How To Understand And Understand The Strengths Of Amica

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1 Amica Insurance Marketing Strategy Amica has consistently been rated one of the top insurance companies in the United States. The power of the company and its financial strength is well represented in its 100-year history. Emphasizing the needs of the customer and providing quality service at a fair price have achieved the company s consistent success. The mission statement exemplifies the company s dedication and commitment to the customer, through which they have gained a sustainable advantage in customer excellence. Steady financial gains and company growth exhibit their continual success. By performing a situation analysis Amica is able to identify what needs to be improved upon and where the company should focus its efforts. Amica then implements it s the marketing mix and allocates its resources. Identifying the insurance policies that fit into particular regions does this; how prices and promotions should be tailored based on the specific regions intricacies. Finally, Amica evaluates its performance based on its profits and other marketing metrics. Company Objective Amica's mission statement is, "Amica's mission is to enhance the financial security of our customers by offering personal insurance protection and other related services at the lowest reasonable cost, consistent with sound financial management. To accomplish these objectives Amica focuses on a set of principles. The first principal is to exceed customer expectations by providing the highest quality service in the insurance industry. Secondly, Amica strives to offer superior products and services that respond to the changing needs of the customers. The main objective that is apparent in the first two principles is emphasizing customer needs. Next, the company focuses on maintaining financial strength through sound business practices and

2 efficient operations. The company also promotes wellbeing, dedication and professionalism in employees by providing each employee with opportunities for growth and recognition in a complementary work environment. Happy employees are more efficient and greatly benefit the company. Lastly, Amica adheres to the highest ethical, moral and legal standards in their business and civic activities. By following these high standards Amica greatly enhances its public perception. Amica has been able to create a sustainable advantage through great customer service. Since the company's founding in 1907 Amica has been known for its top notch, face to face customer service. Through this, Amica has achieved customer excellence. The importance of customer service is instilled in all employees and is a part of the organizational culture. Having superior customer service in comparison to other insurance companies has created very loyal customers. Amica also has a loyalty program, which offers incentives to customers who remain loyal to the company over a certain number of years. Situation Analysis Strengths In the internal environment, Amica has a number of strengths that make it one of the most successful insurance companies in the United States. A main strength that the company possesses is a strong brand identity, which is made up of insurance policies with constantly low and fair pricing that offer outstanding coverage. Another strength for Amica is its loyalty program. Amica offers a loyalty discount to customers who maintain a long-term relationship with the company. This helps to maintain customers over large periods of time because there is more incentive to stay with the company than to leave it for another. Another main strength is

3 that the company is financially strong. Amica earned the highest possible rating for insurance companies from the A.M. Best Company. Weaknesses As one of the top performing insurance companies in the United States, Amica possesses very few weaknesses. One weakness is Amica's dependence on the demand for automobiles and the economy. If demand decreases for vehicles that need to be insured because of an increase in mass transit, the company will lose profits. Profits will also decrease if the economy is in a recession because people are less likely to buy cars. Another weakness for Amica is its reputation for sometimes being picky when it comes to auto insurance. Customers who have multiple accidents or tickets on their record are often not accepted for auto insurance. Opportunities As an insurance company, Amica posses a unique set of opportunities in its external environment. Amica can take advantage of the current increase in demand for automobiles. Consumers are trading in old cars for new more fuel-efficient vehicles. With each new uninsured vehicle there is potential for a new customer. Technology is also an opportunity for Amica. Changing car technologies bring about the possibility for new policies specifically tailored to these new technologies. If Amica can establish a new, successful and fair policy for this market before competitors do they will have an advantage. Threats The main threat for Amica is industry competition. There are larger insurance companies who compete with Amica for customers through pricing and other factors. It is important for

4 Amica to maintain its reputation as a fair and customer oriented insurance company. It is also vital that Amica stays ahead of the competition in relation to innovation and the ability to identify the constantly changing customer needs. Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning Amica has skillfully divided their market into several different groups of customers. This is done naturally, since they offer different insurance options. Their groups consist of Auto, Homeowners, Life and Marine. There are customers that use all policies that can be grouped into one, if they were to need all the products that are offered. Amica does not have many options when deciding upon a target market. Regardless of whom they intend on targeting, they offer insurance so the market is diverse. Depending on the group they are choosing, they advertise differently. For example, for auto insurance, Amica targets parents with children who are new drivers. Yet, for life insurance, Amica targets adults who would soon be seeking life insurance. Along with their considered competitive advantage, Amica also uses their customer service as their market positioning. Regardless of the advertisement, they base off of the knowledge that they have superb customer service. With that being said, they gain new customers because they believe that the advertisements are true. Customers compare their advertisements to those of their competitors and realize that Amica s expresses more customer appreciation. Implement Marketing Mix The fourth step to the marketing plan is not only to implement the marketing mix but to allocate resources as well. The main goal of this step is for Amica to identify the four P s, which are product, price, place and promotion. Amica addresses product through offering multiple different forms of insurance. By doing this, they are able to keep their customers through any of

5 the needs they may have. Amica is also willing to negotiate with their customers to combine different packages into one option. Negotiating with customers also applies to the evaluation of price. Certain insurance packages are offered at specific prices, yet for the most part it is based off of the customer s specific need. This is challenging to compare to competitors because Amica may not be aware of how much they charge for certain occurrences. Amica just has to ensure that their prices are in the same ballpark as their competitors, and if something happens to go higher, they are able to work it lower to keep the customer. So far, Amica has been successful with setting and maintaining their prices. When deciding where Amica wants to open a new agency, they have to keep in mind the products they offer and how they would suit that location. For example, if Amica were to offer tornado protection in their home insurance but not hurricane protection, they should open offices in Kansas but not Florida. Amica has created packages that offer coverage for various scenarios, making picking a location simple for them this could be considered a strength for Amica. Another strength Amica has is their promotion. As mentioned before, Amica uses their reputation for good customer service and gears their advertisements towards it. This captures the viewers and turns them into customers. Amica has been successful in using that idea to gain their customers through promotion. Evaluate Performance The fifth and final step to a marketing plan is to evaluate performance using marketing metrics. Amica uses the evaluation to explain why things happen, project their future and help see why they may not have achieved some desired goals. Amica compares its sales, revenues and profits to its performance in prior years as well as the performance of its competitors. Analyzing Amica s profits over the year of 2010 to 2011, they increased in every aspect. Amica s net income increased $39,463 in the one year. The policies that they have in force increased

6 $30,746. The increases from just one year portray the success that Amica has been having. The annual reports for Amica s competitors such as: Progressive, Allstate and State Farm have shown that Amica has been more successful than its competitors. No other insurance agency had a growth like Amica had; rather they all stayed the same. This shows that Amica is getting new customers, but not taking theirs. From this research, Amica could change their plan slightly in order to appeal to some of the competitor s customers as well. Overview In 2007, Amica insurance celebrated their 100 th anniversary of the company. Exemplifying throughout those 100 years the great concern for consumers. Amica has always been dependable when it comes to consumer satisfaction. They are dedicated to offering superior products, maintaining financial strength through business practices and adhering to the highest ethical standards in the business world. Being in a monopolistic competition, competing against many competitors, Amica has sustained its excellence in being rated one of the top insurance companies in the nation. More specifically rated by J.D Power Associates as Highest customer satisfaction among homeowners as well as Highest customer satisfaction among auto insurers in the nation for 11 consecutive years. When we look at Amica Insurance in terms of their pricing orientation, it is clear that they follow customer orientation over anything else. Although Amica is like any other company in that they are trying to generate as much profit as possible, they base their company on the objective on how satisfied their customers are. Amica s true measurement of success is customer satisfaction and loyalty to the brand. Amica feels as though if customers remain loyal to the brand they should be able to expect future success.

7 Along with pricing, there is obviously some type of relationship between price and quantity sold. However, due to the fact that this is an insurance company, looking at the demand curve is a little different. The demand curve shows how many units of a product or service consumers will demand during a specific period at different prices. Again, because we are talking about an insurance company, the demand for a service such as insurance is solely dependent on what is happening throughout the country. An example of this is a natural disaster. If there were a hurricane, there would be a large amount of claims filed within the company. Thus, the demand for service would be higher than if the company was under normal conditions. Also, another good example of this depends on the time of year. Obviously, during the holidays or during the summer vacation months, claims are higher due to more drivers out on the road and getting into more accidents. In addition, we also need to focus on price elasticity. This is a difficult issue to explain due to the fact that Amica does not produce a tangible product. However, we are able to pick out some key points. Amica, just like any other company has variable costs. These costs include labor, maintenance costs associated with the facility, company vehicles, as well as costs associated with travel. The biggest and most important variable cost to the company however, is what the company pays out in claims. Depending on how many claims are reported during a given period depends on how their variable costs will affect their break-even point. Amica has been known to offer low reasonable pricing but there are a few factors that may potentially influence that. Starting with the surge of technology in our generation, mainly the Internet. The Internet has made consumers more prices sensitive due to the accessibility to substitution products the Internet provides for consumers. Amica hasn t been greatly affected by the Internet due to the fact that the Internet tends to have a larger affect on products rather than

8 services. This doesn t exempt Amica from this influence because there is potential to be affected due to lower search costs for offices, agencies or agents. Besides the Internet there is also the overall economic factors that play into just about everything in this world. For example factors such as the competition, disposable income and the unemployment rate all may lead to a change in pricing strategies for a company. The pricing strategies Amica implements have a direct connection between customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. Automotive insurers that fell into the highsatisfaction group had a 10% higher renewal rates compared to the low satisfaction group of customers. Exemplifying exactly why Amica makes customer relationships their main focus. Satisfying the basic consumer needs can make the biggest difference in satisfaction. Amica believes by having high relationships with consumers that it gives them some pricing flexibility, and allows them to differ from competitors but only to a certain point. At times, Amica has been criticized by customers for using a market penetration pricing strategy, which is where they set the initial price low to build initial sales, which is then followed by increased prices. Being in a monopolistic competition there is always an ongoing price battle between competitors that can sometimes spiral out of control. Although Amica does adhere to the highest ethical standards, they also have been criticized about predatory pricing. Similar to market penetration, predatory pricing is when a firm sets a very low price for one of its products or services with intent to drive its competition out of business. With the economy not in its best shape, yet improving, companies have risen prices to maintain ends meet, while Amica continued to lower prices to help increase sales and increase customer loyalty. Predatory pricing is an illegal strategy under both the Sharman Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act, but

9 those were just some slight criticisms that every company will attract at some point throughout their product lifecycle.