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In spite of the vast potential, the retirement
solutions category remained virtually untapped by the Indian
Insurance players - until ICICI Prudential decided to build
and explore this hidden goldmine. The following case study discusses
how ICICI Prudential used smart marketing strategy to exploit
this opportunity to its advantage.
Sussan Verghese
ICICI Prudential.
Market
Scenario
With increasing life expectancy on one hand and rising inflation
and medical costs on the other, the need for planning one’s
retirement was emerging as an important one. However, it was
quite surprising to know only 11 per cent of India’s total
working population was adequately covered for post-retirement
life. This was mainly due to low awareness of and attitudinal
barriers with respect to these issues among consumers.
The
Opportunity
About 90 per cent
of the working population in India was without retirement cover.
Of this, a sizeable portion belonged to the age group of 30-40
yrs - a big market left unexploited so far.Even the market leader
LIC, which has been in the country for decades, had failed to
truly drive growth of the retirement products category. Proof
being the mere 4.16 per cent contribution of pension products
to its entire portfolio (as of end 2002).
The
Barriers
The task of capturing
the unexploited market however, turned out to be an uphill one.
The first barrier was low awareness of the need for early retirement
planning among consumers. Add to it the consumer’s notion
that planning for retirement starts only in your 50s. The bigger
issue however, was the consumer’s perceptions and fears
as far as retirement was concerned. The word ‘retirement’
itself brought to mind all the negatives associated with old
age – loss of independence (social, financial and physical),
causing ‘avoidance’ or deferment of decisions regarding
the same.
The
Challenge
-
Bring the concept of planning for retirement
into the consideration set of 30-40 year old working men/
women thereby creating a new market
-
50 per cent of pensions contributions to
come from persons below 40 years Sales and market share targets
within six months post campaign (for the period Sep 2002 to
Mar 2003):
-
1. Sales target: INR 400 million
-
2. Share of total pensions market: 10 per
cent
-
3.Contribution of pensions to portfolio:
20 per cent
-
SEC A, B, 30-40 year old, chief wage earner,
who: is at the prime of his working life, with a higher disposable
income and majority of work life still at hand.
-
Currently thinks that retirement planning
holds very low importance, as compared to other needs of asset
acquisition, child’s education etc.
CREATIVE
STRATEGY
Consumer Insight “Retirement is a long way off – why
plan for it now?”“Retirement means the end of all
good things in life”Creative strategy
To a younger target group, for whom retirement is synonymous
with growing old, the strategy was to offer a fresh perspective
by mirroring the never say die attitude of the 35 yr old. If
age doesn’t stop him from sharing in the joys of life now,
why should it stop him later? Proposition
ICICI Prudential Retirement solutions help you plan early for
retirement, ensuring that you will continue to live life the
way you always wanted to.The advertising message
“Retire from work – not life!”
 OTHER
COMMUNICATION PROGRAMS
The laddered task
of share gain through changing consumer attitudes and behaviour,
called for a multi-dimensional communication strategy that went
beyond traditional mass media.
1. Retirement Solutions Seminars: Through a tie up with The
Times of India, full-page educative advertorials were released
in three metros inviting consumers for a free seminar on early
retirement planning. Over 2000 consumers attended these seminars.
2. Direct Marketing Campaign: More than 15 databases were carefully
chosen to accurately target the 30-40 yr old. Customers of/subscribers
to ICICI Bank credit card holders, Safety Bond holders, Money
control and Myiris are few of the databases that were used.
3. Retirement Planner: An educative booklet in the form of a
planner was created explaining why it made better sense to start
planning for retirement several years in advance. The mode of
distribution was an innovation in Brand Equity (The Economic
Times).
4. Retirement calculator: A user-friendly calculator was designed
to help customers calculate the current savings required in
order to meet post-retirement expenses. This was made available
on the brand website and used extensively as a needs analysis
tool at the time of sale.
MEDIA
STRATEGY
The overriding objective
of the media strategy was customer interaction through various
touch points using a 24-hour cycle. So a multi media strategy
was developed to contact the target at every possible touch
point.
1. TV: This was the main medium for reach, impact and demonstrate
the emotional pay off. For the first month of launch a high
reach, high frequency plan was implemented, followed up with
three months of sustained activity. The activity started with
40-second commercials and then moved to 20 and 30 seconds edits
aimed at increasing frequency.
2. Print: Press reinforced the rational benefit of saving early
to cushion your retirement by highlighting the product’s
comprehensive features. Vehicles were chosen based on the best
cost per response i.e. the publication which would generate
the maximum no of call ins.
3. Radio: The new FM channels launched in the previous year
were explored to reach audiences out of home. The spots were
aired so as to get the morning and evening office-going traffic.
4. Outdoor: A high visibility-high impact outdoor strategy was
implemented across 21 cities. Morning traffic sites were specifically
selected to target the office going consumer.
5. Internet: Used innovatively to seek responses via click-throughs.
Financial sites and general interest sites were chosen considering
the net is used both in office and at home.
6. Direct Marketing: Mailers and brochures played the dual role
of educating the consumer on the rationale behind planning early
for retirement and the advantages of ICICI Pru Retirement Solutions.
7. Public Relations: Was effectively used to educate consumers
on early retirement planning, making them more receptive towards
the brand’s communication. Competitive Media Spends: The
combined spend of just the top 2 competitors put to- gether
amounted to Rs 16 crores approx. Comparatively the spends on
the ICICI Pru campaign was Rs 4.8 crores.
MEDIA
- Television
-
Newspaper
-
Consumer Magazine
-
Radio
-
Point-of-Purchase
-
Out-of-Home
-
Public Relations
-
Sales Promotion
-
Consumer Seminars
EVIDENCE
OF RESULTS Overwhelming response
-
To begin with, the campaign triggered a large
number of consumer response calls and e-mails (35000 calls
and 3000 emails).
-
The response rate for mailers sent out (Direct
Marketing) varied from five per cent to 7.5 per cent, far
higher than both domestic and international norms across categories.
Changing
Attitudes
The average age of a person investing in ICICI
Pru retirement solutions dropped to 38.5 years.
Sales
and Market Shares:
The success of the campaign was not limited
to phone calls alone. The campaign contributed greatly to the
organisation’s topline and bottomline as is evident form
the charts below: 1. Sales achieved for the period Sept ‘02
to Mar ’03, were INR 740 million as compared to a target
of INR 400 million. 2. Market share Gain: The brand increased
its share of pensions market to 23 per cent against target of
10 per cent for the period Sep 2002 to Mar 2003. The table below
which compares ICICI Pru’s share in the pensions market
with the overall life insurance category puts the campaign’s
success in perspective.
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