Like a good neighbor?

State Farm Insurance company has been around since 1922. That's a long time! But your probably asking yourself; out of all the businesses I could have choses for this post, why an INSURANCE company? how much more boring can it get? Well, what do you think of when you hear the words "like a good neighbor"? State Farm! Who do you think of when you see the color Red? Target? Well yes.. but also State Farm! While they wouldn't be my first choice for this subject, something about the way they sell themselves as a company really caught my eye. Through different strategies, they have been able to take something boring, and honestly pretty unappealing like an insurance company and make it seem silly and fun. 

State farm's whole value proposition is built around "being a good neighbor". The Companies mission is to "help help people manage the risks of everyday life, recover from the unexpected, and realize their dreams". 

Consumer Opinions 

It's one thing for a company to state who they are as a company, but it really comes down to what consumers have to say, so I decided to take to social media and I wasn't too surprised by my findings. Like most things online, the opinions where mixed. Most of the negative comments addressed either the raising prices or bad experiences with the costumer service, which i think is mainly dependent on your insurance agent. On the opposing side, a majority of the positive comments where written by loyal costumers who had seemed to only have had good experiences with the company. In my search, I also  found that on their facebook page, State Farm was very responsive in there comment section (to both good and not-so-good comments) 

Marketing 

Marketing is definitely one of State Farm's biggest strengths, especially through storytelling. One of the most noticeable ways that they sell their company is through their mascot Jake from state farm. Starting out, Jake was strictly seen in commercials and advertisements (mainly on TV). However starting in 2020, the character was completely reinvented and started to have a social media presence on many platforms, most notably TikTok. Through his growing TikTok account Jake has created engaging and relatable content that has effectively reached newer generations, helping to keeping the companies name alive. By hopping onto new trends and collaborating with other well known influencers, he has been able to grow his following to over 1Mil! Similarly to the State Farm Facebook page, Jake is very interactive with his followers by responding to comments. This, I think is a very smart move on behalf of the marketers because it gives a very personal sense to the character and the company overall which ties back to their values of being there for their costumers. 

What could they do differently?

It's honestly really hard to say what State Farm could do differently in there marketing. I think in a lot of ways their tactics are pretty spot on. I do however think that they could think outside the box a bit more. Maybe instead of sticking to social media and commercials and forms of advertising they could find ways to imbed themselves in other forms of entertainment. 

I personally have been watching a lot of reality TV lately, so my idea is along the lines of a series following real life examples of State Farm helping their costumers when something goes wrong. One example of an episode could include someone who's say, house gets damaged in a storm. The story could follow the person and their process of being covered by state farm and how positively their life is impacted. This would add to that trustworthy feeling the company is reaching for AND would probably reach a whole new demographic. 

Another idea could be to subtly sprinkle pieces of the company into existing shows. Say makes a cameo on fixer upper, again reaching a different medium. 

Taking into account different forms of media being consumed and being able to tap into that is one thing that can very much make or break the success of a business. 

Lesson 

After researching a bit more into this brand and analyzing their strategies for success i've learned a lot about how important it is to focus on reaching certain audiences and making sure your capturing their attention by being relatable and engaging. 

https://www.statefarm.com/about-us/company-overview

https://www.tiktok.com/@jakefromstatefarm

Free quesadillas?!

To celebrate national quesadilla day (september 25th), Chipotle launched a digital scavenger hunt where they will disperse up to $1 million in free quesadillas. This effort was inspired by Data from DoorDash stating that the second most ordered food item in 2023 was chicken quesadillas. The well known food chain also used social media to their advantage in spreading the word. Beginning on september 23rd, chipotle dropped text-to-claim codes on instagram and other platforms for up to 21,000 consumers to redeem to win a free quesadilla along with the purchase of a regular priced chipotle entree. several TikTokers also dispersed their own codes in their content for up to 10,000 costumers to win a buy one get one free quesadilla. Chipotle is no stranger to banking off of national holidays, "For National Burrito Day in April, the chain launched an interactive game called Burrito Vault to dole out over $1 million in free burritos." 

This marketing strategy was put in place to increase sales, and it did not disappoint. According to the article by Marketing Dive, Chipotle in the second quarter reported 11.1% same-store sales growth, gains led in part by an 8.7% rise in comparable transactions." Over the last few years Chipotle as a company has had to expand at a rapid rate in response to the growing demand for Mexican food, and have had to come up with new marketing tactics to stay ahead of competitors like Qdoba and Baha Fresh who are becoming more and more relevant.  

The card of a company launching a scavenger hunt has been played many times before. But by making the reward one of their best selling items is what I think made this project so successful. In marketing it's important to pinpoint on a certain audience and focus specifically on selling to them, and that is exactly what chipotle did! By making the codes accessible through social media apps, The company is reaching some of their most loyal fans. Chipotle has 1.5 Million follows and instagram, and 2.5 Mil on Tiktok. Even though a fairly small percentage of chipotle customers actually follow them on social media, the ones that do are more likely to participate in the challenge. The use of social media influencers in promotional activities exemplifies the evolving landscape of digital marketing strategies.

In my opinion, this was a very good way to boost sales. I think that doing something like a digital scavenger hunt where in order to win the prize, you need to actively search for the codes, is a fun and easy way to get costumers excited about what you are selling. 

While I do think that the idea of interacting with costumers in this way is a good marketing strategy, I think that Chipotle could've found a way to make this launch more interactive. And i know your probably thinking, "isn't a scavenger hunt just about as interactive as it gets?" yes, yes it is. I think though that instead of having sponsored TikTok creators simply stating the BOGO codes in their videos (which doesn't really give you much to hunt for), they could have found a way to possibly hide the codes in their content, kind of like an easter egg (Just something to keep in mind for next National Quesadilla day). All in all, I think that this is a very fun and creative idea! 

After doing research and learning more about this subject, my biggest takeaway is that Marketing something that can be applied to so many aspects of a business, whether it be spreading the launch of a new product, trying to simply increase sales (like we've just seen), or simply building trust with your costumers. The key basic takeaways of good marketing is to A. pick a receptive target audience, and B. be unique. These basics apply whether your a large corporation like Chipotle, or your just trying to promote your freshly opened quesadilla food truck. (And cant quite give out free ones just yet)

“It’s not what you sell that matters as much as how you sell it!” – Brian Halligan 

Link to article: https://www.marketingdive.com/news/chipotle-digital-scavenger-hunt-national-quesadilla-day/727390/ 

https://www.chipotle.com/

https://www.tiktok.com/tag/chipotlepromo 

Me!

 Hey! my name's Kyrstin, I'm a 19 year old pre-interior design student dual-enrolled with Oregon State. I just moved to Corvallis from Astoria Oregon where I went to high school and did my first year of community college. Before living in Oregon, I moved all over the place! I was born in Denver Colorado, But spent most of my childhood living in Tempe Arizona. I have two younger sisters and as far as pets go, my family has 3 cats, a dog and a snake. In my free time I enjoy spending time with friends and exploring new places. I also love to be outside and tend to spend a lot of my time at the gym.