Case Study 02

Urban Market Exploration

Overview

A national insurance company was under-performing in a major urban market.

This research explored the daily lives and needs of residents in this particular urban market in order to understand why competitor companies were winning and how this insurer could grow its market share.

The

Problem

A national auto insurance company needed to understand why it was under-performing relative to key competitors in a densely-populated urban market and how it could gain traction to grow its market share.

  • The cross-functional team needed to understand how consumers in this market shop for insurance, what they value, and what their dealbreakers were when shopping for insurance.

  • We also needed to understand more about consumers’ day-to-day lives in order to assess the product-market fit for this particular environment. 

Research

Methods

Phase I (qualitative): insurance shop-a-longs

  • We observed insurance consumers as they shopped for auto insurance online in order to understand their process, what they value about insurance companies and policies, and what caused them to either complete or drop out of a quoting and shopping flow

Phase II (qualitative): video diaries/vlogs + in-depth interviews

  • We asked 20 residents in this urban market to introduce us to their neighborhoods, tell us about their day-to-day lives, and share what makes their area unique

  • We followed up with in-depth interviews to understand more about their values, how they perceive and manage risk, what they want and need from an insurance provider, how they prefer to do business with service providers, and how they learn about new products and services in their area

Phase III (quantitative): general market survey

  • We contextualized learnings from our qualitative research with a general market survey to understand high-level trends within this particular market, which is different from many other urban markets in the United States

*Survey research was conducted in collaboration with quantitative research partners.

This research utilized a mixed-method, multi-phase approach.*

Research

Outcomes

This research resulted in a better understanding of how consumers in this market shop for insurance, what they look for in insurance companies and policies, what risk exposure they perceive in their everyday lives, and how they want to work with insurance providers.

Recommendations included:

  • New types of insurance policies to better suit the lifestyles of consumers in this urban market

  • Ways to create additional value for insurance customers in this market

  • Ideas for marketing campaigns that would captivate this particular market

  • More support for insurance agents who need to do business differently in this market