Allstate insurance is the second largest property and casualty insurance company by premiums in the United States. Allstate insurance handles about 12% of the U.S home and auto insurance market. (Allstate, 2014). Many of Allstate’s customers fall under what one could refer to as a traditional selection of insurance for automobiles. Recently, Allstate has noticed a major shortcoming in lifestyle insurance, which includes coverage for motorcycles, boats, and other recreational vehicles, in comparison to its competitors. The motorcycle insurance sector is a 10.4 billion dollar industry and growing (PRWEB, 2012). The U.S. Department of Transportation website reports some astounding figures, including that 5,370,035 motorcycles were registered three years before the article, 7,138,476 motorcycles registered at the time of the article, and grew to 9,477,243 registered motorcycles at the end of 2012 (NHTSA, 2013). It is obvious as to why Allstate would identify motorcycle insurance as a worthy lifestyle product to devote marketing research dollars into in order to develop new strategies for cornering a share of the market.
Slide 4-3 What is Marketing Research
Marketing research is the systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data and its findings relevant to the specific marketing situation that a company faces (Kotler, 2012). By researching the motorcycle rider, Allstate is able to identify who they are and what they experience. In 2008, Allstate conducted a “Who’s Behind the Helmet” survey. They defined their qualifications as a motorcycle owner who is 18 years of age or older with an income of $50,000 or more. (Floyd, 2008). The 500 person sample size produced insightful and interesting details for Allstate. Jeff...
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...08).Vroom-Vroom for One More. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/business/media/14adnewsletter1.html?pagewanted=print&_r=0 Floyd, R. (2008). Allstate Survey Offers Surprises, Insight into Who's Behind the Helmet
Retrieved from http://allstatenewsroom.com/channels/News-Releases/releases/allstate-survey-offers-surprises-insight-into-whos-behind-the-helmet?query=
Helm, B. (2007).Let’s Ride- The Wild Ones at Allstate.
Kotler, P., Keller, L (2012). Marketing Management (14th ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA), (2013).Traffic Safety Facts. Retrieved from http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811765.pdf
PRWeb, (2012). Revving Up: Motorcycle Insurance in the US Industry Market Research Report Now Available from IBISWorld. Retrieved from http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/2/prweb9197931.htm
RBC first established its insurance platform in the early 1980s where it promoted creditor and basic travel insurance, as those were the few products that can be promoted by bank employees under Canada’s Bank Act. Through the acquisitions of various insurance companies, they eventually entered the life, health, property and casualty insurance markets; demonstrating significant growth in the industry and eventually being level in the playing field among other large insurance competitors (McLaren, Babin, & Schuster).
Slide 4-7 describes the first step in the marketing research process as needing to define the problem, specify decision alternatives and state research objectives. Allstate’s problem was that they were losing out on market share in non-traditional sectors like motorcycle insurance, and that it could be due to their conservative image. Generally when one thinks of people that ride motorcycle, “conservative” isn’t the first description that comes to mind. They could try to become more relevant to motorcycle (and other non-traditional) insurance shoppers by making them more aware of their products, relating to and understanding their wants and needs from an insurance company and being competitively priced. During the research process they may even find an alternative they originally hadn’t thought of.
Harley-Davidson owns a twenty percent market share followed closely by Honda, Yamaha, and Kawasaki. One thing they have had to overcome in the marketplace is the stereotypical image associated with motorcycle owners. It seems the publ...
The Insured was found to be a 56-year old Hispanic male, 5’09” in height, weighing 185 pounds, with brown eyes, black hair and wearing a goatee. He wore a white long-sleeved shirt, khaki pants, black leather opened toe men’s sandals and a tan cap. The Insured wore prescription eyeglasses for reading and stated he was right hand dominant. His complexion was pale and his muscle tone appeared to be below that which would be considered average.
External Opportunities • More people (94%) have new requirements for bicycles; the customers need bikes in different fields. • The popularity of Lance Armstrong has increased the interest on road bike, which represent 5% of the market. • The growing interest in cycling this is result in magazine coverage and the using of bikes and accessories in window displays that related to cycling.
These same sorts of systems could easily be added to, or modified as needed, to track the new motorcycle lines HD will produce to attract both women and young adults. These systems have been an invaluable means for HD to reevaluate itself in the past and thus are ‘tried and true’ making it a moot point to replace them. HD, however, needs to concentrate some effort on implementing a system to determine the most appropriate locations for future dealerships. This new evaluation system will aid HD in determining effective locations for new dealerships and assist in providing further market share penetration for the company in essentially ‘untapped’ consumer areas.
"Harley-Davidson: At Last" as presented in Hartley's Marketing Mistakes and Successes presents the circumstances around HD's near collapse and since rinse to near mythic success. This case is a great example of marketing myopia; HD saw them-selves as full-size motorcycles' manufactures, not in the transportation, or even the entertainment industry. They believed no one bought motorcycles for transportation, but rather for leisure time use.
II. The Challenge HD has chosen the strategic direction of targeting women and the younger market that is technologically conscious in order to increase its share in the first time motorcycle owner market space. With the introduction of the new VRSC’S, and the new lowered sportster 833 L and the 1200 L, designed for small riders who want more power, also promoting the already existing HD motorcycle owners to step forward and purchase a bigger model. HD is in a position to attain a sizeable share in the first time motorcycle owners, the young males, and females’ marketplace. To target the women and the young market with the new product line, the company has adopted the following marketing objectives: to expand its current market (market expansion), diversify its product line (product diversification), and modify its marketing mix to target women and the younger demographic.
There are three separate market segments: road bikes, mountain bikes, and youth bikes. Each of these segments range in differences such as size, price, product sensitivity, product preferences, and consumer viewing habits. Frequently, customers were interested in finding the lowest price to fulfill their needs. Our firm speculated the upgrading the mountain bike would encourage our customers to spend more money for a better quality bike; however, we discovered that customers were not interested in paying the extra money for an improved bike.
A health insurance broker is a licensed expert in their profession. A broker is someone who can help one find the best health insurance plan that’s fit for you and your family. Insurance brokers are free to recommend multiple different insurance companies. They are not tied down to just one. This allows them to better help their customers find the best match. Unlike the insurance agent who represents one or more insurance companies, a broker represents the buyer.
Polaris Marketing Research (2008). Marketing Research Process: An Overview. Retrieved May 8, 2008, from http://www.polarismr.com/edctr_overview.html
Briefly it is a systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data and findings relevant to a specific marketing situation facing the company, allows management to make the changes necessary for better results through adopting a proactive approach. Therefore, if a company wants to know what type of products or services would be profitable it should make a market research. Furthermore, a comprehensive research will enable the company to know about the product imperfections (if there are) and to know if it has been able to satisfy customers’ needs. It attempts to provide accurate information that reflects a true state of affairs. Due to market research the company can formulate a viable marketing plan and estimate the success of its existing plan. There are two main sources of marketing research information:
Marketing professionals create, manage and/or enhance brands in order to create or bolster demand for the product. A successful marketing plan will help assure that consumers look beyond just the price or function of a product when making a purchasing decision, in part, a well planned marketing effort will create a “feel good” association about the product the consumer is about to purchase (Petty) A key part of a career in marketing is to understand the needs, preferences, and constraints that define the target group of consumers or the market niche corresponding to the brand. This is done by market research. This is accomplished through market research, essentially using survey techniques, statistics, psychology and social understanding to help gather information on what consumers want and/or need, and then designing products, or services, to hopefully meet ...
The market can be divided into 2 categories men and women. In the category of men Men: Men under 30 group accounts for 44% of all sales. Therefore, a great opportunity exists here because of the group's size. This group's members buy motorcycles for their transportation and recreation needs. Men in this group buy more of mopeds, scooters and entry level lightweight road bikes. Men between 30 and 50 makes up 45% of buyers. The motorcycles most frequently purchased are the heavyweight tourers and cruisers. Many buyers are married couples looking for an alternative to taking the car out for weekend drives to the country. Men over 50 group accounts for about 11% of motorcycle sales. The heavyweight touring class and the middleweight road bike categories account for most of the sales here. Women group is a segment that is growing at a fast rate, and represents an opportunity area.
Grover, R & Vriens, M 2006, The handbook of marketing research: Uses, misuses, and future