Life Insurance Marketing in India –A The Changing Advertising & Promotion Norms

IMPLICATIONS OF THE ‘NEW-AGE'MARKETING INITIATIVES Contd..

TABLE II
ADVERTISEMENT EXPENDITURE BY INSURANCE COMPANIES

COMPANY	EXPENDITURE
LIC	1000
Allianz Bajaj	200
Om Kotak Mahindra	150
ICICI Prudential	146

Source: ICMR.

However, during the first year of the entry of new players, while LIC reported a growth of over 250%, private insurers managed to garner only about 0.5% market share, in spite of spending hefty amounts on advertising and promotion. According to reports, LIC's business increased mainly because of the increased public awareness about insurance, which was brought about by the heavy advertisement campaigns of private players.

It was reported that customers resorted to LIC after the awareness about insurance increased as a result of the marketing efforts of the new players, because they were attracted by the ‘security factor'attached with the state-owned insurer.

According to a sample survey conducted by ORG-Marg on the popular life insurance brands in 2001, awareness of LIC policies was a phenomenal 100%, while the private insurers lagged far behind (Refer to Table III). The survey was conducted to collect information about the awareness of the life insurance brands and whether respondents were ready to buy the policies of such companies or not (this tested the success of the communication strategies of the companies concerned).

TABLE III
POPULAR LIFE INSURANCE BRANDS IN 2001

COMPANY	AWARENESS LEVELS (in %)
LIC	100
ICICI Prudential	70
HDFC Standard	52
SBI Life	25
Birla Sun Life	23
OM Kotak Mahindra	20
Tata AIG	17
Allianz Bajaj	12
Max New York Life	6
ING Vysya Life	4
Dabur CGU	4