"We don’t have the luxury of having been in the Philippines for the last 50 years. But with special marketing or SMK, we can reach a bigger amount of clients in a shorter period of time," Robert Craddock, New York Life vice president for specialty marketing in Asia regional office said.
SMK, a little known but fast-growing selling strategy in the life insurance industry, focuses on non-agency sales channels such as bancassurance, where companies are given access to bank customers; and worksite marketing, where insurers can market to employees of partner companies.
With the recent approval by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on cross-selling or bancassurance rules, the opportunities of bancassurance coupled with a growing number of prospective selling partners has helped the company decide to accelerate its special marketing program in the country.
SMK is a cheaper distribution channel set up through agreements with third parties such as New York Life’s bancassurance alliance with Allied Bank. The company is currently working on the details of its partnership after the issuance of the BSP circular.
Meanwhile, New York Life is embarking on other initiatives as well such as eyeing worksite marketing with the sister companies of Allied Bank.
"We are also looking for opportunities with insurance brokers; those that sell other types of insurance that New York Life doesn’t sell. We will plug in the benefits of worksite marketing in addition to those that are already being carried by these brokers. In addition, we’re also looking at channels such as direct marketing and telemarketing," Craddock added.
Other marketing channels that are going to be opened up in the coming year include telemarketing and direct marketing, with the focus being placed on partnering with companies that have large, working databases.
The New York Life executive believes that the channels would complement each other. "If we’re talking about mature markets where you have 80 million policies issued in a population of 80 million, then we have a problem. That is not the case here in the Philippines."