Impact of marketing mix on customer buying intention of motor insurance industry in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify the influence of Marketing Mix on customer buying intention for motor insurance industry in Sri Lanka. History of insurance industry goes back to centuries and currently the industry is facing issues for a profitable growth. Especially the non-life insurance sector ran in a loss for last couple of years and few companies recorded a profit from investment income, but it was not a major issue for non-life insurance section since it operates with the life insurance section. Due to new rules and regulations implemented recently, life insurance and non-life insurance should be segregated into two business entities, causing non-life insurance companies in Sri Lanka to face issues on profitable growth. The researcher has attempted to investigate reasons and finding an acceptable solutions for the issue faced by non-life insurance sector in order to make recommendations to the motor insurance industry. The researcher has conducted several in depth interviews with a few senior professionals from insurance companies to obtain basic information on the insurance industry. To understand how the insurance industry was operated before a few decades, a few ex-professionals from the industry was also interviewed. 25 respondents were selected for the pilot study and the sample questionnaire was circulated among them. Reliability test was Sri Lanka Journal of Marketing Vol 2 No 1 Jan June 2016 116 carried out for the data collected from pilot study and final questionnaire was developed. The questionnaire was circulated through Google forms among 200 respondents representing the five insurance companies in Gampaha district. Both descriptive and inferential techniques were used to analysis the data. Findings revealed that the people are the most influential variable of service marketing mix which influence on the customer buying intention of motor insurance in Sri Lanka. The place and process were came up as second and third most important variables respectively. In order to increase the efficiency of people in insurance industry both sales and non-sale, and to face industry challenges successfully, the researchers recommend to improve the customer touch points and to develop effective and speedy processes.