Nuts & Bolts - Research : Survey Says: Consumers Want Caring Auto Insurers

While the concept of a grudge match between Progressive's "Flo" and the GEICO Gecko is entertaining—perhaps he'll climb a ladder and box with her puffy hairdo?—insurance companies using mass media to undercut each other's prices are missing the mark, according to Acxiom's 2011 Auto Insurance Consumer Dynamics Survey.

"Carriers promoting cost savings are motivating customers to shop for a better price, but more than half of all shoppers indicate that potential savings were not great enough or just not worth the effort to change," states the research released in October 2011.

What insurance companies should do, the survey finds, is what consumers are demonstrating that they want: provide personally relevant messaging conveyed through a channel consumers want to use.

Little Rock, Ark.-based data solutions firm Acxiom had a few more suggestions for insurance marketers:

• Get digital: Among survey respondents, 67 percent searched for auto insurance information, 42 percent clicked on Web ads and 60 percent initiated shopping online.

• Provide human interaction: "One in three shoppers reports agents have moderate to great influence in their shopping process."

• Treat different people differently: "Most critically, the survey points to the importance of recognizing and connecting with different shopper segments based on specific interests and needs, and through the channels by which they wish to be engaged."

To download Acxiom's study, visit http://bit.ly/rqNomI. To read similar conclusions from Forrester Research about consumer selection of banks, visit http://bit.ly/rwIfaJ.

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