From Marketing Daily:
It might be time for Geico to retire the gecko and the caveman. And
Progressive may want to put the perky Flo out to pasture as well.
Both
brands have
been on a long-term downtrend in consumer perception since fall 2010 in
the U.S., while State Farm and Allstate have eclipsed those brands
riding on their own quirky campaigns, according to YouGov
BrandIndex, the daily consumer perception research service of brands.
Insurance
companies have put old-school ads with men in suits and a deadly
serious tone in their collective rearview
mirrors. As a result, the category appears to be getting tighter with
the possibility of a changing of the guard, said Ted Marzilli, senior
vice present and managing director at BrandIndex.
State Farm, Allstate and Farmers Insurance have used their own edgy
marketing to outdo Geico and Progressive. Taking a page from the Geico
playbook, Allstate introduced its offbeat
“Mayhem” character, which appears to have helped propel the brand to its
highest perception point with consumers in more than four years.
State
Farm got hipper by putting Green Bay
Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers in weird situations with his teammates
and portraying him as being stalked by “cheeseheads.” Its latest “State
of Disconnect” ad featured two
guys quoting Journey lyrics to each other.
Farmers Insurance saw its consumer perception rise when it debuted its “University of Farmers” campaign in the fall of 2010. Its
perception levels are now on par with the much-bigger Progressive.
Geico,
Progressive, Allstate, State Farm and Farmers Insurance were measured
with YouGov BrandIndex’s Buzz score, which
asks respondents: “If you've heard anything about the brand in the last
two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive
or negative?”
YouGov BrandIndex
measurement scores range from 100 to -100 and are compiled by
subtracting negative feedback from positive. A zero score means equal
positive and negative feedback.
Geico led the insurance
category in consumer perception for 2008 and most of 2009 with buzz
scores hovering around 25. By October 2010, the company began gradually
losing steam and its current score is at 21.
Progressive has seen its own fortunes rise based its long-running Flo
character, rising from a 12 score on January 1, 2008 to averaging
around 17 until -- like Geico -- fall 2010. At that point,
Progressive began slowly drifting down to its present 13 score.
State
Farm was at 19 from 2008 until April 2009, when it began its present
long-term perception ascent, leading to its current
score of 26. State Farm passed Geico’s score at the end of January 2011
and it has been the category perception leader since then.
Allstate
was in a regular cycle of peaks and valleys
from 2008 through the end of September 2011, depending on its spending
activity, going as high as 19 and as low as 15. Since October 2011,
Allstate has risen to its current 21 -- the highest it has
been since the beginning of 2008 -- placing it at a virtual tie with
Geico.
Farmers Insurance was averaging around 6 from 2008 to mid-2009. It began its impressive ascent in late January 2010,
when it started at a 5 score and moved up to its present 13 score, right where Progressive currently stands.
YouGov BrandIndex (www.brandindex.com)
interviews 5,000 people each weekday from a representative U.S.
population sample -- more than 1.2 million interviews per year.
Respondents are drawn from an
online panel of more than 1.5MM individuals. None of the insurance
companies cited in the research are clients of YouGov BrandIndex.
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