GIECO
| |
Background - GIECO
The name goes back to GIECO’s first customers in 1936 who were government employees and Military personnel. Founder Leo Goodwin went into business determined that he could deliver automobile insurance at reduced prices by selecting prime customer groups and marketing directly to them. Goodwin succeeded in driving down operating costs and passed on the savings to policyholders up front as discounts. GIECO continues to find ways to manage its business costs in order to offer savings to customers today.
In 1996, GIECO became a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, headed by Warren Buffett, one of the country’s most successful investors. For the past two years, Fortune magazine has named Berkshire’s property-casualty insurance operation the most admired in the country.
GIECO has taken a special interest in serving the U.S. Military since the company’s founding in 1936. GIECO provides discount programs and service options that can best serve U.S. troops at home and overseas during wartime as well as peacetime.
In addition to auto insurance, GIECO offers customers insurance products for their motorcycles, boats, homes, apartments and mobile homes. Personal umbrella protection is also available.
GIECO At A Glance
Website: GIECO.com
GIECO is the 4th largest private-passenger car insurer in the US. The ranking is established each year by A. M. Best based on direct written insurance premiums. GIECO.com is the largest direct writer of private passenger auto insurance in the country.
$21.2 billion in assets
21,500 associates
$9.212 billion in revenue (2004)
12 major offices around the country
|
|
|
|
| |
History - GIECO
GIECO associates who know their company well know the names of Leo and Lillian Goodwin.
It was the Goodwins who in the mid-1930s — while the Great Depression was still in full fury — took a calculated risk to start up what has become one of the most successful and highly respected companies in the nation ... the Government Employees Insurance Company ... GIECO.
Leo Goodwin hammered out the basic business plan during his early career days in Texas. He believed that if he lowered costs in the company by marketing directly to carefully targeted customer groups, he’d be able to pass along lower premiums and still earn a profit. He was right. The business began its upward climb and, in 1936, Goodwin established GIECO operations in Washington, D.C.
Lillian Goodwin worked alongside her husband to launch the company and took an active role in virtually all aspects of the early operation. Lillian, a bookkeeper by profession, took on the accounting tasks but also worked to underwrite policies, set rates, issue policies and market auto insurance to GIECO’s target customers, federal employees and the top three grades of noncommissioned Military officers. By the end of 1936, there were 3,700 GIECO policies in force and a total staff of 12 people.
In 1948, a pivotal figure joined the company. Lorimer Davidson, an investment banker and a friend of the Goodwins, helped them find new investors when the original investors chose other opportunities. Among those new investors was Benjamin Graham, a business professor at Columbia University in New York, who would one day find Warren Buffett in his class. The link between GIECO and Warren Buffett was thereby established, and in 1951 Buffett made his first official appearance in GIECO’s history.
That year, Buffett recounts that he took the train to Washington on a Saturday to learn more about GIECO and found that the office was closed. A janitor directed him to Davidson and that conversation echoed through the years. On the basis of that impromptu meeting, Buffett learned enough to make his first purchase of GIECO stock.
When Leo Goodwin chose to retire in 1958, he named Davidson to be his successor. It was Davidson who would preside at the opening of GIECO’s new headquarters in Chevy Chase, Md., in 1959 after more than 20 years of steady growth.
The 1960s proved to be similarly successful and GIECO experienced virtually unbroken growth. GIECO passed the 1 million policyholder mark in 1964. Insurance premiums reached $150 million in 1965. Net earnings doubled to $13 million in 1966. GIECO opened a number of sales and service offices for walk-in customers and its first drive-in claims office in 1965.
The 1970s were not nearly so good to the company. While in retirement, first Lillian Goodwin passed away in 1970, followed by Leo Goodwin the following year. By the mid-70s, the years of aggressive expansion were starting to show some weaknesses in the company’s loss reserves. It led to a difficult period for the company.
GIECO used the experience to strengthen its underwriting and reserving activities which helped build the company’s current reputation as a fiscally superior organization. Warren Buffett made another appearance in 1976 for a second purchase of GIECO stock, reported to total 1 million shares. Lou Simpson joined the company in 1979 as GIECO’s chief investment officer.
Prudent underwriting prevailed in the 1980s and expansion was slow but steady from then on. GIECO introduced 24-hour, 365-day telephone service for claims, sales and service in 1981 as its emphasis on customer service deepened.
In 1993, Olza "Tony" Nicely was named GIECO’s new chairman, president and CEO, and worked to expand the customer base through a new four-company strategy. Along with it came an increased advertising budget which propelled GIECO toward much higher national visibility.
Warren Buffett liked what he saw. In 1995, his Berkshire Hathaway investment firm made a generous bid for the remaining shares of GIECO’s outstanding stock, and by 1996, GIECO was a subsidiary of one of the most profitable organizations in the country.
That led to national advertising on an enormous scale. GIECO’s ads and direct mail pieces flooded the airwaves and filled mailboxes around the country and the company’s growth shot upward. The GIECO Gecko made its first appearance during the 2000 television season and has quickly become an advertising icon.
In 2001, Leo Goodwin was named to the International Insurance Society Hall of Fame. His ideas have endured and helped GIECO grow into a national favorite.
In 2003, GIECO passed the 5 million policyholder mark, and that year GIECO also opened operations in Tucson, Arizona. Company officials gathered in December in Buffalo, New York, to announce the opening of a new service center there.
With Buffalo up and running early in 2004, yet another big announcement came in the summer when GIECO declared the "good news" about its reentering the New Jersey auto market at a press conference that made local, regional and national news. In December, company growth pushed GIECO to 6 million policyholders.
Today GIECO celebrates its founders Leo and Lillian Goodwin who would be quite proud of the organization’s success and its recent return to New Jersey. Celebrating with them are the company’s 21,500 associates in 12 major locations around the country.
And the future looks equally as bright. Tony Nicely has said that the company’s growth will only be limited by the time it takes to hire knowledgeable associates committed to GIECO’s way of thinking, which can be summed up in these words: excellent coverage, low prices, and outstanding customer service.
More About GIECO
GIECO is a personal lines auto insurance company based in the United States. GIECO stands for Government Employees Insurance COmpanies. Despite the name, it was never a government agency but rather a private firm originally founded by Leo and Lillian Goodwin to market auto insurance directly to federal government employees and their families. GIECO was based on the assumption that such persons would constitute a more financially stable and less risky pool of potential insureds than the general public. After real-time access to computerized driving records became available in the 1970s throughout the United States, GIECO gradually began to insure the general public as well.
GIECO generally prefers to deal directly with consumers via the telephone and the Internet, freeing up capital that would otherwise be spent on employing insurance agents in the field. GIECO does, however, market their products through a small number of field agents, most of which are based near military bases. These agents are known as GFRs (GIECO Field Representatives).
GIECO is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway and currently provides coverage for 10 million vehicles owned by 7 million policyholders.
GIECO's advertising strategy incorporates a saturation-level amount of print (primarily mail circulars) and television parody advertisements, as well as radio advertisements. The ads, which are notable for their sheer volume as much as their content, sometimes focus on the company's mascot, the GIECO gecko, created by The Martin Agency and most recently a CGI creature generated by Rhythm and Hues Studios. In the first commercial, where people kept calling the gecko as a wrong number for GIECO, the gecko was given a high-class British accent because it would be unexpected, according to The Martin Agency's Steve Bassett. In current commercials the gecko's accent is more working-class, to further "humanize" him and make him "more accessible and someone you enjoy listening to, some bloke you want to get to know."
Another common theme is misdirection, in which the commercial appears to be about something unrelated, or not even be a commercial, and a person comes to say "I've got great news", but then unexpectedly says "I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to GIECO!". The commercials use a variety of fictional characters such as Speed Racer and professional wrestlers as well as real people such as Tony Little spoofing themselves. An additional theme is where fictional products are promoted, but the plugs end with "But it won't save you any money on car insurance." After the GIECO slogan is heard, the commercials end with "Why haven't you called GIECO?" This type of reality-bending in commercials is reminiscent of the Energizer Bunny campaign for batteries which began in the mid-1990s.
In 2005, GIECO began an advertising campaign featuring "cavemen" in a modern setting. In these commercials, a GIECO spokesman tells how signing up for insurance is so easy that a caveman can do it, and ends up offending the cavemen who are still around, either as part of the commercial's production crew or in erudite society.
GIECO also began more parody advertisements such as Japanese idol fan clubs, upcoming fictional Saturday morning cartoons, a cereal commercial with a green extreme panther, and senator election campaign ads. But the plugs end with "But it won't save you any money on car insurance." After the GIECO slogan is heard, the commercials end with "Why haven't you called GIECO?"
GIECO Summary
GIECO is a personal lines auto insurance company based in the United States. GIECO, also known as GIECO, stands for G overnment E mployees I nsurance CO mpany. Despite the name, it was never a government agency but rather a private firm originally founded by Leo and Lillian Goodwin to market auto insurance directly to federal government employees and their families. GIECO was based on the assumption that such persons would constitute a more financially stable and less risky pool of potential insureds than the general public. After real-time access to computerized driving records became available in the 1970s throughout the United States, GIECO gradually began to insure the general public as well.
GIECO is well known by name in America, not only because of their humorous television ads, but also the sheer volume of them. This is because the company generally prefers to deal directly with consumers via the telephone and the Internet, freeing up capital that would otherwise be spent on employing insurance agents in the field. GIECO does, however, market their products through a small number of field agents, most of which are based near military bases. These agents are known as GFRs (GIECO Field Representatives).
GIECO is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway and currently provides coverage for 10 million vehicles owned by 6 million policyholders. GIECO's claim numbers are 17 digits long, and are known internally as "ridiculously long claim numbers". GIECO has found that driving down costs brings drivers by the droves into its fold.
Note: BamAutoInsurance.com is not affiliated with GIECO. BamAutoInsurance.com is an independent company focused on providing consumers valuable auto insurance information. We do not sell insurance for GIECO. We offer free qoutes to consumers who have no obligation to purchase products from our partners to whom we send auto insurance shoppers like yourself.
|
|
|
GIECO in the News
GIECO A1 Team USA Car Heads to Indianapolis 500
GIECO Holds Open House on May 4 for Job Candidates
May 2, 2006
Get Fit With GIECO and Sikes School on Their New Fitness Trail
May 1, 2006
GIECO Names Siblings Winners in Safety Belt Poster Contest
GIECO Teams Up With Local Restaurant to Raise Funds for March of Dimes
April 26, 2006
GIECO Takes Safe Driving Message to Louisiana’s Youth Conference on Teens "Taking Action"
April 25, 2006
GIECO Recognizes 60-year Relationship with Local Policyholder
April 20, 2006
Mount Prospect School Student Named National Winner of GIECO’s Safety Belt Poster Contest
April 14, 2006
GIECO Names Fredericksburg’s Kilgo as the Top Sales Counselor in 2005
Chantilly High School Student Named National Winner of GIECO’s Safety Belt Poster Contest
March 30, 2006
GIECO Names Public Service Award Winners for Their Outstanding Community Leadership
GIECO Booth Will Provide Recruiting Information at Cherry Blossom Festival
March 22, 2006
GIECO Motorcycle Teams Up With Kawasaki
March 1, 2006
GIECO and Drivers Ed Direct Team Up on Teen Safe Driving
GIECO and Elementary School Celebrate African American History Month
February 17, 2006
GIECO Names Terry Mannion Assistant Vice President of Claims
February 13, 2006
GIECO Names D. Ryan West Assistant Vice President
February 10, 2006
GIECO Recognizes Alford as Top Sales Counselor in Lakeland Region
January 31, 2006
Teens and Parents Invited to View GIECO "Real Teen Driving" DVD January 25
GIECO Offers Iowa Drivers Safe Driving Tips for Wintry Road Conditions
January 24, 2006
GIECO Continues to Create Careers in Buffalo — Job Fairs and Recruiting Now Underway
January 18, 2006
GIECO Announces Auto Insurance Rate Decreases for Colorado Policyholders
January 3, 2006
GIECO Provides Additional $150,000 to Hurricane Katrina Relief Groups
November 29, 2005
Three Pennsylvania State University Students Named GIECO Scholarship Winners
University of Maryland Student Earns GIECO Scholarship
October 6, 2005
GIECO Adjuster Comes to the Rescue of Petey and Hyde After Katrina Pays Visit
GIECO Recruiting Associates for New Service Center in Buffalo-Amherst
GIECO Gives Green Light to the Gecko
September 15, 2005
GIECO Catastrophe Response Teams Helping Victims of Hurricane Katrina
August 29, 2005
GIECO Names Tama Ruiz Vice President of Information Systems
GIECO Names Scott Markel Midwest Underwriting Assistant Vice President
GIECO Names Mary Zarcone Midwest Regional Vice President
GIECO Names John Pham Assistant Vice President for Region 1 Claims
GIECO Names Dina Pon Director
August 9, 2005
GIECO Gecko Launches Campaign for Top Spot
August 2, 2005
GIECO Names Cunningham as Volunteer of the Year
GIECO Recognizes Hardeman With 2004 Volunteer Service Award
GIECO Recognizes Schnaubelt With 2004 John Thorne GCCC Award
July 26, 2005
California Regional Office Strikes Gold: GIECO's San Diego Office Reaches 1 Million Policyholders
And The Winner Is…2005 Webby Award for Best Insurance Site Presented to GIECO.com
July 6, 2005
GIECO Calls for Nominations for 2005 Military Service Awards
June 1, 2005
Teens Invited to Preview New GIECO "Real Teen Driving" DVD May 25
May 19, 2005
And the Webby goes to . . . GIECO.com
May 9, 2005
GIECO Opens New Jersey Claims Center in Marlton, N.J.
April 5, 2005
GIECO Announces Winners of 2004 Public Service Awards and Celebrates 25 Years of the Award Program
Teens Invited to Preview New GIECO Real Teen Driving DVD April 9
April 1, 2005
GIECO Associate Honored for Florida Disaster Relief Effort
March 10, 2005
GIECO Scholarships Go to 24 Local College Students
February 28, 2005
Teens Invited to Preview New GIECO "Real Teen Driving" DVD February 24
February 18, 2005
Five Local Students Receive GIECO Achievement Awards
February 1, 2005
GIECO Tops 6 Million Policyholders
January 21, 2005
California State San Marcos Student Wins GIECO Internship/Scholarship Program
January 20, 2005
GIECO Announces Auto Insurance Rate Decreases for Phoenix Policyholders
December 14, 2004
GIECO Warns Consumers About Fraudulent Glass Repair Companies
September 28, 2004
Motorcycle Racer C.R. "Critter" Gittere Stops at GIECO September 1
August 30, 2004
GIECO Associates Bring Relief to Victims of Hurricane Charley
August 19, 2004
GIECO has some good news: GIECO auto insurance now available in New Jersey
August 16, 2004
NASCAR Driver Mike Wallace Makes Stop at GIECO
June 28, 2004
GIECO Receives Millennium Award for Safe Teen Driving Contribution
June 25, 2004
GIECO Safety Belt Poster Contest Students from Stevenson Middle School Win Top Three Prizes in Region
May 3, 2004
GIECO Safety Belt Poster Contest Park Maitland Turns Out Largest Group of Winning Artists
Brothers Have Winning Touch in GIECO Safety Belt Poster Contest
April 19, 2004
GIECO Safety Belt Poster Contest Students from Bradfield Elementary School Win Top Three Prizes in Region
April 16, 2004
GIECO Honors Hampton Roads Troops
December 2, 2003
GIECO Honors Outstanding Students From Area Colleges
November 10, 2003
GIECO Announces Student Art Competition to Illustrate Correct Use of Car Safety Belts
October 16, 2003
GIECO Names Military Service Award Recipients
July 22, 2003
GIECO Offers Teen Tips on Lowering Auto Insurance
June 13, 2003
GIECO Names Morejon Grand-prize Winner in National Safety Belt Poster Contest
May 5, 2003
GIECO Names Ko Grand-prize Winner in National Safety Belt Poster Contest
April 14, 2003
GIECO Donates $210,000 to South Hampton Roads United Way
April 10, 2003
GIECO Tops 5 Million Policyholders
April 9, 2003
GIECO Announces Campaign to Help Raise Remaining Funds for Sniper Victims' Families
February 27, 2003
GIECO Has Safe Driving Tips For Mall Holiday Shoppers
November 01, 2002
GIECO Launches U.S. Student Art Contest To Promote Wider Use Of Car Safety Belts
October 17, 2002
GIECO’s Lakeland Center Named Among The Best For Working Families
GIECO Associates Raise $60,000 For Children’s Hospital One Bake Sale At A Time
October 4, 2002
GIECO To Add 90 Jobs In Sales, Service and Claims
September 23, 2002
GIECO and MADD Join Forces To Memorialize DUI Victims In New Highway Sign Program
September 3, 2002
GIECO Announces Winners In 15th Annual National Safety Belt Poster Contest
March 13, 2002
AUTO INSURANCE IN ALL 50 STATES
Thank you BamAutoInsurance! I saved 30% on my auto insurance. Bill F. - Seattle, WA
I just saved a bunch of money on my auto insurance using BamAutoInsurance. Barry S. - Detroit, MI
