Employer Insights at Scale: How One Insurer Strengthened Brand Strategy and Client Relationships
A major U.S. health insurer wanted to better understand how its brand was perceived within the employer group market. While the organization had strong recognition, it lacked a comprehensive view of its standing relative to peers and how that influenced consideration, enrollment, and retention.
Key questions included:
- How do employers perceive the insurer compared to competitors?
- Which attributes most strongly drive consideration, enrollment, and loyalty?
- What are benefit decision-makers’ top priorities when choosing and maintaining a health plan?
The insurer needed not just answers to these questions but decision-ready insights that would allow them to refine marketing initiatives, strengthen value messaging, and ensure they were consistently meeting employer needs across segments.
health insurance
The Solution
The DRG developed and implemented an ongoing web-based survey targeting group benefits decision-makers across the U.S., collecting annual responses from Small, Large, and National employer groups.
The study framework provided a complete, nuanced view of the brand and experience landscape, covering:
- Brand Funnel Measures: Awareness, consideration, enrollment, likelihood to remain, and advocacy
- Brand Perceptions: Dimensions such as care coordination, innovation, and perceived value
- Functional Experience: Employer evaluations of network quality, account team service, communications, and more
- Quarterly Rotating Modules: Flexible sections to address emerging business priorities such as employee wellness, cost containment, and evolving benefit strategies
By maintaining consistency in core measures while incorporating flexible content, the insurer could track long-term brand health trends while also gathering insights on new initiatives and evolving needs.
The Wins
The study became a cornerstone of the insurer’s market intelligence program, offering a powerful blend of competitive benchmarking and performance levers. Findings directly informed strategies across marketing, sales, product development, and customer experience.
Key outcomes included:
- Sharper Brand Positioning: Clearer understanding of how the insurer compared to competitors on both perception and performance, enabling more effective differentiation
- Targeted Experience Improvements: Insights into employer pain points helped the insurer refine account team support, improve communications, and focus on the benefits most valued by employers
- Evidence-Based Marketing: Brand funnel metrics revealed where in the decision journey the insurer was strong and where additional investment was needed, ensuring marketing spend was aligned with growth goals
- Stronger Employer Relationships: By continuously measuring perceptions and priorities, the insurer could adjust its strategy in real-time to meet evolving needs and reinforce long-term loyalty
Ultimately, the program gave the insurer a continuous performance tracker linking employer perceptions directly to business outcomes and ensuring the brand could adapt and compete effectively in a rapidly changing marketplace.
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