Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors

• S. Pourhassan ¹
• H. Niki ²
• M. Honarmand Azim ³
• M. Rezvani ⁴

¹ Department of Business Management, Faculty of Management, Economics and Accounting, Islamic Azad University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

² Department of Business Management, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Islamic Azad University of Hadishahr, Hadishahr, Iran

³ Department of Industrial Management, Faculty of Management, Economics and Accounting, Islamic Azad University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

⁴ Department of Business Management, Faculty of Management, Economics and Accounting, Islamic Azad University of Astara, Astara, Iran

Abstract

Objective:  The insurance industry is a part of the service sector, and it is undoubtedly one of the innovative achievements of human society to compensate for the consequences of burdensome events. Therefore, this research aims to analyze the components of social marketing in the insurance industry.
Methodology: The statistical population includes active experts in social marketing in the insurance industry, consisting of all experienced managers, experts, and academics in insurance marketing and experienced managers and experts from verified insurance companies. The purposive sampling method was used until theoretical saturation is achieved. Finally, 13 people were selected as the sample. The components of social marketing were identified using qualitative content analysis of interviews.
Findings: Then, the validity of identified components was assessed using the fuzzy Delphi technique and questionnaires. First, eight main components and 146 subcomponents were identified based on the results of the content analysis. Then, 113 subcomponents as subordinates to eight main components of social marketing in the insurance industry were selected using fuzzy Delphi.
Conclusion: The main components of social marketing in the insurance industry are as following:

Creating new values and ideas: In this component, social marketing is a way of marketing for insurance applied to create value and innovation. This component is formed by putting together subcomponents such as value creation and strategies, competitive advantages of insurance companies, new ideas, and creating and presenting new products.
Developing insurance knowledge and insight: This component is built by integrating subcomponents such as risk management knowledge, complete familiarity with insurance, developing public insurance knowledge, familiarity with insurance from childhood, etc.
Tactfulness and change in awareness toward insurance services: This component is composed of subcomponents such as revising people tactics and attitude, changing attitudes toward insurance services, attitude toward society’s events, and long-term attitude in the insurance industry, and changes in attitude toward available insurance services, etc.
Creating the sense of need for insurance in people: This component includes subcomponents such as creating the need in people’s minds, understanding the needs of the insurance community, designing a product in line with the insurance community’s needs, and identifying insurance needs of people, etc.
Society’s culture: This component is composed of subcomponents such as assessing cultural and economic conditions of the society, familiarity with society’s culture, insurance culture building, etc. Society’s culture is an important component that can be directed toward the acceptance of insurance by social marketing.
Customer orientation: This component is composed of subcomponents such as encouraging customers to a safe lifestyle, providing customers with personalized insurance policies, creating appropriate groundwork in line with retaining current customers, increasing customer satisfaction, etc.
Paying attention to society: This component is composed of subcomponents such as people’s financial backing, supporting vulnerable and low-income people, identifying people’s problems, considering people’s financial ability, etc.
Foresight: This component is composed of subcomponents such as stimulating the sense of foresight, providence, providing the people’s future welfare, risk transfer, etc.

JEL Classification: M31, G22, C49

Keywords

• Social Marketing
• Insurance Industry
• Marketing Components
• Fuzzy Delphi Method