In a prior life ( while working for the head of Allstate Marketing and a great guy Wilson ran out of the company, to head-up marketing at Coca-Cola no less! ) we would often disparage the marketing of competitors such as Progressive, Geico, Liberty Mutual etc. Our hubris knew no bounds. Fast forward to today where those same competitors are now taking market share from Allstate and State Farm. They are eating Allstate's lunch with a consistent marketing theme; cheaper rates. In meetings with Wilson in the rarified air of the F8 conference room, Wilson would insist that " insurance was not a commodity and although Allstate would never be the cheapest insurance, it would always be the best value." That is no more true now than is was then. When your rates are among the highest and you gut the back office of customer service while simultaneously outsourcing the claims department to Pune, India, how do you maintain that " value proposition "? Can you summarize Allstate's current marketing theme in a couple of words, like " cheaper rates"? In a sentence or paragraph? Thanks to Wilson's arrogance Allstate has lost its way and its " not so creative " recovery strategy is to simply cut expenses by laying off/firing employees and outsourcing to India and Northern Ireland. Acquisitions will help hide the deteriorating numbers for awhile. But the post-pandemic world will see driving exposures go up as will claim counts and that, coupled with a gutted customer service operation, will create a mass customer exodus that will require more cost cutting that will lead to market share deterioration and the cycle begins anew. If you have ever wondered what the early stages of a companies death spiral looks like, keep your eye on Allstate.
8 replies (most recent on top)
The only reason Allstate is #4 is because they purchased Nat Gen. Keep an eye on Liberty Mutual passing Allstate. Progressive has a much better system to quote, price, and sell policies. They treat their independent agents very well and are extremely transparent. YOU CAN ACTUALLY TALK TO A LIVE PERSON AT PROGRESSIVE! None of this chat nonsense. A quote can be efficiently done at progressive in about 7 min. The Allstate advisor pro platform is very unstable and takes about 30 min to quote a risk. Progressive has perfected online sales. Allstate has Esurance and will never be able to master direct direct sales under the ALLSTATE brand with this management team. This leadership team will not have the capacity to emulate the progressive model. If you have a chance to get on a life boat, RUN!
The only thing that Glen “the grim reaper” knows how to do is cut employees...
He knows nothing else about running a business.
That is why he moves from company to company..
He is a fraud..a carnival barker...
No company has gotten fundamentally better on his watch all breath a sigh of relief when he leaves..
His success is all short term financials that anyone could achieve the way he does..
Shapiro combined with the worst of the Sears rejects...
Allstate is mortally damaged and is taking on water..
The “Sears” of the insurance industry...
True business leaders like Geicos Buffett are laughing their asses off...
There is too much ego, arrogance, and self righteousness at the top of this company for them to admit their mistakes. The Allstate corporate suits are so out of their league that it's pathetic.
When I worked at Prog as an entry level claims rep they would have meetings about the market and how they plan to overtake Allstate and Geico, this was 10 years ago but they did it. It’s weird to see it from the other end
I’m wondering if there will ever be a point where they can own up to their utterly foolish “strategy” and admit it’s not working.
Probably never because there’s zero self awareness or accountability. Just putting the pressure on everyone below.
Faked market share "growth" through purchasing other companies can only be done so many times if you can't retain business. Transformative Growth is anything but and is a complete joke in ideology and execution. Wilson and Shapiro can't ties their own shoes let alone run this company and grow it.
I could care less if Allstate goes out of business. The sooner the better as far I'm concerned. I just wonder which competitor buys up the Shapiro'd and Wilson'd ruins for pennies on the dollar.
They were 2nd forever to State Farm, now the once unthinkable has happened as they have dropped to 4th behind those companies they previously disparaged. They are spiraling, and the Transformative Growth strategy will be the death nell.