Name matters for risk JVs

What's in a name? Clearly a great deal as the erstwhile Allianz Bajaj Life Insurance Company realises, having changed its corporate name to Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company.

The venture is the third private insurer in India to modify its name, after Aviva and Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual.

These companies have come to realise that business is captured on account of the Indian partner's brand equity as the public feels more secure and safe, said Sam Ghosh, country manager, Allianz & chief executive officer, Bajaj Allianz Life.

With the change in the name, the life insurance venture hopes to capitalise on the synergies it can share with Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company.

"We can now consider joint advertising campaigns and while tapping corporate clients, we can offer the entire package. After all, everyone calls us Bajaj Allianz instead of Allianz Bajaj anyway," said Ghosh.

Local joint ventures such as ICICI Prudential Life, HDFC Standard Life, Birla SunLife and Tata AIG are in the top league largely on account of their Indian partners' reach and brand recall. This explains why the erstwhile OM Kotak Mahindra Life changed its name to Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life.

"The general public does not necessarily relate to OM, and we wanted to identify that OM with Old Mutual," said the company's official.

The change in name at Bajaj Allianz also puts into motion a change in the marketing strategy, which incidentally has pushed up Bajaj Allianz Life's ranking from seventh to third place in the first quarter of fiscal 2005.

"We have told our individual branches to benchmark themselves with the competition within their city, instructing them to be among the top three," said Ghosh, who incidentally is the third CEO to head Bajaj Allianz Life effective January 2004.

The insurance company clocked a new premium income of Rs 65.81 crore in the first three months, against ICICI Prudential's Rs 221.81 crore and Birla SunLife's Rs 93.62 crore.

HDFC Standard Life stands in fourth place with a new premium income of Rs 53.1 crore, slightly higher than SBI Life's Rs 51.03 crore and Tata AIG Life's Rs 49.95 crore.

The share of the private life insurance has inched up to over 17 per cent.

Following the change in leadership, Bajaj Allianz has adopted a decentralised approach whereby "there are mini CEOs in each city, who are empowered to take most of the decisions," said Ghosh.

Each branch is now empowered with better arsenal in terms of an expanded product portfolio with the introduction of various unit-linked plans, as they also eye high ticket customers to grow the top line.

In addition, the life insurance venture has established 100 more satellite branches, taking its coverage to 160 branches across 156 towns.

"Ours is the second largest network in the private sector after ICICI Prudential," said Ghosh.