The onslaught of competition from offshore insurers in Australia has led Suncorp Metway to give new emphasis to one of its portfolio of general insurance brands, AAMI.Intriguingly, Suncorp appears to plan to associate notions of pricing with the AAMI brand, something the insurance company and its predecessor Vero steadfastly avoided doing.''AAMI is a peak brand, it's a national brand and it will be priced competitively in the markets we want to be in,'' Mark Milliner, head of personal insurance at Suncorp, told the Sydney Morning Herald. ''We need to position the others around AAMI,'' he said. Milliner told the newspaper there were no plans to reduce Suncorp's portfolio of brands, which includes Bingle and Australian Pensioners Insurance Agency. AAMI, however, would be used as a key national brand.Following years of consistent marketing, AAMI is, until now, probably the last insurance brand consumers would associate with a particular view of price (such as affordable or low). Apart from the advertising messages, word of mouth from customers with claims experience may be another linchpin of the AAMI brand, and which reflects the efficient dispatch of contract tradespeople to deal with the after effects of a fire, for example.AAMI must research extremely well and this must inform the Suncorp decision making.It sounds as if Suncorp is conceding that the price of mass market insurance products has to come down, however, so the entry to the market of offshore insurers is having a tangible affect.