State Farm

Financial services

State Farm Insurance in Ontario.

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.^[12]

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, a State Farm 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 event created the first marketing partnership between insurance companies and banks.

Logo

State Farm's tri-oval logo from 1953 to 2012.

The State Farm interlocked red tri-oval logo was created in the mid-to-late 1940s and later updated in 1953. For nearly 60 years, this design was critical to its brand image.

On December 23, 2011, State Farm decided to transform its interlocked tri-oval logo to a contemporary logo to showcase the company’s core service offerings of auto, fire, and life. The new logo was introduced January 1, 2012, in celebration of the company’s 90th anniversary. It consists of a simple three-oval design adjacent to the State Farm wordmark. According to Pam El, Marketing Vice President at State Farm, a change in image was needed to employ a bolder presence that could compete in today’s digital world.^[20]

CEOs

Advertisements

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…"^[23] 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.^[24]

The Hoopers is a series of State Farm commercials focusing on a family, including NBA players Chris Paul playing the father, DeAndre Jordan playing the mother, Kevin Love playing the son, Kevin Garnett playing the grandfather and Damian Lillard playing the baby. Additionally, a State Farm agent plays the role of a helpful neighbor in the set of commercials.^[25]

The commercial series currently has four commercials made, including "Robbed","Dropping Dimes", "No Good Clipper" and "The Hawks and The Hornets".

Sponsorships

State Farm sponsored the annual Lone Star Showdown

• State Farm Stadium, a multi-purpose football stadium in Glendale, Arizona and home of the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League.
• State Farm Arena (Atlanta), a multi-purpose arena and home of the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association.
• State Farm Center, a multi-purpose arena and home of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign men's and women's basketball teams.
• State Farm Arena (Hidalgo, Texas), a multi-purpose complex that features concerts and sports events, located in Hidalgo, Texas.
• State Farm Classic, a golf tournament for professional female golfers that is part of the LPGA Tour.
• State Farm Hall, a classroom building at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois.
• State Farm Hall of Business, College of Business Building at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois, since 2010.
• State Farm Holiday Classic, an annual high school holiday basketball tournament held in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois each December.
• State Farm Lone Star Showdown, moniker for all varsity athletics competitions between Texas A&M University and The University of Texas at Austin.
• State Farm Research and Development Center, a research extension of State Farm Insurance located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
• State Farm Sales Lab, a clinical sales training center at the University of Central Missouri, where the national State Farm Marketing and Sales Competition is held.
• State Farm Computer Lab, a computer networking and software development room at the Mansfield University of Pennsylvania, where State Farm has sponsored the purchase of the majority of the equipment.
• State Farm Territorial Cup Series, moniker for all varsity athletics competitions between the University of Arizona and Arizona State University.
• NBA Cares Charity Challenge presented by State Farm, a charity program hosted by the NBA.
• State Farm All-Star Saturday Night, skills competitions that feature NBA players.
• League of Legends Championship Series, the North American branch of the League of Legends Professional League

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 a driver calls 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^[26] and the Pennsylvania Turnpike in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.^[27] In Ohio, State Farm–branded safety patrol vans service major highways in the Cincinnati, Toledo, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Akron, and Canton areas on weekdays.^[28]

Florida threatened withdrawal

In early 2009, the State Farm Florida subsidiary, the state's largest insurer, threatened to withdraw from writing property insurance business in Florida after state regulators refused to approve a 47% property rate increase. State Farm said that, in Florida, it had paid out $1.21 million USD in claims for every dollar in premiums since 2000. Several other home insurers have pulled out of Florida as well; many homeowners are now using the Citizens Property Insurance Corporation run by the state government.^[29] State Farm has since decided to remain in Florida, although with a reduced amount of property policies.^[30]

In 2010, State Farm and Renaissance jointly formed DaVinci Reinsurance Ltd. which insured more than 3.5 million homes in 2010.^[31]

Criticism

A 2007 investigation by CNN reported that major car insurance companies, including State Farm and Allstate Insurance, are increasingly fighting claims from those alleging injury. Some injured parties argued these were unfair practices. State Farm and Allstate have denied these allegations.^[32] This followed on the heels of criminal investigations by the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, alleging that State Farm had wrongly denied claims stemming from Hurricane Katrina.^[33] Plaintiff's attorney Richard F "Dickie" Scruggs later pleaded guilty in March for his role in trying to pay Judge Henry Lackey of Mississippi a $50,000 USD bribe for a favorable ruling in a related case involving a $26.5 million USD settlement after Hurricane Katrina.^[34]

Lawsuits

In 1993, Todd Hindin filed a lawsuit against State Farm for allegedly keeping a list of prominent Jewish lawyers referred to within State Farm as the "Jewish Lawyers List". Any claims made by clients of these attorneys were automatically forwarded to State Farm's fraud unit, purely on the basis of the religion and national origin of the lawyers. These claims would then be neither settled nor paid. State Farm initially claimed that this was not a matter of discrimination, but of coincidence. However, Dr. Frank Taylor (an experienced economist on retainer for the Appellants) discovered that despite the fact that the population of the states involved had Jewish populations between 2-5% of the total population, the list was composed of nearly 80% religiously or ethnically Jewish lawyers. Individuals who had worked for State Farm, including former Divisional Claim Superintendent Ron Middler, testified that the list was indeed used to discriminate against ethnic minorities. State Farm paid out $30 million to Todd Hindin and his clients for discrimination on the basis of religion and national origin.^[35]

Documents that Hindin uncovered would assist in another case in 2003, Campbell v. State Farm, in which State Farm had to pay out $145 million in punitive damages after acting in bad-faith. State Farm had refused to pay damages to the families of two individuals who were victims in a car accident that Campbell was responsible for, despite originally informing Campbell and his family "that their assets were safe, that they had no liability for the accident, that [State Farm] would represent their interests, and that they did not need to procure separate counsel."^[36]