Curious Hair wrote:
USAA is running an awful lot of commercials considering most Americans are not eligible for their services. They're such busy commercials, too, at least on the radio.
have had that same thought for a long time....
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-USAA-insurance-advertising-so-much-if-its-only-intended-to-be-for-military-familiesthis has to be true it was the first google link
Quote:
They used to be much more selective than that. It used to be only for officers in the US military, not enlisted. The company that catered to the enlisted was GEICO (Government Employees Insurance Company)
The problem is there are not enough Officers who enrolled to keep it competitive and viable, so they opened it to family members, and then to all military. There are some aspects of USAA that are available to all, but for insurance it it is kind of a co-op so only military members.
But there is another reason to advertise, not all military members know about USA or have it as their insurance company, and since there are a few million military members at any time, they want to enroll as many as they can to keep them growing, competitive and viable.
It is exactly the say reason you see so many GEICO commercials out there. They need the base numbers to be good.
There is a Life insurance company out there called Thrivent. It is a combination of Lutheran Brotherhood and Aid Association for Lutherans (AAL) that combined in 2003. For years you had to be a Lutheran to buy product from them. They are a fraternal benefits society which means their profits instead of being taxed are redistributed through grants and gifts to various non-profit groups.
A number of years ago they read the handwriting on the wall and realized they were going after a smaller and smaller group of folks, they have opened their products to all Christians. They need the base numbers. So they have to open their products to a larger base of people. Check them out they are rated as one of the top most ethical companies in the USA.
But it always comes down the numbers. To stay viable and profitable, you have to have the numbers. Word of mouth used to be all you needed, but now you need a lot more. Adverting is the key to that. (By the way if you are old enough you will remember never seeing a commercial for Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, or Mercedes on TV. Now we see them along with all the others.)
Ultimately it is a numbers game.