A company that I do not think have such a good advertising strategy is GEICO. GEICO is in the car insurance industry which many think can be quite a boring to work in, if you are looking at getting into the marketing industry. However, some car insurance companies though, have actually done a great job with their advertising and created a fun advertising camping like Progressive, which has the lady with the weird hair style and goofy coworkers, take a look here.
Other car insurance companies have taken the more serious route like Allstate or Liberty Mutual, their campaigns play more on safety and peace of mind. What all of these companies have in common is that they all have a clear sense of direction and their ads all have something in common. Moreover they all portray their company’s single most compelling fact clearly and you know instantly what company the commercials from, because they all have their signature colors, songs or other things that signifies them in the ad.
Even though All State might have two types of commercials that they run, they still keep hammering home the message of that one should protect oneself from mayhem in a believable and logical way which is All State’s catch phrase.
Although GEICO has a catchy phrase too with: “Fifteen minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance,” that is all they have that links its’ ads together.
First off, they have multiple types of ads; one with an old movie star type guy that asks rhetorical questions, and another type of ad where a lizard is the spokesperson. Let alone this fact can be quite confusing for the consumer but what is even worse is that the commercials and their messages do not go together with car insurance, I do not get it. For instance, the old movie star type always starts out by saying “could switching to GIECO really save you 15% or more on car insurance.” He then goes on to use an analogy which should be obvious but it really is not: “Is a bird in the hand worth to in the bush?” and they then show a segment form the Antiques Roadshow where an expert examine a sculpture which is of a hand holding a bird and he, the expert says; “it is worth two in the bush,” and the women who owns the piece acts happy and surprised. This type of ad with the old-time movie star comes in a number of different and ridiculous variations.
However, I do not see how this is related to car insurance, GEICO, or their single most compelling fact; which is that people could save 15 % or more by switching to them. Frankly, they make me mad, and they make others mad too, because their ads are not even funny and when they run as often as they do, the only agitate us.
I would like GEICO to rethink their marketing strategy and stick to the basics. Talk about why people should switch to GEICO and make clever ads that contain a fun message such as AT&T’s tarantula ad that I talked about before, or multiple ads that have a common theme like the series of ads that Target runs every year before Black Friday.
Because what GEICO is doing now is wasting its time, and money, and the time of their existing and potential consumers. If they do not cease with those ads and change their direction, then it will only create animosity and anger between their potential consumer and GEICO because its message is unclear and poorly executed.
Where they fail is where they pose the rhetorical questions and then the answer is supposed to be obvious, but the analogies that they present do not make any sense and therefore you cannot really believe in their claim that you can save 15% or more with them.
The consumer gets even more confused when they see the all the different types of commercials the GEICO is running, where in one ad their mascot, the lizard, is the main character and in another the old time movie star is the main spokesperson, both of those ads have totally different feels to them because the movie star has an all american accent while the gecco has a british accent take a look here.
This is why I feel that GEICO needs to get its’ act together and revamp their marketing efforts because if you do not pay attention while watching the commercials, and consumer does not usually do that, then you will not know what company the commercial is talking about and why they are advertising and what they are trying to say. That is not only bad for the customer but also the company because that money is now being wasted.
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