In an exclusive interaction with 4ps b&M, mario perez, director – marketing & sales, canara hsbc obc life insurance discusses why segmentation plays a crucial role when it comes to selling insurance and why he STILL doesn’t have to WORRY about it
 
June 16, 2008 was the day when you commenced operations. How have the past two years
(smiles) Amazing journey so far...

Life insurance as a product is pretty confusing to most individuals and as such many Indians remain inadequately insured. What is your company doing to overcome this challenge?
We have different types of customer profiles. The first one is the HSBC customer – they are more savvy. And therefore the amount of coaching that they need is less. The Canara-OBC customers are less savvy so we have to do a lot of coaching. In this case, the branch manager plays a very crucial role. He interviews the client and gives a custom-made solution to the clients.

A marketing plan or product launch cannot be successful without proper segmentation. Market segmentation is perhaps the most difficult and complex decision a company must make when deciding its market strategy. Did you also undertake such segmentation studies prior to launching your services? What were the results?
Definitely, segmentation plays a very important role. We sell through the bank so we know the customers’ needs. I know the customer’s spending pattern. I know his financial profile, so that’s how we segment the market. And since it is a partnership, it becomes even easier because HSBC has a completely different clientèle and Canara-OBC is again different. We have a CRM department that is completely computerised and we analyse trends according to our analytics databases; our segmentation is based purely on these trends.

Any plan of selling through the direct route rather then the bank route?
No, we don’t have any such plans. However we do have plans to expand our business through the other distribution channels that are part of our group.
 
Could you elaborate on your distribution strategy? How many channel partners are you selling through currently?
Apart from selling through the three banks, we have a strategic distribution tie-up with HSBC InvestDirect. We also have strategic tie-ups with two Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) – Shreyas Gramin Bank in UP & Pragathi Gramin Bank in Karnataka. The two RRBs are sponsored by Canara Bank. Along with the three shareholder banks, the RRBs too will function as our corporate agents to sell products. Saral Bima, one of our flagship products will be sold through these RRBs. The low premium product is tailored to meet the investment cum insurance needs of customers in the semi-urban and rural cities.

Is that the reason you are not a heavy advertiser as compared to competition like Max New York Life Insurance?
In part the answer would be yes. But you need to know that being a player who is two years old in the market it will take us some time to grow and probably then we will be a heavy advertiser. If you saw our [initial] TV ads, you’ll notice that we were trying to tell our own customers that we have expanded to selling insurance as well.

HSBC’s global brand proposition is ‘Insuring your emotions’. Is that also the brand proposition of HSBC-Canara-OBC?
Well, yes it is. We needed an identity for this new set up and this proposition is perfect to establish this identity. We have not just segmented the customers based on the databases, but have also segmented the communication. If you see our ads, they are in different languages like Punjabi, Hindi and Tamil.

Have you planned some ATL/BTL activities to increase your presence?
The most crucial part of our strategy is that I have a bank. So to advertise, I don’t have to go to a mall, I don’t have to go to billboards. The customer will walk into the branch and that is where the communication takes place. We have a lot of BTL happening inside the branch. For instance, a financial planning meet is called with 14-15 customers and while the discussion is on, a pitch for insurance is also made. In short, I don’t want to be in the supermarket, but I want to be where my customer is.

Yours was the first company to launch the scheme ‘Immediate Payouts on Death Claim,’ so that the deceased’s family will receive the fund value immediately on registration of death claim under unit-linked policies. Could you elaborate on the scheme?
This is a very viable strategy from a business viewpoint. What we do is that we release one part of the cover without any formalities and for the other part after the whole process has been undertaken. And because of this, the customer feels satisfied.

In a service industry, customer relationship management is of utmost importance. How are you training your staff to fulfill this requirement?
We have a separate team of people who are sent to the bank branches for training. If I were to give a number, we do about 5,000-6,000 individual trainings per year. And this number would probably double in the next year. Further, we don’t train once, we train at least three times a year.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
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Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website

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Ruined by invaders, looted by foreigners, ruled by the British and built by dynasties, the Indian culture and heritage has that conducive environment for museums to prosper. But there’s the rub – they’re not! Lessons from the West for the Indian museum authorities...
 
Step out of the tube-rail in Russel Square station in London, and you will be greeted by gigantic posters, depicting scenes from the lives of ancient African tribes. For a first-comer, this rather African pictorial welcome in the land of the British seems rather strange. Matters however get cleared out when you get to the markings on the wall that indicate the way to the ‘The British Museum’ (TBM). Every month, TBM organises a show and a seminar with a central theme, which revolves around ancient civilisation or on ancient paintings & sculptures. The effort is fully supported by 360 degree advertisements and merchandising. For the month of June, the theme at TBM is the ancient African tribal life. There are also colourful posters at the station that invite kids to ‘The Natural History’ museum in South Kensington, London.

From London, we move further east – to Paris. Even the Louvre museum in Paris, which houses the much revered Mona Lisa along with an astonishing collection of 35,000 objects exhibited within an area of 60,600 square metre, ensures that the visitors are handed over a detailed guide map with a background literature on each collection. There’s more. Like any other museum in England & US, this French museum too earns huge revenues from sales of its merchandise and souvenirs. Europeans and Americans must be surely teaching lessons in schools on how to maintain their culture & history with pride! Despite most of the artefacts being more than five generations old, the glam attached to them doesn’t seem to be losing a shade. And you don’t realise this till you come back to your very own India, which on paper is known to have a culture and heritage to die for, but which showcases the same elements rather too poorly.

Let’s run a quick awareness test here. How many museums are there in the capital city of New Delhi? One? Two? Three? Little do even residents of New Delhi know that the city has 22 museums in all (divided under five broad heads as per the tourism department). Walk into the National Museum located on Janpath (called National Archives), and a constitutionally bone-lazy atmosphere greets you. The entrance to the structure is adorned by a comatose struck ticket counter, which remains closed for an extra half-an-hour during lunch break. How many excited souls would you meet here? None, except a few unputdownable foreigners who refuse to get dejected by the lack an enthusiastic support system.

Besides the regular (history-based) sections, the museum also houses a theme-based exhibition section. Surprisingly though, neither the museum authority, nor the Tourism department of India have shown any intention or promise to promote this special feature! And this is not an exceptional lack of interest; never an attempt has been made to brand or market any of the 300 museums across the country. It seems least likely that there will be any in the future to change the perception of Indian museums as a moth-eaten, stodgy and spiritless place.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website

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The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) celebrated its silver jubilee this month. The world of advertising has come of age and so has the Council. Or has it? On its 25th anniversary, the Council invited a panel of eminent luminaries to discuss the most prevalent issues in advertising. From progressive to regressive ads, to advertising to children to stereotypes in ads; the panel discussed a gamut of issues. But if we were to scroll our memories back, these were the very issues that were being dealt with then... and now. Not that they are not issues any more, but are they still burning issues? Allan Collaco, General Secretary, ASCI, shed light on some of the indirect issues that should find place in significant discussions on ads. “You have areas where consumers don’t find honest and truthful ads, areas where surrogate advertising is shaping into brand extension advertising and seriously needs to be discussed but it is lying there as an indirect issue so far”, says Collaco. He even highlighted issues like existence of ‘puffery’ in advertising, its justification and how we do not reach onto a conclusion regarding the same. The matter of setting the adequacy of scientific research for an ad agency before it claims something in an ad is also a pivotal aspect that hardly finds a discussion space – but should. In fact, with the ever increasing trend of technology-based products and increasing levels of education of consumers, the number of products being advertised on the basis of their technological superiority and high research-based inputs put in them are increasing. Surely, with growing economic growth and an internationalisation of advertising creatives and budgets, new issues are expected to find podium place – how soon is the question...

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

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

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website

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