In conversation with Nimish Agrawal Niva Bupa, we deep dive into the marketing strategy, focusing on its alignment with brand purpose, use of media channels, and creative and commercial approach to advertising campaigns.
'Money is wasted paying premiums of health insurance unless we make a claim.' This is the perception that holds consumers back from buying health insurance, and this consumer pain point is where Niva Bupa's purpose and marketing strategy meet.
Nimish Agrawal, EVP & Head Of Marketing, Niva Bupa takes us through the brand strategy and consumer approach that revolves around using stackable formats to address the gaps in consumer understanding.
Challenges In Health Insurance Marketing
Retail Health Insurance has the potential to become a 25 Bn USD industry in the next 5 years, as per the report by Avendus. Although claim settlement ratio, enhanced claim processing capabilities, clarity in communication, holistic customer engagement framework, and reliance on digital mediums to research, building trust and credibility, are a few of the imperatives that streamline the consumer journey.
Health insurance offers a large TAM with an eligible population and out of the several challenges that can be resolved with product solutions, clarity in communication and building trust and credibility is essentially what the marketing communications broadly support.
Agrawal further breaks down the strategy and mentions the marketing blueprint essentially is a function of solving from the outlook of touching consumer pain points and looking at the tangibility on a macro level. From a marketing perspective, there are three big challenges in the category. The first challenge is that the category is invisible because the consumer understanding of insurance is very scratchy.
The second challenge is that the category does not offer a strong proposition because "it's something that we buy today, but we'll use it when there is sickness or hospitalization, a lot of Indians do not wish to see themselves in that light.
"The concept of seeing themselves a few months years down the line on a hospital bed is not a conversation that's very appealing. It's not a conversation that one can take and hence because of this delay in the identification nature of the candidate and the gratification happens only when you fall sick. This does not appeal to consumers. We drive consumer endearment towards the brand by putting out narratives based on insights that differentiate the customers that already exist in the category," he states.
Existing health insurance schemes cover only 4% of India's population and have the potential to cover 450 million relevant eligible individuals who are not insured, as per reports. The marketing communications are largely driven towards this target audience who are not covered under insurance cover or government schemes.
"We also intend to increase the conversation rate about this category, because today electric vehicles which may remain relevant for a very small percentage of the population are talked about more than insurance which the majority of the country's population needs. It needs contextual conversation that has not happened."
-Nimish Agrawal
Utilisation Of Media Channels
There is a vast difference in media consumption habits today from what it was a few years back.
Streaming is climbing to the top, TV has the highest reach but does not have activity. "Is the customer in front of the TV actually consuming the content or is busy with their mobile phone?" Agrawal says these are the few pertinent questions.
Market conditions are driving non-digital native consumers to digital channels. Various surveys also indicate that digital means are bring provided across most stages of the consumer journey. The consumer pulse survey indicates that customers want digital interventions at each stage of their health insurance journey – from research to renewals. Therefore, insurers are expected to build digital assets and have a presence on online channels where customers research.
The brand's marketing strategy utilizes a rounded mix of media channels to reach its target audience, with a focus on digital. This outlook is tailored to the media habits of geographical regions. This includes traditional platforms that allow for broad reach and awareness.
"The digital mediums are far more immersive, engaging, and trackable as compared to a TV format, and as a result, we are now gravitating towards the digital-first media strategy," he states.
The use of offline channels for the brands is more inclined towards programs, and properties, and the money is only deployed when "We're sure that the consumer is going to take notice of our advertisement or our brand," he shares.
That essentially is the philosophy in terms of spending. "A large part of the digital spending is dispensed on YouTube and Meta, and now we've started experimenting a lot with live sports. We were recently presented to a connected TV, presumably, that format gives an immersive experience on television, but it's still a digital cost."
The geographical penetration is later mapped from a business strategy standpoint. A new set of growth markets are identified that would cause least media spillage and lead to new consumers.
"We have picked up a set of 20 markets which are going to be high-growth markets for the brand. In the set of markets, we look at offline channels beyond the digital and do print ads because we know that holds a lot of credit," he adds.
Credibility is something that digital lacks at this point in time, and health insurance with the highest volume, is a place where trust is required the most.
The brand clubs this with the next 20 sets of events, and also goes regional.
"Tamil Nadu is a focus area for us and we cannot reach its communities if we do not produce television because that market continues to enjoy a very high viewership in vernacular content on TV. That also means we use print division because they give the large branch feature for their customers in the medium in addition to the digital ecosystem," he elaborates.
The Creative & Commercial Outlook Of Campaigns
To build trust and credibility, and communicate complex products in a simple language and snackable products, the brand needs to sustain a balance of a creative and commercial approach.
While maintaining promotional communication, the brand adopts visually engaging and emotionally resonant techniques, whether it's bringing in humor or integrating a customer testimonial into a campaign. These campaigns often feature relatable scenarios or narratives that emphasize the importance of health insurance and portray it as an essential part of one's overall well-being.
The most significant element is not feeding upon the vulnerabilities or showing the consumers in a critical condition. So the creative approach to this in terms of storytelling, and commercial approach still communicates the benefits of the product features.
Sharing the approach that Niva Bupa takes, Agrawal says, "The category is too complex for common people to understand. And then we blame the common people for not buying health insurance. The onus is on the marketing team to elevate the conversation that occurred so people can understand it and relate to the slice-of-life sequence."
Agrawal further mentioned how the brand uses creative device to connect with users such as using analogies, sprinkling a bit of humor. Later, the right set of media vehicles are taken into account as per consumer set. This, he said, becomes Niva Bupa's guardrail in terms of how much money they want to spend, which markets we want to focus on and what channels they use.
Niva Bupa's marketing strategy demonstrates a purpose-driven approach, aligned with its brand objective. Through the strategic use of various media channels, creative advertising campaigns, and the outlook of simplifying the complexities of health insurance, the brand effectively engages with consumers.
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