Does price matter?
The change in a number of insurers premium rates this last week has been a window on how they view the market. Most of all, into whether or not they think price matters, or perhaps, how much they think it matters to them.
Saturday, May 1st 2010, 3:12PM
by Russell Hutchinson
You probably already know that it's easier to sell a $30 a month case than a $3,000 a month case - and the evidence of 10 companies sales statistics can't be wrong: they get many more of the former than the latter.
So affordability must count at some level - that is ‘price elasticity of demand', remember? The next question is, how elastic is it? This economic boingyness is important.
If you think consumers will turn their noses up at insurance because the price is too high, you may do everything to keep it low.
You will worry about whether consumers have a linear tolerance - and will simply buy slightly lower levels of cover to offset higher prices. You may worry about a capricious tolerance - where consumers are fine up to a point and then sales dry up - usually because consumers have a substitute at a certain price point.
But the thing all these carefully calibrated and worthy worries misses out is you: the adviser that knows the market and who can make a number of differentiated offers to the consumer.
You can place in front of the client a number of offers. High ones and low ones, and let them decide based on the mix of benefits, cost, and confidence in the company.
If that has been your regular practice, then good on you - you probably know more about retail sensitivity to pricing than many ‘company' folk.
If that hasn't been what you've done - maybe you should try it.
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