Cool chart.
A dentist in my neighborhood is offering a free teeth whitening for new patients with insurance who schedule a check up and cleaning. The positive cosmetic appeal might speed up patronage of his other lesser fun services like root canals etc.
Maybe friendlier language is one of the clues to cracking the code? Care, funeral, plan, long term, insurance... all of those words can seems scary enough to make a consumer tune out. Yet a word like "App" or iPhone makes a head snap rapt. Maybe 'path' is a different way of saying 'life'? Funeral planning could be called iPath, or myPath? The word funeral makes a lot of people cringe. Perhaps 'next chapter' instead of funeral? Granted people will never be as engaged with negative low involvement offerings as much as those on the opposite spectrum, but maybe by taking some of the negative connotations out, the involvement and interest will be higher.
Insurance Insights - The Involvement Factor
Categories: News, Rumors, Gossip, & Trends Innovation Discussion Financial Services New Products, Services, and Business Models Innovation Community Ideas
One of the greatest unsolved issues in the insurance and financial services industry is the business model of the future.
A recent study from IBM indicates that the “trust gap” between the industry and the end-consumer is fueling a “business model identity crisis." In other words, the thing that is keeping most of the industry executives awake at night is the fact that they do not know what the best way to deliver their products and services will look like in the future.
And it's no surprise. They've tried many solutions to the business model conundrum (they are expensive and “expensiver”). Face-to-face is effective but not always efficient. Online is efficient but not always effective. Direct to consumer causes angst, channel conflict, dark threats and a lot of emotionally charged procrastination. Direct to consumer puts smaller companies in a position to steal distribution “share” and it leaves larger brands with the task of coming up with a new way to "feed the beast."
So where does one start to figure out how to finally crack this code?
One of the places to start looking is in the area of insight, or deep understanding of how the consumer is thinking, feeling or behaving (or not behaving).
While many researchers and marketers feel they have a good handle on the consumer attitudes and beliefs about the products and services, there is an area left relatively unexamined. That unexamined area is "the involvement factor."
The involvement factor is the level at which a consumer is actively engaged with your product or service and the reason for that engagement. Many (but not all) types of insurance are low-involvement products. There's no reason to engage unless forced to by the need for using the product or the need to transact a premium or other administrative change. That model stands in stark contrast to a product like an iPhone. The consumer is highly involved, using it several times an hour and doing so willingly, looking for that message, call or vital piece of information.
It may be helpful to look at insurance and other products and services as plotted in the chart below, with the X axis as the “involvement level” and the Y axis as the emotion associated with "the reason for engaging." 
Note that these examples are just to offer a framework for thinking. While some of these categories will be placed in different boxes based on the consumer’s individual emotions and situation, it's important to think about these dynamics when innovating a solution.
In the case of insurance products in the “Negative Emotion/Low Involvement” category, perhaps it is worth developing more insights and ideas that bear out ways to create more positive feelings and higher levels of involvement versus spending energy on marketing/awareness alone.
If you dial the clock back on the insurance category by several decades when it was growing, it may have landed in or nearer to the upper right quadrant. Why? Because of the debit system. Before direct billing, “check-o-matic” and online payments were available, agents came to the door weekly to collect a few dollars for premiums. And they often stayed for coffee and had a nice conversation with the person in the household. That dynamic put the product into the space of higher involvement, and more positive emotions associated with that involvement. While that is not to suggest that we recreate the debit system, perhaps there's another way to push insurance into a higher involvement, less negative space. Perhaps we could take a lesson from a dentist.
Think about it.
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- member since: 01/20/2010
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Maria,
Your chart made me smile! Having just come out of marketing for a carrier, your points ring true. I was new to the industry when I joined the carrier and everybody kept saying that insurance is a "relationship business". Those relationships are certainly strained with the channel conflict created by direct online sales. The thing that puzzled me about a good bit of that angst, however, is the fact that not every insurance product lends itself to direct online sales. Seems to me like those who grow in their insurance knowledge will continue to have a role in the sales process as trusted advisors. That is still a strong basis for marketing - "we can guide you through your complex coverage needs".
But maybe that's because, even with being in the industry, I learned something from my agent, who I hadn't spoken to in almost 2 years.....
- member since: 01/20/2010
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Thank you for posting! Insurance does not lend itself well to online sales in its current form, I agree. The thing that is the most telling about your note, in my opinion, is the fact that you have not spoken to your agent in 2 years! That illustrates the "low involvement", and I can't tell you how many people I have heard the same thing from. So the key is moving along the spectrum of involvement but WITH more positive emotions.
True enough!
I wonder if the next big idea will be a "welcome committee", akin to the new resident, new student, and group membership onboarding processes we see in other organizations?
- member since: 01/20/2010
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insurance marketer said: True enough! I wonder if the next big idea will be a "welcome committee", akin to the new resident, new student, and group membership onboarding processes we see in other organizations?Neat idea....I could see how something like that would improve both involvement and emotion at the same time if executed well....
Yes, execution could be tricky...and may call for an unobtrusive pre-screening process to determine common ground to build from.
Tracking of web browsing paths on a carrier site could provide fodder for the direct-to-consumer channel, if the site content is well developed.
When it comes to agents, the information flow may be reversed. For instance, it would be nice to have access to some information about personal interests or professional specialties before contacting an agent. As a consumer who has relocated and didn't have the benefit of a referral, I walked into many service relationships blind. Some of those have created loyalty and some didn't get past a phone call. Since it takes time to source services, it would be nice to have some of the relationship qualifiers in advance (as you would get in a referral).
Once a conversation point has been identified, a welcome could include resource recommendations, etc. for the common interest. An open door to positive emotions through a personal value-added benefit from the relationship....
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I know what you mean. I did the same thing when I relocated 12 years ago and I didn't know who I was dealing with. The hurdle that has plagued the industry for years here is that there are just too few agents to serve all the needs in a way that would make everyone's experience awesome. And agents have a lot of control about who they will and won't work with, as well as how they do their model. So a suggestion like this could be made, but unless many agents see it as lifting their business significantly, they will opt to do something else with their time and resource. So while this would be a breakthrough, I don't know that the motivation is there to do it on a large scale. So you have to find ways to move the emotional needle en masse. Keep thinking about other ways that you could see emotions being more positive...especially before you actually make an inquiry. I am curious!
Of course, I can't guarantee results, but perhaps I could sell past an agent's objection to this concept with these benefits? It would focus on a key market that they may already target with direct mail to new residents (expensive), so it would serve as another touchpoint in the magic 3. It would be inexpensive if the initial introduction info was hosted online by a carrier or an independents' association, would require little time to set up, content could be controlled by an agent, it would take care of step 1 in the sales process, and it would address concerns about limited carrier support. An agent could still control the relationship from the first actual contact forward, providing only the level of investment they want to share in a welcome. For instance, if the shared interest is hiking, an agent may provide either a state park guide, their own hiking club schedule, or a gift card to an outdoor store.
As for en-masse positive impact, providing a personable, on-demand coverage legalese translator would be nice. Nobody likes to read policies because they are so jargon-dense. (Yes, I know the claims attorneys out there just groaned....) But the exclusivity of industry language creates distance and uninvolvement...we used to blindly trust doctors because we didn't understand them and information is shifting that mindset to one of active involvement in care.
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Great points. I love your comparison to the healthcare industry. Perfect example. the difference with healthcare and insurance is that healthcare has high involvement, insurance does not (unless it is health insurance).
As far as the idea about the agent, I encourage you to think of places where that sort of engagement already exists, and tap into that. If you have to try and create the momentum ,it is harder to get any traction that is meaningful.
Keep the innovation wheels turning!!
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