State Farm Insurance

State Farm is an American group of insurance and financial services companies in the United States.
The group's main business is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, a mutual insurance firm that also owns the other State Farm companies. The corporate headquarters are in Bloomington, Illinois.
State Farm is ranked 44th in the 2013 Fortune 500, which lists American companies by revenue.
In 2014, the company sold its operations in Canada to the Desjardins Group, which is continuing to use the State Farm name.

 

History

State Farm was founded in 1922 by retired farmer George J. Mecherle as a mutual automobile insurance company owned by its policyholders. The firm specialized in auto insurance for farmers, and later expanded its services into other types of insurance, such as homeowners and life insurance, and to banking and financial services.
The State Farm jingle ("Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there") was written by American songwriter Barry Manilow in 1971. A cover was released by Weezer in 2011. In the 1960s State Farm's first commercial jingle was originally created for The Jack Benny Program. As of December 2013 State Farm had 65,000 employees and 18,000 agents. February 2014 figures show the group servicing 80 million policies in the United States and Canada, of which over 44,000,000 are for automobiles, 27,000,000 are  for fire, 7,000,000 for life, and more than 2 million bank accounts.
Edward B. Rust, Jr. is the chairman. Michael Tipsord is CEO of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, and president and chief executive officer of State Farm Fire and Casualty Company, State Farm Life Insurance Company, and other principal State Farm affiliates.
In 2014, the company sold its operations in Canada to Desjardins Group. Canadian policies were transferred to be underwritten by Desjardins Group on January 1, 2015. The State Farm brand continues to be used for agents and marketing.

Advertisement

This commercial structure is from State Farm's "Get to a Better State" campaign that premiered in June 2011, with an increased spending budget. As a result, State Farm’s brand awareness and favorability has gone up considerably. This campaign focuses on making humor out of unfortunate problems that are commonly faced. These commercials then make light of the situation by demonstrating how easy it is to contact an agent and correct the problem that has occurred. Each of these commercials follows a similar structure. A group of one to three people find themselves in an unfortunate situation. Someone in the group will then call on their State Farm agent by singing the jingle “like a good neighbor, State Farm is there”. A State Farm agent will then appear and help the group out with their problem. There are a few commercials that deviate from this structure, but still follow the same ultimate pattern. State Farm also has commercials beginning with the words "State of..." and another word describing the certain commercial. One notable commercial shows a man awake at 3:00 in the morning on the phone with a State Farm representative. This certain commercial begins with State of Unrest. The man's wife sees him talking on the phone in a secretive manner. She is suspicious and asks who is on the phone, to which her husband says: "It's Jake from State Farm". The man's wife then takes the phone and asks, "What are you wearing, 'Jake from State Farm?'", to which the agent responds in a timid way, "Uh, khakis". Still believing he's a female, the wife says, "She sounds hideous", where the husband replies, "Well she's a guy, so…" In May 2015, a variation of State of Unrest premiered, starring The Coneheads from Saturday Night Live, with Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin reprising their respective roles as Beldar and Prymaat. This started an ad campaign with that later added Laraine Newman as Connie.
In late 2014, State Farm released a critically acclaimed commercial showing a man (played by Justin Bartha) who says that he will "never" do something (such as getting married, having kids, moving to the suburbs, and buying a minivan), only to do all of those. At the end of the commercial, he admits that he is "never letting go." The commercial is based on the saying "never say never" and how people say that they will "never" do something, only to do it anyway.

Financial services

State Farm has expanded into the financial services arena, such as banking and mutual funds. The bank opened in May 1999 and is operated by State Farm Financial Services, FSB, a subsidiary of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. These are separate from its insurance products. State Farm Bank does not have branch offices. Its regular banking services, which include checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, and money market accounts, are available to consumers countrywide via the Internet or over the phone, and through agents. Home mortgages are available countrywide over the phone or through agents.
Back in the 1950s, State Farm held a contest, among the agents, to come up with ideas to expand the State Farm business. Robert H Kent, agent in Chicago, came up with the idea of providing auto loans to existing policyholders. Robert H Kent was friends with a local bank president at LaSalle NW, and the two teamed up to pilot the auto finance program. State Farm liked the idea so much, that it was rolled out to all the agents. Robert H Kent received royalties on the program for 20 years. This is a significant event, as it created the first marketing partnership between insurance companies and banks

Services

State Farm Safety Patrol – State Farm, in partnership with several U.S. highway authorities, operates a service called the State Farm Safety Patrol which provides free roadside assistance to stranded motorists on participating highways, when you call the designated telephone number for the Safety Patrol they will respond and provide the following services: fuel refills; radiator refills; engine oil refills. Most Safety Patrol personnel are also CPR and Automated External Defibrillator certified. They work to reduce accident rates, minimize the duration time of incidents, assist disabled drivers and remove road debris. Turnpikes which currently participate include, Florida's Turnpike in the State of Florida[24] and the Pennsylvania Turnpike in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.[25] In Ohio, State Farm–branded safety patrol vans service major highways in the Cincinnati, Toledo, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Akron, and Canton areas on weekdays.