Share investment guru Mr. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is giving its second biggest marketing push in India in association with Facebook after the impact of free audience with Buffett for policy holders hosted in 2011 wanes.
Buffett’s insurance brokerage unit in India, Berkshireinsurance-.com, is offering a 7.5% discount for those who publicise their purchase of motor insurance policy through web on their Facebook wall.
With this, it could theoretically reach out to 6 crore users of Facebook in India at literally no marketing expense even as the social media network works to raise revenues through advertisements.
Mr. Arun Balakrishnan, CEO, Berkshireinsurance-.com said, “We are trying to publicise through word of mouth . One-third of the people buying insurance online are opting to share the link on Facebook. It improves our sales.”
Since the hosting of Buffett in India, Berkshireinsurance.com has been lying low about pushing its business. BerkshireInsurance-.com is a licensed corporate agent of Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, a joint venture between the Bajaj family & Germany’s Allianz.
A policy for insuring a one-year-old Honda City with similar conditions costs Rs. 11,917 with Tata-AIG General and Rs. 13,000 with ICICI Lombard. With Berkshire, the cost comes to Rs. 11,595. But rivals are neither worried, nor do they intend to counter this move as they fear no immediate threat to their market position.
Mr. Karan Chopra, Head - Retail business, HDFC Ergo said, “Our perspective is that pricing does not play an important role. It is a convenient platform and for customers to see how they want to engage with a company”
Indian motor insurance customers stick to the original insurer since companies are alert when it comes for renewal. Also, they get the benefit of lower premium if there are no claims in the previous year. Berkshireinsurance.com started operations in October 2011 with motor insurance. It later got into travel insurance. It will soon start selling life insurance & home insurance products through the online channel. Online medium is not new for non-life insurance companies. But companies have been able to register 1 to 2 per cent sales through this channel.
Src: ET
No comments:
Post a Comment