Insurance brands turn life coaches

HDFC Life, IndiaFirst Life and Bharti Axa Life look to change customer purchase behaviour and expand their influence

Encouraged by the growing number of Indians shopping online for everything from electronics to groceries, HDFC Life Insurance is asking customers to add insurance to their online shopping lists. Another insurer IndiaFirst Life, which launched a digital campaign a few months ago, is using simple animated narratives to tell customers how to use their insurance products as a risk management tool and another, Bharti Axa Life tells people to trade their fears for action. A far cry from the times when insurance was pitched as a lofty life goal or a way to protect one’s own; the new campaigns are hoping to bring about a shift in the way insurance products are bought.

 
HDFC Life has started its Click2Insure campaign that aims to increase awareness about insurance and at the same time make it simple for customers to buy insurance online. The campaign was conceived to tackle what is a common industry problem — how does one convert what still largely is a ‘push product’ into a pull purchase. Insurance purchase in the country maps onto a complex chain where a number of players play the role of influencers; buyers listen to brokers, friends and family and quite often, the company’s pitch is unheard in this din.
 
Sanjay Tripathy, senior executive vice president (marketing, analytics, digital and e-commerce) at HDFC Life said that they realised that in a country of millions of online shoppers, the number of online insurance buyers is still miniscule.  “People are hesitant to try something new, owing to the unfamiliarity of the process. Hence, we thought that it would be good idea to address the situation with a campaign and continue to be a relevant digital insurer,” he said.

 

HDFC Life uses the example of how an unsure new father grows from hesitation to confidence to show the same is true with buying insurance online. Just as the wife in the film is his mentor in this journey, HDFC Life says it will do the same. In this way, the company is also hoping to reduce the distance between the customer and the brand. If buyers buy into the digital pitch, it could ultimately cut out the need for agents and brokers. For this campaign, TV and digital are the lead media, but the company also has plans to amplify the message through print, outdoor, cinema and out-of-home.

 
Rushabh Gandhi, director of marketing and sales at IndiaFirst Life said that insurance still needs understanding as a risk management tool. Its campaign ‘Because’ focuses on giving the customer reasons ‘why’. The aim is to educate customers about the importance of insurance and retirement solutions. He said that their endeavour is to continue the awareness campaign online as  “it allows us to reach out to larger base,” he said.
 
For both campaigns, there is an attempt to treat insurance like any FMCG product. Easy to buy, important to tick it off the monthly laundry list and buy it at your convenience – these messages that are being pushed through by the campaigns are hoping to bring about the change in customer behaviour. However, it may be a while before companies see results because most Indian customers still want to be convinced about the need for insurance.

 
Traditionally insurance companies have therefore played with the emotional aspect of buying insurance. Look out for your loved ones was the underlying message. Bharti Axa while using the conventional approach towards insurance, invoking fear to nudge a buyer into action, is also showing customers how to buy their insurance products online without any fuss.
 
Jitin Paul, chief marketing officer, Bharti AXA Life Insurance said that their latest campaign Daro Nahi Karo urges consumers to acknowledge their fears and establishes insurance as one of the steps towards overcoming these fears.  “Protection is a latent need amongst consumers. Yes, a substantial push is required to sell insurance which is provided by the existing distribution channels. However, there are strong areas of consumer pull associated with the category, which are realisation and education. The first area of realisation is the need of insurance and then the knowledge required to invest in it, ” said Paul.

 
Further, Bharti AXA Life on LinkedIn had launched a page titled Invest Wise, to educate consumers about investment and insurance.  “We have thought leaders within the company writing about their specific areas of expertise and we keep updating consumers with the changing trends,” said Paul. With these measures, companies are looking to play advisor and seller and thereby cutting out the role of agents in the middle. Insurance intermediaries like Policybazaar and CoverFox are also advertising heavily to keep the consumer on their side. Sai
 
Narayan, group vice president and head of marketing, Policybazaar.com said the objective has been to change buying habits and move customers away from going to agents and offline shops. Online insurance broker Coverfox.com tried to make insurance products a Diwali gift item. The objective the company says is to convince people that insurance can make a difference to people’s lives. With insurance penetration in the country less than five per cent of the country's gross domestic product, the sector is doing all it takes to nudge insurance purchases. However it is too early to predict whether these campaigns and marketing initiatives will actually translate into sales.