Competitive forces:
The industry is highly competitive
with 90 life and health insurers within Canada. Canadian-controlled firms have
80 per cent of the Canadian market. At least 200 private general insurance
companies exist in Canada. Also, mandatory auto insurance coverage is provided
exclusively bygovernment-owned
auto insurers.
[This
too could be expanded. While there are
90 insurers, the major competition is from who?
You should list and analysis the major ones here.]
The competitors are |Sunlife
and Greatwest life insurancePositioning strategy
Manulife Insurance has a strong
reputation amongst its customers in all the regions where it is based. Its
distribution network is very large with more than 30,000 agents. It has very
cordial relationships with various banks and brokers. Japan is one of the
largest market of the Asian region where the company is currently operating
(Manulife). It aims to penetrate in those markets which have a low penetration
rate. It wishes to position itself with countries which have high scope of
improvement economically.
The company’s strategy is to become
a key player in the insurance market in every country and it aims to increase
its agents, ensure secured partnerships with banks, increase the number of
branches in various regions, keep the cost of operations low, employee only
knowledgeable and proficient managers to run new branches. The company makes
efforts to increase awareness about the Manulife brand in all regions through
hardcore advertising and outbid its competitors. It abides by the country’s
regulatory framework as far as possible so as to gain their trust. It needs to capitalize to increase business specifically
in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, etc. and develop products
based on the customer preferences (Wong,
2012). The focus of Manulife is to provide such products which shall
cover all the risks and enhance its Bancassurance relationships (Wong, 2012).
[“Positioning
is not what you do to the product.
Positioning is what you do to the prospect.” (Positioning: The Battle for You Mind, Ries,
A & Trout, J {the originators of the concept.}) IOW Positioning is what the customer thinks
of you, or what you are trying to have the customer think of you. It’s not what you are offering. You’ve got a good positioning idea. I’d like to see it rewritten so it says what
you want the customer to think of you.
What do you wan the customer to say if asked, “What do you think of
Manulife?” The answer to that question
is the positioning statement that we want here.]Objectives and Issues
Objectives
Like any other insurance company,
Manulife insurance’s primary objective is to provide risk protection to its
customers who are either individuals or business entity. Manulife Insurance
visions to be the top three players in their key markets. To increase the
company’s business, new markets needs to be explored. It needs to enhance
service quality to its customers and build similar strong networks in the new
markets. The company needs to maintain its competitiveness, financial
stability, a reliable system and openness and transparency in their
transactions (Manulife).
Marketing objectives:
The objective
of the company is to pursue sustainable growth and execute on Asian strategy
(Cook, 2012). The marketing strategy of the company aims at capitalizing the
opportunity of expanding into the emerging Asian market.
What
share do you want, where and by when?
Objectives MUST be measurable both in amount and timing. Ask yourself, how much and by when? Marketing objectives are about volume, margin
(price), share, penetration and awareness.
So a share objective might be, “Reach 15% share of insurance sales in
Thailand by yearend 2015.”
Financial objectives:
The financial
objective of the company is to achieve earnings of C$4 billion and 13% ROE by
2015 (Cook, 2012). [So what are the financial
objectives in Asia? Financial objectives
deal with revenue, cost, and profit, and sometimes credit. So a revenus objective might be “Achive $XX
in sales revenue in the Asia/Pacific region in 2014.” “Reduce forcast cost of sales by 3% in the AP
Region in 2014.” Here are a couple of
objectives for you to update and use.
Point forn works well here. Use a
separate point for each objective. Makes
sure that each point answers the question, how much and by when?]
Societal objectives:
The objective
of the company is to develop a strong relationship with the society and the
public. Through its CSR
activities like health care, education, community service and local
volunteering, the company give back to the community and the environment in
which it operates (Manulife). The company has partnered with Volunteer
Canada to create what is called “bridging the gap” – an initiative to prepare
the more current and detailed information about the changing nature of Canada’s
volunteers. [These 2 must
be measurable. Redo this entire section
and make ech point measurable.]