1

A REPORT

ON

“MARKETING STRATEGIES OF AIM INDIA PVT LTD”

A report submitted towards the partial fulfillment of the requirements of the two years full-time Post Graduate Diploma in

Management.

Submitted by: Himanshu Goyal

Post Graduate Diploma in Management

Roll No.: PGP20060

(2018-2020)

IMM-FOSTIIMA Business School

Plot No. HAF-1, Dwarka Sector 9, New Delhi, 110077

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

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I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have made working on this project

feasible for me. I would first like to thank IMM FOSTIIMA and director Dr. SUBHASH

KAKKAR, for giving me an opportunity to work with a corporate during my PGDM program. I

would like to extend my thanks to AIM, India for providing me with the opportunity to work with

them and giving me my first taste of real corporate and professional world.

I extend a special thanks to Mr. Himalaya Sethi, director of AIM INDIA, for his valuable guidance

and sharing insights from his enlightening experience and Business Knowledge.

I would like to extend my sincere thanks and gratitude to my company guide Ms. Tanya Dua,

Sr.Corporate sales manager, AIM INDIA for allowing me to work under her able guidance. Without

her guidance, help and support this project would not have been possible..

Last but not the least, I would like to thank my friends and colleagues MS.Shivani Gupta (HR Area

Manager), without their support, cooperation and suggestions this project could not be completed.

DECLARATION BY THE STUDENT

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I, Himasnhu Goyal, Roll number PGP20060, hereby declare that the work described in the enclosed

report is my original work done under the Guidance of Ms.Tanya Dua and Prof. Devendra Bahadur

at Aim India Pvt Ltd. for a period of 8 weeks.

I also confirm that where ever I have used text or data from any other source I have duly

acknowledged the same. Also the report is a true reflection of actual work done by me during my

Summer Internship Program.

I would hereby like to thank my Industry mentor for being a cooperative guide and making me learn

throughout the internship.

Date: 20.07.2018 Himanshu Goyal

PGP20060

Industry Mentor declaration

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This is to certify that the report enclosed here is the original work carried out by
_________________ (name of the student) a student of IMM-FOSTIIMA Business School, New
Delhi towards partial fulfillment of Post Graduate Diploma for Management from 08.04.2019 to
08.06.2019.

(Any other narration by the industry mentor)

Ms.Tanya Dua
Sr.Corporate Sales Manager
Aim India Pvt Ltd
(Date)

Company Seal

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FACULTY MENTOR DECLARATION

This is to certify that the report enclosed here is the original work carried out by Himanshu Goyal

PGP20060 towards partial fulfillment of Post Graduate Diploma for Management from 8.04.2019 to

8.06.2019.

Date: 20.07.2018 Prof. Devendra Bahadur

TABLE OF CONTENT
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SNO. DESCRIPTION PAGE

NO.
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2. ABSTRACT
4. UNDERSTANDING ABOUT THE COMPANY
5. PRODUCTS
6. COMPETITORS
7. MARKETING STTRATEGIES
8. PORTER’S FIVE FORCES MODEL
9. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

10. LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

11. QUESTIONNAIRE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

AIM India has three ventures and is basically a wealth management and consultancy firm

which delivers a one stop solution/ service to achieve financial independence. Our principle is

to deliver high returns to our clients through our network of government sector banks in India.

Talking about its other ventures Insplore and Finamigo is dedicated to empower people with

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relevant jobs and development opportunities. We serve small, medium & large organizations

across all industry sectors.

We have a Team of Professionals working every day to provide HR Solutions to the

companies. Our Sole objective is to bridge the gap between the Talented Candidate and the

Talent Seeker.

The objective of my internship was to explore the field of marketing, learning the work in

different sectors, choose my field wisely as well as to undergo a project work in the field of

marketing.

The background of my internship is market research which included data mining of different

companies of different sectors as well as sales in insurance sector which included a life cover

security scheme, a medical insurance policy as well as term loans.

The Methodology used is both secondary, that is, the backend work which included the data

mining of the information of different companies in different sectors as well as contacting the

HR of the respective companies and taking a regular follow up i.e. B2B as well as primary

which included the sales of the insurance policy in which we were supposed to perform a

direct sale, i.e. B2C.

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The learning experience I gain from the internship is immense. Till now, I am able to

understand the importance of customer relationship for any company. I have completed the

project satisfactorily to my belief as well as collected a survey on the same.

The Limitations of the project was firstly the field work as it was tedious task to deal with

different types of customer as well as to understand their mentality towards insurance policy.

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 ABSTRACT

The main aim of the undergone Summer Internship Program is to make the students experience the

work culture and the procedures of the Corporate World. This Summer Internship Program consists

of the involvement of the students in company as intern and understands the facts of the company as

well as to make the project on the work done by the students in the Company allotted to them for the

Internship in various domains like Marketing, Marketing research, HR, Finance, Operations etc.

In this report I will share my experience of 60 days in the company. My role as an intern in the

company is to study and understand the company’s product and sell it. I need to have an in-depth

knowledge of entire financial sector and know our product’s special feature which may differentiate

it from others. I also have to lure and convince the customers for our investment plan (Mahajeevan).

And also I have worked for other two verticals of the company that is a consultancy firm and a

coaching institute which were at the initial stage of the business.

In the HR sector, my mentor taught me about various features:

➢ HR Training

➢ Roles of HR

➢ Recruitment Process

➢ Various types of letters

➢ Pay slips

➢ Role plays

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In the finance sector, my mentor taught me about:

➢ Taxation module

➢ various types of taxes and their relevance

➢ Tax slabs

➢ Tax calculations’

➢ Various deductions (80(C), 80(D), 10(10) D.

➢ Various financial sectors

➢ Portfolio management

In the operations department, I performed backend work in which I was asked to make a database

and fill in all the information’s about the companies which is needed for the ventures of the

company.

The reporting time for the interns is 10:00 AM in the morning till 5:30 PM which includes a break of

30 minutes for the lunch.

During my internship I was given training of Fifteen days by my mentor Ms. Tanya Dua in which

she taught me about all the market sectors as well as the various financial Sectors and made me do

the role plays to face the market.

After this training I was on 30 days field work in which I need to perform sales of the new products

launched by the company dealing with insurance plans and medical claims. It was a great experience

as well as a good exposure given by the company as in that field work I was made to interact with

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different types of customers and face the new challenges which are already set up by well setup

companies as well as to understand market penetration strategies

My company guide did allot me the project as “Marketing Strategies”. My project is mainly

focused on the Marketing strategy used by businesses to attract customers to a new product or

service.

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 UNDERSTANDING ABOUT THE COMAPANY

 AIM India Pvt Ltd.:

My experience with AIM India Pvt Ltd has been an eye opening one in terms of teaching me the

various complexities the insurance company undergoes in creating a perfect financial product,

pitching it to potential consumer and yet unable to match the consumers’ abstract needs.

AIM India Pvt Ltd is a third-party agent company which provides the insurance plan of

“INDIAFIRST LIFE CO.” to the potential consumers. The whole work methodology of the

organization rotates on the shifts and all year hiring of the interns. The main work of the firm is

“Wealth Management” i.e. “Helping the individual reach the state of financial independence”. To do

this they provide the assistance of insurances to the clients.

In brief, AIM India Pvt Ltd provides exemplary insurance service extension to the consumers. Aim

India deals in life insurance.

At initial period of our internship, we were taught various aspects to be aware of while a consumer

invests, these are:

 Lock in Period

 Value for money

 Goodwill

 Protection of Loved one

 Privacy statement

 USPs

 Market Stability

 Rights of Policy Holder

 Types of Death covered

 NRI Applicability
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AIM INDIA Pvt Ltd deals with consumer on the sale of India first Life Insurance company’s

products. The various financial products that company sells are

1. “India First Life Company” Mahajeevan Plan

2. “Term life insurance”

3. “Mediclaim product of Star Health company”

 We were briefed with the history of Indiafirst Life Company which is actually JOINT

VENTURE between “Bank of Baroda” & “Andhra Bank” & “Legal & General.” Indiafirst

life co. on its independent performance offers Group insurance product, Individual insurances

which are spanned over by 2.4 lakh service distributors due to the presence of the bank

branches of its ventured banks. Hence, it actually works on the principle of “Bank-

assurance.”

 The major competitors for our company are LIC, HDFC Life Insurance, Aviva Life

Insurance, Bajaj Life Insurance, LIC etc.

1. Mahajeevan PLAN:

This is actually a traditional plan i.e. non-linked insurance plan which offers both deaths as well as

maturity benefits to the insurer. It offers life protection plus saving and equally provides revisionary

bonuses to enhance the policy holder’s wealth. In an occurrence of untimely demise of life insured,

death benefits are offered. In case the time period is over, the maturity benefits are offered.

The policy holders receive “Terminal bonuses” as well as “Revisionary bonuses”.

Various key points of this policy are as follow

i. Rider benefit: A rider option is also provided to insured life.

ii. The maturity benefit is equal to the guaranteed sum assured plus the bonuses.

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 iii. The death benefit is the assured sum i.e. equal to sixteen times the first premium paid plus

accrued revisionary bonus and terminal bonus. But usually this “sixteen time” index is also

dependent on age. The younger the life insured is higher is the probability to receive the sum

closer to sixteen times.

iv. Under the sections of Income Tax of Indian Constitution, the specific tax benefits are offered

via Income Tax Act 80C and full tax saving on the maturity amount on 10(10(D)).

v. The Entry age is 5 years of life assured and policy term is 15 years.

vi. The lock in period of the plan is 3year. However; the co has provided a loan feature for

utilization of cash invested in case of any work. Post two year, the proposer can take 90% of

the sum money as loan, which would be free of interest and next year it has to be paid via

renewal.

vii. EMI feature is available to proposer to put in the premium from second year without any

hassle of interest payments.

viii. Any person with Indian passport can buy this product.

ix. This is a traditional plan fee of market risks.

x. Types of death covered include suicide as well but only after lock in period is completed and

scrutiny report is submitted over by concerned officials.

xi. The market return is 8% (4% + 2% + 2%).

xii. There is provision to expand it to 25 years.

xiii. There is ownership transfer scheme provided.

xiv. Flexibility is provided pan India for nominee change.

xv. In case of Divorce cases, this plan comes under “Marriage Human Act”, whereby the liability

to pay for spouse is no more.

The pitching of the product was taught on the categorization of

 Child Category

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  Youngster Plan

 Retirement Plan

The child pitching actually consists of the age benefit whereby the proposer can continuously keep

investing even after the maturity occurs via taking out some fund and reinvestment.

For the youngsters, the pitching could involve “Good return”, “Tax benefit”, “and Life Security”,“

Ownership transfer ”,“ Loan feature”.

For the elderly, the plan could be rolled out to someone around 40-45 year. There is provision of

investment for 15year and at the end the maturity amount could be either blocked for 8 years which

would give double money at end or the interest on whole amount if kept with company can be

provided as monthly premiums.

2. Term PLAN:

This is the second plan we have been introduced to. Just like any motor insurance, it only comes into

existence if any accident occurs else it expires.

It covers the clause that if the person smokes, the premium is slightly higher than non-smoker. So,

for the elderly people and one with medical histories and serious backgrounds such as diabetes,

genetic problems etc.

There is no maturity benefit, it only has death benefit. The term plan can’t be extended. The benefit

is really less as compared to Traditional plan of Mahajeevan.

3. MediClaim PLAN:

This is the third plan, which is actually of “Star Health” Company. The plan covers the disease and

medical emergencies, surgeries cover up for the person and family insured under certain acceptable

terms and conditions. This is a comprehensive plan. There is no capping. There is provision of

Floater system, and one can effectively change premium each year leading to change in the coverage

span
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PRODUCTS:

MAHAJEEVAN:

India First MahaJeevan Plan is a with profit, non-linked, endowment insurance plan. Under this plan,

you can choose how much you would like to insure yourself based on your requirements. We suggest

you make sure this amount is what your family needs to avoid cash flow problems in case of the

untimely demise of the Life Assured. This is a regular premium plan with the option of choosing

from 15 to 25 year plan term.

This plan may include the ‘Life Assured’, the ‘Policyholder’, the ‘Nominee’ and the

‘Appointee’.

KEY FEATURES:

 Plan your future needs by deciding exactly when you need the assured amount -

anytime between 15 – 25 years

 Ensure your prosperity with the assurance of a guaranteed maturity amount (sum

assured) along with the bonus, if any

 We prosper only if you prosper. We will share terminal bonus, if any, at the end of the

plan term

 Accumulate your savings systematically, through regular premium contributions

based on your income and needs

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 The plan offers a death benefit equal to the sum assured in case of the life assured’s

untimely demise. Enhance your life cover through India First Term Rider offered

under the plan

 Under Section 80C you can enjoy tax benefits on the premium you invest. You can

also get tax benefits on the benefits you receive at maturity of your plan, under

Section 10(10D) of the Income Tax Act, 1961

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STAR HEALTH MEDICAL INSURANCE

Star Health and Allied Insurance Co Ltd launched health, overseas med claim, and personal accident

insurance plans, since their inception in 2006. The insurance company uses its resources to provide

excellent services and customized products to meet the varying needs of their customers. Star Health

and Allied Insurance has a capital base of Rs.1,050 crore, and is one of the largest private health

insurance providers in India.

Benefits of individual health insurance plans:

 Individuals aged 18 to 65 years are eligible for the plan.

 There is no sub-limit on room rent and treatment costs.

 Insurance cover includes hospital cash benefits and free health check-up facility after the

completion of a certain number of consecutive, claim-free years.

 Insurance policies from Star Health cover several day-care procedures.

Benefits of family health insurance plans:

 Affordable health insurance cover is available on a floater basis

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For a claim-free renewal, you can get up to 100% increase in sum insured.

 No sub-limit on room rent and treatment costs.

 Your policy will cover dental and ophthalmic treatments on Out-Patient Department (OPD)

basis.

 Insurance benefits include air ambulance facility and second medical opinion.

Benefits of senior citizen health insurance plans:

 Senior citizens aged 60 to 75 years can apply for the plan.

 No-pre insurance medical test is required.

 Insurance covers pre-existing diseases from 2nd year onwards.

 Policy comes with a guaranteed lifetime renewability option.

 Medical consultations can be availed as an outpatient in a network hospital.

Benefits of accident care individual health insurance plans:

 Insurance cover for accidental death, permanent disability, and temporary disablement.

 Get enhanced weekly compensation up to Rs.15, 000 per week for up to 100 weeks.

 Get educational grant for dependent children.

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COMPETITORS OF INDIA FIRST LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY

 LIC India Life Insurance

 New India Assurance

 National Insurance

 Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance

 United India Insurance

 Oriental Insurance

 ICICI Prudential Life Insurance

 HDFC Life Insurance

 Max life insurance

 SBI Life Insurance

 Birla Sun Life Insurance

 Apollo Munich Insurance

 IFFCO Tokyo Insurance

 Bharti AXA Life Insurance

 HDFC Ergo Insurance

 Tata AIA Life Insurance

 Max Bupa Insurance

 PNB MetLife Insurance

 Kotak Mahindra Insurance

 Future Generali Insurance

 Reliance Life Insurance

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 United India Insurance

 Star Health Insurance

 Cigna TTK Insurance

 Aviva India Insurance

 India first Insurance

 Exide life Insurance

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An Example of various financial product comparison.

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The objectives of the project were as under:

 Distribution of the insurance policies.

 Understanding the various uses of Insurance as a Product.

 Proper understanding and analysis of insurance industry.

 Knowledge about the financial Industry.

 Generating and analyzing leads for the sales.

 Doing the basic market analysis for all the three verticals.

 To understand the consumers perception in all the verticals.

 To bring about changes in the product as per the current market situation for effective and

efficient stabilization of the companyIn order to achieve the above objectives.

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ABOUT THE PROJECT

In my project I was asked to perform a 30 Days field work in which I was asked to sell the

product MAHAJEEVAN which is a life cover insurance of INDIA FIRST LIFE INSURANCE

COMPANY which is a joint venture of three banks:

 BANK OF BARODA

 ANDHRA BANK

 LEGAL & GENERAL BANK

As well as medical claims of STAR HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY which helped me to

understand the market and consumer behavior as well as the penetration strategies.

My topic of the project is MARKETING STRATEGIES which tells us that as soon as a company

enters a new market, it strives for market penetration.

Marketing is a widely used term to describe the means of communication between the company

and the consumer audience. Marketing is the adaptation of the commercial activities and use of

institutions by the organizations with a purpose to induce behavioral change on a short-term or

permanent basis. The American Marketing Association most recently defined Marketing as "the

activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and

exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large."

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The techniques used in marketing include choosing target markets through market analysis and

market segmentation, as well as understanding methods of influence on the consumer behavior.

The marketing planning creates strategies for the company to place advertising to the dedicated

consumers.

The main objective is to enter the market as swiftly as possible and finally, capture a sizeable

market share. Market penetration is also, sometimes used as a measure to know whether a

product is doing well in the market or not.

Marketing is basically the study and management of exchange relationships which is used to

create, keep and satisfy the customer. It is defined as "the activity, set of institutions, and

processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for

customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”

Philip Kotler defines marketing as:- Marketing is about Satisfying needs and wants through an

exchange process.

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COMMON PROPOSAL FORM OF INDIA FIRST LIFE INSURANCE

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 MAHAJEEVAN PLAN

The plan focused on a long term investment of 15 years with a return appoints:-

1. LoNg Term Interest

2. Security (Government Sector bank) as the owner of India First is

Andhra bank and Bank of Baroda.

3. Flexible Installments from second year (as the customer have

the option of paying monthly, quarterly or half yearly from

second installment)

4. Guaranteed Results

5. 16 times life cover (the death claim was 16 times the original

amount till date)

6. Death Benefits

7. Tax Saving 80c and 1010D (this money was exempted from tax

under 80c and 1010D)

8. High Returns

9. Auto-Debit Procedure (in this the amount will be automatically debited from the customer

account if he/she wants)

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STAR HEALTH AND ALLIED INSURANCE COMPANY PROPOSAL

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SERVICES PROVIDED

Growth prospects

Transparency

Flexibility

Ownership transferability

Door service

DOCUMENTS REQUIRED:

PAN card (amount more than 50000)

Bank statement (6 months)

Photograph (latest)

Education proof (higher)

Photo ID card (passport, voter ID card, Aadhar card) - ITR (above 70000-of 3 yrs.)

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MARKETING STRATEGY

Stage one: Defining strategic marketing objectives

Stage two: Determining strategic focus

Stage three: Defining customer targets

Stage four: Competitor analysis

Stage five: Differential advantage

Stage six: Marketing mix

Stage seven: Implementation

Stage eight: Monitoring market performance

Marketing strategy has the fundamental goal of increasing sales and achieving a sustainable

competitive advantage. Marketing strategies includes all basic, short-term, and long-term activities

in the field of marketing that deal with the analysis of the strategic initial situation of a company and

the formulation, evaluation and selection of market-oriented strategies and therefore contribute to the

goals of the company and its marketing objectives. A strategy is a long-term plan to achieve certain

objectives. A marketing strategy is therefore a marketing plan designed to achieve marketing

objectives. For example, marketing objective may relate to becoming the market leader by delighting

customers. The strategic plan therefore is the detailed planning involving marketing research, and

then developing a marketing mix to delight customers. Every organization needs to have clear

marketing objectives, and the major route to achieving organizational goals will depend on strategy.

It is important, therefore, to be clear about the difference between strategy and tactics.

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- Build a Referral Network

- A referral network is one of the best ways insurance agencies grow the business. Strategic

partners for insurance agencies include real estate agents, mortgage lenders, estate planning

attorneys and even other insurance agents. If your agency specializes in a specific type of

insurance -- for example, worker's compensation -- many other agencies are instead focused

on auto and home insurance, and they can refer business clients to you.

- When it comes to building strategic partners, plan it out and be consistent. Take a box of

donuts to a mortgage lender's office once a week with a stack of your cards and a note

thanking them for thinking of you. Offer to sit in open houses with real estate agents. Add

value and partners will emerge to provide you with solid referrals.

- Local Networking Events

- Chambers of commerce and professional organizations host networking events all the time

and you won't miss them if you sign up for their email newsletters and pay attention. Make as

many connections as possible and follow up with those who can assist your insurance

marketing with referrals. Networking events are always loaded with salespeople so focus on

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 how you can be different, help those you meet and have fun. And check out this article for 34

more ideas about insurance agent networking.

- Carry Blank Business Cards

- Have you ever made a really great professional contact and they don't have a card to give

you? Of course you can give them your card but then you're dependent on them to contact

you. Carry blank business cards with you and when you meet someone without a card pull

out a pen and one of your blanks and say something like, "Oh, don't worry. I'm always

prepared so I carry blank business cards with me everywhere. What's your phone number?”

They'll never forget you.

- Buy Insurance Leads

- It isn't easy generating a consistent flow of sales leads to your agency through your

marketing efforts alone. That's why most agents supplement their agency's lead generation

with purchased leads. Use this FREE insurance lead tool to find all the lead companies that

sell leads for your target market.

- Email Newsletters

- If you want to build loyalty, boost referrals, generate leads and cross sell more an email

newsletter to your clients is a fantastic tool. Just remember that people already get a lot of

email and don't want you wasting their time unless you have to have something valuable to

say. If you can't do it well use an email marketing service for insurance agents to produce

professional looking newsletters and keep track of your results.

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- Door-to-door Relationship Building

- It’s not easy, but it might be one of the cheapest and most effective insurance marketing

strategies. To be successful with face-to-face insurance marketing orient all conversations

around how you can help the organization (with referrals and promotion, not just insurance).

Have a non-sales conversation prepared, like a local community event you are organizing and

recruiting help for. Be respectful and make an impression without interfering or coming

across as a typical salesperson. Get x-dates and follow up with the decision makers before

renewals. You will be surprised how many non-commercial insurance leads you get.

- Bundle Your Online Marketing

- A successful online marketing strategy requires several different elements like SEO, PPC,

email, etc. It's hard to manage all those pieces through separate vendors and even harder to

do it all in-house. Insurance Splash offers a complete online marketing package built for

insurance agents that includes SEO, PPC, social media, website, business listings, reputation

management, video marketing and everything else your agency needs to be successful online.

You won't find a better online marketing bundle for agents anywhere.

- Spend Ad Money in Local Social Media

- Social media ads allow the insurance agency owner to target specific clients. It also gets them

in front of Millennials in ways other traditional advertising might not. Use the tools social

media provides to set demographics for certain products. For example, target young families

with small children for life insurance prospects.

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- Price Distribution

- The strategy of Price Adjustment is one of the most widely used market penetration tactic. A

market penetration example could be lowering of price of a product or service with the aim

of increasing sales is a price adjustment tactic. Furthermore, the alteration

- (Increase or decrease) in the price of a product after analyzing the competitors’ products is

also a scenario of price adjustment. But, in the real sense this marketing strategy should be

used very judiciously as overdoing it can lead to adverse results. Like, increasing your price

consistently may make the customers to believe that you are a company of high-profit

motive. Decreasing the price too often would make them to believe that your products are of

sub-standard quality.

Augmented promotion

- The drastic increase in promotion of a product (or service) can lead to dramatic results. For

example, advertising can be a wonderful tool for increasing brand awareness. Companies do

have a choice of making their campaigns long -term or short-term which depends upon their

needs and budget. However, the thing to be considered is that whatever be the size of the

campaign, it must be well-planned and thought-out. An easy to counter promotional

campaign would be simply ruined by competitors in this age of cut-throat competition.

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- Distribution Channels

- The strategy of Distribution Channels is one of the most constructive market penetration

strategies. This strategy typically involves opening of new distribution channels through

focusing on a particular distribution channel. For example, if selling through retail outlets is

your primary channel, then you can learn to gain new channels like telemarketing, e-mail

marketing, online marketing etc. Such opening of new distribution channels pave the way for

more new channels and thus lead to increased market space and overall profitability.

- Improving Products

 It is true that to really appeal to your customers, you must improve your

product quality. However, sometimes by communicating to them about the

better standard of the product itself can do the trick and no major

improvement in the product may be needed .

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- Upsurge Usage

A very potent method of market penetration is that of increased usage of any product or

service. If a marketing promotion campaign is effectively delivered at a specific area, then it

would lead to an upsurge in product use which would thus lead to better market penetration

with the increase in sales figures.

- Knowing Risk and Growth

- Most marketers whenever think of growth think of new launches. However, it is only

partially true. Actually, it can be risky too. When a new product is being launched, there

exists the risk of it being successful or not. But, an efficient distribution channel along with a

smooth delivery process makes it sure that the product does meet the expectations. Similarly,

entering a brand new segment of the market can be risky as well. Therefore, it is absolutely

essential to know your market and your product in order to do well and beyond expectations.

An effective way to do this is to properly communicate with the customers and be sensitive

to their requirements and wants.

- Create barriers to entry

- When it comes to adopting strategic options, it is crucial to leverage your business’s strengths

in a correct and just manner. For example, by minimizing your variable costs, you can boost

your sales and establish a barrier to entry for others. This is why many firms with superior
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 technology and distinct processes are able to reduce variable costs and earn better gross

margins per item sold. With a substantial share in the market and an efficient marketing

process, your business could create a barrier to entry to prevent competitors from coming

into your industry.

- Be unique and think differently

- Although, the entire process of market strategy seems simple and monotonous, yet it’s a big

challenge if you perceive it to be. To overcome the challenge, you need to be more unique

and highly innovative in your approach. A repetitive selling strategy would yield

unsatisfactory results and hinder your growth potential. So, it would be better to think

different and modify your penetration tactics as and when required. By being more

innovative and adding value to your products you enhance your success chances.

- Educate your customers – This is important as many times people are unaware of the quality

of the product and how it could be of use to them.

- Make purchasing easier – Many successful businesses lend a credit facility to their customers

and thus increase the customers’ ability to buy.

- Widen the distribution network – Making your product available at more locations and better

delivery and service options can also significantly boost your sales figures.

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- Generate referrals – If you can encourage your customers to give referrals, it would certainty

affect your chances of sales. For example, you can offer gift coupons or reward points to

those customers whose referrals do actually get converted.

- Changing product designs – By making the product in a more user-friendly manner, your

chances of sales conversion significantly get a lift. For example, you could make a lengthy

novel a paperback one instead of a hardbound one.

- Diversification

- The product penetration tactic of diversification entails manufacturing new products for new

markets. The strategy of diversification is usually followed whenever, there is saturation in

the current market or when environmental changes such as societal, economic, technological

or regulatory make it very hard to generate new sales in those markets. This strategy is most

commonly followed by those businesses in the health sector, such as hospitals. Hospitals

have now diversified their services in the form of long-term care facilities, reimbursement,

network referrals and utilization. Those firms that have diversified on opportunities of their

strengths have been able to gain the most.

- Strategic Alliances

- For some organizations, it is difficult due to one or more reasons to enter new markets. To

solve such an issue, many of these organizations enter into a kind of strategic alliances with

one another to operate in a particular market. Although strategic alliances can be formed into

many forms, the more common one is the joint venture business, in which each partner
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 business holds an equity position. The most common and natural strategic alliances are found

in the pharmaceutical industry.

- Local Networking Events

Chambers of commerce and professional organizations host networking events all the time

and you won't miss them if you sign up for their email newsletters and pay attention. Make as

many connections as possible and follow up with those who can assist your insurance

marketing with referrals. Networking events are always loaded with salespeople so focus on

how you can be different, help those you meet and have fun.

- Carry Blank Business Cards

- Have you ever made a really great professional contact and they don't have a card to give

you? Of course you can give them your card but then you're dependent on them to contact

you. Carry blank business cards with you and when you meet someone without a card pull

out a pen and one of your blanks and say something like, "Oh, don't worry. I'm always

prepared so I carry blank business cards with me everywhere.

- Buy Insurance Leads

- It isn't easy generating a consistent flow of sales leads to your agency through your

marketing efforts alone. That's why most agents supplement their agency's lead generation

with purchased leads.

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- Email Newsletters

- If you want to build loyalty, boost referrals, generate leads and cross sell more an email

newsletter to your clients is a fantastic tool. Just remember that people already get a lot of

email and don't want you wasting their time unless you have to have something valuable

to say. If you can't do it well use an email marketing service for insurance agents to

produce professional looking newsletters and keep track of your results.

- Door-to-door Relationship Building

- It’s not easy, but it might be one of the cheapest and most effective insurance marketing

strategies. To be successful with face-to-face insurance marketing orient all conversations

around how you can help the organization (with referrals and promotion, not just

insurance). Have a non-sales conversation prepared, like a local community event you are

organizing and recruiting help for. Be respectful and make an impression without

interfering or coming across as a typical salesperson. Get x-dates and follow up with the

decision makers before renewals. You will be surprised how many non-commercial

insurance leads you get.

- Bundle Your Online Marketing

- A successful online marketing strategy requires several different elements like SEO, PPC,

email, etc. It's hard to manage all those pieces through separate vendors and even harder

to do it all in-house. Insurance Splash offers a complete online marketing package built

for insurance agents that includes SEO, PPC, social media, website, business listings,

reputation management, video marketing and everything else your agency needs to be

successful online.

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Industry SWOT Analysis: Industry Learning

SWOT analysis is a tool that identifies the strengths, weakness, opportunity and threats of an

organization specifically. SWOT is a basic, straightforward model that assesses what an

organization can and cannot do as well as its potential opportunities and threats.

Strengths: Weakness:

 Independence of access to time and place  Lack of space:

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 Impartiality  Access to unsupportive information:

 Enhancing the individual and group  Students’ assessment and feedback is

participation. limited

 Exposure to Global standard of services.  Lack of physical assets.

Opportunities: Threats:

 Threat to Uniqueness and consistency

 Great perks - Had an international visit  High implantation and maintenance cost

sponsored by company.  Growing as start-ups

 Time saving and cost efficient for learners.  Security and authorization issues.

 Education to all category of pupil.  Large no. of competitors.

MARKETING STRATEGIES INVOLVED

 RECRUITMENT

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 To attract great candidates, associations need to apply great marketing skills to the

recruitment process. No matter your organization’s size or budget, you can incorporate

these five marketing strategies into your recruitment efforts to ensure that you catch the

attention of the most qualified candidates.

Think like a marketer.

To act like a marketer, you have to start by thinking like a marketer—in terms of objectives,

products, and audience.

 Objectives are the ideal solution to a business dilemma. Before launching into a project,

define your objectives. Your objective could be as simple as: “Attract more qualified

candidates to apply through the association’s website.”

 The product is what you want to “sell.” It could be a specific open position or the

perception of your organization as a great place to work.

 Your audience is composed of the people you are trying to reach in this case, qualified

candidates.

 Create a marketing plan.

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While essential, your marketing plan doesn’t need to be overly complicated: It can be as simple

as a one-page document or a basic spreadsheet.

Every marketing plan should include a description of the activities that you will engage in to

meet your objectives and the costs associated with them. Costs may include job-posting fees,

“best place to work” application costs, and hours spent by your staff.

Your marketing plan should also include a detailed timeline for executing on the identified

activities.

 Create effective messages.

To write effective messages, you must first understand your audience so you can tailor messages

to them. For an audience of potential job applicants, instead of advertising a laundry list of your

organization’s various features, emphasize the benefits of working there. If you want to attract

millennials to a particular job posting, for example, you might highlight the ways your

organization supports work-life balance and makes mentoring opportunities available, if

applicable.

While you want to appeal to your target audience, don’t try to fool them. Your organization can’t

be all things to all people, and that’s OK. What’s important is that you don’t inadvertently create

a retention problem by recruiting with messaging that doesn’t reflect the actual experience of

working at your organization.

 Deploy tactics.

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Tactics are the activities that you engage in to achieve your objectives. For recruitment

campaigns, tactics could include building out a talent recruitment page on your website,

strategically posting jobs on external sites, or creating social media campaigns to highlight job

openings and key reasons your organization is a great place to work. You might also employ

tactics that involve existing employees: obtaining testimonials from current employees, training

staff on how to effectively interview candidates, or creating a process for current staff to refer

candidates for open positions.

 Identify practical metrics.

To achieve your goals, you have to be able to consistently measure progress. Metrics are the

markers by which you measure success. Your metrics could range from the number of resumes

received to the amount of time it takes to fill an open position to the traffic that your job postings

bring to your organization’s website.

From the job description to the candidate interview experience to a new hire’s first weeks on the

job, every milestone on the recruitment timeline is an opportunity to convey your authentic

employer message and attract the staff your organization needs to fulfill its mission.

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 DATA MINING

One of the most important problems in modern finance is finding efficient ways to summarize

and visualize the stock market data to give individuals or institutions useful information about

the market behavior for investment decisions. The enormous amount of valuable data generated

by the stock market has attracted researchers to explore this problem domain using different

methodologies. Potential significant benefits of solving these problems motivated extensive

research for years. The research in data mining has gained a high attraction due to the importance

of its applications and the increasing generation information.

 APPLICATION OF DATA MINING IN MARKETING

In business environment, most marketers realized, collection of customer data and extraction of

Valuable information from the data plays a major role in development. Business firms have

become desperate for knowledge and intelligent information from these customer data to stay in

the global race and improve the bottom line. The marketing executives are interested in different

kind of information from the data they collect, but it is not always possible as operational

computer system cannot provide day-to-day transaction information. The marketers can market

their products accordingly to their particular customers demand. From a large database of

customers, it is very difficult to find out the particular customers, who are really interested.

Here comes the role of data mining techniques and technologies. Data Mining techniques &

technologies, for recognizing and tracking valuable information from these data- helps

businesses, shift through layers of seemingly unrelated data for meaningful relationships, where

they can anticipate, rather than simply react to, customer needs. Data mining is a part of much

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larger series of steps that take place between a company & its customers. For data mining to

impact a business, it needs to have relevance to the underlying business process.

Association Rule is a very important approach to find out combinations of items with correct

predictions of more than 90%.

There are differences between different customers and the marketing executives should

understand those differences to optimize their relations. Data mining, the technology is very

reliable method to help the marketing executives for better result.

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STEPS INVOLVED IN DATA MINING PROCESS ARE AS FOLLOW

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COLD CALLING

A cold call is not about making a sale during the first point of contact—your objective is to arrange

the chance to make a sale. Cold calling rarely results in an immediate sale.

Identify targets:

Cold calls help you learn who handles the problem your business solves for at a prospective

company. This is what we use mapping calls for. The goal of the call is simply to speak to a human

and learn one piece of information: who manages the issue your company solves?

Gain insight

Why your response rates low? By using campaign messaging calls, you can often figure out why

you’re not getting the response you intended. If a cold email campaign isn’t returning replies, your

best option may be to call a sample of the recipients (at least 40) and ask why they didn’t respond.

Their explanations can give you a great deal of insight: maybe you’re reaching the wrong people or

perhaps your messaging was confusing or irrelevant. Either way, you can Pinpoint the problem and

take steps to move past it. n

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Master your craft:

It can take a while to become confident and comfortable speaking to prospects over the phone

while delivering your value proposition in a compelling way. The best way to practice is not on

your reps’ first “Are We A Fit” call though, it’s on cold calls. New reps should make 250+ cold

calls before moving on to AWAF calls. By this point, we think they’ll be ready. n

Appear human:

You’re not just a series of keystrokes; you’re a real human being! Polite voicemails show your

prospect that you’re an actual person too; this is one of the best ways to increase reply rates to

emails.

Increase conversions:

Pick up the phone and call every prospect as soon as you receive a reply! When you have a

prospect’s attention and are top of mind, an immediate call is often the best time to capture

interest, qualify/disqualify a prospect, find the decision-maker, or book a demo, leading you one

step closer to that sale.

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 PORTER’S FIVE FORCES MODEL

Porter's five forces analysis is a framework for analyzing the level of competition within an

industry and business strategy development. It draws upon industrial organization economics to

derive five forces that determine the competitive intensity and therefore the attractiveness of an

industry. Porter's five forces include three forces from 'horizontal' competition: the threat of

substitute products or services, the threat of established rivals, and the threat of new entrants; and

two forces from 'vertical' competition: the bargaining power of suppliers and the bargaining

power of customers.

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Threat of new entrants: Since it is an insurance company, which holds only 3% of coverage in

India, so there are great chances of new competitors to enter the market, though it has no such

risk because our company has tie up with the government banks that makes its existence secure

and reputed brand name as well.

Threat of substitutes: Insurance nowadays is more than a cover but an investment as well, the

other substitutes that are available are fixed deposits, share market, gold etc. which are not

bearing that good returns as insurance so there is no such threat.

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Degree of Rivalry: The rivals mainly are the other insurance companies and the major one is

LIC, talking about the private players, till date Indian customers prefers govt. over private for

security of funds, and now talking about LIC it has schemes that are outdated and no asssurit,

though it takes a little more effort and research but it is a better option.

Bargaining power of buyers: Insurance is a sector that requires lots of convincing and patients

because people have to invest their money for a quite long duration, in most of the cases it is

little difficult as the customers bargain a lot. Thus customers has a great say in this field.

JOB PROFILE

Main part of this project is dealing with selling and then with market research. A selling is the

first step of any marketing business. Responsibilities of this profile include understanding the

client’s needs and expectations. In fact, the business strategy begins with the business analyzing

of the business for a brief. He then needs to communicate this to his director. His job is to give

result for new business needs and be a bridge between the company and the client requirement.

Key responsibilities of this profile are managing internal workflow and developing strong

partnerships with client and their requirement. Other strategies include liaising with the clients

on all aspects of marketing communications, briefing business ideas, presenting proposals to

clients, managing advertising spend budget, keeping clients up-to-date on their own and

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competitive activity, occasionally negotiating with client’s behalf and approaching prospective

clients whose accounts are under review.

JOB PROFILE – SALES

As my first part of the internship is on sales. I have given the task to sale Bank of Baroda’s India

first Mahajeevan life insurance plan. India First Life Insurance Company is a life insurance

company headquartered in Mumbai, India. It is a joint venture between two of India's public

sector banks – Bank of Baroda (44%) and Andhra Bank (30%), and UK’s Legal and General

(26%).

Stages in Policy Issuance:

1) Proposal: A Proposal Stage is the First stage before the policy is issued at COPS. At this

stage, the application form is received by COPS, but it is pending for issuance due to further

clarifications required from the customer.

2) Login: A proposal which is complete i.e., duly filled with all necessary documents attached to

it & accepted by the Branch ops, is called a Login

3) Reject: An Application gets rejected at the Branch Ops level due to necessary details not

filled in the form or necessary documents not submitted is a Reject. It is then sent back to the

Advisor for completion.

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4) Issuance: Issuance means a policy that is issued to the Customer by Central Ops.

5) Decline Status: When a customer refuses to take a policy post login but before Issuance is

called a Decline

6) Cancellassions : When the cheque given by the customer bounces, it amounts to cancellation

of the policy.

7) Lapse : A policy for which the Customer fails to pay subsequent premiums is a Lapsed Policy.

8) Free look: Post issuance of the policy, the policyholder has the option to turn down the policy

within 15 days from the date of issuance. This period of 15 days is called free lookup Period.

9) Surrender : When a customer wants to discontinue with the policy.

DIFFERENT PHASES OF SIP

First Phase:

During this phase, we were given induction sessions on the company i.e. about the company,

what is the product of the company & knowing the market (insurance industry) and its

competitors etc. There were various interactive activities held such as money multiplier task,

promotional activity (digital marketing task) etc. We were given session on HR role, recruitment

& selection briefing & learnt to make pay slips.

We have gained understanding for taxation, tax slabs, tax calculation and various deductions on

income. We learnt of various financial sectors such as banking, share market, mutual funds,

government bonds, real estate, gold, public provident fund, employee provident fund etc.

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We were given session on what insurance is all about & how it is helpful. There are two types of

plans- traditional plan where money is invested in banks and ULIP plan (unit linked insurance

plan) where money is invested in shares with high risk.

Gradually, our company’s product i.e. MAHAJEEVAN plan was launched to us. This product is

of INDIA First Company, we are the third party to reach out to the people to sell this plan. We

were given training on this plan. We understood the plan thoroughly and learnt sales pitching.

We did role plays to learn how practically pitching is done to the target audience. We have learnt

3 different pitching styles for the same product to target different aged group audience {child

plan, youngster plan, retirement plan}.

Second Phase:

During this phase, all the interns were on field for next few days to understand the working of

the market. We were socializing with people around us in order to target prospects. We learnt

customer dealing and pitched for the product trying to convert the prospects into the clients. Few

prospects were converted into leads and meetings were fixed to further explain them about the

product feature & how it is different from other plans and trying to close the meeting in one go.

We learnt that we should keep strong follow-up with our clients during the whole process.

We observed that Indian customers prefer LIC more to private sectors as it is public sector and

they feel it to be more secured. It becomes hard to convince the customers above 45years of age.

The best target audience for our product is the youngsters and middle aged group. People in India

have trust issues considering the insurance companies. We came across many people who didn’t

want to invest their money for long term; hence we have pitched them with customization in our

plan and provided them with flexibilities.

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SALES PROCESS

1. Establish Rapport. The easiest way to do this is to match and mirror their behavior, or

identify their preferred internal representation system and use that to communicate with your

prospect. Without rapport, it’s harder to elicit the information you need to determine whether

you and the prospect are actually a good fit, and if you don’t seem to be getting anywhere in

establishing try to work out why

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 .

2. Ask Questions.

You can use questions to continue to build rapport but you are really listening carefully

so that you learn about your prospect’s problems and concerns. You’ll be asking questions

throughout the interview so that you can discover what they value, and what their

decision-making process is, and trying to uncover their objections so that you’ve

answered them effectively before you come to the point of closing the deal. These

questions will help your prospect feel that they were heard, and they will help you know

whether the person is actually a real candidate for your product.

3. Establish Value and Need.

Your questions will show you whether the person actually needs your product or service.

At this point you are making some decisions on their behalf. If you realize that you can’t

add enough value to this particular business for it to be worthwhile that’s okay - you can

tell the other person how you feel and end the conversation. You never want to go into a

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 deal so hungry that you need to get it at any cost. If you can’t add enough value to make it

worthwhile for the prospect then you’re better off walking away. If you do make a deal

under those circumstances neither of you will be happy with the outcome.

4. Propose Solution.

Hopefully you’ve taken all the time you need to ask questions and listen to their answers,

because by the time you get to this fourth step in the sales process you should be ready to

propose your tailored solution succinctly and clearly. Your prospect should be nodding

agreement at this point and demonstrating that they can see the value you are offering to them

specifically. As you outline your solution the prospect should feel confident that it will solve

their specific problem, not just be the package you happen to have in your cart ready to

unload on them.

5. Seal the Deal.

This is the final step in the process - whether it involves signing a contract or a verbal

agreement. If you’ve done your job well, the outcome won’t be a surprise to either party

because you will be offering your prospect a custom solution that will truly fit their needs.

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 FINDINGS & CONCLUSION

The main aim of this internship is to learn the aspects of marketing and sales through the real

life market situations and implementing the aspects studied through books if needed. The

Internship is almost about to end and experience of the real life world is quite different as we

study in books though It’s been life transforming

Internship so far as we observe keenly the way in which or the path in which this project has

taken nurtured me as a manager, a consultant, an entrepreneur and a sales representative.

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Throughout the project, I was trying to find out new opportunities to implement the ways in

which I could connect to the customer during sale of the insurance policy so as to learn his/her

approach as well as mentality towards the policy and their trust on the bank.

By working in this sector, I am able to understand the importance of customer relationship for

any company and got to understand the market to a great extent.

To generate business

There are following ways to generate business in insurance sector, so here are the some major

ways through which our company generates business

 Direct requests.

 Partnerships

 Network development

 Lead exchange groups

 Co-registration

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To understand consumer purchase behavior

There are some measures through which we are able to understand the consumer behavior are:

 The level of satisfaction and loyalty, and the content of information searched

 Knowledge level provided at time of describing policy to consumer.

 The number of competing companies- changes in the consideration mind set of any

consumer.

 As we are start-ups so consumer thinks hundred times before investing into our product.

To understand how insurance industry works

Insurance as a concept, is not a new thing in this world. It’s been in existence for centuries.

Insurance is all about transferring the risk to someone else, by paying a small cost called a

premium. The person who runs the insurance business (for profit!), takes care of all the research

and data which makes the business viable in long term.

We majorly focus on LIFE INSURANCE

Life Insurance – They know how many people out of 100, will die on an average in a year and

within how many years. So if a big number of people pay for some years at least, it will be

enough to pay the dead ones families.

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 LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

1) There is a scope to sell insurance policy to an age group 18-24 years. Here there are potential

customers. Example: IT professional, BPO employees etc.

2) AIM India Pvt. Ltd. (India First Life Insurance Co) should try to build trust among the public

by making people aware of their investment is safe, life coverage, high return on investment, Tax

Benefits.

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3) As more respondents are investing to get high returns on investment, the company should try

to provide attractive returns on investments in future.

4) AIM India Pvt. Ltd. should introduce attractive policies & bonus on policies to attract more

potential customers.

5) The premium amount and time period should be kept less for better market penetration.

6) As the insurance industry highly works on “word of mouth” publicity, therefore feedback

from customers should be collected and showcased in advertisements and banners to create

popularity of the brand.

I have also faced some constraints and limitations. They have been listed as follows:

 Some clients who were interviewed didn’t share their personal observation or problems

they were facing because they didn’t find it important to share because of their personal

opinions and views.

 Many employees and organization have low awareness about the marketing strategies and

why it is needed in the organization, as well as what benefits will it bring to an individual

or group of people and in turn the organization.

 Some respondents were not aware of the information asked in the questionnaire. So could

not fill the questionnaire appropriately.

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 LEARNINGS FROM SIP

1. On the first day of our internship, I had orientation session. Where I learnt about our

company and basic knowledge of insurance company.

2. By selling insurance, I got to known that first answer to receive from potential customer is

NO. If we target 10 prospects, I can convert only one into clients. Getting an appointment

over telephonic conversation is again a very difficult task. In order to avoid this, I tend to

attended more of social functions so as to meet people easily.

3. Observation on consumer behavior while selling policies :

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  Indians are price sensitive (they are not willing to pay high premiums)

 They vest more trust on public sectors like LIC than private sector.

 If a sales deal is closed in the 1st meeting then it’s a successful one. If a client asks for

a second meeting then possibilities of deal getting closed is less.

4. I have also learnt various uses of life insurance products such as savings for future, tax

benefits etc.

5. I also discussed and compared that how private insurance companies will get popular in the

coming years with the rates of FDs and other government instruments dropping their rate of

interests.

6. I have marketed our company’s page (all verticals) over social media and made articles

(content writing) to be posted on the concern page and website.

7. I have also learnt sales/product pitching and how to convince different age groups for the

same product.

8. Understood the customer employee relationship by analyzing customers’ needs and wants.

QUESTIONNAIRE

NAME :

AGE :

OCCUPATION:

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 Q1. What is your annual income?

a. 0-2.5 lakhs

b. 2.5-5 lakhs

c. 5-10 lakhs

d. 10 lakhs and above

Q2. What portion of your income do you save?

a. 0-10%

b. 10-25%

c. 25-50%

d. 50% and above

Q3. Where do you prefer investing your savings?

a. FD & RDs

b. Gold

c. Real estate

d. Insurance

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 e. Other banking plans

Q4. Are you a risk taker?

a.Yes

b. No

Q5. Do you have a life insurance?

a.Yes

b. NO

Q6.Who influenced you to get insured?

a. insurance agent

b. electronic media

c. print media

d. friends and relative

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Q7. For what have you insured yourself?

a. savings

e. covering risk of life

f. tax benefits

g. secure your family

h. All the above

Q8. What is the term of your policy?

a. upto 5 yrs

i. 6-10 yrs

j. 11-15 yrs

k. 16-20 yrs

Q10. How would you like to pay for premium?

a. monthly

l. quarterly

m. half yearly

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