And cable news.
As a long time USAA member (~20 years and probably will wind up with 50+ years of continuous membership depending on when I die), I’m actually not happy about the advertising. Yes, I know that it’s a long time since the days that only officers and their families were eligible. Yes, I realize that being a reciprocal inter-insurance exchange means that it’s better for me overall for there to be more members. But that also means that it feels like some of my premiums are being wasted on advertising.
Think of it as your premiums going to pay a fellow Doper’s son’s IT specialist salary in San Antonio 
. Thanks, we both appreciate it.
Do you have some cost free way of obtaining new customers?
Well, considering that membership is still a niche market, I don’t really see the point of broadcast advertising like a publicly traded company. Again, this is a specific complaint about a specific type of organizational setup. I’d complain the same if my credit union, which is also pretty limited in who can join (though not as much as it used to be) started doing a lot of local broadcast ads when direct targeting would make more sense.
That’s kind of an odd statement. They advertise a lot less than other big insurance companies and I don’t get the “publicly traded” thing. I would assume they try to track which advertising is working for them. If they are not at risk of going insolvent, I don’t see why you would worry about your premiums being wasted on advertising any more than worrying about where your soft drink money goes.
I understand @asterion’s point somewhat. USAA is selling a product, but also a relationship - they market themselves like an extension/continuation of the military family. And they’re huge on service, and on their employees appreciating military culture - for example, new employees eat MREs, get an deployment letter when joining, read letters from soldiers, and as a result their customer service and customer loyalty scores are otherwordly good. I mean so far off the chart, that market favorability comparisons (e.g. JD Power) typically put them off to the side.
It might sound hokey, but in some sense it’s no different than the the affinity built up with hardcore Apple fans( except I have more respect for USAA).
All that said, they did expand their eligibility a while back (I think because the military was starting to draw down, shrinking their base), & there’s a target market now of 60+ million drivers. So they’re going to spend, but I do understand (having experienced my FIL’s thinking about USAA) that it feels like more than a product bought off a metaphorical shelf.