ANPAC gives way to American National

One of Springfield largest employers is undergoing a rebranding effort that has so far resulted in a new building name, a new marketing office space and an uptick in local advertising buys.

Springfield-based insurance firm American National Property and Casualty Co. is now known simply as American National.

President and CEO Greg Ostergren led the charge to take control of its public moniker, eliminate ANPAC logos companywide and give the business a consistent identity among its clients and potential customers.

The work starts at home, he said.

“We’re the best-kept secret in Springfield. We’re a fairly large operation – operating across the United States,” Ostergren said.

“And yet, at our home office here in Springfield, we weren’t as well known. I think they knew the building, Corporate Centre, better than they knew our company.”

To address the issue, the company changed the name of its massive headquarters complex in July to American National Center.

The 240,000-square-foot building, just east of Glenstone Avenue and Sunshine Street, the city’s busiest intersection, had been known as Corporate Centre since it was built in 1980.

Ostergren said the company generates about $1 billion in annual premiums, but only a fraction of a percent of that revenue is spent per year on marketing – far below industry norms.

Locally, the firm employs around 900, making it the 14th largest employer in the Springfield area, according to Springfield Business Journal list research.

In the Queen City, Ostergren said the company has more than doubled its marketing budget over the past two years, but that’s not saying much.

“Our local marketing budget has gone from virtually nonexistent to something,” Ostergren said with a laugh, declining to estimate budget expenses. “If you double nothing, it’s still not that much.”

Scott Campbell, chief marketing officer for American National, said he knew there was a problem when he learned some 40 percent of the insurance company’s own clients didn’t recognize the ANPAC name.

“Last year, we talked to the general public, our own clients and our agents as part of a pretty extensive brand study, because we really wanted to get an understanding of the perception of our brand, the awareness of our brand – what the current situation was before we decided what we were going to do,” Campbell said.  

“And we learned a few things.”

First, he said customers and agents generally reported feeling favorable about the company. But not all the news was good.

“The downside of that was we learned not enough people knew us, so awareness of us was pretty low. And the people who did know us weren’t always sure who we were,” Campbell said.

“What we came to realize was that our brand was all over the map.”

Campbell said the company’s product lines traditionally have had their own branding – an uncommon strategy in the industry. For instance, the company’s collector-car insurance line is called Chrome.

The study showed American National executives its strategy to stand out in the marketplace with products left customers unsure about their actual carrier.

“Unlike with packaged goods – Proctor & Gamble, or whatever – where they are trying to push separate brands, as an insurance company, the consumer doesn’t really care about your different product lines,” Campbell said.

“We were creating a lot of confusion.”

Ostergren said he was not surprised to learn the company’s branding was weak. American National competes in an industry with such brands as Geico and State Farm, which regularly occupy broadcast airwaves. Citing data from SNL Financial, InsuranceJournal.com reports Geico Corp. led the insurance pack with advertising spending of $1.18 billion in 2013, or 6.5 percent of its premiums. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. shelled out over $802 million, 1.7 percent of premiums, and Allstate Corp. (NYSE: ALL) spent $745 million, 3 percent of its premiums.

American National, a subsidiary of Galveston, Texas-based American National Insurance Co. (Nasdaq: ANAT), has traditionally chosen to let agents in the field and word-of-mouth advertising speak for the firm.  

“We have purposely not spent much money in advertising and other efforts because we would rather continue a low expense ratio and put that money back into serving our clients through products like Cash Back, where we return 25 percent cash to clients who have been claim-free for three years,” Ostergren said.

“At the same time, we know that for us to be effective in the marketplace, we have to be known.”

The strategy has produced mixed results in recent years. Locally, 2013 revenue was down 6.7 percent compared to two years earlier, according to SBJ research. Nationally, the picture is more positive. Revenue for American National’s parent company in the first half of 2014 was $1.53 billion, up 4 percent from the same period in 2012, and profits were up 67 percent during that time to $110.1 million from $65.7 million.

Nearly two years ago, Ostergren hired Omaha, Neb.-native Campbell away from Mutual of Omaha, where he had served in the marketing department for 14 years. Campbell said he was lured away by the promise of building a brand and team with American National.

Since his arrival, the company has completely remodeled the marketing department’s office to be more open and collaborative and increased local ad spends. This year, American National signed a multiyear marketing deal with the Springfield Cardinals. The marketing department also has added nearly 10 staff members since Campbell came on board and plans to have 30 marketers in place by the end of the year.

“As we want to grow and are growing across the country, it’s very important that we grow here first,” Ostergren said.