02-06-2012, 12:59 PM
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS LIFE INSURANCE PRODUCTS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO BIRLA SUNLIFE INSURANCE
INTRODUCTION:
Life Insurance is the fastest growing sector in India since 2000 as Government allowed Private players and FDI up to 26%.
Birla Sun Life Insurance: Established in 2000, Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Limited (BSLI) is a joint venture between the Aditya Birla Group, a well known and trusted name globally amongst Indian conglomerates and Sun Life Financial Inc, leading international financial services organization from Canada. The local knowledge of the Aditya Birla Group combined with the domain expertise of Sun Life Financial Inc., offers a formidable protection for its customers' future.
Consumer behavior: Consumer behavior is stated as the behavior that consumer display in searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products, services and ideas that they expect will satisfy their needs. The study of consumer behavior is concerned not only with what consumers buy, but also with why they buy it, when and how they buy it, and how often they buy it. It is concerned with learning the specific meanings that products hold for consumers. Consumer research takes places at every phase of consumption process, before the purchase, during the purchase and after the purchase.
One "official" definition of consumer behavior is "The study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society."
Need for the study
The study of consumers helps firms and organizations improve their marketing strategies by understanding issues such as
Since the opening up of insurance market to private operators, India is considered one of the hottest places with the majority of market being untapped. The change in the nature and structure of competition has changed the nature of the insurance products offerings.
The perception of the market about the insurance, which was earlier negative, is gradually becoming positive. It is necessary to understand what make people to buy insurance products; who influence the buying decision and market attitude towards insurance products.
In this perspective, the present study has concentrated to analyze the behavior exhibited by the consumers of Birla sun life insurance. It necessities to understand the attitude of consumers towards products and services offered by Birla sun life insurance.
The study about consumers helps the company to improve their marketing strategies by understanding the consumers. For example by understanding that a number of different messages compete for our potential customer’s attention, company learns that to be effective, advertisement should usually be extended extensively. Company also learns that consumers will sometimes be persuaded more by logical arguments, but at other times will be persuaded more by emotional or symbolic appeals. By understanding the consumers the will be able to make a more informed decision as to which strategy to employ.