These traditional differentiators face a dilemma: Continue to harvest existing share and compete for an ever-shrinking industry segment, or significantly alter the historical business models originally responsible for their market position. (Photo: Shutterstock)
The good news story for Progressive's auto insurance business continued with the release of its December 2018 Earnings Report. The company's 2018 auto growth of more than 1.6 million policies, with a P&C combined ratio under 90, further accelerated a larger auto insurance industry trend many years in the making. For traditional brand differentiators, Progressive's recent results will deepen competitive concerns and intensify the search for new growth levers.
The U.S. auto insurance market is highly concentrated with the top 10 insurers accounting for 72.3% of all written premium in 2017. Members of this select group pursue one of three distinct business and brand strategies: cost leadership, nonprice differentiation or customer intimacy. Customers drift away from companies pursuing more traditional differentiation strategies, and toward those competing primarily on price or customer intimacy has been the key feature of industry structure in recent years.
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