State Farm's four tips for refreshing a brand

State Farm, the insurance company, boasted enviable brand strength and a unique heritage, but needed to transform in order to keep pace with changing customer needs.

State Farm's unique brand heritage is epitomized by the knowledge that it has:

  • been number one in the automotive-insurance segment since 1942;
  • led in homeowners' insurance from 1964 onward;
  • maintained a 78-year relationship with agency DDB;
  • 84 million active policies and accounts.

These impressive statistics encapsulate the 95-year-old firm's enviable legacy. But Rand Harbert, State Farm's EVP/Chief Agency, Sales, and Marketing Officer, understands that the current wave of digital disruption shows neither reverence nor deference to the icons of yesteryear.

"The thing about history – especially a successful one – is that complacency has a way of setting in," he...

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