INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION Technological development in various countries as part of economic growth has placed the service sector in a strategic position. The services economy has been growing at a rapid pace after the Second World War. A cross country comparison on the share of service sector to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) shows that, it is about 75 percent in developed countries. Among Asian countries, it is 65 percent in Singapore, followed by 57 percent in India, 54 percent in Srilanka, 53 percent in Pakistan, and 42 percent in Indonesia. In India, the service sector has grown from 5.7 percent in 2000-01 to 11 percent in 2006-07 1 . The financing, insurance, real estate and business services have grown by 10.6 percent in 2006-07 as compared to 10.9 percent in 2005-06. Within this sub sector, GDP emanating from insurance has contributed to 17 percent in 2006-07. With the liberalization of economy and globalization of financial services with wider ramifications, rapid developments in insurance have taken place in the last decade. Insurance business is one of the fast emerging financial services in a developing country like India, in terms of the population it services. The present study focuses on marketing of life insurance by Life Insurance Corporation of India with special reference to Kasargod and Kannur district in Kerala. This chapter is intended to present a conceptual framework of the study. It explains briefly the operational concepts and definitions of certain terms used in this study. Role and importance of insurance, distinguishing features of life insurance service, problem statement, significance, objectives, scope and coverage of the study,
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Technological development in various countries as part of economic
growth has placed the service sector in a strategic position. The services
economy has been growing at a rapid pace after the Second World War. A
cross country comparison on the share of service sector to Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) shows that, it is about 75 percent in developed countries.
Among Asian countries, it is 65 percent in Singapore, followed by 57
percent in India, 54 percent in Srilanka, 53 percent in Pakistan, and 42
percent in Indonesia. In India, the service sector has grown from 5.7
percent in 2000-01 to 11 percent in 2006-071. The financing, insurance,
real estate and business services have grown by 10.6 percent in 2006-07 as
compared to 10.9 percent in 2005-06. Within this sub sector, GDP
emanating from insurance has contributed to 17 percent in 2006-07. With
the liberalization of economy and globalization of financial services with
wider ramifications, rapid developments in insurance have taken place in
the last decade. Insurance business is one of the fast emerging financial
services in a developing country like India, in terms of the population it
services.
The present study focuses on marketing of life insurance by Life
Insurance Corporation of India with special reference to Kasargod and
Kannur district in Kerala. This chapter is intended to present a conceptual
framework of the study. It explains briefly the operational concepts and
definitions of certain terms used in this study. Role and importance of
insurance, distinguishing features of life insurance service, problem
statement, significance, objectives, scope and coverage of the study,
hypotheses framed, research methodology, and limitations of the study are
briefly explained in this chapter.
Insurance is the outcome of man’s constant search for security. The
urge to provide insurance or protection against loss of life and property
prompted people to make some sort of sacrifice willingly in order to achieve
security through “Collective Co-operation”. Indeed risk aversion provides a
basic explanation for why we buy insurance 2. In the case of an individual,
there are two distinct risks with regard to life; premature death and
superannuation. Insurance is only one of the ways of dealing with risks.
Insurance, similar to savings and borrowings, is a part of risk mitigation
strategy3. It is a financial control technique and is one of the cheapest
modes generally used by individuals for risk management4.
Insurance contributes to economic development through risk
management, protection of assets, and mobilization of savings leading to
capital formation in the country 5. In India, the role played by the insurance
industry so far has been legendary not only in terms of payment of taxes,
payment of dividend but also in contributing to the development of
infrastructure in the economy by its investment policies. The contours of
insurance business have been changing across the globe and the ripple
effects of the same can be observed in the domestic markets as well. An
evolving insurance sector is of vital importance for economic growth. While
encouraging savings habit it also provides a safety net to both enterprises
and individuals.
The insurance industry can sustain itself only if there is continuous
growth in the number of policies it sells and the premium income it earns.
A life insurance company’s success reflects the consolidated effort of all of
its activities such as marketing, investment, and administration6. Of these
three areas, marketing is the largest in terms of both personnel
2
requirements and costs and is critical to success7. Prompt and efficient
service on the part of life insurance agents and front-office staff can
motivate people more than anything else. This makes the marketing of life
insurance a difficult proposition. Just like manufacturing businesses, good
service firms use marketing to position them strongly in chosen target
markets. Since services differ from tangible products, they often require
additional marketing approaches8.
Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) was established with the
nationalization of life insurance business in 1956. At the time of
nationalization, there were 245 private insurance companies and societies
functioning in India. LIC had monopoly over the life insurance business in
India from the day it was created in 1956 till the year 1999, when changes
in India’s economic philosophy brought about relaxation of State control
over insurance sectors of the economy by passing Insurance Regulatory
and Development Authority Bill. Insurance Regulatory and Development
Authority (IRDA) acts as a watchdog for maintaining best practices in the
Indian insurance industry. Since opening up of the sector in 1999, 16
private companies have been granted licenses by March, 2007 to conduct
business in life insurance and the number is growing fast. At the time of
opening up of the sector, life insurance was viewed as a tax saving device.
Of late, policyholders’ perspective is slowly changing towards taking
insurance cover irrespective of tax incentives. The insurers are increasingly
introducing innovative products to meet the specific needs of the
prospective policyholders. More notably, most Indian insurance companies
whether domestically owned or joint venture have recognized that service
competition should be more important than price competition. The concept
of service competition is a result of the participation of foreign insurance
companies through joint ventures9.
3
The insurance industry is estimated to be of Rs.500 billion business in
India and the gross premium collection is about 2 percent of the country’s
GDP. The industry is growing at a rate between 15 and 20 percent per
annum. Up to the end of 2006-07, capital amounting to Rs. 8,119.41 crore
was brought in by private players, of which the contribution of the foreign
partners has been Rs. 1,809.75 crore10. The total funds with LIC alone are
almost 8 percent of the GDP. Yet, more than three-fourths of India’s
population has no life insurance cover i.e., only around 65 million out of 250
million people are covered by life insurance. Therefore, the potential for
the insurance market is quite evident. The untapped potential in the
market is attracting many global players.
Beginning from scratch, the market share of the private life insurance
companies increased to 13 percent during 2003-04 and to 27.53 percent at
the end of 2006-0711. This was largely because of the introduction of
innovative products, smart insurance marketing, aggressive selling and
distribution strategies that enabled the private players to augment their
customer base faster than expected. Before liberalization, customers were
required to accept any product that was made available by LIC in the
market. Today, in the era of competition, the customer is truly the king.
Products are being designed, redesigned and customized to suit the
changing preferences of customers, taking into account their paying
capacity. There is scope to explore the market potential by proper market
survey, followed by systematic segmenting, targeting and positioning of
products and services.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Marketing life insurance means marketing something intangible, i.e.,
an assurance or a promise to perform in future when the insured event
4
takes place. We cannot deny the fact that selling of promises complicates
the task of marketers since they find it difficult to identify the stage or time
when the services start degenerating or when the promises fail. The
present study on topic “Marketing of Life Insurance by Life Insurance
Corporation of India with special reference to Kasargod and Kannur districts
in Kerala”, discusses the performance of LIC in marketing individual life
insurance products in Kasargod and Kannur districts, in terms of certain
parameters such as number of products, sum assured of products, premium
income and productivity of agents during the post-liberalization period of
six years from 2001-02 to 2006-07. The impact of privatization of insurance
sector on the performance of LIC in terms of parameters such as market
share of products, premium income of products marketed are also dealt
with in the study. The study analyses the views of urban and rural
policyholders of LIC in Kannur and Kasargod districts, regarding their
awareness about life insurance products, product satisfaction, service
satisfaction, and also analyses the views of LIC agents in the districts about
their attitude towards the profession and job satisfaction.
Marketing of life insurance calls for the concerted efforts at four
levels, namely:
(i) The Insurer (LIC of India), (ii) Branch Manager, (iii) Development Officer,
and (iv) Intermediary (Agent). The model depicted in Figure 1.1 throws
light on the functional strength of LIC in marketing life insurance products.
The duties and responsibilities of each of these functionaries are discussed
briefly in the fourth chapter, “Profile of LIC”.
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Figure 1.1. Functional Strength of LIC in Marketing Life Insurance
Customer satisfaction plays an important role in life insurance
marketing. A satisfied customer always tries to find out new products and
passes on that information to many others. The market focused
management model believes that the purpose of the firm is to serve the
customer12. This is understandable even in the context of the Indian
market where we are moving towards market economy with customer as
the central focus. Model depicted in Figure 1.2 throws light on customer
satisfaction in life insurance.
Insurer (LIC of India)
Development Officers
Intermediaries (Agents)
Branch Manager
Prospects/Customers
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Fig 1.2. Determinants of Customer Satisfaction in Life Insurance
Customer satisfaction in life insurance depicted in the model (Figure
1.2) is affected by a number of factors such as product features, agent’s
services, and office services, etc. Here, product means the life insurance
policy that the customer has; agent’s services refer to all the pre-sale and
post-sale services of LIC agents and office services refer to the LIC’s branch
office services covering all service dimensions. Life insurance product
satisfaction is a function of cost satisfaction, need, safety, liquidity, and
Pre-sale services:Selection of policy,Explanation of product benefits,Product knowledge, Financial advice, Assistance in filling forms and, Attentiveness to customers
The Office Services
The Agent’sServices
7
1. Tangibility, 2. Accessibility, 3. Competence, 4. Communication, 5. Assurance, 6. Responsiveness, 7. Reliability,8. Empathy,9. System and procedure,
and10. Understanding the
Post-sale services:1. Agent’s visit, 2. Reviewing further
insurance needs, 3. Assistance in premium
notice,4. Assistance in premium
remittance,5. Assistance in policy
documents and, 6. Other services.
return satisfaction. The agent’s pre-sale services are considered as
important and are performed at the initial stage in converting the
prospective customers into the customers of LIC. The post-sale services are
rendered to retain the customers and to attract them towards the
Corporation for more business. These services performed by the agents
may have an impact on customers’ perception of service quality. Office
services would have a significant impact on overall service quality.
The three sides of the triangle in Figure 1.2 represent service
delivery. The customer in the middle gets squeezed if service quality is not
being adequately provided by any of the service lines. In this study,
customer satisfaction of the product, service quality of the agent and
service quality of the office were measured by customers’ perception using
Likert five point scale. The measurement of these parameters is dealt with
in the fifth chapter. At the same time, attitude of agents towards the
profession and job satisfaction shall go a long way in influencing the
customers. The sixth chapter deals with the attitude of LIC agents towards
the profession and their perceived job satisfaction.
OPERATIONAL CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS
The basic concepts and terminologies of life insurance used in this
study are briefly described in the following pages.
Risk
Risk refers to the possibility that something unpleasant or dangerous
might happen13. Simply put, risk is a condition in which there is possibility
of an adverse deviation from an expected outcome14. In the case of an
individual, there are two distinct risks with regard to life; premature death
and superannuation. Insurance is one of the cheapest modes generally
used by individuals for risk management. Figure 1.3 exhibits the risk
management process for individuals and firms.
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Figure 1.3. Risk Management Process Flow Chart.
Insurance
Insurance is a complicated and intricate mechanism and therefore
difficult to be defined. However, in its simplest aspect, it has two
fundamental characteristics:
(i) Transferring or shifting risk from one individual to a group, and (ii)
Sharing losses, on some equitable basis, by all members of the group.
From an economic perspective, insurance is a financial
intermediation function by which individuals exposed to a specified
contingency each contribute to a pool from which covered events suffered
by participating individuals are paid15.
From an individual point of view, insurance is an economic device
whereby the individual substitutes a small certain cost (the premium) for a
large uncertain financial loss (the contingency insured against) that would
exist if it were not for the insurance16.
Risk Handling
Physical control and reduction measures
Financial control measures
-Risk avoidance-Risk reduction
-Risk spreading/diversification
Risk retention
Risk transfer
InsuranceHedging
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From the social point of view, insurance is an economic device for
reducing and eliminating risk through the process of combining a sufficient
number of homogeneous exposures into a group to make the losses
predictable for the group as a whole 17.
Life Insurance
Life insurance is a contract, whereby the insurer in consideration of a
premium undertakes to pay a certain sum of money either on the death of
the insured or on the expiry of a fixed period. Life insurance is designed to
provide protection against two distinct risks: premature death and
superannuation. Under life insurance, the subject matter of insurance is life
of a human being. The amount payable on a claim arising in life insurance
is not in doubt. It is as mentioned in the policy.
Life insurance is a long period contract. Most of the policies are for
term of 15 years or more. Long term nature of the life insurance policy
results in a long lasting relationship between the insurer and the customer
(insured), and in the meantime a number of policy services arise. The long
lasting relationship between the insurer and the customer calls for
relationship marketing in life insurance services. Since life insurance is a
long term contract, prompt and efficient service on the part of life insurance
agents and front-office staff can motivate people more than anything else
18.
Based on the above, the present study presents a new definition for
the term “life insurance” as “an arrangement by which the insurance
company (insurer) undertakes to pay a definite sum of money to the
policyholder (insured) or his/her beneficiaries on the happening of the
insured event i.e., living too long or dying too early, in return for payment of
a regular amount called premium”. This definition emphasizes the aspects
involved in the insurance contract and obligations of each party.
10
Marketing
One of the shortest definitions of marketing is “meeting needs
profitably”19. The basic marketing concept is concerned with identifying
and satisfying the needs and wants of customers by providing a market
offering to fulfill those needs and wants through exchange processes,
profitably20. For the first time in nearly 20 years, the American Marketing
Association (AMA) has updated its definition of marketing. The new
definition puts stronger emphasis on the power of building stronger
customer relationships. The new definition of marketing unveiled at AMA’s
Summer Education Conference in August 2004 is: “Marketing is an
organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating
and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships
in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders” 21.
Life Insurance Marketing
In life insurance what the marketer tries to sell is an assurance, i.e., a
promise to perform in future when the insured event takes place. The term
‘life insurance marketing’ refers to the marketing of life insurance services
with the motto of customer–orientation and profit-generation22. In this
study, the marketing of individual life insurance by LIC alone is taken into
consideration.
Active Agent
An active agent is an agent who brings at least one policy to the
Corporation for the relevant year.
Actuarial Valuation
11
Insurance is a product for which the cost of goods sold is not known
at the time the price is set. Thus, insurers rely heavily on individuals called
actuaries with advanced skill in mathematics, statistics, economics and
business to assist in developing competitive prices. The process, by which
net liability of the insurer is ascertained by an actuary, is known as actuarial
valuation.
Annuity
An annuity is a periodical level payment made in exchange of the
purchase money for the remainder of the life time of a person or for a
specified period.
Assignment
Assignment is the transfer of interest in a life insurance policy to
another person for legal consideration or love and affection.
Human Life Value Concept
Human life value can be defined as the present value of the family’s
share of the deceased person’s future earnings24. The HLV concept
provides an economic rationale for the purchase of life insurance.
Claim
Claim means the amount payable by the insurance company to the
insured or his/her legal heirs on the happening of the contingency insured
against. The life insurance claims can be classified in to two categories: (a)
Death claims and (b) Maturity claims.
Days of Grace
Additional period allowed by the insurer to the insured for remitting
the premium is known as days of grace. One month days of grace is
allowed for payment of yearly, half-yearly and quarterly mode, and 15 days
for payment of monthly premiums.
12
Insurance Rate and Premium
An insurance rate is the price per unit of protection or exposure. In
insurance, unlike other industries, the cost of production is not known when
the product is sold and it will not be known until some time in the future,
when the policy has expired. The ratemaking function in life insurance
company is performed by the actuarial department.
An insurance premium is the total price of coverage25. Premium is
the price paid by the insured under a contract of insurance for risk
coverage. Mortality, interest and expense loading are three primary
elements in life insurance premium computation26. Premium is usually paid
in installments which may be annual, half-yearly, quarterly or monthly.
Moral Hazard
Moral hazard is the potential cost of insurance in which the presence
of insurance increases the tendency for losses to occur through careless,
irresponsible or perhaps illegal behaviour.
Life Insurance Fund
The excess of premium and other incomes over claims, annuities,
surrenders, bonus and other expenses of management is life insurance fund
at the end of the period.
Nomination
Nomination is a process by which the holder of a life insurance policy
on his own life nominates a person or persons to whom the money secured
by the policy shall be paid in the event of his/her death. Nomination is done
either at the time of effecting policy or at any subsequent time before the
policy matures.
Prospecting
13
Prospecting is the method adopted to identify the people who need
insurance protection and who would be capable and willing to pay the
premium for the risk covered.
Policy Lapse
Cessation of life insurance policy due to non payment of premium
within the days of grace is called policy lapse. Up on policy lapse, the
liability ordinarily ceases under the policy and the contract comes to an
end.
Revival
If a policy lapses by non-payment of premium within the days of
grace, it may be revived at any time during the life time of the life assured,
but within a period of five years from the due date of the first unpaid
premium and before the date of maturity.
Policy Surrender
If the insured is unable to revive his policy, he can return the policy
to the insurer and can get cash surrender value. In India, the LIC has
guaranteed surrender value if the premiums have been paid for at least two
years or to the extent of one-tenth of the total number of premiums
stipulated for in the policy, provided such one-tenth exceeds one full year’s
premium.
Underwriting
Underwriting is the process of selecting and classifying exposures. It
is the insurance function that is responsible for assessing and classifying
the degree of risk a proposed faces and making a decision concerning
coverage of that risk27. In the life insurance field, the person responsible
for evaluation and acceptance/rejection of risks and computation of
premium is called as the underwriter.
14
Productivity
Productivity is the ratio between output and input 28. In 1950, the
organization of European Economic Co-operation gave the definition of
productivity: “Productivity is the quotient obtained by dividing outputs by
one of the factors of production. In this way, it is possible to speak of
productivity of capital, investment or raw material according to whether the
output being considered is in relation to capital, investment or raw material.
Productivity is a combination of effectiveness and efficiency” 29.
In service organizations, the measurement of productivity is very
difficult due to the intangible nature of services. For the purpose of this
research work, productivity of agent has been defined as out put in terms of
number of policies sold as well as the total sum assured and first premium
income per agent under the policies.
Satisfaction and Service Quality
There are alternative definitions for customer satisfaction/
dissatisfaction. Simply put, it is a comparison of customer expectations
with perceptions regarding the service encounter30. The quality of service
is the corner-stone of customer satisfaction31. Satisfaction is the
consumer’s fulfillment response. It is a judgment that a product or service
feature, or the product or service itself, provides a pleasurable level of
consumption-related fulfillment32. Satisfaction is the customers’ evaluation
of a product or service in terms of whether that product or service has met
their needs and expectations33.
The term “Quality” is referred as goodness of a product or service,
durability, reliability, defect free nature and the like 34. Juran defines
quality as ’meeting of specification of a product’35. The International
15
Standard Organization (ISO) defines quality as ‘Totality of features and
characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy
stated and implied needs’ 36. In this study, the customer satisfaction of the
product, service quality of the agent and the office are measured by
customer’s perception.
ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF INSURANCE
The role of insurance cannot be neglected in the present time when
uncertainty is prevailing everywhere. The significance of insurance is not
limited to an individual or to a family alone but it has spread over the entire
nervous system of a business or the country as a whole. The significance of
insurance from economic point of view is given below:
Investment opportunities for the savings of the individual and the group
will grow. The insurance players may device various plans to tap
savings of the growing earning population.
Pension business will grow in the light of employee benefits and this
aspect of social insurance will bring in sizeable funds for management of
insurance.
Investment portfolio of the insurers will boost economic development.
Investment in infrastructure and long term projects will assume
importance with the help of insurers and this will give fillip to the
economic reform which is taking place in India.
Inflow of foreign funds will increase as new insurers come in joint
ventures.
Credit facility can be obtained by mortgaging the policy with the banks.
Similarly banks will provide hypothecation of goods if there is an
adequate insurance cover.
16
Life insurance premium paid up to Rs.1, 00,000 shall be allowed from
the amount of total income of an individual or H U F under the Income
Tax Act. Also, the right or interest of the assessee in any policy of
insurance will not be included in the net wealth.
Protection from the loss of key-men is significant benefit to business
from insurance.
Insurance protects the wealth of the society. Each and every
member of the society will have financial security against old age,
death, damage, and destruction of wealth.
The insurance fulfills its social obligation by providing employment
opportunities to the general public.
The insurance reduces the inflationary pressure by extracting money in
supply to the amount of premium collected. It also narrows down the
inflationary gap by providing sufficient funds for production.
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES OF LIFE INSURANCE SERVICE
Life insurance business is basically different from other businesses.
Insurance and insurance related services are part of financial services. In
life insurance, the marketer is trying to sell an assurance, i.e., only a
promise to perform in future when the insured event takes place. These
characteristics create special marketing challenges. The features that
make the marketing of life insurance products different from the
manufacturing ones are given below:
Intangibility: Life insurance services are performances or actions and
therefore, they cannot be seen, felt, touched or tasted. The tangible
component of life insurance is the policy document. The customer has to
be encouraged, enthused and helped to visualize the unforeseen tomorrow
and usefulness of life insurance products. Unlike tangible products, there
17
are no factories and production lines for life insurance. The intangibility of
life insurance services presents several marketing challenges. The
resulting implications are: life insurance products cannot be readily
displayed or inventoried. They cannot be patented. Further, pricing of
services is rather difficult.
Perishability: Perishability refers to the fact that life insurance services
cannot be stored, resold or returned. Since life insurance services are
perishable, they demand proximity and simultaneous activity between
service provider and the customer. The resulting implication of
perishability is that it is difficult to synchronize supply and demand of
services.
Inseparability: Production and consumption of insurance services cannot
be separated; they cannot be separated from their provider. Life insurance
products are long term products; therefore, for making its service available,
the insured has to go on paying the premium through out the term of the
policy. This ensures that the benefits already accrued under the policy are
not lost. The quality of service and customer satisfaction will be highly
dependant on what happens in “real time”, including actions of agents,
employees and the transactions between employees and customers. The
resulting implication of inseparability is that ‘direct sale of services’ is the
only channel of distribution.
Heterogeneity: Different kinds of insurance products have been
developed from time to time to cater to the specific needs of customers.
But no two services will be precisely alike. The quality of service typically
depends on personal interaction as a consequence of which the chance for
variability is very high. In life insurance, the quality of the service depends
on interaction between agent and customer and interaction between front-
line staff and customer. The resulting implication is that it is difficult to
standardize quality of service.
18
Fluctuating Demand: The success in life insurance marketing depends
on the ability of the marketer to find customers and to satisfy their wants.
The insurer has to develop products needed by the customers and market
the same. Life insurance market is a sellers’ market. The insurance
company has to take a decision whether to sell a particular policy to a
particular person or not on the basis of information disclosed in the
proposal form.
Fiduciary Responsibility: Fiduciary responsibility refers to the implicit
responsibility of the insurance organization for the management of their
controlled funds. National priorities and obligation of reasonable returns to
the policy-holders is the main criteria of the investments of LIC. The
investment of LIC is governed by Section 27A of the Insurance Act, 1938,
subsequent guidelines/instructions issued there under by the Government
of India from time to time and the (Investment) Regulations prescribed by
the IRDA. Life Insurance Company is required to distribute 95% of the
profits among the policyholders as bonus on with-profit policies 37.
Government Regulations: Life insurance business in almost all countries
of the world is subject to government regulations. In India, life insurance
business is governed by the Insurance Act 1938 and the IRDA Act 1999. In
the case of LIC of India, the LIC Act 1956 is also applicable. As per the IRDA
Act, no insurer is allowed to do composite business. As per the Regulations,
a life insurer is required to keep 1.5 times of its insurance liability as
solvency margin38.
Two-way Information Flow: Life insurance is a contract of sale;
therefore, flow of information between buyer and seller of policy is
particularly relevant in this business. The customer is required to provide
all information which affects the contract of life insurance and the insurer is
required to keep the promises made in the contract. In turn, the life
19
insurance agent has to provide information about the insurance product
which is to be sold to the prospect.
Significance of Pre and Post Sale Services: In order to sell the
product, the agent is required to explain its features and benefits to the
customer. The agent has to select a policy or mix of policies most suitable
to the needs of the prospect. In this process, he may be required to contact
the prospect again and again. He should be a true financial advisor to his
customer39. After the sale, the agent is required to be in touch with the
customer to build relationship and review further insurance needs of the
customer. The agent is required to do after sale services like reminding
premium due, assistance in premium remittance, obtaining policy loans and
assistance in claim settlement and the like.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Even though LIC achieved tremendous progress after nationalization,
it is a known fact that after 52 years of existence, the Corporation covers
about 24 per cent of insurable population in India40. Before liberalization,
customers had to accept any product that was made available by LIC in the
market. Now, in the liberalized market, more than a score players offer
innovative products to suit the changing preferences of customers.
The success in life insurance marketing depends on the awareness
created among the prospects, quality of the product, quality of services of
the agents and branch office services41. If the perceived service falls below
the expected service, customers may be disappointed. If the perceived
service meets or exceeds their expectations, they may use the provider
again and even give word of mouth advertising 42. It is a general feeling
among the prospects that they are not well informed about the various life
insurance products or their benefits. Due to low level of awareness, people
often buy products recommended by agents who always give importance to
20
their commission. Discussion with Branch Managers and Development
officers revealed that product knowledge of the agent is not satisfactory.
The knowledge of LIC agent about various life insurance products, their
attitude towards the profession, support from the organization, and job
satisfaction are the important factors affecting the success in agency
business. To sum up, ensuring customer satisfaction and job satisfaction of
agents are the twin issues in the competitive environment before LIC, which
must be tackled for success in life insurance marketing. It is against this
background that the researcher has carried out this study on the marketing
of life insurance by Life Insurance Corporation of India in Kasargod and
Kannur districts in Kerala.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The present study differs from the previous studies found in the
literature review, in content and approach. This study has a micro level
approach for identifying and reviewing the number and first premium
income of individual products marketed by LIC of India in Kasargod and
Kannur districts. It studies in greater detail the awareness of urban as well
as rural customers of LIC about different products, and their perceived
satisfaction of the product and services. It also studies the attitude of LIC
agents towards the job, evaluates their job satisfaction and analyzes the
problems faced by them in marketing life insurance products in the two
districts. The present study has a great significance in the event of
competition in the insurance market. It evaluates the productivity of agents
in terms of number of products, sum assured and first premium income of
products marketed in Kasargod and Kannur districts during the post-
liberalization period of six years from 2001-02 to 2006-07. Since it
assesses the productivity of agents in two districts, LIC can analyze its
contributing factors. Assessment of product satisfaction of customers will
help the Corporation to ascertain the aspect of the product which gives
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them more satisfaction. It would also help LIC in effective product
positioning and in developing customer driven product-mix. Since the
study evaluates the service quality parameters, the Corporation can know
the customer satisfaction of the service quality. It would help the
Corporation to identify the gaps in service quality, if any, with a view to
effecting appropriate corrective measures.
There are ten branch offices in the area of study; seven in Kannur
and three in Kasargod district. The area and population covered by the LIC
branches in Kannur and Kasargod districts are given in Table 1.1
Table 1.1
Area and Population Covered by LIC’s Branches in Kannur and
Kasargod Districts
District and Name of Branches Area in sq. km. Population(As per 2001
census)
KANNUR DISTRICTPayyannur 526.53 3,57,377
Taliparamba 925.74 5,23,998
Kannur I & II 309.11 5,85,184
Thalasserry I & II 331.64 5,97,250*
Mattannur 883.96 3,84,389
Total 2,976.98 24,48,198
KASARGOD DISTRICTKasargod 972.59 6,06,748
Kanjhangad 574.33 3,30,026
Nileswar 414.37 2,66,568
Total 1,961.29 12,03,342
* Include U T Mahe population Source: Compiled from LIC, Kozhikode Divisional Office.
The market segments for LIC in Kannur and Kasargod districts are
given in Table 1.2
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Table 1.2
Market segments for LIC in Kannur and Kasargod districts.