GEICO has the simplest brand among U.S. insurers, according to Siegel+Gale released its 2012 U.S. and Global Brand Simplicity rankings today. GEICO, ranked 21 out of 125 U.S. brands, was the only insurer to be considered a “leader,” as Allstate, which was ranked 84th in the United States as the only other insurer listed, was the last brand included in the “middle of the pack” section.
On a global scale, all three insurers to make an appearance—ING, AXA and Allianz—fell into the bottom 15 and were listed as “laggards.”
General insurance was listed as the most complexly perceived global industry out of the 25 included in the study, scoring a 257 on a 1,000-point simplicity scale. Health insurance (354) came in 24th in terms of complexity. At the national level, the two swapped spots: health insurance came in last with a score of 240, and general insurance second-to-last (341).
The research also measured consumers’ desire for simplicity and found that respondents in the global category were willing to pay up to 5.5 percent more for a simpler experience. The report also states that in the United States, consumers would pay up to 3 percent more for a simpler experience from the general insurance industry.
Brands were evaluated based on questions related to products, services, interactions and communications, taken into account were the consistency of responses, the difference between user and non-user perceptions and the simplicity score for the brand’s industry. The industry scores were based on the “pain of interactions with companies within the industry and how the industry’s communications rank in terms of ease of understanding, transparency/honesty, concern for customers, innovation/freshness and usefulness.”
At an all-industry level, Google retained its top spot, and “Internet Search,” as an industry, was easily ranked the most simple with a score of 950. McDonald’s, IKEA, C&A and Apple followed Google at the top of the company rankings. In the U.S., Subway topped the brand simplicity index, followed by Dunkin’ Donuts, Google, Amazon and Netflix.
