Market Segmentation as a Strategy for Goal Attainment in the Insurance Industry

Abstract

The insurance industry has entered an era of accelerated change as a result of increased competition in products and pricing within the sector. The transformation of the society from regulated to deregulated one has also sped up social changes in all the economic sectors in which the insurance industry is not an exception. The insurance industry which is a service sector has been seriously affected by this sudden change bringing in innovative pressures which have tended to arrive late and in a much diluted form. Though, this has been due to a series of qualitative shortcomings. For example, the orientation and efficiency of resource utilization and the shortcomings in organizational-managerial spheres. Professional marketing management is now a pre-requisite if a company is to retain or advance its position in the competitive hierarchy. The battle ground on which insurance companies will win or lose is distribution. The battle will be fought on three fronts: 1) How you sell. 2) What you sell. 3) What type of after sales service you offer. This paper shall focus on ‘how you sell’, therefore, embracing how we get our services across to the consumer and managing our channels of distribution. The topic according to its construction leaves us with two natural divisions: Goal attainment and market segmentation as a strategy. It is considered expedient to observe this division in the treatment of the topic with each division attracting sectional prominence.

Keywords: Goal Attainment, Segmentation, Market Distribution and Competition

JEL Classification: A19