CASE I
With the entry of private insurance players like Tata-AIG,
ICICI-Prudential and Max-New York Life, LIC felt a need to revamp its business.
Based on recommendations of the leading consulting company Booz, Allen & Hamilton,
LIC restructured various aspects of its business. The caselet discusses LIC's
measures to train and develop competent personnel. It focuses on the customer
service initiatives of LIC by using technology and improving service delivery.
Finally, the caselet talks about the change in LIC's branding and advertising
strategy.
Issues:
a. Need for training in Insurance.
b. Branding of an insurance company.
c. Use of technology in insurance services marketing.
Introduction:
Till the year 2000, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC)
held a monopoly in the life insurance market by virtue of being India’s only
life insurance company in India. With the opening of the insurance sector to
private players, LIC’s hold on the market was threatened. Institutional equity
(Kotak Mahindra Capital Company) and mutual funds (Kotak Mahindra Asset
Management Company), has been converted (it obtained the banking license in
February 2003) into Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB). It launched its first branch at
Nariman Point in Mumbai in March 2003. KMB has tried to differentiate its
services in all aspects, starting from the design of the bank logo to the
design of its products and services... Questions for Discussion:
a). The changing perception about a company among
customers is a challenging task for any service provider. To what extent has
LIC succeeded on that front?
b). What kind of branding strategy should LIC adopt,
given its increasing product mix and the aggressive brand building measures of
private insurers?
CASE II
Keeping pace with economic growth
of this country, the housing loan has been becoming a most lucrative and large
marketable product of banking and non-banking financial institutions.
ICICI, HDFC, SBI, Andhra Bank are
the leaders of house loans in Andhra region. It is observed that of late there
is a mismatch between demand for and supply of house loans in this region with
increasing demand for and less of supply of this financial service.
You are required to:
(a) List out common causes of this
mismatch between demand and supply in India.
(b) Explain the strategies to match
them.
CASE III
The boardroom was filled with the voice of Marketing
manager, Ashutosh Kant. He was addressing the meeting of senior manager of
Escape, “The last three months were spent by our market research
team in finding out the reasons and patterns of sales at stores. Let me
emphasize that retail sale is showing growth all over the country and in the process, competition is intensifying. We can
no longer afford to sit and relax; instead we need to put ourselves fully to
retain our market leadership”. Three facts revealed by the survey were
particularly disturbing.
1) People found Escape service staff
bordering an aggressiveness and not really helpful as they were never left to browse.
2) Children got bored and hence parents often
left the store within minutes after finishing essential shopping. They never browsed
or spent leisure time at Escape stores which could
otherwise help promote sales.
3) With many choices available in the market
consumers stopped treating Escape stores as unique and exclusive anymore.
Mr.
Rehman, an entrepreneur, had set up a garment shop in one of Delhi’s busy market areas about 10 years ago. He realized that
to attract customers, he must do something new. With this in mind, he chalked
out a massive plan to open a chain of stores called Escape. Some
major features of his store were:
1) Complete dress range for kids, parents and
teenagers.
2) Full accessories for women and men in footwear,
purses, jewellery and cosmetics.
3) A play centre where kids could spend time when the
parents shopped.
CASE IV
MAC India a 100% subsidiary of USA based parent company, wants to launch health drink for sports people and iced tea. Preliminary research indicated that Indian public is becoming increasingly health conscious and cola market has become saturated.
India’s beverage market size is 720 million liters, which includes soft drinks, tea, coffee, and mineral water but does not include health drinks. In tetra pack the only success is Parle Agro’s FROOTI, MAC INDIA intends processing 250 tons fruits in the first year to make health drink, which will be expanded up to 2000 tones by 5th year.
After the initial success of health drink is ensured, it wants to launch iced tea.
Questions:
(1) State and explain the problem area of the case?
(2) Advice on the marketing mix and market segmentation strategy?
CASE V
Fast Express courier ltd. (FECL) is an innovative overnight delivery
company that helped change the way companies do business. It was the first
company to offer an overnight delivery system, but the company markets more
than just a delivery service. What FECL really sells is on-time reliability.
The company markets risk reduction and provide the confidence that people
shipping packages will be “absolutely, positively, certain their packages will
be there by 10.30 in the morning”. In fact, FECL sells even more than reliable
delivery. It designs tracking and inventory management systems for many large
companies. In other words, the customers buy more than just delivery service
they buy a solution to their distribution problems. For example, a warehouse
designed and operated by FECL is part of the distribution centre for a very
large computer firm. In other organizations, customers can place an order for
inventory as late as midnight, and the marketer, because of FECL’s help, can
guarantee delivery by the next morning. FECL has positioned itself as a company
with a service that solves its customer’s problems.
Questions:
i)
What are
the elements of service quality for a delivery service like FECL?
ii)
In what
way does technology influence FECL’s service quality?
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