Role of Digital Channel in the changing Insurance marketplace in India

I worked on a live project with Pricewaterhouse Coopers on the Role of Digital Channel in the changing Insurance marketplace in India. Below is my submission for the initial participant selection.


Insurance is a US $60.5 billion market with CAGR of over 25%. Considering this with the fact that Insurance penetration in India ranks outside the top 100 nations and is lowest amongst the BRIC nations, no wonder there has been a huge entry of private players with 12 licenses issued since 2009, 8 in the life insurance sector and 4 in the non-life insurance sector.

This leaves a lot of potential for growth in the Insurance sector in the Indian market:

• Although Life Insurance Penetration (4%) is close to World average (4.4%), General insurance business (0.6%) yet to be penetrated as world average is 5 times higher (3.1%) 
• Economic growth in country is leading to increase in income levels which would propel life insurance growth. 
• Almost 50% of Indian population is below 25 years of age. 
• India’s growing middle class is a target of several international insurance players 

Widespread digital channel penetration in India provides an irreplaceable medium to connect and communicate. India ranks 4th in terms of internet users and 2nd in terms of mobile phone users in the world. Also the target middle class consumer is fairly active on such forums.

Role of Digital Channel in the changing Insurance marketplace in India

Mobile:

• Regular SMS service for educating consumers, offering new schemes and discounts about the benefits of Insurance; the service should be valuable for the users so that they are motivated to opt-in.
• GPRS games to create consumer awareness about the Insurance products and their benefits. Each game will have an insurance service attached to it.
• Tie ups with service providers to provide Value Added Services and increase penetration
• Provision of latest updates on insurance marketplace in regional languages through Value Added Services of service providers in the area. People can be made aware of new trends of insuring Events like IPL, movies and terror damages
• Provision of Mobile banking for premium payments, quick provision of the insurance approval and claim

Internet

• Develop micro-sites for involvement with consumers.
• Develop socially intriguing promotions which have the potential to go viral on sites like Facebook, YouTube, etc.
• Discussion forum on sites where people can participate and air their views.
• Creation of groups specific to insurance marketplace and initiating discussions on it.
• Advertise using Adwords on the search engines over Internet; use flash and interactive ads targeting different user groups; advertise on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.