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Case study on Progressive Insurance's Marketing Strategies

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I. Background a. The Progressive Story Progressive is a large company that started the business in 1937. Progressive employs more than 26,000 and its revenue as of 2004 was 1.04B. Progressive distributes its services through telephone, Internet and independent agents. Progressive conducts business in 48 states and the District of Columbia and has organized these 49 jurisdictions into six geographical regions. The Agency and the Direct Businesses are managed at the local level and have three General Managers, each responsible for two regions. The Claims business area has six General Managers responsible for one region each, with managers at the state level. Sales and Service (which includes Agency and Direct customer service, direct sales …show more content…

The non focus states are either accepting renewal writing only or ceasing operations. Besides the product and geographical focus, Progressive also emphasizes on strengthening the relationship with the over 14,000 agents to distribute its products and services. By discipline pricing, Progressive demands adequate rates to achieve underwriting profitability and is willing to forego volume if necessary to achieve profit objectives. It is committed to set individual rates more accurately than the competitors. In addition, they will promptly respond to claims reported by local claim adjusters, which deliver effective control of the claim resolution process. Progressive's distribution and marketing efforts is executed with a focus on maintaining a low cost structure. By controlling expenses, the company will be price competitive and achieve better underwriting returns. Progressive's statutory ratio of underwriting expenses to written premiums has averaged 24.5%, which is 3.4% points better than the personal lines industry average of 21.1% for the same period (SEC filing, 2004). The statutory combined ratio is the sum of the loss ratio, which is the ratio of losses and loss adjustment expenses to net earned premiums and the expense ratio is calculated on a statutory accounting basis, the ratio of underwriting expenses to net written premiums. d. Buyer Segment Progressive uses geographical

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