Photo Credits: Amit Gupta
A few days ago, State Farm announced that it will be pulling out of the homeowners insurance business in Florida, after a substantial price increase proposal was rejected by Florida regulators.
I believe the decision to leave 1.2 million Florida customers without homeowners insurance will not only harm these customers but also the State Farm brand. As you may know, the company has built a business around the following brand promise: “Like a good neighbor State Farm is there”. That promise, at least for Florida homeowners, is now worthless.
Has State Farm made a good business decision? Can a company adopt a business strategy that openly contradicts its brand promise and expect its brand to come out unscathed? Should short term gains take precedence over long term brand building? I’d like to know what you think.
It’s probably better than this slogan:
Like a good neighbor, work under a regulatory system that makes your business unsustainable and then ask for a bailout.
If State Farm wants to turn the tables, they should explain and show how if they operated the home insurance business without the price increases they wouldn’t be able to provide the service expected of them, and how it could lead to financial problems for them which could necessitate a bailout.
Of course, this assumes that State Farm really can’t operate the business at sufficient profit levels without the increases. For all I know, there are other motives and politicing going on.
Brian:
Although I’m not an expert in the insurance business, the case for such a high increase is dubious. There hasn’t been a serious hurricane in Florida in the last three years (the last one was in 2005). Plus, they are keeping the automobile insurance business, where they make money. Some customers, like I, have paid tenths of thousands of dollars in premiums for years (both home and auto) without filing a claim.
However, it’s not my intention to argue the business case; my main point is that I don’t believe it’s good for the long term prospects of a company to make brand promises that they can’t keep or choose not to keep.
That is probably one of the reasons why traditional advertising has such a low ROI and why social media is growing so fast. Nobody really believes a corporation’s official story any more.