You're walking down the aisles of your favorite discount store.You stop in the auto department to pick up a few bottles of 10W-40oil. You go over to housewares, because your wife wants you to getsome of those plastic containers—you know, the kind that look likeTupperware but are a lot cheaper. You see that jars of mixed nutsare on sale, so you throw one in the cart.

Then you pass by this shelf next to the DVDs that says“Insurance.” You think to yourself, “I need coverage for mybusiness,” so you take a box marked “BOP” and throw is in your cartnext to the mixed nuts. You're about to leave, but then you think,“Maybe I need some cyber liability, too.” You toss another box inthe cart. It lands on the oil.

What's wrong with this picture? Everything, because contrary tothe claims of those who try to market insurance as a commodity,consumers don't see it that way. They know that insurance is acontract to protect people and their property, and a promise to bemade whole in the event of a loss. It's not something that can befound in a box next to the canned tomatoes.

Insurance is serious business. It is not “stuff.”

Our own research by The PIA Partnership found that insuranceconsumers want a relationship. They want what ProfessionalInsurance Agents offer. Since our findings, others have conductedresearch and came to similar conclusions:

• The Hanover Insurance Group found that nearly 60% of consumerswho had purchased insurance through a direct channel 10 or moreyears ago reported switching back to an independent agent becausethey wanted more value.
• Ernst & Young found that consumers do not want to do alltheir insurance shopping online, and they care about more than justprice.
• Conning & Co. found that 12 of 18 personal lines insurersthat have outperformed their peers in both growth and profitabilityover the past decade use the independent agency distributionchannel, either in whole or in part.
• The TransUnion Auto Insurance Shopping Index reported thatonline shopping rates for auto insurance were down about 3% in the12 months ending February 2014, relative to a year earlier.

Recently, the CEO of one of the strategic partners who ishelping a big online retailer market auto insurance was quoted assaying, “Consumers don't want a relationship with an agent or evena carrier,” and “The consumer is looking for a store or aisle in astore where the shelves are stuffed with every risk managementproduct they need.”

They can stuff their shelves with whatever they want. If youlook at the facts as opposed to the hype, consumers want arelationship. Statements to the contrary come from our competitors.What would we expect them to say?