Drawing on the rural mural works for MetLife
Metlife Insurance is drawing up plans to expand its rural insurance business in a big way. Having exceeded the insurance regulations in rural and social sector business, the private sector life insurance company, with a strong presence in south India, is consciously taking to rural insurance as a viable business proposition.
The latest micro insurance regulations are being viewed as an opportunity in this regard by many insurance companies. Having sold rural policies, which constitutes over 18% of its total business, Metlife is now in the process of adopting innovative tools especially for rural marketing.
In an innovative exercise, the company took in a clutch of internet kiosks operators’ from a small town - Mandya in Karnataka under its wing.
These people, whose profile basically included government registrations- like births and deaths, sites and property, etc, were trained, made to take the exams conducted by the Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (IRDA) and made financial advisors.
“With rural marketing going big, this initiative has helped them connect with Mandya and now we are looking at replicating the same in other cities. Having shown them the means of an alternative career, MetLife has given them the opportunity to earn almost double their previous income,” Gaurav Suri, marketing director, Metlife, said.
“To support this initiative, the company provides customised vernacular sales tools like comic book styled reference books to its advisors in rural areas which will help in effective penetration,” he said.
The bancassurance channel is the prime mover of MetLife’s business in the rural sector.
Its bancassurance partners are Karnataka Bank, Dhanalakshmi Bank and J&K Bank. The social sector business, which involves selling of group insurance policies, is mainly done through NGOs and Self Help Groups.
In the current financial year 2005-06, till February, the company has sold 14,147 rural insurance policies, which is 18.07% of the total business, as against a target of 16%. On the social sector, the company covered over 23,000 lives till February 2006, as against an annual target of 20,000 lives till March 2006.
(www.dnaindia.com)
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