New Delhi Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance has seen a growth rate of over 50% in FY12, while the private life insurance category grows at a rate of 26-27%, said its chief marketing officer Chandramohan Mehra. In an interview, Mehra shares his thoughts on the life insurer’s changing communication strategy and the value of blending performance marketing with storytelling to target younger consumers. Edited excerpt:
How hard is it to market a category like insurance?
We embarked on a brand transformation journey about four years ago, based on what the competition was doing and how new age consumer expectations and aspirations were evolving. There was a lot of noise about the uncertainty and unfortunate events and competition about how life insurance products would address these concerns. When we spoke to consumers, we realized that new-age customers were expressing their expectations on life goals, such as building a second home by 40, startup by 35, visiting Europe by parent 30 Give, etc. , And, we said we wanted to be supportive of his life-goal. Before that, we had a mascot called Super Agent, who was in his late 40s. It was becoming irrelevant in the context of new, emerging consumer sentiment. The repositioning exercise is resonating well with the audience and internal stakeholders. It is not just the positioning, it is also the entire sales narrative – the approach, products and tools to realize the life goals of the customers.
Which is the most used media for you?
Banking, financial services and insurance, especially insurance, leverage their marketing mix as a whole. Marketing is a strong combination of brand, as well as performance marketing- leveraging data, generating leads for communication, the right messaging and product proposition. Data is a strong component of marketing.
By performance marketing do you mean conversions?
Performance marketing is anything that is clearly measurable—a measure of your return on investment purely in terms of the amount invested and the revenue generated from it. It’s measuring your reach, permissions, click-throughs, how many eventually converted and the value of each transaction. We deploy performance marketing tools such as Search Engine Optimization.
What is your annual advertising budget and the share of each media?
I cannot share the exact number. But the ratio is becoming more and more skewed towards digital. However, we believe the combination of digital and offline is just the right mix. In offline we use television, print and outdoor. Television continues to have the least cost per thousand access and is one of the best, most powerful drivers for creating emotional connect. Then we take advantage of print because it gives you the power to detail the finer technicalities of products in insurance. Brand marketing in digital uses YouTube, Google, social media and now OTT platforms.
Has social media made life difficult for brands?
First, brands should have a clear vision. They should have a purpose. And, it’s based on three things: your business environment, social attitudes, and the belief system of the leadership team and employees. Social media is a great platform to take a stance and articulate it and communicate it. It is also a great platform for listening. Consumers will reach out to social media platforms and express their feelings or complaints and brands have to be agile to respond and resolve those issues. Listening allows you to observe the voices of customers which can be a very powerful feed for your processes, product development, servicing, even marketing messaging. However, not all reactions on social media are fair. This doesn’t mean that the brand has to be surrounded by some random, inappropriate reactions. Your original audience will see it anyway.
How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed the marketing manual?
Firstly, there is massive digital adoption across the chain. For a marketer, this has changed his effect in making this entire journey frictionless. The more you simplify the journey, the more the customer will reward you with loyalty. Second, customers are rewarding brands that are trustworthy, transparent and objective. These attributes are new customer value drivers. Third, the power of privatization is coming from digital adoption. You can completely track their behavior in and out of your system. We are being biased towards performance as it is easily measurable. But marketing will still be a mix of science based on data, analytics and technology and the art of storytelling. Combining these two will help brands build meaningful engagement with the customers.
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