In today's world of uncertainties, life insurance policies act as a safety net to guarantee adequate financial security for many families. A priority for most working members of the family, insurance penetration levels in India are, however, low at around four per cent. While many in urban areas are unprotected for the future, the bulk of the rural population also remains unaware. Thus, the spread of awareness about insurance becomes a major task for the industry.

For a while now, the Government has been promoting a culture of insurance with incentives such as tax rebates for those who buy such cover, but for their part, companies too have been investing in innovative marketing strategies.

ICICI Prudential, one of the first private sector insurance companies to start operations in 2000, has been running campaigns since 2002-03 designed to both push its policies and educate the masses about the benefits of insurance.

Sujit Ganguli, the marketing head, has been at the helm for almost half the period of the company's existence. In this time, he has concentrated on various campaigns focused on retirement solutions and child insurance besides the more recent initiatives in the rural market.

“We have a marketing spend of around 0.5 to 1 per cent of revenue. Marketing is critical for an insurance company as it has to build familiarity and trust with people. Since most people don't understand the product really well, the right amount of faith is very important for consumers,” he says.

One of the most important focus areas in its marketing has been retirement solutions. In a country which is traditionally used to the protection of joint families, retirement planning is not taken too seriously. Such policies are even more relevant in the absence of any overarching Government social security scheme.

“One of the biggest barriers is that people traditionally don't plan for retirement. Very few people, like employees of the Government and large corporates, have access to pensions.” With longer lifespans and higher inflation and healthcare costs, one has to have access to retirement planning, he says.

He added that ICICI Prudential was the first to start communicating about such policies back in 2002, with the message ‘you do not need to compromise on the quality of life after you retire'. More recently in 2009, it launched a major initiative designed as a contest to show that with a proper retirement plan one can do whatever one desires. The contest received one lakh entries online, from which the winners got to choose between 40 dream vocations one could pursue after retirement.

Among other focus areas, child insurance has also been high on the company's agenda. In 2006-07, the insurer had launched a brand awareness programme in schools called ‘Nat Geo Smart Kid Hunt'. In this, five national winners were chosen based on certain parameters such as IQ.

In 2009, the private insurer combined its focus on child insurance with a push towards the rural areas and smaller cities. Says Ganguli, “In rural and Tier III and IV cities, the focus of parents is more on their children. They want them to study, do well and move on to the urban areas – but due to a lack of exposure, they do not know how to do this. We had an initiative across four States including Punjab and Gujarat, where we took teachers from the cities for teaching modules. We also invited parents for counselling sessions. Moreover, we were conscious to not link it to policy purchase at all.”

The company, which claims to have retained its premier position for the last nine years in new business premiums, plans to stay with its current marketing approach of spreading awareness towards planning for one's future.

With assets under management close to Rs 53,000 crore - underlining ICICI Prudential's immense size - it will also focus more on Internet marketing as a medium. “It is an important medium and we have invested a lot in it. It generates more leads - it depends on the individual's preference of clicks, while it is also interactive. Also, people are now more comfortable in researching and making purchases online,” he says.

Source : The Hindu Business