Topic- advertisement effectiveness study with reference to life insurance Company- Life Insurance Corporation of India

EXECUTIVE SUMMERY
Successful product or service means nothing unless the benefit of such a service can be communicated clearly to the target market. An organization promotional strategy can Consist of: Advertising: Is any non-personal paid form of communication using any form of Mass media? Public relations: Involves developing positive relationships with the organization media public. The art of good public relations is not only to obtain favorable publicity within the media, but it is also involves being able to handle successfully negative attention. Sales promotion: Commonly used to obtain an increase in sales short term. Could Involve using money off coupons or special offers. Personal selling: Selling a product service one to one. By personalizing advertising, response rates increase thus increasing the chance of improving sales. Direct Mail: Is the sending of publicity material to a named person within an Organization

Message & Media Strategy

An effective communication campaign should comprise of a well thought out message Strategy. What message are you trying to put across to your target audience? How will you Deliver that message? Will it be through the appropriate use of branding?

Logos or slogan design.

The message should reinforce the benefit of the product and should also help the company in developing the positioning strategy of the product. Companies with effective message strategies include: The slogan of LIC is "Zindagi ke saath bhi,Zindagi ke baad bhi" ICICI PRUDENTIAL: Jeetye Raho Om Kotak: Jeene ki azaadi Nike: Just do it. Media strategy refers to how the organization is going to deliver their message. What Aspects of the promotional mix will the company use to deliver their message strategy? Where will they promote? Clearly the company must take into account the readership and general behavior of their target audience before they select their media strategy. What newspapers does their target market read? What TV programmers do they watch? Effective targeting of their media campaign could save the company on valuable financial resources.

Research Objectives A) Primary Objective

a) To understand & measure the impact of advertising in the market. b) To measure the effectiveness of advertisement / promotional activities for a particular product class and corporate advertising. C) To understand and measure the affect of advertising in brand-building, brand Re-call and finally the choice of a plan while buying

Secondary objective
a)To know the promotional strategies of Life insurance corporation of india. b) To know how they face their competitors strategies. c) To know how they survive in the cutthroat competition

Introduction
Advertisement is a form of communication used to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common. Advertising messages are usually paid for by sponsors and viewed via various media; including traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, outdoor or direct mail; or new media such as websites and text messages. Commercial advertisers often seek to generate increased consumption of their products or services through "branding," which involves the repetition of an image or product name in an effort to associate certain qualities with the brand in the minds of consumers. Non-commercial advertisers who spend money to advertise items other than a consumer product or service include political parties, interest groups, religious organizations and governmental agencies. Nonprofit organizations may rely on free modes of persuasion, such as a public service announcement. Advertising effectiveness means different things to the groups responsible for its different effects. To the writer or artist, effective advertising is that which communicates the desired message. To the media buyer, effective advertising is that which reaches prospective buyers a sufficient number of times. To the advertising or marketing manager, effective advertising is that which, together with other marketing forces, sells his brand or product. To the general manager, effective advertising produces a return on his firms expenditure.In fact, effective advertising must achieve all four goals, delivering messages to the right audience, thereby creating sales at a profit. Most advertisers have begun only recently to Set goals in all four areas and measure progress toward them. Some advertisers have set Communications and audience goals, and measured copy and media effects, but few advertisers have set dollar goals and measured sales and profit effects. The result is that advertising has rarely been a part of corporate planning. Thirty

years ago, management was asking the same questions they ask today: Is my advertising working and what impact does it have on my sales? Can it be measured? Can our advertising and promotion be made accountable in the same manner as which one evaluates all of the other investments by our company? The answer to all three questions is yes. In fact, the techniques to deliver this degree of accountability and control have been around for more than 50 years and are industry standards. There are methods to test every aspect of marketing promotion, sales support and media mix, and analytical tools to establish a direct relationship to sales for complete Accountability. The key to this is applying a full advertising research curriculum. This requires involvement of both sales and marketing management advertising/promotions supplier coordinating their efforts with the researcher. It is a partnership. This may explain why so many from both the client and agency sides remain of the opinion that it cant be done. The fact is that a full curriculum can be implemented, is already integral to nearly every brand leader, and you can do it as well. It just takes a little planning and co-operation. Lets start from where it all began.

Scope to The Study

A big boom has been witnessed in Insurance Industry in recent times. A large number of new players have entered the market and are vying to gain market share in this rapidly improving market. The study deals advertisement given by Insurance Companies. The study then goes on to evaluate and analyze the findings of these advertisements so as to present a clear picture of media strategy the Insurance players.

The Company
The result of the survey will help the company to know about the effectiveness of various life insurance advertisements and how much advertisement is helpful in buying decision. The results will also help the company to trace the loop holes and then take the corrective measures to rectify them.

The Industry
This is a limited study which takes into consideration the responses of 120 people. This data can be exported to take decision for promotional strategy across the industry. The Significance for the industry lies in studying these trends that emerge from the study. It is a rapidly changing and evolving sector. People are only beginning to wake up to its vast possibilities. A study like this can attempt to guide the future of the industry based on current trends.

CHAPTER 2
Industry profile

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) ( ) is the largest state-owned life insurance company in India, and also the country's largest investor. It is fully owned by the Government of India. It also funds close to 24.6% of the Indian Government's expenses. It has assets estimated of 9.31 trillion (US$206.68 billion). It was founded in 1956 with the merger of more than 200 insurance companies and provident societies. Headquartered in Mumbai, financial and commercial capital of India, the Life Insurance Corporation of India currently has 8 zonal Offices and 101 divisional offices located in different parts of India, at least 2048 branches located in different cities and towns of India along with satellite Offices attached to about some 50 Branches, and has a network of around 1.2 million agents for soliciting life insurance business from the public. The Oriental Life Insurance Company, the first corporate entity in India offering life insurance coverage, was established in Calcutta in 1818 by Bipin Bernard Dasgupta and others. Europeans in India were its primary target market, and it charged Indians heftier premiums. The Bombay Mutual Life Assurance Society, formed in 1870, was the first native insurance provider. Other insurance companies established in the pre-independence era included
y y y y y y y y y

Bharat Insurance Company (1896) United India (1906) National Indian (1906) National Insurance (1906) Co-operative Assurance (1906) Hindustan Co-operatives (1907) Indian Mercantile General Assurance Swadeshi Life (later Bombay Life)

The first 150 years were marked mostly by turbulent economic conditions. It witnessed, India's First War of Independence, adverse effects of the World War I and World War II on the economy of India, and in between them the period of worldwide economic crises triggered by the Great depression. The first half of the 20th century also saw a heightened struggle for India's independence. The aggregate effect of these events led to a high rate of bankruptcies and liquidation of life insurance companies in India. This had adversely affected the faith of the
general public in the utility of obtaining life cover.

The Life Insurance Act and the Provident Fund Act were passed in 1912, providing the first regulatory mechanisms in the Life Insurance industry. The Indian Insurance Companies Act of 1928 authorized the government to obtain statistical information from companies operating in both life and non-life insurance areas. The subsequent Insurance Act of 1938 brought stricter state control over an industry that had seen several financially unsound ventures fail. A bill was also introduced in the Legislative Assembly in 1944 to nationalize the insurance industry. Life Insurance Corporation of India, 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 (US$ 92 million as per the 1959 exchange rate of roughly Rs. 5 for a US $ , has grown to 25000 servicing around 180 million policies and a corpus of over 8 trillion (US$177.6 billion). The recent Economic Times Brand Equity Survey rated LIC as the No. 1 Service Brand of the Country. The slogan of LIC is "Zindagi ke saath bhi,Zindagi ke baad bhi"in hindi. In english it means "with life also,after life also. Life Insurance Corporation(LIC) plans to invest R45,000 crore of its total investment kitty of R2.15 lakh crore in the stock markets this year. LIC has already invested R5000 crore since April. LIC currently has just under a 70% share of the life insurance premium market with private sector players together accounting for the rest. During 2011-12, LIC plans to adopt a changed marketing strategy and is targeting 4.26 crore policies to garner R54,000 crore worth of fresh premium. Last year the corporation had sold 3.70 crore policies and had mobilised R44,000 crore worth of premium and R42, 000 crore through renewal premiums. According to a BCG report, the insurance industry is expected to reach $350-400 billion by 2020,with India being among the top three life insurance markets in the world and among the top 15 nonlife insurance markets. The report states that the total penetration of insurance (premium as percentage of GDP) has increased from 2.3% in 2001 to 5.2%in 2011. In addition there has been a vast increase in the coverage of insurance. The number of life policies in force has increased nearly 12fold over the past decade and health insurance, nearly 25fold, with the progress aided by the dramatic shift in the availability of products. The report estimates the total insurance premium at approximately R17 lakh crores to R22 lakh crore in 2020 with life insurance premium being between R15 lakh crore and R20 lakh crore. This sudden spurt of advertisements and awareness programs was visible on all the media channels. Print, electronic and outdoor advertisements of the new private insurers flooded could be seen everywhere. This prompted many comparisons of such behavior of insurance companies with the advertising frenzy of the dotcoms in India not too long ago with similar full-page advertisements, huge hoardings and costly electronic media advertisements. According to reports, in the first quarter of the year 2010, insurance companies spent 70%of what was spent in the whole of 2009, on advertising and publicity. Across the world, insurance, as a category was one of the largest spenders on advertising. In India too substantial expenditure was being incurred due to advertising. COMPANY Lic Allianz Bajaj Om Kotak Mahindra ICICI Prudential Source: ICMR. EXPENDITURE 1000 200 150 146

However, during the first year of the entry of new players, while LIC reported a growth of over 250%, private insurers managed to garner only about 0.5% market share, in spite of spending hefty amounts on advertising and promotion. According to reports, LICs Business increased mainly because of the increased public awareness about insurance, which was brought about by the heavy advertisement campaigns of private players.

Lic Product profile Insurance plans of LIC

As individuals it is inherent to differ. Each individual's insurance needs and requirements are different from that of the others. LIC's Insurance Plans are policies that talk to you individually and give you the most suitable options that can fit your requirement

Bima account Plus Plan Bima account 1 Bima Account 2

Children Plan Jeevan Anurag Plan, Jeevan kishore ,Jeevan Chaya, Komal jeevan, Child future plan, child carrier plan.

Plan for handicapped Jeevan adhar Jeevan viswas

Special money back plan for women Jeevan Bharti

Plan for individual Jeevan shree Jeevan paramukh

Whole life plan Whole life policy, whole life policy limited payment, whole life policy single premium, jeevan anand . jeevan tarang.

Term assurance policy Two year temporary assurance policy, the convertible assurance policy, anmol jeevan 1, amulya jeevan 1

Joint life plan Jeevan sathi

Chapter 3 Research methodology

Research methodology is a strategy that guides a research in providing answers to research questions and for this, research survey is being done. Accuracy of the study depends on the systematic application of the method. The researcher has to decide the method to be used that helps him to get a desired

A) Methodology Adopted Questionnaire Design

The questions were designed in an easily understandable way with the help of Mr. Manoj kumar Srivastava (Marketing Manager Lic) That the respondents may not have any difficulty in answering them. The questionnaire also contained a comments section. This section was included so as to get opinion of the people regarding the Life Insurance Corporation of Indias life insurance policy.

Random Sampling
Sampling can be defined as a part of population. Thus random sampling may be defined as the selection of a portion from the whole population in which each elements of the population has an equal chance of being selected In this research survey 120 people were surveyed at random to get the relevant information.

Sample SizeThe sampling techniques used in this project are probability sampling techniques and the methods used in cluster sampling.

Sampling UnitThe respondents who were asked to fill out questionnaires are the sampling units. These comprise of employees of Govt. Employees and Self Employed.

Sample sizeThe sample size was restricted to only 120 people between age group of 25-40, and 40-50 which comprised of mainly peoples from Begusarai District of Bihar.

Sampling AreaThe area of the research was Barauni oil refinery Quarters and Civil lines of Begusari district, Bihar

Data Collection Structured Questionnaire

In this collection data, structured questionnaire is used as a tool by asking a set of standardized questions to know the effect of Life Insurance Advertisement and behavior of the people for the Life Insurance corporation of Indias life insurance

Interview
The next step involved in collecting information requires discussion with people. Thus valuable information was gathered informal friendly talks with the people.

Secondary Data Collection

Various websites were consulted to collect literature relevant to the topic.

Interpretation
Interpretation refers to the task of drawing inference from the collected facts after an analytical study, in fact it is a search for broader meaning of research findings it is through interpretation that the researcher can well understand the abstract principle that Respondents beneath his findings. The simple statistical tools will used to analyze the data collection; Bar Graphs and pie chart have been used to illustrate the findings Diagrammatically. The scores for advertisement were compiled on spontaneous recall, Aided recall and likeability. The top ads are selected on the basis of their score.

Chapter 4 Literature review

Literature review
According to AC NIELSON Promotion of brands in rural markets requires the special measures. Due to the social and backward condition the personal selling efforts have a challenging role to play in this regard. The word of mouth is an important message carrier in rural areas. Infect the opinion leaders are the most influencing part of promotion strategy of rural promotion efforts. The experience of agricultural input industry can act as a guideline for the marketing efforts of consumer durable and non-durable companies. Relevance of Mass Media is also a very important factor. The rural middle-class constitutes a potential market lying to be tapped by any industry. There are 16.4 million urban middle-class households and 15.6 million rural middle class households in the country, but the latter had a better purchasing power because they do not incur any expenditure on rent, transport and school fees, compared to their urban counterparts, who spend a sizable portion of their income on these items The estimated annual business from rural markets was Rs 1,23,000 crore, comprising Rs65,000 crore of FMCG, Rs 5,000 crore of durables, Rs 45,000 crore of agricultural inputs including tractors and Rs 8,000 crore of two-wheelers and four-wheelers. 29% of the rural people own cars, 27%t own colour televisions, 24% own refrigerators and 10% own washing machines, which points to the untapped potential in the rural areas. Another revealing aspect of the market is that 55% of the LIC policies, 50% of the BSNL mobile connections, 53% of the FMCG products, 59% of durables, 60%ofRediffmail sign-ups and 50% of online shopping on Rediffmail are accounted for by the rural sector

TV impact: The dressing style of the rural people has also changed due to the impact of the TV. Studies revealed that TV advertisements are not understood by the rural people who think "they are for the rich". "Being sensitive and relevant to the requirement of the region should be of utmost importance in the choice of products, packaging, pricing, promotions, markets and communication,"

Key Summary
The Indian rural market with its vast size and demand base offers a huge opportunity any industry cannot afford to ignore. With 128 million households, the rural population is nearly three times the urban. We therefore have to look at the rural market very seriously for future expansion.

4.2. CORORATE ADVERTISING

How a company does announced a name change especially when the old name was well known? How does the company explain itself to constituents who may have known the company quite well in an earlier incarnation but may be struggling to figure out what the new organization stands for? How can the company create a new image while retaining the strengths of the old one? And what role might corporate advertising play in all this? Corporate advertising can tell a story about a company as a whole, large organizations may need to use corporate ads to simplify their image in the minds of key constituents and to show what unifies the company, despite the geographical spread and variety of its businesses. We can very well understand the concept of corporate advertising by taking the example of Life insurance corp. communication. When Company first began operations, the task was to present the visiting card of the company to the public at large and build credibility and stature and to give the consumer the confidence that ''here is a company that can betrusted to invest funds with. This required a corporate campaign - to establish the brand, build awareness and give the brand a larger-than-life image.

4.3. Affect of advertising in Brand Building

Brand building through corporate advertising, defined generally as advertising that benefits a companys image by emphasizing its own resources, skills and/or character. Many astute business people now recognize corporate brands as fundamental business assets, and have begun reaching out to customers, prospects, and the financial community by advertising those brands. Brand building advertising is synonymous with product advertising and is commonly seen in traditional mass media, including TV, radio, magazine, and newspaper. Brand building advertisements tend to be product/service- (or retailer-) oriented with the purpose to establish a positive image and creating demand for a product or service that leads to eventual purchase. The communication route is typically one-to-many and is designed to reach a mass audience by using a tactic of at capturing the attention of users.

Chapter 5 Data Analysis

5 Analysis
It includes the summary of advertisement scenario of insurance industry in the soaring mass market available in India based on the survey conducted.

5.1 Data and Interpretation Q-1 which media you mostly use for information/ entertainment
15

20

TELEVISION NEWSPAPER INTERNET 60 25 RADIO

Media Television Newspaper Internet Radio

Percentage 50 20.83 16.66 12.5

Response 60 25 20 15 120 TOTAL

In the market it can easily be realized that the Television audience had a huge impact of these ads. Although the most popular medium of entertainment or information gathering has emerged as the arena of media war. But yes the old players news paper and radio are Still on their high trying to dominate in the market. Internet being in its youth phase is rapidly reaching in the elite class.

Q- On which channel you saw insurance ad mostly.

20

25

30 sony Star Zee TV News channel

45

Channels Sony Star Zee News channel

Percentage 25 37.5 20.833 16.6

Responses 30 45 25 20 120 Total

Apart from entertainment channels like star T.V , Sony etc where family soaps are having the highest TRPs contribute mainly for in FMCG sector. Though they show a bit of Insurance Ads too. In the emerging economy of INDIA News and business channels have risen surprisingly and contributing in the promotion of insurance sector.