Celebrating 80 Years | Articles from the 1970s
"Our emphasis . . . is on public relations."
By William R. Niersbach, Patti Insurance Agency Inc., Richmond, Ind.
From AA&B June 1971
Our agency has a conventional advertising program, and in fact we received an "Oscar" from the Insurance Advertising Conference a few years ago. Our emphasis now, however, is on public relations. We carry out this program through regular ads, speeches to clubs and school groups and radio talk shows. We feel we often can be more hard-hitting in non-advertising situations than we can in the usual advertising framework.
I've had some personal experience on radio panels and talk shows, and I have found it a particularly effective method of spreading the insurance word. Most agents spend a lot of time explaining automobile and Homeowners rate increases to clients, and most of those agents with they companies, or "somebody else," would do a good job of getting the message across to the public. There's a way to do the job without cost. I have used the radio to do it as a guest on a very popular "talk show."
Audience call-in programs are features of most radio stations, and they usually have a high audience rating. Often, insurance is a subject of freewheeling discussion on these shows, and more often than not the result is a lot of misinformation going out over the airwaves. Individual local agents, or a local agents' association, easily can arrange appearances as guest panel members on these programs. An agent fielding the questions gives the listeners a chance to get factual information from an informed professional, and the agent can create a great deal of needed goodwill for the industry.
Preparations for the show include a pre-broadcast conference with the radio producer or announcer who hosts the program. He explains the mechanics of the program, and the agent fills him in on the background of today's critical insurance problems. From this session, the announcer develops some good questions to use during the broadcast. This meeting also helps to relax an insurance man who is making his first on-the-air appearance. I leave some printed material for the radio man to study as he prepares for the actual program.
A panel of two or three agents should be the maximum for one of these programs, and it's helpful to include a company representative to lend added authority to the discussion. The panelists usually can either choose a selected area to discuss, i.e., claims, rates, coverages, etc., or just take questions at random from callers. Listener-callers will either make statements, usually complaints, or ask specific questions. The agents should be prepared to comment in either event, citing statistics when possible to support their views.
The telephone questions are just like those any agent hears in his own agency every day. They deal with automobile (75%), Homeowners (20%), and other areas (5%). The announcer controls the callers and keeps people from discussing individual companies by name. This helps keep the discussion on a high level. Some of the things we have discussed include:
(1) Why does a company cancel after one accident?
(2) I've had no accidents in 20 years; why does my rate go up?
(3) I'm paying for the other guy's wrecks!
(4) High salaries of agent and company personnel keep rates high.
(5) The companies use high rates to "pick on" young drivers.
(6) Homeowners deductibles aren't fair to retired persons.
(7) The State should make everyone buy car insurance.
(8) Company investment income should be included when rates are set.
(9) The "no-fault" idea will reduce my premiums.
(10) Companies "over-pay" claims and aren't worried about high premiums. They get it back under the point system.
The agents on a radio panel must try to establish certain points, either in their replies to callers or in opening and concluding remarks. I think these points should include: inflation in the services the insurance proceeds must buy; social-political pressures on the insurance industry; fragile car design; loss frequency and company efforts to stem the tide, and overall economic benefit of the property-casualty insurance industry.
It isn't difficult to interest a local station in having insurance men as guests on talk shows. The subject of insurance is timely, and it concerns most of the stations' listeners. Radio discussions provide an excellent way for insurance men to improve the image of their profession. It's painless - and it's free.
William R. Niersbach entered the insurance business in 1951, when he joined the family agency. He is the immediate past president of his state agents' association, and he is a past president of the local agents' association. He served as a member of the NAIA advertising committee for five years. Mr. Niersbach is active in a number of community activities. He attended Earlham College.
