Life Insurance Marketing in India (A): The Changing Advertising and Promotion Norms

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According to industry observers, one of the main reasons for the low insurance penetration in India was the ineffective distribution and marketing strategies adopted by LIC. The company reportedly never had any strategic marketing gameplan, and due to its monopolistic nature the need for serious marketing efforts was never felt. The advertising initiatives were limited to some print and electronic media advertisements, that typically talked about LIC's products being great tax saving tool for salaried individuals who came under the income-tax bracket. Despite all this, LIC was synonymous with insurance in India and it had established an enviable brand image for itself, especially in the rural areas and small towns. However, with the entry of new players, the insurance market changed almost overnight. Analysts commented that the 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. Such frenzy prompted IRDA to frame an advertisement code for companies.

Advertising Initiatives of the New Players

The new insurance companies used all channels of advertising from newspapers and the television to insurance agents and direct mailers. A fierce battle seemed to have begun among Indian insurance companies to make one's own brand win over the other. A majority of Indian customers being very conservative and averse to risk, trust was an extremely important factor in the insurance business. Since LIC was a government owned body, there was an element of security embedded in its services and products. This proved to be the biggest hurdle for the new insurance companies as Indian customers were reportedly rather skeptical about them. Hence, the new companies focused their campaigns primarily on building an image of trustworthiness and reliability for themselves. Secondly, their advertisements focused on insurance as an investment option and not a mere tax saving tool - another first for the Indian market. Most of these advertisements carried messages like the family's happiness, human bonding, etc., with underlying emphasis on the security that insurance could provide. Also, instead of projecting the idea, that an insurance policy actually starts working only after the death of the insured, the new campaigns projected that insurance protects people throughout their lives. In one of its TV commercials, ICICI Prudential showed a series of scenes depicting the childhood, marriage and old age of an individual. The purpose of using these visuals was to translate the company's message 'I will protect' into real-life incidents. In order to project its commitment towards consumers to 'protect at every stage of life,' the company brought in the concept of sindoor,³ which symbolizes protection. Sindoor was shown throughout the commercial as a mark of auspiciousness and protection, and at the end, it became the red line below the ICICI Prudential logo.

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3] The red vermilion powder used by married Hindu women in India as a symbol of their married status. Considered extremely auspicious, it is an integral part of the country's culture and is associated with concepts such as luck, protection and togetherness.

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