In an international survey evaluating how consumers perceive the simplicity and innovation of consumer brands, general insurance companies ranked the lowest of all 25 industries surveyed (24th in the U.S.) and health insurance companies ranked 25th (also 25th in the U.S.), according to Siegel+Gale, a global strategic branding firm, which just released its fourth annual Global Brand Simplicity Index™.
Insurance is complicated, even more than telecom/cable, which ranked 23rd in the U.S. No surprise either that health insurance is perceived to be even more complicated than general insurance, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, ranking 25th compared to 24th for general insurance.
I was curious to see whether there are countries in the world where the simplicity index of insurance is less severely ranked. Most countries, it turns out, perceive general insurance with the same level of confusion as people in the U.S. Surprisingly, this applies to both general and health insurance. You might think that countries with nationalized health insurance would feel otherwise. But Sweden, the U.K. and China rank health insurance 25th, 25th and 24th respectively. Only Germany ranks health insurance a comparatively benign 17th; Germany saves its worst ranking for general insurance (25th).
In addition to ranking brands on their simplicity, the Siegel+Gale survey also determines how much of a premium consumers would pay to purchase a particular brand over a competing brand based on its superior simplicity. For example, in the electronics category, the premium globally is 5.1% (4.1% in the U.S.). In general insurance, the premium globally is 4.5% (3.1% in the U.S.). So, a simpler-to-use DVD player could be preferred over a competitor even if it cost as much as 4.1% more, all other things being equal. Likewise, a simpler homeowners policy could cost as much as 3.1% more than a competing policy that was perceived to be not as simple.
Of the ten survey questions (or “touchpoints”) posed regarding insurance, “getting a quote” got the highest simplicity ranking, while “understanding my policy documents” got the lowest, second to “understanding the payment of a claim.” Easy to buy, hard to understand.
No surprises really. Work to be done by the industry? Definitely, as always. But the survey also names names. Of the 125 companies ranked in all categories, CIGNA got the lowest score (125th), with HUMANA (122th), Aetna (121st) and MetLife (116th) trailing not far behind. The other insurance companies in the survey were Progressive, which scores a fairly respectable 59th, just this side of the median, GEICO at 72nd and Farmers and State Farm at 95th and 96th.
To understand the methodology and appreciate the significance of the findings a little more, read
Siegel+Gale’s news release and take a look at the actual survey results.
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