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ReprintsAllstate Dealer Services changes brand names, adds several F&I products
 | Herberger: Lack of a full product menu was a competitive disadvantage for Allstate. |
Allstate Dealer Services has switched brand names for its F&I products and added several offerings, part of an industry trend toward branded products.
The company changed to the Allstate brand from CarMor and added policies for excess wear and tear for lease customers, tire and wheel protection, anti-theft etching and prepaid maintenance. The Jacksonville, Fla., company already offered guaranteed asset protection, vehicle service contracts and vehicle appearance protection.
"Our value proposition is considerably enhanced when we go to the dealer and offer one-stop shopping," said Doug Herberger, Allstate Dealer Services president.
The switch took effect last month. Allstate Dealer Services joins finance companies such as Mercedes-Benz Financial and BMW Financial Services, which have added house-brand products including paint and fabric protection, and tire and wheel policies.
Allstate Dealer Services, a business unit of Allstate Insurance Co. of Northbrook, Ill., decided to take advantage of name recognition and positive associations by using its own Allstate brand, rather than offer F&I products from its lesser-known CarMor brand.
Herberger, 60, said the lack of a full product menu also was a competitive disadvantage, even though not all dealers want to buy F&I products from a single vendor.
"If you ask dealers what their preference is, one third would probably say one-stop shopping, one third would say they want to pick and choose the category leader in each of their products, the rest would say some combination of the two," he said.
Herberger formerly was general manager of General Motors Service and Parts Operations in North America. He said he spoke with dealers and independent insurance agents in February at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in San Francisco, shortly after joining Allstate Dealer Services from GM.
He said he was told that Allstate Dealer Services needed a broader product portfolio and a stronger brand name. "We may have been losing some of our credibility as an organization," Herberger said.
The feedback was sobering, but useful, he said. "NADA this year was probably both my worst and my best, out of 20-plus NADA meetings."
You can reach Jim Henry at autonews@crain.com.
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