Monday, June 14, 2010

NO CHILD’S PLAY

The success of child insurance plans actually rest on the need to secure one’s child’s future and fulfill their dreams. And this is exactly what Bharti AXA is targeting at as Mathur further adds, “Child Insurance policies are designed to keep money aside for higher education and further requirements of the child until he/she is completely self-sufficient. Hence, through our products, we aim to ensure that the dreams and future of children are safeguarded, even in the case of an unfortunate eventuality befalling the parents.”

However, all these plans can be fruitful for the insurers only when they manage to change the orthodox attitude of the general Indian parents. As a matter of fact in India, parents are not too keen on insurance products for their child’s education. Thus, the insurers (through advertisements/ agents/ advisors) have moved to the basics and talked to them about the financial implications they are likely to face if they don’t save enough for the D-day. The simple point raised by these campaigns (Max, Bajaj, Aviva, HDFC SL, et al) in a way has awaken and reminded them of their responsibility – to ensure their child’s future. And thus it has given a boost to the insurers. Anisha Motwani, Executive VP–Marketing and CMO–New Markets SBU, Max New York Life Insurance discloses, “The Karo Zyaada Ka Iraada campaign has successfully impacted our brand metrics in terms of brand awareness & consideration scores. With the launch of the campaign in Aug’08, Max New York Life witnessed an increase in brand awareness scores from 64% (Aug’08) to 73% (Nov’08).”

A similar line of thought comes from Aviva with their “Education is Insurance” campaign, wherein cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar (brand ambassador of Aviva) says, “Mein bhi ek pita hoon, aur mein yeh samajhta hoon.” The statement by the legend vividly captures the essence of the very idea that when it comes to children even the greatest cricketer is just another concerned parent. And no doubt, the Aviva, which holds 2.5% market share in the life insurance industry, has seen some real benefits accruing from the campaign over last one year. Share of revenue from child plans has grown smartly from a paltry 3% to a respectable 15% during the period.

Talking about Bajaj Allianz’s new campaign on child plans, Head of Marketing of the company Akshay Mehrotra avers, “It targets parents with a simple and honest question, put forth to them by their children, ‘have you planned for my future?’. This direct communication aims in awakening parents to their responsibility to financially plan for their child’s future.” As per the company the campaign emanates from the thought of having a clutter breaking message on the child plans in the crowded life insurance industry. The campaigns directly point out the importance of planning for the future of one’s child. Interestingly, despite the fact that there is already a rush of child plan campaigns, this particular one from Bajaj Allianz have not gone unnoticed. As per the official sources, Bajaj Allianz has received SMS and calls from as many as 7,500 parents who wanted to plan for their child’s future within the first four days of the launch of the new campaign (the campaign was launched on October 25, 2009).

It is true that child plans are not new to the Indian insurance market and also that the plans put forward by the insurers are not very different from each other both in terms of features and deliverables. But then, the way the insurers are marketing the ‘old wine in new bottles’ and creating awareness among the Indian parents is certainly praiseworthy. However, what is more crucial for the insurers is that they have to add depth to their products by these campaigns. Because, if they fail, their brilliant effort in creating the buzz may finally end up landing them no where. After all, even good ads kill brands too. Hope they know this.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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