‘Insurance category is anchored on the parameter of trust’

As a category, insurance has evolved substantially with more consumers understanding its importance over the course of the pandemic. This evolution has further given a boost to insurance brands and also brought a change in how brands communicate to their target audience. Aligned with the idea of bringing a change in the ongoing consumer sentiment towards insurance, Max Life Insurance has come up with TV campaigns on protection and savings featuring brand ambassadors...' cricketer Rohit Sharma and his wife Ritika Sajdeh.

According to Rahul Talwar, CMO, Max Life Insurance, life insurance bought under a fearsome mindset versus life insurance bought under a liberating mindset are completely different ways of pitching life insurance as a product.

Commenting on the insight behind the campaign, Talwar adds, “For this particular campaign, we have tried to ensure that instead of looking at life insurance as a burdensome responsibility, we have tried to look at it from the perspective of trying to celebrate the breadwinner. Equally, we have realised that this entire category is actually anchored on a very important parameter called trust.”

A Seamless Marketing Journey & A Seamless Consumer Experience 

The brand launched the TVC ‘Protection and Savings’ by announcing Captain Rohit Sharma and Ritika Sajdeh as the ambassadors. While Sharma has a certain brand value attached to himself, Sajdeh is an interesting choice in terms of synergies when it comes to a pure insurance brand like Max Life. Adding on this, Talwar mentioned, “Life insurance, fundamentally, is a conversation which has a lot of gravitas around it. The minute we bring a real-life, young family or a couple to talk about this conversation, we are able to give that much Philip to this entire piece. Our intention is to ensure that much like our product innovates itself, we are able to bring out propositions which target the women who have not been specifically targeted by any other brand in the category so far.” By having Ritika and Rohit, the brand aims to bring this conversation directly to women consumers and remain aligned with the philosophy of being a progressive brand while appreciating the woman of the house and not just the role of the breadwinner.

In a category like insurance, more than the plans and the covers that brands offer, it is imperative for them to provide a seamless consumer experience end-to-end. Resonating with the sentiment, Talwar adds, “Max life insurance is seeking two things. One is a degree of goodwill and it is all about that when the consumer needs their money if at all, they get that experience hassle-free. And second, long-term admiration, for the 22 years that we've been around, keeping customers at the core is a value called customer obsession which is in our DNA.” To cater seamlessly to consumers, Max Life has come up with various initiatives like digitizing the entire process, imbibing empathy in communication to consumers, industry firsts like voice-to-text analytics, Buy now pay later and a digital-driven omnichannel customer experience.

Communicating To Evolving TG & Key Takeaways

Going ahead, the biggest drivers in the insurance category are going to be tier 2 and tier 3 cities and GenZ and Millennial audiences. While consumers in Tier 2 and 3 towns and cities are consumers that need to be told in a more comprehensive and preachy manner, the Gen Z or millennial audiences are a demographic that like to figure things out on their own.  Commenting on how the brand is striking the correct balance and personalising communication for a particular segment, Talwar shares, “Thanks to the traditional media choices and more new age sharp digital media choices, we are able to strike that balance. The kind of work we do with a lot of respondents coming in from tier two and tier three, under platforms like India Protection Quotient or India Retirement Index Study, we have realised that media habits and media consumption habits are fairly universal. To be able to cut across the message in the right way, not only do we need to have the right choice of media deployment, but we also need to be able to customise content in the language of the state or the region that we are talking to and, and Max life insurance also tries and does that balance fairly well.”

Further commenting on the key takeaways from 2023, Talwar shares that a lot of work that the life insurance industry and  Max life insurance are doing is to keep re-emphasising the importance of life insurance. He added “The aim is to transition from why life insurance to what life insurance. In 2023, product innovation is going to play a key role and could end up being a good differentiator. Online presence and being able to offer experiences or offerings, which are digitally native would be something that would step up more action and more energy from the industry and even from the consumer side. There's going to be a heightened awareness that will come in from this entire conversation around ESG. Lastly, but most importantly, there is an ‘us to me’ hidden in the word customer, hence hyper-personalization and being able to keep the customer experience flexible yet relatable and frictionless is going to be the key mantra for 2023 that I foresee as we step into it.”