FWD: Customer-Centric Marketing IN Online Insurance

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SMU571
FWD: CUSTOMER-CENTRIC MARKETING IN ONLINE

INSURANCE
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Competition is always a good thing. It forces us to do our best. A monopoly renders people
complacent and satisfied with mediocrity.
- Nancy Pearcey
David Broom, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of FWD, a digital insurance company in Singapore,
replayed a recent television commercial ad clip of his company. The ad had managed to spike up car
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insurance sales after its launch in 2016, as per expectations. An innovative aspect of the product was
the simplification of its online purchase process. A typical online questionnaire for a car insurance
product would consist of anywhere between 25 to 30 questions. FWD had been able to create a
compact questionnaire consisting of only 10 questions, and customers could subsequently receive a
quotation in under a minute on submission. However, its competitors had altered their registration
and quotation process and introduced a similar compact questionnaire soon after. Fast forward more
than three years later in November 2019, Broom continued to devote time and resources to a question
that had occupied his mind from day one: how could FWD differentiate its product offerings and
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build competitive resilience by leveraging on its customer-centric marketing strategies, service
delivery, and simplified claims process?
Although online insurance was a relatively new phenomenon in the Singapore insurance sector, it
was an ultra-competitive market space. Online insurance companies faced competition not just from
Insuretech start-ups; they also faced tough competition from traditional large insurance giants with a
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majority share in the market. As part of its customer acquisition strategy, FWD Singapore had
implemented several strategies to reduce the perceived risk of customers using online insurance
products. Fortunately, with Singapore being a digitally savvy nation, this was less of a hindrance.
However, building a competitive advantage in a cutthroat market was still a considerable challenge
for the firm. As the CMO of a three-year-old company, Broom pondered over how FWD could build
a powerful brand, focus on customer retention, and further improve the customer experience by
leveraging on technology. Was the company's customer-centric marketing adequate to create a
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market differentiation? How could FWD differentiate itself from its competitors? How could FWD
establish itself as a formidable new entrant in a market dominated by a few large players? What could
be the perfect recipe for FWD’s growth and success?
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This case was written by Dr. Patricia Lui and Lipika Bhattacharya at the Singapore Management University. The case was
prepared solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective
handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect
confidentiality.
Copyright © 2020, Singapore Management University Version: 2020-03-15
This document is authorized for educator review use only by Dr Sanjoli Jain, Central University of Rajasthan until Dec 2021. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright.
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SMU-19-0044 FWD: Customer-Centric Marketing in Online Insurance
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FWD
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FWD Group was incorporated in Hong Kong in 2013 by Richard Li, a business tycoon, and was
formed by renaming ING Hong Kong, which was owned by Pacific Century Group (PCG). PCG was
an Asia-based private investment group with interests in technology, media and telecommunications,
financial services, infrastructure, property, and other investments. PCG had begun expanding its
insurance arm FWD Group outside Hong Kong, Macau, and Thailand and, by 2014, had expanded
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to Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, and Japan.
The name FWD translated in Chinese represented safety and wealth protection, two of the primary
objectives most sought after by insurance customers in the region. The FWD Group focused on
improving customer experience, developing innovative products, and investing in talent to drive the
company’s success and business growth. This was aptly reflected in the company’s brand identity,
which comprised the brand logo consisting of three running figures known as the 'responders.' The
brand logo represented the company's customer-centric ethos of being proactive with customers,
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distribution partners, and staff in order to provide the requisite services and products (refer to Exhibit
1 for FWD Brand Logo and website). FWD Group’s goal and vision was to become a leading pan-
Asian insurer that would change the way people felt about insurance by changing the focus towards
customer-centricity as opposed to agency sales. By 2018, FWD Group had more than 4,500 staff,
serving over 2.8 million customers in Asia and over US$ 28.8 billion in assets with a presence in 8
markets.
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FWD in Singapore
FWD Singapore (FWD), a subsidiary of the FWD Group, started operations in Singapore in April
2016, providing employee benefits insurance to corporate customers.1 FWD had become a licensed
life and general insurer in Singapore, following its acquisition of a 90% share in Shenton Insurance
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– an existing group medical insurance provider in the country.2
The company initially started offering businesses customisable group insurance plans that were
designed to suit the ever-changing business and financial objectives of employers and the healthcare
needs of its employees. It was the only insurer in Singapore that offered members direct and seamless
access to four leading private hospitals of Parkway Pantai (south-east Asia’s largest private
healthcare provider as of December 2018).3
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In September 2016, FWD launched its direct-to-consumer business. The aim was to change the way
people felt about insurance by leveraging technology to deliver products that were relevant, easy to
understand, and well-priced. The direct-to-consumer business focused on life and general insurance
products and offered a suite of products including direct-term life, car, travel, personal accident, and
maid insurance. The company was allocated S$500 million by the FWD Group as initial funding to
help it achieve its objectives.
FWD focused on creating fresh customer experiences, with easy-to-understand products, supported
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by digital technology. Through this customer-led approach, FWD's vision was to become a leading
pan-Asian insurer that ‘changes the way people feel about insurance’.4
1 For this case, FWD Singapore will be referred to as FWD here onwards, not to be confused with the parent company, which is mentioned
as FWD Group for clarity purposes.
2 About, FWD, https://www.fwd.com/en/about/, accessed February 2019.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
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Customer-Centric Marketing
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Insurance had traditionally been a agent-centric business, focused on developing the best products
for a given risk and delivering those in the most cost-effective way.5 However, with technology
disruption, Insurance companies had started to realise that by focusing on customers, they could get
to know their customers better and use that information and knowledge as a source of competitive
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advantage.
Traditionally marketing strategy of organisations had mainly entailed broad market segmentation,
price determination, product promotions, and advertising with a brand's performance being measured
based on aggregate sales and profitability.6 However, by 2019 technology advancement had forced
marketers to rethink the fundamentals of marketing. The digital age had increased the power of
consumers when making purchasing decisions, triggering firms to adapt to a more customer-centric
approach.7
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Customer-centric marketing was more than just focussing on the needs of the customer. 8 A
customer-centric approach was about co-creation and value-seeking. 9 Organisations like Ritz-
Carlton for example had implemented this by striving to achieve excellence in each and every point
of contact with their customers. 10 The hotel chain had tried to consistently update its customer
service style to keep in touch with what customers wanted. For example, the company allowed every
Ritz-Carlton staff member to spend up to US$ 2,000, without having to get approval from a hotel’s
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general manager, to ensure that a guest had a wonderful stay. The policy reflected that wowing
customers required not only great products but also going beyond standard procedures.11 Research
and advisory firm Gartner had categorised customer-centric organisations as those with
organisational culture and habits that centred around the customer experience (refer to Exhibit 2 for
Customer-Centric Organisational Habits).12
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Globally, the insurance industry had been slow to respond to changing market trends in user
experience, but this was changing. A global reaserch by McKinsey across industries had found that
improving the customer experience was more effective in driving profitable growth than raising
advertising spending or lowering prices. The research had cited the example of US auto insurance
carriers, who had focussed on providing customers with consistently best-in-class experiences.
According to the study, the automakers had seen two to four times more growth in new business and
about 30 percent higher profitability compared to firms with lower customer focus. The research had
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also noted that satisfied customers were 80 percent more likely to renew their policies than unsatisfied
5 Shona Burns, Christine Delany, Paul Clark, David Sterner, The journey toward greater customer centricity, EY, 2013,
https://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/The_journey_toward_greater_customer_centricity/$FILE/Customer_Centricity_Paper_29
_April_Final.pdf, accessed February 2019.
6 Roland T. Rust, Christine Moorman, and Gaurav Bhalla, Rethinking Marketing, Harvard Business Review,
https://hbr.org/2010/01/rethinking-marketing, accessed February 2019.
7 Neil Richardson, Neil Kelley, Jon James, Customer-Centric Marketing: Supporting Sustainability in the Digital Age, KoganPage,
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2015, Preface, accessed February 2019.

8 Ibid.
9 Co-creation, the process where brands and consumers work together to create better ideas, products, and services.
10 Hilary Horn, Nathan Sloan, Beth Benjamin, The Business Case for a
Customer-Centric Culture, Deloitte, 2014, https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/about-deloitte/us-allian-
deloitte-medallia.pdf , accessed February 2019.
11 Robert Reiss, How Ritz-Carlton Stays At The Top, Forbes, October 30, 2009, https://www.forbes.com/2009/10/30/simon-cooper-
ritz-leadership-ceonetwork-hotels.html#75ec5d9210b1 , accessed February 2019.
12 Laurence Goasduff, Is Your Organization Customer-Centric?, Gartner, March 7, 2019,
https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/is-your-organization-customer-centric/ , accessed February 2019.
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customers.13 With a global shift in the insurance industry towards customer centricity, insurers in
Singapore had also started to take steps to become more customer-centric in an attempt to retain
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loyalty and attract new policyholders.14
Insurance Industry in Singapore
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The major classification of the insurance industry in Singapore was by Life (Life and Health), and
Non-Life (Property and Casualty). Insurance was bought directly through an insurance company or
through independent agents and commercial brokers who provided access to the products of several
insurers.
Major Competitors
No single player had crushing dominance in terms of new business written. The four largest insurance
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companies operating in Singapore's life insurance market - in terms of gross written premiums - were
Great Eastern Life (the life insurance operation of Singapore’s OCBC Group), local insurance
cooperative NTUC Income, and the local arms of regional giants AIA and Prudential Plc.
Collectively, these four companies accounted for roughly three-quarters of gross premiums written.
The largest five non-life insurers in Singapore, each accounting for over 7% of total gross non-life
premiums written, were AIG Asia, AXA Singapore, MSIG, NTUC Income, and First Capital (which
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was a subsidiary of Canada's Fairfax Financial Holdings). For years, AXA Singapore had been
rivalling AIG Asia for the position of the market leader. Following a long association with
Singapore’s trade union movement, NTUC Income had a leadership position in the provision of
motor insurance, health insurance, and other household lines.15
In contrast to Singapore's life insurance segment, the competitive landscape of the non-life segment
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was more fragmented, as all major players collectively held about 85% of the market share. New
entrants like FWD, therefore, faced greater barriers in securing a presence in this segment. Moreover,
FWD also faced stiff competition from other new online players in the market like Etiqa.16
Consumer Motivations
Singapore had a large percentage of its population who were digitally savvy and open to making
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purchases online. In a 2015 survey of insurance customers, it was found that generally, worldwide
insurance consumers were better informed in the present day than before. Singapore customers
specifically were quite well informed about the insurance products they purchased. Over 80% of
them did a fair amount of research before their purchase or renewal of a policy. More than 50% of
Singapore respondents made their purchase decision based on their research findings. The top sources
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13 Tanguy Catlin, Ewan Duncan, Harald Fanderl, and Johannes-Tobias Lorenz, The growth engine: Superior customer experience in
insurance, April 2016, McKinsey & Company, https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/the-growth-engine-
superior-customer-experience-in-insurance, accessed February 2019.
14 Claire Huang, Insurance disruption fuelling customer-centric innovations, The Business Times, MON, JAN 16, 2017,
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/insurance-disruption-fuelling-customer-centric-innovations , accessed February
2019.
15 Insurance Statistics 2017, Monetary Authority of Singapore, http://www.mas.gov.sg/Statistics/Insurance-Statistics/Annual-
Statistics/Insurance-Statistics-2017.aspx , accessed February 2019.
16 Singapore Insurance Report, Fitch Solutions, 2019,
file:///C:/Users/lipikab/Downloads/Singapore%20Insurance%20Report%20Q1%202019.pdf, accessed January 2018.
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of information were word of mouth, personal recommendations, and advice from intermediary or
agent.17
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Globally, insurance consumers had high service expectations. However for Singapore consumers
customer service was a less significant factor when making purchase decisions. Product features,
financial stability, price, and trusted brand, were perceived as the high priority factors when
purchasing life and non-life insurance products. The Singapore customer was price-sensitive and
expected enhanced value for their investment. They also wanted more clarity in the buying process
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and better communication about product performance.18
Majority of Singapore consumers were satisfied with the overall service experience provided by the
insurance companies (life insurance: 89%, non-life insurance: 78%), while the bulk of the remaining
respondents were neutral in rating service experience. 19 For non-life products, consumers were
mainly unhappy about the transparency of the terms and conditions, and a lack of discounts. The
main pain point of life-insurance consumers was a cumbersome application process. For those who
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switched insurers, better products or lower prices offered by another provider were primary drivers
of change. About a third of those who had switched insurers expressed that their previous providers
did nothing to persuade them to stay.20
In 2016, just after launch, FWD had conducted a research survey, which consulted 600 people across
Singapore. 90 per cent of the surveyors were keen to purchase insurance online and 89 per cent using
their mobile. However, the same proportion, 89 per cent, had said that they were frustrated by their
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current insurer’s complex application processes.21 The survey also revealed that most customers in
Singapore knew a financial advisor or a planner who was usually recommended by a family member
or friend. However, over the last few years, more people were going online first to do a fact check,
and find what the product actually meant, how did it compare with other similar products, etc. before
making a purchase. However, during the purchase phase, not many consumers gave much thought to
the efficacy of the claims process in the insurance plan.
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Convenience of usage was key
In a personal experience, Broom had observed that when consumers were claiming insurance, they
were likely going through stressful circumstances. Hence, it made even more sense for insurance
products to be designed, taking convenience into consideration. Broom had joined FWD in
September 2016. His travel to Singapore to meet his new management team, after joining the
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company, had been an experience in itself. When Broom landed in Singapore, his baggage went
missing. In the same pair of clothes that he had worn for almost twenty-four hours, Broom
approached the baggage claims department at the airport. They reported that his luggage had been
misplaced, and he would receive it after 48 hours. It was 8 pm, and Broom had his meeting the next
morning at 8 am, and he had no decent clothes for his first visit to his new office.
Luckily Broom found an office wear store that was still open and bought himself some new clothes.
Tired and irritated, he finally checked into his hotel and almost immediately went online to make an
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17 "Singapore insurers to rethink customer strategies as consumer attitudes and expectations shift," EY News Release, 15 March 2012,
https://www.ey.com/sg/en/newsroom/news-releases/news-release_20120315_singapore-insurers-to-rethink-customer-strategies-as-
consumer-attitudes-and-expectations-shift, accessed January 2018.
18 “Report reveals habits and expectations of Singapore consumers," CMO Innovation editors, February 16, 2017,
https://www.enterpriseinnovation.net/article/report-reveals-habits-and-expectations-singapore-consumers-1110976619, accessed January
2018.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid.
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insurance claim for the lost baggage. After nearly 9 clicks and 20 minutes of scrolling through
irrelevant details, he was finally guided to a button, which he imagined was the last step.
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Unfortonatley, on clicking the button, a printanble form appeared. He would need to print and fill up
the form, then send by postal mail to his insurance company, for the claims to be processed. It had
been a frustrating experience to maneuverer through the claims website and then finally realise that
it had to be done manually – a negative experience that Broom always remembered.
Perceived Risk of Consumers
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Interestingly, research had noted that although Singapore was a digitally adept nation, there were still
several perceived risks that Singapore customers had of online insurance products.22 One perceived
risk was that of authenticity. Some customers felt that anyone could sell financial products online,
and buying an online product would put their hard earned money under unnecessary risk. Some others
believed that online products could be complicated to use and would require too much time to resolve
if there were any issues. The inability to get compensation from the insurance company in case of an
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error in the transaction and the potential risk of loss of control of personal accounts were some other
perceived risks. Lack of system performance due to lower download speed and server interruptions
due to maintenance in times of claim submission were some other risks visualised by consumers.
Another apprehension that some consumers had was the inability to communicate directly with
insurance employees, and that could mean that they could not reach out for help if required while
using digital insurance. Security concerns over personal data being exposed online was also a major
concern. Lastly, few consumers were also concerned about sharing their bank details and credit card
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information as they felt this could expose them to unauthorised access.23
Redefining Insurance: FWD Brand Identity
Historically, the insurance induatry had used the broker-based model successfully and profitably for
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several decades, with little incentenve to change.24 However, as customers had started to integrate
the Internet into their daily lives, it became an attractive medium through which firms could advertise
and distribute insurance products. The industry had started witnessing a gradual change in the buying
habits of customers as they made use of the internet in the decision making and product buying
process. These changes were spurring many insurers to consider augmenting or changing their
adviser or broker channels.25
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Implementing online product delivery for consumers however, was not an easy feat for traditional
insurance companies, as it involved porting existing data from slow and unwieldy legacy systems
and transforming from a hirearchichal culture to one more suitable for introducing dynamic solutions.
Moreover, existing channels of insurance delivery were a hindrance. Traditional insurers had their
billions of dollars of premium tied up with agencies, and moving from that model to launch online
direct-to-consumer business was a difficult and costly shift. Amidst this paradigm of traditionally
operating industry firms, innovative start-ups like FWD had tried to redefine insurance by providing
traditional products online, in a simplified form that would be attractive to new age customers.
However, building brand identity in a traditionally dominant marketplace was not an easy feat, and
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22 Méndez-Aparicio, M Dolores et al. "Consumer Expectations of Online Services in the Insurance Industry: An Exploratory Study of
Drivers and Outcomes," Frontiers in psychology vol. 8: 1254, July 27, 2017, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5529399/ ,
accessed January 2018.
23 Ibid.
24 Carolyn Cohn, "Insurers prove laggards in the technology race," Reuters, February 15, 2015, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-
insurance-technology/insurers-prove-laggards-in-technology-race-idUSKBN0LJ0BA20150215 , accessed January 2018.
25 Ibid.
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FWD realised that to build a brand name, it would have to connect with the customers and let them
know that it existed. Ad campaigns and commercials were one way to do that, making the product
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attractive to the customer was another way.
Simplification was key
The first step that Broom and his team took towards churning a brand identity was to help formulate
products that were simple to use. As Broom liked to define FWD’s brand identity: ‘FWD is all about
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simplification. We constantly strive to make the customer experience painless and quick.’ The idea
was to remove pain points at every step of the customer's journey (refer to Exhibit 3 for Typical pain
points of a customer’s journey in insurance).
The insurance products FWD introduced did not entail lengthy forms and meeting an insurance agent.
Instead, the company offered a simple website application through which customers could purchase
their insurance. The process of policy purchase was simplified. The customer was asked just a few
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questions, in some cases only five questions, and provided a quote in a few seconds (for travel
insurance in 10 seconds - the fastest in Singapore). If the customer liked the quote, they could buy it
immediately by making an online payment. The policy was then sent to the customer online.
For the claims process, the entire application could be submitted online and had four simple steps.
Traditional insurance claims process took several steps and days to process, whereas the FWD claims
process was a simple online four step process that was processed by the company the same day. An
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online guide for claims was provided for each product type. Claims for certain insurance products
like car insurance could be made through WhatsApp.
For life insurance policies, FWD used an online underwriting system, guided by an inbuilt logic tree
that allowed a policy to be issued within 10 to 15 minutes. The online underwriting system catered
to about 85%-90% of the policies. The remaining 10% policies with more complicated information
content were referred to a manual underwriter. The company’s direct term life insurance product
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adopted a 100 percent direct and digital approach that allowed customers to select their cover online
or using their mobile, and receive a simplified quote in under 60 seconds. Notably, the selling and
purchase of direct purchase insurance (DPI) had been made possible in Singapore through an
initiative by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), allowing DPI purchases from April 2015.
The company website was also designed to reflect the new perspective that FWD had brought to the
market. It tried to highlight the 'simplicity' aspect of the products by emphasising on the benefits –
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'no agents and no commissions, so you save money,' 'simple language and no small print, so you
know exactly what you will get every time,' and 'easy to use the website so you can breeze through
to compare, buy or claim.' Product offerings were also carefully chosen to tie in with the targeted
customer segments (refer to Exhibit 4 for FWD Products).
Market Segmentation
To deliver a regional market segmentation, Broom and his team focused on some critical questions:
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Which was the most receptive audience for the new FWD brand? What proposition would encourage
customers to notice, consider, and buy FWD products? What could be the company's most effective
market entry strategy? FWD performed research on the existing market with the help of a third-party
consultant called Clusters. Evidence from the research suggested that most insurance brands targeted
typical insurance buyers, and people ignored by such companies often had the intention of buying
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insurance. However, they were still unengaged as they were unconvinced by existing brands and
their offers.26
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The focus was on those customers who had the intention of buying insurance but hadn’t bought it yet
– a group overlooked by many other insurance providers, who tended to focus on encouraging
existing buyers to switch providers. ‘Young working adults are our target customers as they are the
group most likely not to have invested in insurance products yet,' added Broom. The characteristics
of the people belonging to this group were further evaluated. Demographic characteristics, as well as
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insurance characteristics of such target customers, were analysed. Income characteristics were then
assessed, and all the relevant data was then used for designing the customer acquisition strategy for
various customer clusters. Broom added, “We targeted based on age first - 27 to 40 year olds, the
core demographic that might likely switch or check online first – once those customers had tried our
product, word of mouth would then get more customers in.”
Insurance needs were analysed by looking at the customers' life stages by asking questions about
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their marital status. For example, if the client had a child in their early teenage years, they would
probably consider investing in an education insurance product. Other analysis factors included
education, industry, location and event triggers such as accidents or big-life events. Customer income
was analysed using data like how well to do the customer was, to guage and determine the type of
products that could be sold to the individual. For example, people who drove a Maserati would likely
have a different appetite for products than those driving a Toyota.
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Market Positioning
Equally important was market positioning, and FWD tried to position itself with the new start-ups of
the world like Uber, Redmart, Lazada, etc. As Broom explained,
We tried to position ourselves as a firm which represented the traditional industry revolutionised
by technology. Once a user experienced FWD, the usage would build trust – that was our
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understanding and strategy. But trust has somehow been confused with longevity. Many long-
running companies in the business have not changed with time. Some still pay their customers by
cheque, which has a 75-80% error rate and is returned to be corrected. After that, it takes another
15 days to process the cheque. In comparison, we straightaway transfer to the account, and it
gets credited to the customer's account the next working day. So, in today's market, it’s about
making sure that the best technology is used for providing the best customer service, and we are
pioneering this practice in Asia.
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Given the vision of digitisation, FWD tried to underpin every common activity that it did in the
organisation from customer service, platform design to operational work, etc. through this vision and
create a differentiation of its brand.
Building Trust
Broom and his team’s primary challenge was to build a strategy that would help them differentiate
themselves from more well-known competitors. Broom recollected a comment from one of his
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colleagues during their brainstorming sessions while designing advertisement campaigns for newly
launched products,
26 “The Glaring Protection Gap among Young Adults in Singapore’, Dollars and Sense, May 16, 2018,
https://dollarsandsense.sg/glaring-protection-gap-among-young-adults-singapore/ , accessed January 2018.
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When we started with the business, I had a very small team. We used to brainstorm a lot to figure
out the best possible ways of launching our products such that it could attract our target
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customers. During one of our discussions, I explained that our product was extremely well-
configured-online-competitive, with transparent terms and conditions, and also provided one of
the cheapest rates in the market. One of my colleagues who had been listening intently to my ad
proposition commented, “You are right now sounding like a Nigerian money scammer. You are
going online, nobody has heard of your company, and you are offering this cheap, very good
product - it’s too good to be true!” That comment really brought home to us what we needed to
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do as a launch strategy such that Singaporeans felt more confident about who we are as an
organisation.
We knew that consumers are often tricked by ads when they go online, so we examined how we
could build trust and de-risk some of these perceptions held by consumers. We advertised
ourselves on television, print media, and digitally as well to ensure that consumers got to see our
brand name out there. Nigerian money scammers do not spend on expensive television and print
media ads. So we tried to build trust by telling people that we were authentic.
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Campaigns
On the note of protecting the customer and asking them to leave their worries with their insurer, FWD
launched campaigns to reflect a strong, optimistic, and differentiated brand. The company's first
campaign, called "Look what new can do," was launched in September 2016. The campaign was
started with the aim of challenging the status quo and aligning the digital lifestyles of locals with
their needs. Campaign promotion incorporated rollouts in print, radio, and newspapers like TODAY,
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The Straits Times, and Kiss92 FM. One of the print ads included a full-page blank ad to garner
curiosity, which was followed with a key visual with the title “What can new do?” on the next page.
The campaign also featured a crashed car installation at a Singapore mall, Suntec Tower 4, from 9 to
23 September 2016, encouraging passersby to snap a creative photo and post it on their personal
Facebook page. Online ads for the campaign demonstrating a customer doing a Happy Dance was
also rolled out on Channel News Asia Online, SG Carmart, ST Mobile, Facebook, and YouTube
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(refer to Exhibit 5 for promotions on Facebook and Exhibit 6 for TV commercials).
Hiring Talent
The second challenge was to hire the right people. Broom had to build capabilities within his team
to be able to support the broad-scale launch of products, which meant he needed to hire requisite
talent to make his brand campaigns successful. He explained,
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Because we were a new company, the pool of people we got exposed to was a lot less. As a new
company, you attract more risk-oriented people who have been in the insurance and who are
keen to switch. It was quite challenging; this is where you can really see where the brand comes
in. We did lots and lots of interviews. We did not just stick to hiring people from the insurance
industry. We extended our search and got people from Google, Amazon. We ended up getting a
mix of people rather than just people with an insurance background. That helped us as people
from other industries brought in new ideas to the table. It also helped us think outside the box
and explore how technology could help us further in providing the right offerings.
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The hiring strategy paid off, and the company was able to launch its direct insurance platform on the
direct-to-consumer side in a breakthrough short period of nine months. This included recruiting
people, creating the platform, creating the product, and then going live.
Product Differentiation
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Despite doing thorough research of the target market segment, the most daunting challenge was to
ensure that its products were able to offer differentiation value to its customers. FWD used a diffused
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approach to tackle this challenge. In addition, to quickly building a brand name, the company also
focussed on delivering the best technology and customer service to its customers to ensure that the
overall value that its products had to offer was still differentiated. However, other online insurance
startups were quick to copy some of the product differentiation features that FWD offered.
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Harnessing Technology
Technology was a key differentiator for FWD and the company invested in building technology
solutions that could help optimise the business value chain and continuously deliver optimised
customer experiences.
In February 2018, FWD formed a partnership with Singapore DBS bank to build a solution to provide
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faster claims to its customers. The new application programming interface (API) capability called
DBS IDEAL RAPID was able to cut pay-out time from 5 days to an industry leading next-day upon
successful approval of claims.
The comapny also partnered with PolicyPal, to bring to market a suite of insurance products backed
by blockchain technology. The technology aimed to apply risk assessment models on real-time data
on a decentralised platform to provide customers affordable insurance premiums and higher aid limits.
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In September 2018, FWD launched a mobile app named FWD Flyer to cater to customers' travel
insurance needs. Available on both iOS and Android devices, the FWD Flyer app provided FWD's
customers with functionalities that included cashless medical treatments, travel-related claims such
as baggage or flight delays, and the purchase of travel insurance for future trips. The FWD Flyer app
ensured that customers could get their medical expenses in Singapore paid without needing to file a
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claim.
Focus on Customer
Focus on customer helped the company gradually build credibility in the Singapore market. Broom
noted, “You can’t just build a great website and expect people to turn up. Search engine marketing,
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programmatic advertising, and digital advertising were some of the ways we tried to reach out to our
potential customers. We looked at return on investment (ROI) , click through rate and conversions
for our campaigns, and then we optimised our paid advertising accordingly, and decided which
service or product to further invest or discontinue. Applying from there word of mouth was absolutely
key.”
In 2017, FWD hired Forester Inc. to make a consumer indexing comparison of the company with
other competitors in the market. The survey helped the company better understand its customers’
expectations and use these insights to serve as reference points during the creation and design of new
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and upcoming solutions and products. In the customer index, FWD performed above expectations,
scoring 14 points better than the second player on the list.
Advertising campaigns, however, proved to be a bit of a letdown for the company. Broom had
realised that in a digitally savvy environment, analytics fared better in boosting sales than traditional
advertising – as it helped analyse revenue data and tweak sales strategies dynamically to maximise
profits. He shared,
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We did above the line and below the line advertisements and digital advertisements for seven to
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eight weeks, and sales went up a little. Since then, we have not done any advertisements, other
than using google analytics, and our sales have gone up by 160%. So that was a point of
observation for us as well.
Customer Acquisition
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To acquire customers accurately, Broom and his team started with analysing the business problems
and identifying what was needed to solve the issue. Smart data (i.e., insights gathered as a result of
so-called reverse engineering in transforming big data into smaller chunks of data) techniques were
applied to gather the insights. These insights were then used by marketers in the firm to predict the
customer lifetime value and cultivate higher conversion rates. The strategy for converting customers
was associated with identifying the 'sweet spot' of customers using smart data.
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The strategy for building customer loyalty on the other hand was tied with services. The company’s
service representatives talked to customers and tried to demonstrate that they really cared. Using this
method, the company was able to increase its conversation rate by four times since inception by
September 2018.
Customer Service
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To ensure that customer service became one of its key areas of differentiation, the team tried to set
the service level agreements (SLA) with customer-centricity as its core objective. SLA agreements
did not focus on the call time but rather on whether the customer service person had been able to
address the issue faced by the customer. There was no pressure on service agents to keep call time
low; neither were the service representatives asked to perform any sales on service calls unlike in
some traditional insurance firms.
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Broom further added,
Service-related to Insurance needs to be very empathetic and understanding. Customers who

apply for a claim are likely to be in mental or even physical distraught, and we advise our service
representatives to be sensitive, serviceable, and be very patient with customers. In a recent case,
we helped one of our clients repatriate the body of a family member. Our customer service agents
helped our customers every step of the way, to ensure that the customer did not have to deal with
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the smaller hassles in time of grieving.
A systematic quality check was built for the calls that were received at the call centre. Quality
assurance leads listened to calls to analyse how the quality of the call could be improved and how
information for any new kind of requests could be added to the company’s knowledge base to help
handle future queries on the same topic. All questions got logged in to the online knowledge base.
Call service levels and customer feedback both at the micro-level and macro-level were analysed.
The company also analysed how and why a particular service representative was receiving higher
scores than the other, and then shared that information with all representatives to help them improve
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their service levels (refer to Exhibit 7 for FWD Customer Response & Reviews).
Another key methodology used to enhance customer service capabilities was to implement Human
Centred Design concepts to design new products. Broom set up an executive committee that met
monthly to analyse negative customer feedback. Shortlisted feedback was then fed into the pipeline
that catered to new and improved developments. Also, all web access to the company website was
tracked anonymously, and if an anomaly got flagged, a ticket was raised to fix the data. Third-party
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research, customer satisfaction reviews, and customer experiences were also analysed to improve the
platform and product features continuously.
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Pricing
Broom also tried to develop effective pricing strategies to make products attractive to target
consumers. The term life insurance was priced at US$365 annual premium for a US$1 million policy
coverage for 10 years. The basic car insurance policy was priced at an annual premium of US$919.39,
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with a no-claim discount of 50%.
Generally, most companies set their pricing such that the first purchase of a product was cheaper than
the subsequent ones. Broom, however, felt that this was not fair to existing customers. He argued,
“You should not be rewarding your brand new customer more than an old customer. We designed
our pricing to run a discount on our older customers on the marked price. So they received a 20%
discount, which was also offered to new customers, plus an additional 3% discount for loyalty. They
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can also earn an early bird discount on top of that if they renew their insurance earlier”. He explained,
Our pricing strategy is to provide the best possible rate by reducing or doing away with
inconsequential processes. For example, .by digitalisation and an incorporating a simple process
without a middleman, we were able to reduce the cost of our Maid Insurance product to S$ 250,
in comparison to the market rate of S$480.
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Email reminders for renewals were sent to old customers to ensure that they could enjoy the most
discounts. Broom shared,
Our customer retention strategies are slightly different. We are now exploring our marketing
strategy, retention strategy, and loyalty strategy for the future. We are studying some cases – like
in the UK; a telecom company integrated sponsorship with a customer loyalty program. For us,
we can’t do that this point as we are only slightly over two years in the market. But as we grow
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older, we intend to constantly revise our strategy to ensure our customers continue to stay with
us. Currently, our focus is still on building our brand name further.
‘Now’ Benefit
In its initial market survey, FWD had found that customers felt that insurance products were difficult
to understand. Moreover, the application process was complicated. In addition, the benefits of such
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products could only be enjoyed if a person got hurt, fell ill or worse. There was no focus on the
benefits that could be enjoyed now. To enable customers to get value from the product the moment
they purchased it, the company allowed for customer validation even before the actual product had
been formulated by providing 50% claims discount, discount vouchers, etc., on its products.
Organisation Culture
The online online platform of FWD (iFWD) was built by an internal disruptor team that worked with
external specialists to build the platform. The organisation structure and culture was built to support
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an agile work environment. It included a flat hierarchy that allowed for quick decision making.
There were plans to launch chatbots in the near future. However, the human element of customer
service was given high importance and the focus was on engaging experienced and trained customer
service staff to help the customer at every step. In other words, customer service was designed to be
of value to the customer, and not to be digital for the sake of being digital.
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Innovation in Product Features
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Many of the FWD product features were a first and not available in similar products offered by other
insurance companies in Singapore. For example, the FWD travel insurance was the first product in
Singapore to offer claims processing through WhatsApp. If the customer’s flight was delayed, s/he
could take a photo of the boarding pass and send it to FWD on WhatsApp for the company to process
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the claim. The insurer had no limit on medical evacuation and repatriation for any level of cover. It
also provided full coverage for haze-related flight delays or cancellations. The product also included
adventure sports coverage, as long as the activity was carried out under professional supervision, and
both operators and customers used proper equipment.
For term life policies, the intelligent underwriting functionality enabled consumers to select a product
completely online by only answering questions that were relevant to them and their circumstances.
Once a customer had selected the policy, they only needed to add in personal details to complete the
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purchase.
For the car insurance product, drivers were provided a 50% No Claim Discount (NCD), another first
in Singapore for a car insurance product. They could have their car protected for life, even if they
had multiple accidents in the same year. This new feature catered to a pain point of drivers (93% of
whom thought it was unfair to lose an NCD after an accident in a survey (refer to Exhibit 8 for
Comparitive Car Insurance Gross Premiums, 2018)).27
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The company also launched Singapore's first fully mobile quote, purchase, and claims service. It
formed a partnership with Vicom in 2017 to distribute vehicle insurance products through the
partners service centres. Vicom was Singapore's leading provider of vehicle inspection and technical
testing services. Broom shared, "We are also exploring how we can work with them on making the
roadworthiness check cheaper for car insurances."
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Dwelling into the Future
New technologies and emerging trends were anticipated to have a huge impact on the insurance
industry in the near future. Some of the key influencers in technology were telematics, user-focused
technologies, Big Data, Cloud Computing, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence. In product
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trends, all-in-one insurance was a concept that was steadily gaining traction. The argument was that
since insurers had all the details about their customers (cars, home, health, travel, income, etc.), they
could potentially provide a customised single overarching policy built dynamically with room for
future adjustments (Refer to Exhibit 9 for Emerging Trends in the Insurance Industry).28
Although FWD was using many of the emerging technologies in its business, Broom wondered if it
could potentially tap on these channels to further grow the business. The insurance industry in
Singapore was still dominated by a handful of large traditional insurance players holding a majority
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27 FWD, Singapore's new direct insurer, offers the nation's first 50% lifetime no claim discount protection, FWD, Media-Blog,
https://www.fwd.com.sg/media-blog/fwd-singapores-new-direct-insurer-offers-nations-first-50-lifetime-no-claim-discount-protection/,
28 Nithila Jeyakumar, "Analysis of the Digital Direct-to-Customer channel in Insurance," Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
February 2017, https://cams.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016-21.pdf , accessed January 2019.
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(89%) of the market share.29 Finding a space within this market would continue to be a tough journey
that would require careful strategising.
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The short-term focus for the company was to make its brand further visible to the insurance customers
in Singapore, and continuously look at new ways to make its product attractive to its customers by
further simplifying products and processes. Addressing his team, Broom summed up,
Our goal is to change the way people feel about insurance. Instead of people feeling they don’t
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need the product they brought, they should purchase what they need. And when they need us, we
are always there. Our key objective is process simplification all the way. When we get to 5 years,
we will have to redo the processes again as the way simplification will be understood then will
probably be different, given the rate of advancement of technology. Today, we have close to over
a million quotes. What we should keep asking ourselves is - how do we keep building that, keep
giving that experience to our customers?
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Focus on customer centricity had helped FWD build a significant customer base primarily by word
of mouth. Much had been achieved, but there was more to be achieved. The question that remained
was whether FWD could investigate the emerging trends further to create a greater impact as an
online insurance company? Could the company capture a larger audience by incorporating emerging
technologies and trends like an all-in-one insurance product? How could the company improve its
market growth strategy?
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No
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29 Singapore Insurance Report, Fitch Solutions, 2019, https://www.marketresearch.com/Business-Monitor-International-v304/,

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EXHIBIT 1: FWD LOGO & COMPANY WEBSITE
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No
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Source: Company Data
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EXHIBIT 2: CUSTOMER-CENTRIC ORGANISATIONAL HABITS
Acting proactively to Continuously listening

anticipate needs to customers
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Building customer Sharing knowledge
empathy into processes internally with
and policies customers
Building customer Habits of Customer- Adapting to customer

Centric Organisations demands and
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empathy into processes
and policies circumstances in real-
time
Motivating employees Respect customer

to stay engaged privacy
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Creating accountability
Acting systematically Consistently following for customer
to improve the up with customers on experience
customer experience their feedback improvements
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Source: Laurence Goasduff, Is Your Organization Customer-Centric?, Gartner, March 7, 2019,

https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/is-your-organization-customer-centric/ , accessed February 2019.
EXHIBIT 3: TYPICAL PAIN POINTS IN A CUSTOMER’S JOURNEY IN INSURANCE
Pre Sales Sales/Purchase Claims Post Sales

Not enough Complicated Difficult to Complicated
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information Product reach out closure

on product procedures
Not enough Not enough Lengthy Complicated
helpful clarity Declaration contract
advice forms and renewal
processes procedure
Slow Request
Confirmation constant
monitoring and
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follow-up
Time Taking Slow and
Underwriting cumbersome
settlement
Source: Author’s own
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EXHIBIT 4: FWD PRODUCTS
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PRODUCT CHARACTERISTICS
CAR INSURANCE customisable car insurance plan, lifetime
NCD guarantee, the best repair warranty,
most comprehensive family protection in
Singapore
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MAID INSURANCE medical insurance and accident cover for your
maid
TRAVEL INSURANCE unlimited medical evacuation cover,
comprehensive protection, and coverage, plus
a click to claim process
HOME INSURANCE rent is protected with FWD Rent Protector.
With FWD Home Insurance, personalize
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TERM LIFE mix and match for From basic life insurance
coverage for death and terminal illness to
comprehensive protection for total and
permanent disability and critical illness
COMMERCIAL CAR only insurer to offer private-hire drivers like
Grab drivers the option to buy car insurance
online, unique 50% NCD lifetime guarantee
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CANCER INSURANCE free Medical Second Opinion, all stages of
cancer
INTERNATIONAL HEALTH cashless claims at our global network of
medical facilities
MOTORCYCLE No Claim Discount is 20%
PERSONAL ACCIDENT overseas emergency medical evacuation
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without any limit

ENDOWMENT a unique combination to insure and save
online
GROUP INSURANCE wide range of coverage for death, disability,
and illness for employees
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EXHIBIT 5: FACEBOOK PROMOTIONS
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No
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EXHIBIT 6: TV COMMERCIALS
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No
Video links:
Car Insurance Ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfL6rkJzG-Y
Travel Insurance Ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wfcA6j-lS0
FWD Look at what we can do now Ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QasaefVJpyk

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EXHIBIT 7: FWD CUSTOMER RESPONSE & REVIEWS
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FWD CAR INSURANCE PRICE COMPARISON
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EXHIBIT 8: COMPARITIVE CAR INSURANCE PREMIUMS, SINGAPORE, 2018
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Source: Anastassia Evlanova, Why is Singapore's Insurance Industry So Competitive?, Value Champion, August 7,
2019, https://www.valuechampion.sg/why-singapores-insurance-industry-so-competitive , accessed February 2019.
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EXHIBIT 9: EMERGING TRENDS IN INSURANCE INDUSTRY
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TELEMATICS Combined computers and wireless technology to stream
information across multiple platforms, including
technologies like self-driving cars could reduce accidents by
90 percent, thereby forcing insurance companies to change
their auto premiums.
BIG DATA Big Data on consumers could help hone actuarial models
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built on behavioural analytics – predicting human behaviour
and actions based on available data.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE & MACHINE Machine learning and AI algorithms could be used by sales
agents to pitch their sales more effectively to their consumers
LEARNING based on their personal preferences.
SOCIAL MEDIA Social Media was being used to generate leads. As
consumers openly shared their life events on social media
forums, data analytic tools and techniques could be used to
identify emerging needs for both prospective and existing
customers.
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RIDE SHARING Businesses such as Grab and Uber could have a big and
lasting impact on the insurance industry because of the
emerging requirements for ride-sharing insurance.
CYBERSECURITY Insurance agencies haven’t been the targets of hackers all
that much, however, as other targets become more secure
and inaccessible, attackers are moving on to more
unprepared targets. Notably, insurance companies hold
enormous amounts of sensitive personal information.
MULTIPLE CHANNELS Insurance companies are starting to leverage multiple
parallel channels, often working hard to minimize channel
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conflicts.
BLOCKCHAIN By using blockchain, data from external sources can be
sourced by the underwriters to automate some aspects of
their jobs. Another aspect of the insurance industry that can
be positively affected by blockchain technology is the
processing of claims.
ALL IN ONE INSURANCE The All-In-One form of insurance was steadily turning itself
in an emerging trend. From a customer’s point of view, it
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makes perfect sense and provides great convenience to

something that is usually a hassle.
Source: Adapted from Ivaylo Guenov, 9 Emerging Insurance Industry Trends That Will Transform the Business
(2018-2020), Scale Focus, October 2018, https://www.scalefocus.com/insights/business/insurance-industry-trends-
2018-2020/, accessed February 2019.
No
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22/22

FWD: Customer-Centric Marketing IN Online Insurance

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FWD: CUSTOMER-CENTRIC MARKETING IN ONLINE

Copyright © 2020, Singapore Management University Version: 2020-03-15

– an existing group medical insurance provider in the country.2

2015, Preface, accessed February 2019.

Insurance Industry in Singapore

Convenience of usage was key

Perceived Risk of Consumers

Redefining Insurance: FWD Brand Identity

Simplification was key

(refer to Exhibit 5 for promotions on Facebook and Exhibit 6 for TV commercials).

Broom further added,

Service-related to Insurance needs to be very empathetic and understanding. Customers who

the smaller hassles in time of grieving.

Dwelling into the Future

29 Singapore Insurance Report, Fitch Solutions, 2019, https://www.marketresearch.com/Business-Monitor-International-v304/,

Source: Company Data

Acting proactively to Continuously listening

Building customer Habits of Customer- Adapting to customer

Motivating employees Respect customer

Source: Laurence Goasduff, Is Your Organization Customer-Centric?, Gartner, March 7, 2019,

EXHIBIT 3: TYPICAL PAIN POINTS IN A CUSTOMER’S JOURNEY IN INSURANCE

Pre Sales Sales/Purchase Claims Post Sales

information Product reach out closure

Source: Author’s own

without any limit

Source: Company Data

Source: Company Data

Car Insurance Ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfL6rkJzG-Y

Travel Insurance Ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wfcA6j-lS0

FWD Look at what we can do now Ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QasaefVJpyk

Source: Company Data

Source: Company Data

makes perfect sense and provides great convenience to

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