Farmers: Lowering the Deductible on Learning

Who hasn’t seen those funny Farmers Insurance commercials, like the one where the instructor dumps a celebratory beverage over the students after they shower him first. Then there’s the jingle: “We are Farmers. Bam pa rum pa rum pa rum.”

Aside from the catchy jingle, potential and existing customers may have noticed something else different about Farmers’ new advertising strategy: the fact that the company chose to place the University of Farmers in the spotlight.

“Advertising has created a much more competitive environment for insurance because consumers are more aware of the choices out there,” said Annette Thompson, senior vice president and chief learning officer at Farmers Insurance.

The company needed a unique value proposition to distinguish itself from competitors and put its brand front and center in the minds of potential consumers.

“As you think about [how] you’re trying to break through into that space, one of the values we think the university brings to our agents and ultimately to our customers is that we invest heavily in training and developing our agents and we think that’s a unique space in the market,” she said. “That’s what we’re trying to do with the ads — communicate that Farmers is a company that has well-trained agents because of the University of Farmers.”

That wasn’t always the case. Thompson played an integral role in building the learning organization from the ground up.

Broadening Learning’s Scope

Thompson got her feet wet in learning in the early 2000s, when she ran learning for a business unit of eight to provide learning and development for 14,000 exclusive agents.

“[Learning] worked well for me because I enjoyed it and I also had a very strong operational background, which — once I learned the learning discipline — allowed me to be effective,” she said. “I was able to deliver results because of my understanding of the business supported by a strong design and development strategy around business outcomes.”