Urban Market Exploration
Overview
In 2021-22, State Farm was underperforming in its auto insurance business in Los Angeles County, relative to key competitors across the metropolitan area.
This research explored the daily lives and needs of residents in LA County in order to understand why competitor companies were winning and how State Farm could grow its market share.
The Problem
State Farm needed to understand why it was under-performing relative to key competitors in Los Angeles County 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
This research utilized a mixed-method, multi-phase approach.*
Phase 1 (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 2 (qualitative): video diaries/vlogs + in-depth interviews
Using dscout, we asked 20 residents in Los Angeles County 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 3 (quantitative): general market survey
We contextualized learnings from our qualitative research with a general market survey to understand high-level trends within Los Angeles County, which is different from many other urban markets in the United States
*Survey research was conducted in collaboration with quantitative research partners.
Research Outcomes
This research resulted in a better understanding of a previously-ignored aspect of the customer experience, helped stakeholders build empathy with customers, and contributed to actionable solutions for multiple business areas.
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