*Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Management & Research, New Delhi, India.
In India, Insurance has been synonymous with LIC. Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) was created as an entity in 1956 through LIC Act. Since then, until recently (2000), the insurance sector, both life & non-life was monopolised by public sector Insurance corporations. Now, with the impact of LPG (Liberalisation, Privatization and Globalisation), many private business houses have come up as joint ventures, with partnerships from multinational insurance companies. The Private players are introducing innovative insurance products, appointing qualified persons as agents and advisors. They are aggressively promoting their products and are going for multi-channel distribution. Insurance, a service industry needs to address seven marketing mix elements, unlike the 4Ps in manufacturing industry. The service marketing mix known as 7Ps consists of Product, Price, Promotion, Place, People, Physical evidence and Process. Though all mix elements are equally important, the more conspicuous and dynamic mix elements of Insurance at present are product, promotion and place. A number of innovative products have come up in the industry and to make the consumers aware, the promotion campaigns fill much of the Insurance companies' budget. Though there are distinct strategies in product and promotion mixes, this paper focuses on exploring the innovations in distribution mix.
