Marketing: Promoting Insurance to the Poor (Microinsurance in Focus No. 1)

Publication Date: Oct 2007
Published by: CGAP Working Group on Microinsurance
Document Type: Other (PDF)

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This note outlines a marketing strategy to create an insurance culture in a low-income market.

This note argues that aggressive sales practice will undermine efforts to cerate an insurance culture among the poor, and recommends social marketing techniques along with financial education to change the attitude of the target market towards insurance.

The note makes the following points:

• To promote their products, microinsurance providers use a combination of four main messages: protection, solidarity, “positive spin,” and trust.
• To turn promotions into sales, they use a three-phase process, which includes:
  • Raising awareness through branding, public relations and prevention campaigns;
  • Having potential clients understand the products by customizing insurance education to different target audiences, taking into account local culture and taboos;
  • Activating the market, which involves getting clients to use the information they have about different products to make a decision to purchase insurance.

The note also highlights the importance of motivating insurance agents and effective after-sales service. In conclusion, it states that:

• The ultimate goal of the marketing strategy is to create an insurance culture among the low-income market;
• Promotion activities must be well planned and must take into account the specificities of the target market;
• Marketing needs to be approached holistically and strategically because it can make or break a microinsurance scheme.