequenced the build-out so each new capability could be operationalized before the next was added. Organizational design followed capability development rather than preceding it, which avoided the common failure mode of restructuring the function before the new operating model has anything different to actually run.
Without a CMO, marketing decisions get distributed across product, sales, and operations, which means no single leader owns the consumer relationship or the brand architecture across the portfolio. In insurance and lifestyle protection specifically, where products are often distributed through partners and direct consumer recognition is low, a CMO is the only role with the authority and remit to build a brand that consumers prefer rather than merely encounter, which is the precondition for moving from commodity competition to chosen-brand status.
A support function executes the demand other parts of the business create, while a strategic driver shapes which markets the business chooses to enter, which segments it prioritizes, and what proposition it builds against them. The distinction shows up in budget authority, board reporting, and how the rest of the C-suite consumes marketing’s work, and it usually only becomes real when the function is led by an empowered CMO who participates in strategy rather than only in execution.
