PLYMOUTH ROCK ASSURANCE
144
“ That ’ s the key to direct distribution : how do we make it easy for the consumer to buy the product , while still feeling well informed ?”
— Tom Lyons , Chief Operations Officer , Direct Response Channel , Plymouth Rock Assurance
“ In New Jersey , property and casualty insurance market share has evolved from being independent and exclusive agent dominated to more direct dominated ,” Lyons explains . For example , in 2003 , New Jersey was 71 % dominated by independent and exclusive agents . Today those same agents make up around 47 % of the market . In comparison , the Direct market share in 2003 was 29 % and now stands at 53 %. Plymouth Rock has had to adapt to this transformation in the industry while continuing to invest in and support its independent and Prudential exclusive agent networks .
Traditionally , the insurer distributed its products solely through an agency model . In order to step up and compete with the evolution of direct writers , a key element of Plymouth Rock ’ s transformation was to build a direct capability that complemented and strengthened its agency distribution offering . “ Within our geographic footprint , you ’ ll see that a lot of the big , national direct writers entered our markets and began gobbling up market share from the agency channels ,” Lyons comments . “ To combat that , we piloted building out a direct-to-consumer
APRIL 2019