Service Marketing Mix of Allstate Corporation: 7Ps.
Allstate Corporation is a leading insurance provider in the United States that offers an extensive range of insurance covers for various consumer segments and their different needs. The company conducts its business through Allstate Insurance Company, Allstate Life Insurance Company, and other subsidiaries. The number of Allstate’s proprietary policies is higher than 113 million and provides insurance products and services to around 16 million households. The company offers a broad range of products that it sells through its multiple brands and diverse distribution channels. The types of insurance covers sold by AllState include auto, home, life, and other insurance offered through its Allstate, Esurance, Encompass, SquareTrade, and Answer Financial brands. The company is also recognized in the US and other leading markets by its business slogan, “You’re in Good Hands with Allstate.” Allstate was founded in 1931 as a part of Sears, Roebuck & Co, and became publicly traded in 1993 and then an independent company in 1995.
Apart from its extensive range of affordable and straightforward insurance products, the company is also investing in marketing and technology for superior customer service. In the near and long term, the company is focusing upon increasing personal property-liability market share and expanding protection businesses, including Service Businesses, Allstate Life, and Allstate Benefits. Apart from that, the company focuses on growing the availability of its products, the attractiveness and competitive strength of its portfolio, simplifying its portfolio, and offering more connected services.
Seven P’s in the Services Marketing Mix of Allstate
In this article, you will read about the seven Ps of Allstate Corporation’s marketing mix and how it is working to achieve faster and superior growth (with a particular focus on the product, pricing, and promotion components).
Product:
Allstate Corporation has divided its business into following reportable segments:
Allstate Protection:
This segment mainly includes the Allstate, Encompass, and Esurance brands and Answer Financial. It offers private passenger auto, homeowners, other personal lines, and commercial insurance through agencies, contact centers, and online. In 2020 AllState plans to integrate Ensurance into the Allstate brand as it is repositioning Allstate for broader customer success.
Service Businesses
Includes Allstate Protection Plans, Allstate Dealer Services, Allstate Roadside Services, Arity, and Allstate Identity Protection, which offer a broad range of products and services that expand and enhance our customer value propositions.
Allstate Life
This segment offers traditional, interest-sensitive, and variable life insurance products mainly through Allstate exclusive agents and exclusive financial specialists.
Allstate Benefits
This segment offers voluntary benefits products, including life, accident, critical illness, short-term disability, and other health insurance products that the company sells through independent agents, benefits brokers, and Allstate exclusive agents.
Allstate Annuities
This segment consists of deferred fixed annuities and immediate fixed annuities (including standard and sub-standard structured settlements) in the run-off.
Discontinued Lines and Coverages
This segment relates to property and casualty insurance policies written during the 1960s through the mid-1980s with exposure to asbestos, environmental and other claims in the run-off.
Corporate and Other
This segment includes holding company activities and certain non-insurance operations.
The company offers a large range of insurance products that include auto insurance products, products for homeowners, as well as specialty auto insurance products that include motorcycle, trailer, motor-home and off-road vehicles. The company also offers other personal lines insurance which includes the following categories — renters, condominiums, landlord, boat, umbrella, manufactured home, and stand-alone scheduled personal property. Allstate also offers commercial lines insurance. The Allstate, Ensurance, and Encompass brands of Allstate Corporation offer the insurance products, whereas Answer Financial provides comparison quotes and sales of non-proprietary auto, homeowners, and other personal lines (condominium, renters, motorcycle, recreational vehicle, and boat). In 2019, the number of Allstate’s total policies in force reached 145.9 million.
Place:
The Allstate Corporation is headquartered at Northbrook, Illinois, United States. The company has maintained an extensive presence in the North American region through a large network of administrative, data processing, claims handling, and other support facilities. The company has around 450 facilities located throughout North America. Outside North America, the company has three facilities in Northern Ireland, two in India as well as two in London.
The company has placed a special focus on establishing a strong and extensive distribution network. It is also one of the core pillars of Allstate’s business strategy. Allstate has established an innovative and integrated distribution system providing consumers with broad points of presence across all channels. Here is a short description of the distribution channels adopted by Allstate.
Allstate has 10,800 Allstate exclusive agencies operating in 10,700 locations in the United States. The company uses this distribution channel to sell its products in the United States. The AllStates sales and distribution channels in the United States are supported by 27,100 licensed sales professionals, and 1,000 exclusive financial specialists. Allstate also uses 3400 independent agencies, contact centers, and online sales and distribution channels for selling products in the United States.
AllState mainly operates in the United States and Canada and its top markets based on premiums earned include Texas, California NewYork and Florida.
Price:
The US insurance industry is marked by heavy price competition and the pricing strategy followed by an insurance provider affects his competitive position directly. Prices do not just affect the popularity of insurance products but also the overall image of the brand. Allstate as well as other players in the US market are increasingly adopting sophisticated pricing models to attract customers and beat the competition. Apart from marketing, pricing is the most important factor on whose basis insurance firms across the US compete heavily.
Promotion:
Insurance brands advertise and promote their products heavily in the United States as well as in other parts of the world. While heavy competition is one of the major drivers of heavy spending on advertising in the insurance industry, other factors like low consumer awareness also tend to drive higher spending on ads and promotions. Some of the common channels that brands including AllState use for marketing and sales include digital advertising channels like paid online promotions, email marketing, use of websites and apps, direct marketing as well as social media marketing. Allstate also uses consumer awareness and education initiatives to drive higher brand awareness, sales, and faster growth. It has increased its investment in technology to provide superior customer experience and increased access to various AllState products since customer experience is a major driver of popularity and growth in the US insurance industry. Moreover, AllStates and other insurance companies are using social media channels to reach their customers and grow their awareness of insurance products and related services. The company has also focused on building a strong reputation since the brand image is a major source of competitive advantage for the company. Over the past several years, the company has won several rewards and recognitions in various areas including philanthropic, employee volunteerism, and diversity efforts. There is heavy competition in the US insurance market and some of the leading competitors of Allstate include Geico, Progressive, and State Farm.
People:
The Allstate Corporation had 45,780 full time and 510 part-time employees as of 2019. Its seven reportable segments use shared human resources. Thomas J Wilson is the president and CEO of Allstate Corporation and AIC. There is intense competition in the finance and insurance industry for talented and qualified employees. Allstate hires qualified people with specialized knowledge in various areas including underwriting, data and analytics, technology, and e-commerce. Apart from competitive compensation and other benefits, the company has many training and retention programs in place for retaining key employees.
Processes:
The company uses both online and offline processes for providing insurance and other services to its customers inside and outside the US. With the growing use of digital technology, a larger number of people are using online resources to compare and purchase insurance plans. It is why Allstate has grown its investment in technology to grow the accessibility and availability of its products and services and is dedicating more technological resources to customer service as well. Allstate also employs 27,100 licensed sales professionals and 1,000 exclusive financial specialists to interact with customers directly and provide their support where needed.
Physical Evidence:
Despite the growing use of online resources for selling and buying insurance products and services. It is not difficult to come across paper-based physical evidence in the insurance industry. However, due to the growing use of digital technology and services, a lot of business is carried out online. Customers can use the AllState website and app to check out their insurance records and documents. There are a large number of forms and documents that can be accessed online easily using the AllState app which customers can download to their mobile phones. However, they can also print hard copies of their insurance cards as proof of insurance. Moreover, AllStates offers a large number of educational resources related to its products and services on its website and app that guide customers over how to use the various services available to them.
