Marketing Strategies of General Insurance Companies

Contents: Acknowledgements. 1. Introduction. 2. Regulatory framework and government policy perspective. 3. Pricing and product management strategies of insurance companies. 4. Promotional and distribution strategies of general insurance companies. 5. Customers perceptions as to the marketing of insurance products and services. 6. Conclusions. Bibliography. Index.

This book deals with the marketing strategies of general insurance companies. Marketing is one of the significant functions in any insurance company. The components of marketing function are product, price, promotion and place. The product occupies a unique place in the marketing mix of a insurance company. So important is the role of product in insurance business that all decisions involving the other elements of marketing-mix viz., pricing, promotion, and distribution, are taken in relation to product.

What price is to be charged for a product is the most critical decision to be taken by the insurance business company. So important is the place of price in the marketing-mix of a insurance business that even when the product has been matched with what suits the market, the actual transfer takes place only after the buyers and the sellers have agreed on the price.

The basic decision is how much promotional effort should be focused on middlemen and how much should be directed to the users. The options are a push strategy, which involves concentrating promotional effort on the next link forward in the distribution channel, and a pull strategy, in which promotion is focused primarily on the final buyer.

In view of the above it is right to opine that the marketing practices need a new look, an innovative approach and the conceptualization of the holistic concept of management can make it possible. The public sector insurance organizations need to realize a gravity of the situation and to assign an over-riding priority to the management of marketing activities.

With the entry of new players, the insurance market as now changed almost overnight. Private insurers seemed all set to make the industry marketing-driven, wherein technical and service excellence would be the key factors of success. The private companies, in a bid to make their presence felt and their brand noticed, initiated a series of aggressive marketing and promotion initiatives, something that buyers of insurance were not accustomed to.

The present book has highlighted various factors, which the insurance companies should consider while formulating their marketing strategies. (jacket)