Brand Preference towards Life Insurance Product @Gugai Block, Salem District

15 Brand Preference towards Life Insurance Product @Gugai Block, Salem District Dr. G. Vincent, Asst. Professor in Commerce, St. Joseph s College, Trichy, Tamil Nadu. V. Lakshmanan, Research Scholar, St. Joseph s College, Trichy, Tamil Nadu ABSTRACT The insurance sector plays a major role in the national development. The insurance sector remains the major avenues of investment. The life insurance gives two advantages to its customers, the indemnity and the scope of investment. With the economic liberalisation, this industry sees a lot of player entering into a market. There is a stiff competition in order to retain the customer. As the consumers of life insurance product, the people have different reasons to purchase the different plans. The factors like family size, age of the customers, monthly income etc. play a major role in choosing a particular LIC plan. With lots of players both domestic and foreign players, still LIC remains a market leader. Choosing the company and plan depends on mindset of customers. This Paper makers an attempt to find out the brands preferred and tires to find an answer to the hypothetical statements on brand preference. Key words Net Asset Value, Brand Preference, IRDA, Life Cover, LIC INTRODUCTION If I had my way, I would write the word insure upon the door of every cottage and upon the blotting book of every public man, because I am convinced, for sacrifices so small, families and estates can be protected against catastrophes which would otherwise smash them up forever. -Winston Churchill The word insurance owes its origin from the word insure. It means to secure the payment of a sum of money in the event of loss or damage to either life or property as per the contract made thereof but not as per the actual amount of premium or contribution paid. The idea of insurance was conceptualized in the 14 th century. The earliest references of insurance were found in Babylonia, France and the Romans. The marine insurance is the oldest form of insurance followed by the life insurance and fire insurance. In those days it was used as a tool for protection against financial loss of sea fearers involved in foreign trade. The insurance services may be traced back to 14 th century in Italy when ships carrying goods were covered under different perils. The beginning of the insurance industry took place in the U.K.at Lloyds coffee house in the tower street of London. In developing countries, insurance sector has assumed special significance as it has the potential to gear up the growth of the economy. Life insurance was started in India in 1818 to provide insurance for English widows when Oriental Life insurance company was incorporated at Calcutta ;(Kolkata) followed by the Bombay life Assurance company in 1823 and Triton insurance company for general insurance in 1850.Insurance regulation formally began in India by passing two Acts, viz., the Life insurance companies Act of 1912 and the provident Fund Act of 1912.The insurance Act of 1938 is the first comprehensive legislation was introduced which provides the government to control over insurance business in India. REVIEW OF LITERATURE K.P. sarma says that Actuaries should have the skills to work with other professionals and to convenience them of the reasonableness and acceptability of actuarial solutions. Actuaries are experts in assessing the the financial impact of tomorrows uncertain events they take more informed decisions to protect interest of the publics. subhederin his study says that the appointed actuary is clearly expected to act as a frontline controller of prudential financial management of the office lessening the need for close regulatory attention. GRK. Murthy says that insurance education in India needs A REIG and the earlier and better. He further states that there is acute need for a paradigm shift in our higher education system itself. Institutes must engage in upgrading the skills of the existing teachers by equipping with tools of positive thinking effective communication leadership and coping with stress and development. K.C. Mishra says that insurance is a subject matter of solicitation and the environment requires high level of bilateral Academics continuous professional education of provider constituents and awareness empowerment education of consumers is insisted. What insurance is, how and why it has worked well in some places and not

16 others are among the most important questions that regulators and people have faced. Insurance schools like these are not playing with words when they call it mature growth they are figuring out to take advantage of their markets in ways that make sense and create opportunities G.Prabhakara says that there is a serious lack of priorities in the Indian domain when it comes to investing in assets, he further adds that the imbalance should be rectified sooner than later if the masses have to come out of the poverty cycle. Arupe Chaterjeesays that financial literacy can empower consumers to be better shoppers allowing them to obtain goods and services at lower cost. The widening array of alternatives in the market place in general and the insurance market place in particular is part of larger process operating in the economy as a whole. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY Primary Objectives To study consumers preference towards life insurance brands @ gugai block salem(dt) Secondary Objectives 1. study the socio economic factors of sample respondents 2. study whether the brand insurance company satisfy the needs and expectations of its consumers METHODOLOGY Period of The Study The study covers a period of 6months (from March to August 2014) Field of The Study The Study was conducted at gugai @ Salem which is in Tamil Nadu. Research Design A research design is considered as the framework or plan for a study that guided as well as helps the data collection and analysis of data. The description research design is adopted for this project. Sample Procedure The researcher has used simple random in which systematic sampling is used. Sample Size The study was conducted among consumers in Gugai block in which having more than 1500 consumers, but data collected from only 150 respondents that the respondents were selected on the basis of Stratified random sampling simple random sampling random sampling were used. Data Collection This study used both Primary data and secondary data for better understanding of the research work. Primary Data The Primary Data are those which are collected a fresh and for first time, and thus happen to be original in characters. Secondary Data The Secondary data are that which have already been collected by someone else and which already was passed through the satisfaction process. Questionnaire methods Open ended Question Multiple Choice question Tools for analysis data To anayse the data, simple percentile, Chi-square test, T- Test and Anova-Oneway were used. FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The insurance services may be traced back to 14 th century in Italy when ships carrying goods were covered under different perils. The beginning of the insurance industry took place in the U.K.at LIoyds coffee house in the tower street of London. Life insurance was started in India in 1818 to provide insurance for English widows when Oriental Life insurance company was incorporated at Calcutta ;(Kolkata) followed by the Bombay life Assurance company in 1823 and Triton insurance company for general insurance in 1850. Though the first legislation on insurance enacted in the year 1912, a comprehensive legislation was enacted in the year 1938 The life insurance industry started with a modest beginning in the year 1957 with Rs 82 Crores of funds. Insurance Act, 1938 empowers IRDA to put in place regulations for carrying out the purposes of Insurance Act, 1938 and IRDA Act, 1999 After nationalisation of life insurance industry Government enacted LIC Act, 1956 and after nationalisation of non life industry in 1972 General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Act, 1972 was enacted. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) set up as autonomous body under the IRDA Act, 1999 Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India is the only public sector Life Insurance Company in India. The company was formed in September 1956.

17 80% of the respondents were males and 20% of them were females and there no association between According to the study LIC is the most trusted brand among the consumers followed by SBI life, Bajaj Allianz and others Majority of the respondents says that they allot 10-15% of their savings towards insurance and they willing to pay their premiums on annual basis 44% of the respondents says that the reason behind while choosing a brand insurance company for purchasing a life policy is their products suits their needs followed by 36% says trust on the company and so on 38% of the respondents says that they purpose behind while purchasing insurance is risk cover against their life and safety of the family followed by health care,childs education &marriage etc 52% of the respondents says that they avail25% of loan against their policy Majority of the respondents says that they purchase new policy means they purchase it from the same brand and also suggest it to new customers also Majority of the respondents don t like one time investment plan 36.7% of the respondents says that NAV based insurance plan is risky Majority of the respondent says insurance is better investment choice Majority of the respondents says that insurance policy sum assured amount is20 times equal to monthly income for the safety of their family According to the opinion of the consumers25% of the people in india have their life covered by life insurance. TESTING OF HYPOTHESIS HYPOTHISES: 1 There is a significant association between size of family of the respondents and their opinion about brands. Table 1 Association between size of family and brand preferred Size of LIC SBI LIFE AVIVA LIFE BAJAJ ALLIANZ Total family Three 14(14.1%) 7(16.3%) 2(66.7%) 1(20%) 24(16%) Four 53(53.5%) 17(39.5%) 1(33.3%) 0 71(47.3%) Five 23(23.2%) 19(44.2%) 0 4(80%) 46(30.7%) More than 5 9(9.1%) 0 0 0 9(6%) X 2 =22.799 Df=9.007<0.05 association between size of family of the respondents and their opinion about. Hence, the calculated value less than table value (.007<0.05). Research hypothesis There is a significant association between size of family of the respondents and their opinion about prefer insured brand Null hypothesis There is no significant association between size of family of the respondents and their opinion about prefer insured brand association between size of family of the respondents and their opinion about. Hence, the calculated value less than table value (.007<0.05). So the research hypothesis accepted and the null hypothesis rejected. HYPOTHISES: 2 There is a significant association between educational qualification of the respondents and their opinion about brands. Table 2 Association between educational qualification of the respondents and their opinion about Educational LIC SBI LIFE AVIVA LIFE BAJAJ ALLIANZ Total qualification SSLC 8(8.1%) 0 0 0 8(5.3%) X 2 =45.431 Df=9 HSC 36(36.4%) 13(30.2%) 2(66.7%) 0 51(34%).000<0.05 Degree 50(50.5%) 12(27.9%) 1(33.3%) 1(20%) 64(42.7%) Diploma 5(5.1%) 18(41.9%) 0 4(80%) 27(18%)

18 association between educational qualification of the respondents and their opinion about. Hence, the calculated value less than table value (.000<0.05). association between educational qualification of the respondents and their opinion about. Hence, the calculated value less than table value (.000<0.05). So the research hypothesis accepted and the null hypothesis rejected.hypothises: 3 There is a significant association between occupation of the respondents and their opinion about brands. Table 3 Association between occupation of the respondents and their opinion about prefered insurance brand Occupation LIC SBI LIFE AVIVA LIFE BAJAJ ALLIANZ Total Salaried 37(37.4%) 5(11.6%) 3(100%) 5(100%) 50(33.3%) Self employed 38(38.4%) 14(32.6%) 0 0 52(34.7%) professionals 16(16.2%) 14(32.6%) 0 0 30(20%) others 8(8.1%) 10(23.3%) 0 0 18(12%) X 2 =32.939 Df=9.000<0.05 association between occupation of the respondents and their opinion about. Hence, the calculated value less than table value (.000<0.05). test Chi-square test was used the above table HYPOTHISES: 4 There is a significant association between monthly income of the respondents and their opinion about brands. Table 4 Association between monthly income of the respondents and their opinion about Monthly income LIC SBI LIFE AVIVA LIFE BAJAJ ALLIANZ Total Rs.15000 20(20.2%) 4(9.3%) 0 5(100%) 29(19.3%) Rs.25000 50(50.5%) 20(46.5%) 3(100%) 0 73(48.7%) Rs.50000 18(18.2%) 19(44.2%) 0 0 37(24.7%) Above Rs.100000 11(11.1%) 0 0 0 11(7.3%) X 2 =39.823 Df=9.000<0.05 association between monthly income of the respondents and their opinion about. Hence, the calculated value less than table value (.007<0.05). So the research hypothesis accepted and the null hypothesis rejected. Age Table 5 Association between age of the respondents and their opinion about Brand they prefer prefered insured brand LIC SBI LIFE (n=99) (n=43) AVIVA LIFE (n=3) BAJAJ ALLIANZ (n=5) Total Below 25 13(13.1%) 3(7%) 2(66.7%) 1(20%) 19(12.7%) X Yrs 2 =10.954 Df=6.090>0.05 26 to 35 Yrs 65(65.7%) 29(67.4%) 1(33.3%) 4(80%) 99(66%) 36 to 45 Yrs 21(21.2%) 11(25.6%) 0 0 32(21.3%) The above table shows that there is no significant association between age of the respondents and their opinion about. Hence, the calculated value greater than table value (.609>0.05). So the research hypothesis rejected and the null hypothesis accepted.

19 Table 6 Association between brand name and feel satisfied Brand name feel satisfied about the brand Yes(n=121) No(n=29) Total LIC 78(64.5%) 21(72.4%) 99(66%) SBI LIFE 36(29.8%) 7(24.1%) 43(28.7%) AVIVA LIFE 2(1.7%) 1(3.4%) 3(2%) BAJAJ ALLIANZ 5(4.1%) 0 5(3.3%) X 2 =2.057 Df=3.561>0.05 The above table shows that there is no significant association between brand name of the respondents and their opinion about feel brand satisfy all needs and expectation. Hence, the calculated value greater than table value (.137>0.05). So the research hypothesis rejected and the null hypothesis accepted. T-Test feel brand satisfies all needs and Mea S.D expectation n Male (n=130) 1.16.369 T=-2.551 Df=148 Female (n=20) 1.40.503.012<0.05 One-way ANOVA Feel brand products satisfy all Mea needs and expectation n S.D SS Df MS Between Groups.749 3.250 Salaried (n=50) 1.24.431 Self employed (n=52) 1.13.345 Professionals (n=30) 1.13.346 Others (n=18) 1.33.485 Within Groups 22.644 146.155 F=1.610.190>0.05 One-way ANOVA feel that Insurance Policies Mea are better investment choice n S.D SS Df MS Between Groups 1.581 3.527 Salaried (n=50) 1.56.501 Self employed (n=52) 1.52.505 Professionals (n=30) 1.50.509 Others (n=18) 1.22.428 Within Groups 35.912 146.246 F=2.143.097>0.05 CONCLUSIONS After the liberalization many private and foreign insurance companies entered the insurance market still LIC becomes the market leader because it provides detailed information on the plans and policies and better customer service for more than 50 years it is a government owned insurance company. In order to become a market leader the private and foreign insurers must gain the trust of the consumers by offering better innovative products that suits all the needs of the consumers they should made known the consumers about the benefits and features of of their plans,products and policies.quality customer service and claims settlement is made promptly ensures the customer loyalty and promotes the company which satisfies the above conditions into a market leader. REFERENCES 1. K.P Sharma, The Actual Profession in India, IRDA Journal, April 2003, page.21.

20 2. S.P.Suhhedar, Life breath IRDA Journal, April 2003, p.21 3. G.K.Muthy, Insurance Literacy in India. IRDA Journal, July 2007 pg,no.21. 4. G.Prabhakara, Improving economic and financial literacy, IRDA Journal July 2007,p,28. 5. K.P.Sharma, The Atual Profession in india IRDA Journal, Aprial 2003,p.21