Project Report On Study of Consumer Behaviour
Project Report On Study of Consumer Behaviour
Project Report On Study of Consumer Behaviour
BYABHISHEK MALIK(602) DEEPAK PATEL(613) GAURAV JAIN(615) SHIKHA JAGLAN(638) ABHINAV SHARAN(653) YAMINI(659)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.
2. 3. 4.
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR ANALYSIS 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION RECOMMENDATION FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS BIBLIOGRAPHY QUESTIONNAIRE
COMPANY PROFILE
Life Insurance in its modern form came to India from England in the year 1818. Oriental Life Insurance Company started by Europeans in Calcutta was the first life insurance company on Indian Soil. All the insurance companies established during that period were brought up with the purpose of looking after the needs of European community and Indian natives were not being insured by these companies. However, later with the efforts of eminent people like Babu Muttylal Seal, the foreign life insurance companies started insuring Indian lives. But Indian lives were being treated as sub-standard lives and heavy extra premiums were being charged on them. Bombay Mutual Life Assurance Society heralded the birth of first Indian life insurance company in the year 1870, and covered Indian lives at normal rates. Starting as Indian enterprise with highly patriotic motives, insurance companies came into existence to carry the message of insurance and social security through insurance to various sectors of society. Bharat Insurance Company (1896) was also one of such companies inspired by nationalism. The Swadeshi movement of 1905-1907 gave rise to more insurance companies. The United India in Madras, National Indian and National Insurance in Calcutta and the Co-operative Assurance at Lahore were established in 1906. In 1907, Hindustan Co-operative Insurance Company took its birth in one of the rooms of the Jorasanko, house of the great poet Rabindranath Tagore, in Calcutta. The Indian Mercantile, General Assurance and Swadeshi Life (later Bombay Life) were some of the companies established during the same period. Prior to 1912 India had no legislation to regulate insurance business. In the year 1912, the Life Insurance Companies Act, and the Provident Fund Act were passed. The Life Insurance Companies Act, 1912 made it necessary that the premium rate tables and periodical valuations of companies should be certified by an actuary. But the Act discriminated between foreign and Indian companies on many accounts, putting the Indian companies at a disadvantage. The first two decades of the twentieth century saw lot of growth in insurance business. From 44 companies with total business-in-force as Rs.22.44 crore, it rose to 176 companies with total business-inforce as Rs.298 crore in 1938. During the mushrooming of insurance companies many financially unsound concerns were also floated which failed miserably. The Insurance Act 1938 was the first legislation governing not only life insurance but also non-life insurance to provide strict state control over insurance business. The demand for nationalization of life insurance industry was made repeatedly in the past but it gathered momentum in 1944 when a bill to amend the Life Insurance Act 1938 was introduced in the Legislative Assembly. However, it was much later on the 19th of January, 1956, that life insurance in India was nationalized. About 154 Indian insurance companies, 16 non-Indian companies and 75 provident were operating in India at the time of nationalization. Nationalization was accomplished in two
stages; initially the management of the companies was taken over by means of an Ordinance, and later, the ownership too by means of a comprehensive bill. The Parliament of India passed the Life Insurance Corporation Act on the 19th of June 1956, and the Life Insurance Corporation of India was created on 1st September, 1956, with the objective of spreading life insurance much more widely and in particular to the rural areas with a view to reach all insurable persons in the country, providing them adequate financial cover at a reasonable cost. In the year 1955, approximately the Insurance In India, LIC had its beginning in 1870 when two British Life Corporations started in India. They first organized to effort to establish with the formation of Bombay Mutual life insurance Society Ltd. But, it was not extended largely. After a few years, it left to oriental Government security life Assurance Co. Ltd., to expand the business in organized manner all over the India. The Bharath and the Empire were established. The Asian and the Indian Mercantile with the passing of the First Insurance Act in 1912, a measure control bean to be exercised by the Government office has so provident societies had been registered for transacting the Life Assurance Business in India. A few of these were foreign companies with their Head Offices outside India. In addition to these insurance, a large number other insurers who had registered themselves for transaction or had been taken over by the existing insurers. During that period it was found out that many malpractices were prevalent among the insurance companies and the need to bring the insurance companies under a single fold was widely felt. Hence the Government of India decided to nationalize the Insurance Business. The primary purpose of life insurance is the protection of the family. Insurance in its various forms protects against such misfortunes by having the losses of the unfortunate few paid by the contribution of the many that are exposed to the same risk. This is the essence of insurance -the sharing of losses and substitution of certainty for uncertainty.
Mission
"Explore and enhance the quality of life of people through financial security by providing products and services of aspired attributes with competitive returns, and by rendering resources for economic development."
Vision
"A trans-nationally competitive financial conglomerate of significance to societies and Pride of India."
Objectives of LIC
Spread Life Insurance widely and in particular to the rural areas and to the socially and economically backward classes with a view to reaching all insurable persons in the country and providing them adequate financial cover against death at a reasonable cost.
Bear in mind, in the investment of funds, the primary obligation to its policyholders, whose money it holds in trust, without losing sight of the interest of the community as a whole; the funds to be deployed to the best advantage of the investors as well as the community as a whole, keeping in view national priorities and obligations of attractive return.
Conduct business with utmost economy and with the full realization that the moneys belong to the policyholders.
Act as trustees of the insured public in their individual and collective capacities.
Meet the various life insurance needs of the community that would arise in the changing social and economic environment.
Involve all people working in the Corporation to the best of their capability in Furthering the interests of the insured public by providing efficient service with courtesy.
Promote amongst all agents and employees of the Corporation a sense of participation, pride and job satisfaction through discharge of their duties with dedication towards achievement of Corporate Objective.
SWOT:
Strengths
The biggest strength of this organization is; Customers trust public sector companies than private ones Brand image, business experience and innovation product The agents are very selectively chosen have excellent communication skill Service quality which is crux of mission Larger network branches which is help to customer for payment Their strategy has been to grow the portfolio large enough so that there is an in built
fund hedge and in market where the portfolio has a large element of saving rather than protection
Product is price competitive compare with the competition and its upfront charge has
Automatic balance the debt and equity component of the portfolio every quarter and first
Strong agent network that bring 60% of the total premium (lower commission but high
volume)
Weakness
High target for financial advisor and for sales department Many competitions in the market offer same product by the title difference in the
market Try to catch middle lower level people also. High expenses on advertisement
Some plans are too complicated in understanding for a common person so most of them
Opportunity
Huge market is literally untapped, out of 320 million insurable markets only 25% of the
people insured
$15 billion
LIC should give more insurance coverage both to the parents and children so that their
life should be covered in both cases the customer do not mind paying some premium for that
India is fast growing market and 80 to 85% people are below age of 45 Leverage the customer base of Banc assurance partner Strong distribution network Insurance awareness are increasing in India
Threats
Player like Bajaj and Birla Sun Life with low premium for same plan
Entry of private companies with equal strong experience and financial strength of partner making the competition difficult and saturating the urban market.
Current Govt. policies do not encourage in gross domestic saving. If the tax liabilities of
the service rise the customer will have little money to invest
ICICI and other players have woken up from sleep and is following competitive
strategies. Its huge surplus in life fund gives a capability to lodge price war
Product differentiation is difficult in market (banc assurance) Competition is getting keener in couple of year High opportunity expenses will be in future
The LIC Act (Act XXXXI of 1956) was passed by the parliament in June 1956 and it came into force of July 1st, 1956. By this Act all the assets and liabilities apprenticing to the Life Assurance Business in India. Of all registered companies in India and outside the India, all registered Indian insurance were to be transferred to and vested in the LIC of India as from the appointed day. The LIC of India came into existence of September 1st 1956.
which commanded a monopoly of soliciting and selling life insurance in India, created huge surpluses, and contributed around 7 % of India's GDP in 2006.
The Corporation, which started its business with around 300 offices, 5.6 million
policies and a corpus of INR 459 million, has grown to 25000 servicing around 180 million policies and a corpus of over INR 3.4 trillion.
zonal offices, and employs over 1 million agents. It also operates in 12 other countries, primarily to cater to the needs of Non Resident Indians. With the change in the India's economic philosophy from the early 1990s, and the subsequent relaxation of state control over several sectors of the economy, the monopolistic position of the Life Insurance Corporation of India was diluted, and it has had to compete with a number of other corporate entities, Indian as well as transnational Life Insurance brands. However, it still manages to be the largest player in the Indian market, with the lion's share of 55%. The recent Economic Times Brand Equity Survey rated LIC as the No. 1 Service
The Zonal office is headed by the zonal manager and zones advisory committee assists the zonal manager to conduct the working of each zone. Divisional manager is the in charge of each division and of each division and the assistant division manger helps him to monitor the activities of branch office.
Branch office is the independent cost center of corporation, which generates actual revenue. It is headed by the Branch Manager and assisted by the Assistant Branch Manager, Administrative officers and Assistant Administrative Officers. LIC has wide network of branches in every hook and corner of the country spreading the gospel of insurance even in remotest rural areas.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Objective of the study
To understand the consumer behavior towards LIC of India To identify critical factor (internal and external) which influence the buying behavior of
individual,
To understand why people purchase insurance policy. To analysis of customer perception of the quality of product, so that to take steps to
maximization of customer satisfaction.
> The number of respondents to be surveyed can be improved. > The study has been conducted in Noida and Greater Noida city only.
This study has been conducted to analyze the market stand of Life insurance Corporation of India.
Sources of data
A two stage Research been conducted:
Secondary Research:
Collection of data from different websites and catalogues to understand the product and the costs of the different Insurance policies of different companies.
Primary Research:
A Primary Research been conducted: The questionnaire was prepared for the companies and following areas covered:
Distribution Channel of Insurance Company Consumer profile Satisfaction level with the current Insurance Company on the basis of return Reason for the selection of specific insurance policy and company Desirable features of the product and risk aptitude For the conclusive research, questionnaires have been developed on the basis of secondary data to
gather information on the research objective. The final draft of the questionnaire was then prepared on basis of the observations from the pilot study. These then finally filled by 100 consumers, for the conclusive study.
Attitudes/Opinions:
Through the questionnaire we have tried to get hold of individual's preference, inclination and requirement from the products that the insurance company delivers to the customer. Attitude is an important notion in the marketing literature, since generally it is previewed that the attitudes are relating to the behavior of individual.
Awareness/Knowledge:
They are used in marketing research refers to what respondents do or do not know about the product.
Motivation:
Through questionnaire have tried to find the hidden need or want of an individual and have tried to find out that why people buy insurance.
Behavior:
Behavior concerns what subjects have done or are doing. Through made questionnaire I have tried to find out the behavior of the individuals regarding the product and their Responses
Cultural factor:
Culture is fundamental determinant of a person's needs and behavior. People acquire a set of value, perception and behaviors through his or her family and other institution. Indian people want achievement and success, comfortable efficiency and practicality, freedom and youthfulness. In other word there are multicultural environment in India. Indian loves their family and they want to secure their family from unnatural event. Indian give first preference to his family after than others. They do not want to take loan and they want to invest their money in long-term investment for child education and marriage. When we say about metropolitan city, dependency on old age on son is decreasing. People want to accumulate some fund for old age so LIC should concentrate on gratuity or pension plan. Indian people also affected from sub culture. Urban people want to take more insurance comparison than rural (due to high per capita income, insurance awareness, social security, investment purpose, tax saving purpose). Religion also effect on insurance. LIC is using this thing very well.. In other word LIC want to say that we will cover you at every step in life (sorrow or happiness). Consumer behavior is also affected from reference group. Firstly, people see that which insurance is bestseller after
that they purchase. They also get influenced by agent. People do not concentrate on their need due to agent's influence. Social class also affect on consumer behavior. Lower class does not want insurance. Upper lower class wants insurance for saving purpose. Working and middle class want insurance for protection and saving purpose and lastly, upper class want to purchase insurance for investment tax benefit and saving purpose.
Social factor:
Consumers are also influenced by social factor for example; reference group, family, and social role and status. Consumer behavior is firstly influenced from membership group such as family, neighbor and co-worker. Insurance is such type of product where people awareness is very low so people do not very much about insurance. They think, insurance is only tax saving instrument so they fully dependent on agent for taking insurance. When agent say about any product, that time they inquiry from neighbor and co-worker about that product. If anybody suggests that, this product and I have also taken this product. Individual think that, this product also best for him. He does not concentrate on his need and requirement. Secondly, he is influenced by information influences. If he goes to purchase insurance, he makes enquiry about this product from his personal sources. He study newspaper and search on Internet and gather all information related product. If he is satisfied from that information, he decides to buy insurance. People also influence from opinion leader, this opinion leader may be Mukhiya, or Surpanch in rural area or this may be any leader, actor or cricket player in urban area. If opinion leader say or advertise about any product, people are influenced from opinion leader because opinion leader keep good position in society.Family and household pattern also influence consumer behavior. Due to less security of individual family, people want to purchase insurance, but in joint family people give less attention in buying insurance. If all family are well earning, there are given less attention on insurance in such family. But if earning member is less and dependent is more in such type of family insurance is very important. Women want more security so women are taking main role in purchase decision where, women influence consumer behavior.
Personal factors:
A consumer decision is also influenced by personal characteristics for example the buyer age and stage in life cycle, occupation and economics circumstances, personality, self-concept, life style and value.When we say about age and life, first is bachelor stage. They are generally young independent and they are in early stage of his carrier and earning. They mostly think that they have no need of insurance because in that time they have no dependent. However, some people have some dream and dependent also. They are in such stage where they can take more risk so they mostly prefer to invest in ULIP. Second stage is new. In that stage people need and buying decision is influenced from their future plan and earning capability. If they have to plan for purchase flat that time, they will need term insurance. There after stage is one or two children after marriage, they will be influenced from future need. They will accumulate fund for children marriage and education, they can be plan time-to-time vacation. In forth stage, they want to accumulate for retirement. People want to live alone after old age or in peaceful place so they are ready to start saving for old age.
Threat of new entrantsDue to aggressive competition and high entry exit barrier, this is not attractive segment for new player. For entering in insurance field, mandatory capital is 100 crores. Secondly, foreign stake limited with 26%, third Indian company have no experience in insurance business. Exit barrier are also very high because, no company can leave market after entering due to loss because firstly, 100 crores will be lost secondly, their compensation (customer or other company) will be very high or more than deposited money. So in long run, company will try to less their business but they will not leave market. So this is good factor for ICICI Prudential because, where entry or exit barrier are high, profit potential are also high.
Threat of substitute productThis is not attractive market in view of substitute goods because there is many substitute in market but only service style is different. Different insurance company provide at least same product but presentation is different. In case of lower substitute (means investment purpose) many product in India for example, share, mutual fund, fixed deposit. Substitute place a limit on price and on profit. Bajaj Allianz launches same type of product of LIC but in lower price.
In India buyer's growing power are increasing because they have more concentrated or organized towards market. Government has established insurance regulator (IRDA) in India for growing buyer's barging power. Due to lowest switching, buyers are very price sensitive and buyers have many sources for knowing about different company product. Due to education buyer can analysis that, which product is good for him. So due to growing buyer's power this segment is not good for new player.
22 36 28 14
Finding: The above table analysis the occupation of the respondents 42% of the respondents are from service followed by 29% is businessmen, 23% are self employed and 6% are retired being the least.
It is inferred that the respondents are not evenly distributed on the basis of occupation and a high percentage of the respondents are from service
Finding: - Out of 100 people, 46 people give preference to purchase from agent (almost half people), another 11 person give preference to buy insurance direct from company, and lastly 20people would like to buy insurance through broker. With the help of above chart we can say that agent or tied agency is most popular distribution channel in insurance field.
Finding:-49 % people say that main reason is to purchase insurance is family security 16 % people purchase insurance for tax saving, 21 % buy insurance for investment and lastly 8% buy it for retirement benefits. So majority think/buy Insurance for security (49%).
Finding:-In insurance mostly people's buying decision (41%) influence by their family, means they take insurance according to their family needs in another word they insurance is taken because after death of earning person family don't feel insecure. After that their buying decision influence from brand and advertisement (24%).
Findings: It is clearly enunciated that out of 100 respondents 56 were paying premium yearly. 27 half yearly , 14 quarterly and 3 monthly.
Findings: out of 100 respondents 36 wants that their claim should be settled quickly, 27 want transparency, 20 want good returns, 17 want excellent customer services.
Findings: In the age group 25-30 people like brand than service, and in the age group 30-35 people like brand followed by policy scheme, And the people above 40 say that relationship and service is equally important.
FINDINGS
The important factor, which has been recognized from the data collected is analysis regarding the life insurance buying behavior of individual which states that, people give most importance to their security, so other factors (saving, investment and tax saving) increases attractiveness of insurance among people. Due to security reason, term insurance is very popular among people. Insurance gives help to fulfill life stage need i.e. child marriage and education. People think that insurance is a good financial tool to face influence and accumulating fund (due to compulsory saving). Mindset is changing, now people take insurance according to their need and not due to their fear, they understand their needs. So due to this reason now people first concentrate on policy scheme and brand when they are going to choose Insurance Company and policy. Whole life policy is popular due to family need, endowment policy is popular due to life stage need (money back policy) and ULIP is popular due to old age saving and fulfill different life stage need. In insurance, relationship and service is also important, so mostly people want to buy insurance direct from company and agent, because agent and brand fulfill relationship and service need. Premium mode also influences buying behavior of customer. Every income group likes annual and half yearly mode. Insurance buying decision is mainly influenced by family. Due to brand and advertisement (aggressive) people are aware about insurance and they are changing their mindset towards it. Now people know that it is important for everyone and it gives us protection from 3d's (death, disabilities, and diseases), approx 80% people accept this fact. More than half of the people agree that guarantee bonus will increase the attractiveness of insurance, because in India people do not take more risk and more important they want to secure towards safety of their money.
Network reach and visibility of Insurance is a very important criterion for the customer while buying an insurance policy. We can also conclude from our analysis that network reach in terms of Branches is directly proportional to the market share in case of Private Players.
Recommendations
1) Insurance policy gives good return but it cannot compete with other financial tools (i.e.
equity). So this is basic need to increase return in the field of insurance sector. (Recommendation for the whole industry)
2) Due to AIG (it was going to be insolvent) and deflation financial environment, mostly people
think that LIC is better than other private insurance company (due to Government protection). So in this time private company needs to know that how to win people's belief. (Recommendation for the whole industry)
3) There are lot of alternative distribution channel in insurance industry, but due to less
awareness of the people they do not know/like to buy insurance from such type of alternative channel i.e. banc assurance, NGO's. So LIC of India needs to increase awareness of such type of alternative channel among public.
4) Policy scheme is main factor to choose insurance company. If insurance companies give
more concentration on policy scheme then they can compete with another financial tool in better way (i.e. equity and mutual fund).
5) In India people think that insurance is tax saving and protection tool, and not investment tool.
If LIC of India increase awareness among public, that insurance is good alternative saving and investment tool, this will do work as a value added service which will increase penetration of India.
6) Now only product knowledge is not sufficient for selling insurance, something should be
added up in training program (age/front liner) i.e. human behavior, CRM, knowledge of another financial tool, communication program, and especially how to improve way of delivery.
7) In insurance, process is too much time taking, when we compare to other financial
tools, so process work should be less, effective and flexible.
8) People are not much aware of alternative policy scheme (health, diabetics), so there
are need to increase awareness of such type of policies among people.
9) Mostly, people are not satisfied from the post service of insurance companies specially
public sector companies due to dependence on agents or no knowledge about process, so there should be need to increase awareness about self service and awareness among people by training and advertisement. 10) Insurance is long term contract and saving tool, after a time
people feel less interested towards it, so time to time motivation is important that they are doing a good job.
SUGGESTIONS:
Improvement of service: From the survey it is necessary for the corporation to give a very high level of importance to policy servicing. Service should be envisaged without delay. Services of field people must be must be utilized effectively to give better service after sale of policy. Procedure must be simplified and areas like claims, loans, and surrenders must made customer friendly. Publicity: It is necessary to give a wide publicity towards insurance plans, services offered to customers and achievements of LIC. This helps to build the confidence in a policy holder and strengthens the organization. It is also necessary to prevent the antisocial canvas, damage to the image of corporation. The success of the insurance company is largely depending on the field force actually who are treated as selling persons so increasing the morale of agents through proper motivation plays a key role to lead the competition.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.
BOOKS/MAGAZINES REFFERED:
STUDY
GUIDE-PRINCILES
&
PRACTICES
OF
LIFE
QUESTIONNAIRE FOR MARKETING PROJECT 1) Age group 2) Sex Male Female 25-30 30-35 35-40 >40
7) What criteria do you apply when selecting an insurance co? Policy Scheme Brand name
8) If you think of having insurance, which company comes to your mind first? _________________________________ 9) Which criteria do you apply for selecting an insurance company? Brand Policy Scheme Relationship Service
For old age saving For your family needs To fulfill different needs For unexpected circumstances
11) How do you prefer to buy an insurance policy? Agent Broker Company Online
12) Kindly Rate LIC on Pricing Products After sales Services Advertisement Customer handling Distribution
13.) In buying insurance policy, your decision is influenced by? Family Friends and neighbors Professional and trade union Brand and advertisement
14.) Which type of insurance policy do you want to entertain with increase in return? Whole life policy Endowment ULIP Equity
15.) Are you satisfied with the return on investment, which you are getting from your company? Very satisfied Satisfies Dissatisfied Very dissatisfied
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