On
‘Brand building and Awareness
of ICICI Prulife’
Submitted by:
Kanhaiya Lal Gupta
PGDIM, NMIMS
MUMBAI.
I would like to take an opportunity to thank all my professors for providing all the
assistance and guidance and making the concepts clear about Insurance and
business Strategy, which helped me a lot while doing the project work.
I am also thankful to the company ICICI Prudential insurance for providing the
opportunity to work on this project.
Last but not the least; I am grateful to the respondents for their support on this
project and specially the Credit Card Department of ICICI Bank, whose Sales
Executives have given me better support in finding contacts and to face the
respondents effectively.
The case let details the level of success of well-designed Branding Strategy or
marketing communications initiatives developed by ICICI Prudential Life
Insurance that helped it gain leadership position in the Indian life insurance market.
During its initial years ICICI Prudential focused on creating a strong brand
identity and awareness and designed the marketing communication strategy
accordingly.
In the year 2000, the Government of India opened up the life insurance market to
private players. Till then, the Indian life insurance industry had been dominated by
Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the only player in the insurance
market. This monopoly had created such a strong brand identity and
awareness for LIC that LIC became a generic word for life insurance in
India.
After deregulation, many domestic and international players entered the life
insurance market. However, the Indian insurance industry continued to face
various problems such as low penetration (only 22% of the insurable population
were insured) and low premium to GDP ratio (of 1.3). Growth is hampered by the
existing customer perception that life insurance is only for rich or good earning
people and for them it is just a tax saving tool or sometimes a savings tool as
deposits in a bank. Today ICICI Prudential has a good score in Customer
Awareness and Brand Image in semi urban or urban areas, but still we have
poor score in that portion of country which constitute the 70% of Indian
population. And for a business it is important to know that why we do not have
such a good score amongst the rural India or can say amongst ‘Aam Adami’.
It is very sad and also a matter of fact that even in the metros, cities and towns
where the population is more educated, conscious and aware of the life and the
various environment related to their life circumstances such as economic, social,
technical, legal, political etc, even there people are lacking that ICICI
Prudential is something related to Banking operation, they find the ICICI
Prudential name by the name of its sponsor , it is good, but it is very sad what
they lack i.e. it is not any bank but India’s second largest and successful
Insurance Company.
It all on the basis of my own personal experiences throughout the day when I came
to know about ICICI Prudential and joined the course PGPMI in Mumbai, people
usually questioned me about ICICI Prudential name or they relate it with banking
related organization. It is possible that people who are in touch with me in these
days might not highly educated or not of high society, but as far as the Brand
Image and Awareness of ICICI Prudential Brand is concerned ‘Aam Adami’ are
not having that extent of ICICI Prudential’s brand awareness and brand
image as LIC is already having its name in their mind. So the research report is
including all such kind of issues and facts which can be taken in to consideration
while implementing any Branding Strategy at higher level of management.
Table of Content
1. Abstract.
(1) Branding.
(13)E-branding.
5. Research methodology.
9. Conclusion.
10.Bibliography.
11.Annexure.
Objective of Research Report
Every research is based on some theme or you can say it has some specific
objective on which the researcher gives more importance and my study is also
based upon some objective and these are as follows.
To know what the various brand building activities are and what can be
done more in order to increase the awareness and branding.
To check the awareness among the target audience about the business of
ICICI Prulife.
ICICI PRUDENTIAL
What is Branding?
A brand represents many more intangible aspects of a product or service:
• Image,
• It creates in the mind of customers and prospects the perception that there is
no product or service on the market that is quite like yours.
In short, a brand offers the customer a guarantee and then delivers on it.
The question then becomes, "What competitive edge do I have to offer that cannot
be copied by anyone else?"
Creating a strong brand identity will build mind share — one of the strongest
competitive advantages imaginable. As a result, customers will think of your
business first when they think of your product category.
Brand- As a Promise
A brand is not an icon, a slogan, or a mission statement. It is a promise- a promise
that a company can keep.
VALUES &
COMMUNICATI
BRAND
• Pricing
• Distribution
• Quality
• Presence
• Awareness Reputation
• Image.
• Benefits
• Positioning salience
• Preference
• Share of market
• Customer commitment
VERY
IMPORTANT
TO SW
EET
COPETITORS ORGANIZATI
ARE NOT ON
2 ADDRESSING STRENGTH. 3
Innovation
Information
Speed
Convenience
Technology
Investment plans for bearish trends etc.
Importance of Color
Here in the ICICI Prudential LOGO colors used are Blue, Red,
Orange and White.
Blue is the most calming and increases reading attention.
Red conveys power, and is seductive.
Orange is often used to make an expensive item seem less expensive,
and is often associated with thanksgiving.
White is typically associated with cool, clean, and fresh.
An attractive brand personality can pre-sell the prospect before the purchase,
reinforce the purchase decision, and help forge an emotional link that binds the
buyer to the brand for years to come.
As far as LIC is concerned it has its true personality due to monopoly over a long
period of time and as a public company it has its different image in the minds of
people, but ICICI Prudential is in its infancy stage of building Brand Image in
the whole India specially in the 70% of India i.e. rural sector of India.
Emotional
Connection
Relevant
Value
Differentiati
on
Awaren Accessibil
ess ity
Branding starts from the stage of creating awareness for the brand but creating only
awareness is not objective of the brand management. It takes a period of time and a
constant effort of organization towards the advertisement, service quality and
products offered by it, then people starts trusting on that organization in full-fledge,
and starts insisting for that brand i.e. LOYALTY comes in to picture.
Hierarchy of Effect: Conversion of a Prospect into a loyal customer.
Brand Emotional
Loyalty
Brand Values
Brand Preference
Brand Differentiation
"It's the marketing team's job to prioritize identity contacts and to judge how they
might contribute to the brand's identity, and in what way they are relevant to the
realities of the consumer's everyday life,"
As far as insurance is concerned it has its Identity Contact by its sales people i.e.
ItsBrand Awareness
Advisor/Agents.
Or ‘jeetey raho’
Whether it is planned or not, word of mouth is well worth the effort it takes to
generate it. "Word of mouth is still considered the most potent marketing
communication of all because it's dispensed by the most credible sources of all —
ordinary citizens who don't carry a built-in bias of commercial sponsors," writes
Upshaw. "When your company is lucky enough to be the beneficiary of word of
mouth, your identity problems may be over, and your capacity problems may just
be beginning."
In short, e-branding is very important and must be taken into consideration. "Sites
need to be branded so that the consumer can have confidence in the site and is
willing to make a purchase there."
ICICI Prudential also has its own website i.e. www.iciciprulife.com which has not
gained popularity till now. One of the reasons of unpopularity is that computer
education and network accessibility is not available everywhere except in cities
and metros. Even people have fewer tendencies to use and make purchases through
internet because they prefer the face to face meeting and directly acquiring
information from agents/advisors in case of life insurance.
Research Methodology
The study about the branding activities of ICICI Prulife is an exploratory Study
which requires the field work. Survey is done on the basis of a set of a
Questionnaire: having some close ended and open ended questions.
The sample size taken is 20. The sampling method is random sampling. Only the
criteria for the selection are they should be above 25 years and have earning
capacity either by business, service or self employment.
Findings
The survey is done as per the given objective, to find out the level of awareness
amongst people, and the factors which influence the mind set of people in
brand building process of the ICICI Prudential. So the outcome of survey and
its interpretation is done through Excel tools as given below.
1. Question.
2. Outcome from survey i.e. data interpretation.
3. Analysis of outcome.
0.8
0.6
yes
0.4 no
0.2
0
yes no
ANALYSIS:
2. Which media has the larger impact on your perception about ICICI
Prulife?
25%
20%
TV
15% NEWSPAPER
Articles/leaflets
10% Agents/Advisors
internet
5% Posters/Hoarding
Peer group
0%
Level of Potential in different Media to influence customer.
ANALYSIS:
50%
40%
YES
30% NO
20% SOMETIMES
10%
0%
Information & Advertisment Asymmetry
ANALYSIS:
1) It’s fact and hard to digest that the advertisements shown by the companies are
having only one tool to influence the customer i.e. emotions, with relatively
same ground in emotion.
2) Ground made by someone else and played by someone else, its common
practice is going on in the insurance field.
3) So its time to take a benefit of this asymmetry and should put something
different and influencing by differentiating advertisement according to the
different objectives followed by the different categories of target customers.
ANALYSIS:
5. Brand superiority as per the respondents, in the presence of LIC and other
insurance companies.
70%
60%
50%
1st ranking
40%
2ndranking
30% 3rdranking
20% 4thranking
10%
0%
ICICI Pru's rankacc to different respondents
ANALYSIS:
1. Some respondent are much satisfied with the ICICI Pru’s products and
customer services so they have given the first rank to the company.
2. Some respondents consider that the Government company and private
company can not compared because somehow and somewhere private
company are more trustable and reliable than a private company, so they
have given second priority to ICICI Prudential.
3. Some respondents are loyal some other private companies, it was their
personal prejudices, so they have evaluated ICICI Pru as 3rd or 4th.
6. How much do you like and feel the look, logo, punch lines, colors and
other aspect of design in Advertisement of ICICI Pru Brand.
40%
35%
30%
25% Heart Touching
20% Attractive
Differentiable
15%
Common
10%
5%
0%
Combined impact of Design, Punchline, Logo, Color etc.
ANALYSIS;
1. Logo, punch lines, design and colors have its impact on the minds of
people.
2. Some people might like the colors and design and some might compare this
with the other one, its all about human mind formation and its way of
perception, here the relevance is that every company want to that design and
color which capture the likes of most of them.
3. ICICI Pru is having good color combination and the way of presenting it.
People love its logo and punch lines because they can relate all these with
their own life and likes.
4. Again the problem of differentiation comes to the picture; some of them
might feel that they are not able to differentiate punch lines because every
company is having similar kind of punch line.
7. How much do you like to visit the website of ICICI Prudential for
information or any type of query?
70%
60%
50%
40% Always
Whenever needed
30%
Never
20%
10%
0%
Use of internet for Insuarnce related Query & Info .
ANALYSIS:
1. In India, people used to call agents or take advice from their peer group
when they needed insurance related information.
2. People are less dependent on the internet for such purpose.
3. But it is also true that people who have already taken insurance policy, they
are frequent to use insurance companies website for their queries.
8. Does ICICI Prudential Brand gives you feeling of warmth, security &
self respect? Is it reliable and courteous?
60%
50%
40%
30% YES
To some extent
20% NO
10%
0%
Warmth, Security, Self respect, Courteousbuild Brand
Image
ANALYSIS:
1) ICICI Prulife has its emotional attachment with the people which builds its
brand Image.
2) People use to talk and recommend to others if they will have emotional
attachment & good perception about company.
3) Sometimes people think and feel proud when they join themselves with such a
reputed company.
9. How loyal you are & likely would you be to recommend ICICI Prulife to
others.
40%
35%
Loyal & Alwaysrecommend
30%
25% SometimesLoyal &
20% recommend
15% Loyal for other company
ANALYSIS:
CONCLUSION
The front runner ICICI Prudential
Being a frontrunner in the life insurance industry, ICICI Prudential has always
performed both the category task, as well as the brand task, with the help of
advertising and public relations (PR). The company’s initial campaigns addressed
various myths and misconceptions about life insurance, seeking to change
customer attitudes. For instance, life insurance had long been regarded as
expensive, rigid, difficult to understand and good only for tax saving.
Amongst ICICI Prudential’s innovative steps was the introduction of life stage and
need based solutions selling, thereby unshackling the category and meeting
specific customer needs. The brand proposition for all the ad campaigns was
reflected in the line “We cover you. At every step in life”, i.e. that ICICI Pru Life
is the only private life insurance company that provides consumer insurance
solutions which are relevant to the unique needs at every stage of life.
Challenges ahead
The most broad-based challenge for all companies was to spread awareness about
life insurance – how it works, its benefits and most of all, its absolute necessity for
anyone who has dependents. At a more company specific level, the task for ICICI
Prudential was to build a relevant brand that customers could trust.
The different types of responses of the same customer on the same ground,
sometimes creates confusion that what they really wants to express, sometimes I
felt that they are much more expecting from the company like ICICI Prulife that is
why they are arguing in some cases.
There way of responding also reveals that they want a change in the organization
for brand building activities, because somehow somewhere it is need of hour to
differentiate its identity with any other company.
The area used for research work, as I consider is much more educated and aware in
respect, so we might face the reverse condition when we do such work in rural part
of India. But in the city like Mumbai ICICI Prulife is a well reputed and one of the
best companies of the insurance industry.
A complete Package means that all types of benefit such as: death, disability,
diseases, maturity, accidental benefits, capital appreciation, capital protection, tax
benefits, and loan. Education, retirement benefits which can be generated out of an
insurance policy should be given in a single policy or a similar arrangement and it
should be like that which covers not only one member of family but the whole
family including children,
A complete package solution has its other benefits also such as a company can sell
numbers of policies by prospecting a single customer.
Indian rural and semi urban areas are near about untapped and new market for
insurance sector, there is no other name apart from LIC, so ICICI Prudential can
take advantage of this thing and can become first company in private sector and
second insurance company in the mind of people of those area. The Local Media
such as Local Newspaper, radio, local TV channel and magazines can be used for
advertising of the company.
One thing which I felt as a strong point in the logo of LIC is the mantra taken from
Gita (9-22) “yogakshemam vahamyaham”
- Which means that I promise to give those things he requires and those things
that he already possesses are protected by me. As per the Indian culture it has
huge impact on the Indian population and helps to build a different image and
identity in the eyes of people. I am not advocating for LIC but trying to justify
that we should consider each and every weakness as well as the strength of our
competitors, so that we can take benefit of strength’s strategy and can keep oneself
out of those weaknesses which the competitor is already having.
It is very sad to know that people of India thinks that insurance is for rich or for
those who are paying much more tax etc. It is a common myth among people
regarding insurance, but if we put a glimpse over the history then we realize that
the evolution of insurance concept was to share the risk among all so that burden
on one shoulder can be minimized. And it was not only for those who are rich but
also for those who are having less property and income to stabilize own self after
the contingency happened.
So in order to remove this myth among people ICICI should take initiative in those
areas where the level of awareness is relatively less and should try to express and
attach itself as a Brand for Middle class or Poor’s.
There are two ways of doing business one is to have lower sales but higher
profit margin and second is having higher sales but lower profit margin. Both
type of organization are success in the market but their strategy and business
approach are different and to some extent it depends on the nature of goods/
services, taste and preferences and the potential of buyers at large.
Here in India people of average income and lower income are more in percentage
and ICICI Prulife can design some pure insurance based products for them with
lower premium and sum assured as well, and target them extensively with a sound
advertisement strategy and specially oriented to them.
It might possible that we can cover a huge portion of India with huge increase in
sales volume as well as amount. Company can easily get a large no of customer
base which might be very fruitful in future as well when the earning capacity of
those customers will increase and at that time they will a loyal customer for ICICI
Prulife.
ANNEXURE
2. Questionnaire
(1) Have you ever heard of ICICI Prudential?
(2) Hoardings/posters.
(6) Internet.
(3) Can you differentiate the advertisement of ICICI prudential from other insurance
companies?
(4) To what extent ICICI Prudential brand have special features such as innovative,
trustworthiness etc?
(6) How efficient is ICICI Prudential brand’s service in terms of speed, responsiveness,
commitments etc?
(1) Best (2) Good (3) Average
(7) How much do you like the look, feel and other design aspect of ICICI Prudential
brand?
(8) How much do you like ICICI Prudential brand for life insurance/ how superior is this
brand to others?
(9) How likely would you be to recommend ICICI Prudential brand to others?
(10)Do ICICI Prudential brand give you a feeling of warmth, security & self respect?
(2) I really love this brand and it is more than product to me.
Personal Details:
Address:
Age:
Occupation:
Bibliography
Websites:
Search engines:
1) www.google.com
2) www.yahoo.com
3) www.iciciprulife.com
4) www.lic.gov.in
5) www.ecommerceweekly.com