Evaluating the marketing effect that COVID-19 has on broker channels in the South African insurance industry
Date
2021
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Abstract
The World Health Organization announced COVID-19 (Coronavirus) as a pandemic early 2020 and this had an impact on people around the world. Governments closed their borders with strict regulations around movements to work, school, travel, and even gyms or any extracurricular activities. Economies around the world struggled with many people losing their jobs. Companies have struggled to move to a digital environment to keep business going.
Customers were forced to start purchasing online because of the movement restriction. The way people contacted family and friends were by calling, messaging or on social media platforms. In the South African insurance sector, COVID-19 has also affected the brokers community, due to restrictions brokers could not meet with their clients, other methods had to be used to contact and sign-up clients. Brokers have always played a vital role in the insurance industry in South Africa. The aim of this study was to give an understanding of the marketing effects of COVID- 19 on the broker channels in the insurance industry in South Africa, and to gain insights on a way forward for brokers on marketing and to provide trends or hints of what customers want post COVID-19. An online questionnaire was sent to participants in Johannesburg, South Africa. The data was cleaned, coded, and analysed using Pearson correlation, multiple regression, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Cronbach alpha for a reliability test on SPSS.
The main findings identified were that customers who watch videos on insurance companies on social media were more inclined to read more about that company and would leave their details to be contacted. Customers also are chatting on telephone, email or on digital platforms during COVID-19 and want to continue with these communication methods after COVID-19. There is a strong positive relationship with customers feeling comfortable on online platform and there is a sense of comfort using digital platforms provided they are on a secured part of a company’s website. The limitation was the access to people during this period, consideration had to be given if people were not feeling well, as it was during the second wave of COVID-19. The study guided current behaviour at the time, but it was recommended that future studies provide insights and guide trends on future customer behaviour by increasing the sample size and investigate having a wider audience within South Africa
Description
A research report presented in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Business Administration to the Faculty of Commerce, Law, and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2021
Keywords
Social media engagement, Brokers, Digital preference, Customer comfort levels, Communication, UCTD
Citation
Nookiah, Preeantha. (2021). Evaluating the marketing effect that COVID-19 has on broker channels in the South African insurance industry [Master’s dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WireDSpace.https://hdl.handle.net/10539/41416