Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Apr 12, 2007
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Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Apr 12, 2007 ePaper |
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Money & Banking
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Life Insurance Marketing - Retailing Bharti AXA Life trying out Shopassurance model Radhika Menon
The idea of vending insurance with retail products dubbed "Shopassurance", was pioneered in the UK where retailers such as Tesco, Marks & Spencer and the pharmacist Boots have been offering insurance to their customers.
Mumbai April 11 The next time you shop for groceries and essentials you may also be able to pick up an insurance policy. Insurance policies and vegetables will come in one go with Bharti AXA Life Insurance negotiating a tie-up with its group companies Bharti Retail (joint venture with Walmart) and FieldFresh Foods Ltd. FieldFresh is the partnership venture between Bharti Enterprises and ELRo Holdings India Ltd, an investment company of the Rothschild family. FieldFresh provides fresh produce to markets worldwide.
integrated sales model
"We are looking at an integrated sales model with FieldFresh and Bharti Retail. With FieldFresh, we will be able tap the rural markets as well," said Mr Nitin Chopra, CEO, Bharti AXA Life Insurance company. The idea of vending insurance with retail products dubbed "Shopassurance", was pioneered in the UK where retailers such as Tesco, Marks & Spencer and the pharmacist Boots have been offering insurance to their customers. In India, new entrants such as the Kishore Biyani-led Future Group's (formerly Pantaloon group) life and non-life joint venture with the Italy-based Generali also hopes to cash in on the `Shopassurance' model. The model is appealing to the Bharti AXA life insurance venture as it is trying to position itself as a mass market player. "We see synergies in every aspect of Bharti's business - whether it is setting up shops within Bharti retail space or accessing the over 35 million Airtel subscriber base. We will try to be wherever there are customer footfalls," said Mr Chopra. Bharti AXA, which set up nationwide operations in December 2006, is in the process of synergising with Airtel's telecom subscribers. Around 30 per cent of the company's business comes from telecom subscribers and the conversion rate of the leads generated by Airtel stands at 10 per cent.
Exploring opportunities
The company is running pilots to explore the opportunities in accessing Airtel's telecom subscribers - in the mobile, fixed line telephone and broadband businesses. Airtel has around 1000 contact centres, which see an average of 200 visitors a day. "We plan to attach advisors to these centres as well as use mailers and the voice response unit to tap telecom users. However, we will be very cautious about customer privacy and not use any intrusive methods," he said. The company also plans to ramp up the traditional distribution channel — the agency force — from 1300 to 10,000 and expand the branch network from 6 to 75 branches in 65 cities by the end of the year.
Single premium product
Bharti AXA Life Insurance will soon add a single premium product to its existing portfolio of unit-linked insurance plans. Mr Chopra also said the introduction of group insurance, micro-insurance and health oriented products were also in the pipeline.
More Stories on : Life Insurance | Retailing
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