Reverse sweep

Venkatachari Jagannathan
18 March 2003

Chennai: At a time when private life insurers are accumulating all the energies they can to woo the urban populace towards their products, AMP Sanmar Life Assurance Company is playing a different stroke — by focusing on the non-metro and small-town market. Nearly 60 per cent of its business comes from these centres.

Says AMP Sanmar Life Assurance Company chief executive officer SV Mony: “The promotional spend is high when one sells in metro markets, but the per-policy size and premium will be high. However, in non-metro and rural markets the ad spend is low, and so is policy value and premium income.“

Similarly, the company is not enthused about teaming up with banks to excel in a competitive market. “Tying up with banks makes good front page news. But what would be interesting to watch is the outcome of the marketing alliances signed by all these players — life or non- life,“ he adds.

According to Mony, whether the existing distribution network (the individual agent-centred) will succeed or the new paradigm of brokers, banks and a host of others getting into marketing will do better is a question that will be answered in a year's time. However, the company has tied up with a cooperative bank in Kerala and with the Shriram group in Chennai for selling its policies.

But on the products front AMP Sanmar follows most others in the business — the company too has endowment, money-back and child-protection policies. And now AMP Sanmar has launched its pension plan, Bhagya Shree.

The former chairman of General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC) talks in detail with domain-b about his company and the issues affecting the life and non-life insurance industry. Excerpts: