The Progressive Corporation (NYSE: PGR), known as the Progressive Casualty Insurance Company through its subsidiaries, provides personal automobile insurance, and other specialty property-casualty insurance and related services in the United States.
The company was co-founded in 1937 by Jack Green and Joe Lewis and is headquartered in Mayfield Village, Ohio.
Segments
The company operates in three segments: Personal Lines, Commercial Auto, and Other-indemnity. The Personal Lines segment writes insurance for private passenger automobiles, motorcycles, boats, and recreational vehicles through both an independent agency channel and a direct channel. The Commercial Auto segment writes primary liability and physical damage insurance for automobiles and trucks owned by businesses primarily through the independent agency channel. The Other-indemnity segment provides professional liability insurance to community banks, principally directors, and officers liability insurance. It also provides insurance-related services, primarily providing policy issuance and claims adjusting services in 25 states for Commercial Auto Insurance Procedures/Plans. In 2009, the company was ranked 209 in the Fortune 500.
Industry information
Progressive is one of the largest auto insurers in the United States, with over 11 million policies in force, along with State Farm, Allstate, GEICO, Farmers Insurance Group, and USAA. Progressive primarily offers its services through the Internet or by phone and through independent insurance agents. Progressive's Agency business sells insurance through more than 30,000 independent insurance agencies and progressiveagent.com where customers can quote their own policies and then contact an agent to complete the sale.
Marketing and operations
Progressive's marketing campaign is known for offering quotes of its competitors along with its own quote. It was the first major insurer to offer auto policies through the phone and through its web site. In September 2007 Progressive began to offer Pet Injury coverage, which provides coverage for dogs and cats that are injured in a crash and is included at no additional cost with Collision coverage.
Immediate Response Vehicles (IRVs) used by Progressive are specially modified Ford Explorers and Ford Escapes. Every major metropolitan area has a claim office while remote areas are serviced by field adjusters.
Progressive was one of the first to effectively use its website to provide basic customer support, such as access to policies and quotes for changes in coverages. Phrenzie, in a post, A Website That Doesn't Get It, compared the use of Web 2.0 by Progressive, with another insurance company that did not.
Advertising
Progressive's television advertisements depict an insurance superstore (presumably a physical representation of the Progressive website) with an overly enthusiastic cashier, Flo, who explains the benefits of Progressive Insurance.
Other campaigns show the Progressive Immediate Response Vehicles (IRVs) that are used by claims adjusters.
In 2009, the company was accused of ordering their advertisements off the air during the show broadcast of Glenn Beck on the FOX News Channel over unsatisfactory comments made about U.S. President Barack Obama. Progressive stated that they never authorized their ads to be aired during the Beck's program, and they aired in that timeslot due to Fox's error.
Claims Service Options
Progressive offers "Concierge Level of Claims Service" that states that Progressive will work with local body shops and car dealerships to repair an insured's vehicle, or a vehicle damaged by an insured, at one of its more than 50 service centers. This is a free service for any Progressive insured or claimant who lives close enough to one of the facilities. A damaged vehicle can be taken to the service center - the day following a claim being reported for an insured or after liability has been accepted for a claimant - based on schedule availability and convenience of the vehicle owner. There a rental vehicle can be obtained and Progressive will handle the entire repair process from that point forward.
Corporate sponsorship
In January 2008, Jacobs Field in Cleveland, Ohio, home of the Cleveland Indians, was renamed Progressive Field. Progressive signed a 16-year contract for the naming rights, as well as sponsorship rights to become the Official Auto Insurer of the Cleveland Indians. The agreement costs around $3.6 million per year. (Mayfield Village, Ohio, where the company is based, is a suburb of Cleveland.)
In March 2008, Progressive announced its title sponsorship of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE and their funding of the $10 million prize purse. The Progressive Automotive X PRIZE is an international competition designed to inspire a new generation of viable, super fuel-efficient vehicles. The competition is open to teams from around the world that can design, build and bring to market 100 MPGe (miles per gallon energy equivalent) vehicles.
Controversies
In 2009, the company was sued for allegedly deceiving policyholders by employing illegally-operated, unlicensed body shops to make repairs on vehicles for their clients in order to save monetarily. The class action lawsuit of Blue Ash Auto Body Inc. v. Progressive Insurance is pending in Ohio.
In 2007, the company was forced to apologize after it was revealed they hired private investigators to infiltrate a church group and pose as congregation members to collect information on litigants seeking redress from the company. Another lawsuit was filed by the litigants over the affair against the company for invasion of privacy and fraud.
In 2002, the company settled with the State of Georgia in a class action lawsuit over diminished value claims brought by policyholders.
Index memberships
S&P 500
S&P 1500 Super CompSee also
- List of United States insurance companies
References
- ^ Suzanne Rivard; Benoit Aubert, Michel Patry, Guy Paré, Heather Smith (2004). Information Technology and Organizational Transformation: Solving the Management Puzzle . Butterworth-Heinemann. pp. 142. ISBN 978-0750662024.
- ^ http://investors.progressive.com/pdf/mreport-0109.pdf
- ^ Jack W. Plunkett (2008). The Almanac of American Employers 2009: Market Research, Statistics & Trends Pertaining to the Leading Corporate Employers in America . Plunkett Research, Ltd. ISBN 978-1593921439.
- ^ Jack W. Plunkett (2005). Plunkett's Insurance Industry Almanac 2006: The Only Complete Reference To The Insurance And Risk Management Industry . Plunkett Research Ltd. ISBN 978-1593920388.
- ^ "Advertisers dump Glenn Beck", Media Matters. August 6, 2009. Retrieved November 26, 2009.
- ^ "Progressive Statement Regarding Advertising on The Glenn Beck Show", Progressive Insurance, Aug. 24, 2009. Retrieved November 26, 2009.
- ^ "No Time? No Problem, with Progressive's Concierge Claims Service". Reuters . http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS103564+15-Sep-2008+BW20080915 . Retrieved 2009-02-05 .
- ^ Paul Hoynes (2008). "Cleveland Indians formally announce naming rights sold to Progressive Insurance". Cleveland Plain Dealer . http://blog.cleveland.com/sports/2008/01/cleveland_indians_formally_ann.html . Retrieved 2008-01-11 . ...
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