5 Impacts of Globalization on Insurance Markets

5 Impacts of Globalization on Insurance Markets

There’s no stopping the globalization train. It’s already here and it’s going to go further and wider. How has globalization affected the insurance markets and insurance companies all over the world?

 

Competition in the Insurance Markets

 

First and foremost, local insurance companies started facing more widespread competition – not only from within the country, but also from the region and from international conglomerates. Now, this is great news for the customer. After all, they now have the opportunity to choose from a range of products and services that are best suited to their individual requirements.

To sharpen the competitive edge, insurance firms have also tweaked their offerings to make them more tempting. This can range from improving coverage to reducing premiums.

With competition comes greater challenges. Insurance companies now look beyond the local market to acquire customers. In addition to a comprehensive suite of products, they strive to give their brand an international outlook while paying attention to local context and cultural sensitivities.

 

Growth in Opportunities

 

The thing about globalization is that it has caused other industries to expand as well. This has resulted in a plethora of opportunities for insurance companies. Today, a standard insurance firm doesn’t have to limit itself to a limited number of products or services.

With globalization, consumers’ demands change and their needs become more varied. There are also more opportunities for wealth creation and preservation. For instance, more organized labor means more healthcare coverage for employees. Wider globalization means more opportunities for overseas investments, and thus more investment-linked plans.

Globalization has also caused immigration numbers to rise. There are more people within the population who will be looking to sign up for insurance products, and thus more opportunities to do business.

 

New Industry Trends in Insurance

 

Insurance companies are also beginning to experience centralization processes, thanks to partnerships with banks and reinsurance companies, and mergers with smaller or larger competitors.

There’s a growth in the type of insurance services and products as well. For instance, we are seeing insurance products for newer risks such as informational risk, political risk, security risks, and even military risks.

Just as FinTech is changing the banking world, InsurTech is transforming the industry. As the insurance industry starts embracing technological innovation and eCommerce, we’re also looking at more insurance products being sold via the Internet.

 

Increased Consumer Demand for Insurance

 

As more and more foreign insurance companies enter a local insurance market, customers’ awareness tends to grow. Their knowledge of possible insurance and investment plans becomes richer. Needless to say, this creates a demand for more products. Consumers are not willing to make do with what was available anymore. They expect comprehensive coverage plans, low premium rates, and flexible policies.

Some countries are experiencing higher economic output due to globalization and international trade. Economic growth in these countries has boosted affordability, allowing most consumers to go in for high-end insurance and investment-linked plans.

 

Increased Customer Satisfaction

 

With globalization, there’s a renewed focus on customer satisfaction and trust. As customers get savvier and educated about insurance products, the need to gain their trust and build strong relationships becomes imperative to the top line. In the name of competition, insurance firms are putting in extra effort to provide better products and clearer communications driven towards meeting the expectations of both local and international customers.

To borrow the words of Kofi Annan, the Former Secretary General of the United Nations, “It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity”, globalization has impacted every aspect of our lives and the insurance industry is not exempt from it. The sooner insurance markets embrace the effects of globalization, the better are their chances in ensuring consistent growth in the face of this unstoppable force.

6 Things Tourism Businesses Should Know About Their Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs)

6 Things Tourism Businesses Should Know About Their Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs)

Destination Marketing Organizations or DMOs have plenty of challenges to deal with. One of these challenges involves managing all industry stakeholders. Negotiating politics while offering value has always been a scuffle of sorts. What stakeholders need to understand is that, sometimes, even their own actions can birth issues and difficulties for DMOs. This, of course, only compounds existing challenges.

On that account, and for the obvious benefits of achieving the ultimate shared goals, tourism boards and travel businesses need to make sure they’re not compounding problems by understanding these 6 core features of DMOs.

 

DMOs Can’t Satisfy Everybody

 

When you let the DMO focus on what’s important for the industry as a whole, you are actually allowing for a greater inflow of tourists, which will eventually benefit you as well. As the saying goes, a rising tide lift all boats. By focusing on key attractions and targeted campaign messages, the DMO can help to attract more inbound tourists and position the destination’s varied unique selling points to individual markets. There’s no point in forcing the DMO into promoting things that don’t draw in the huge crowds. The message will only get cluttered and unappealing if everyone wants a feature.

Solution: Let the DMO do what it does best. Allow them to focus on what’s good for the destination, country, state or even the travel industry. In the globalization era, that could mean complex localization procedures such as website translation, the creation of multilingual content, and marketing and social media messages.

 

Go Beyond Reactive Marketing

 

There’s a good chance that you may not agree with your DMO’s marketing. However, if you have a disagreement, don’t let it be based on what your competitors are doing. Very often, opinions from industry stakeholders can ruin the effectiveness of a campaign.

Solution: Give your DMO room for creativity. Let them suggest and do what they think is best in forwarding your goals. After discussion and agreement, stick to the marketing plan and strategy. After all, they didn’t whip ideas out of thin air, but base them on research and expertise.

 

DMOs Aren’t Sales Channels

 

DMOs are primarily purposed to market experiences and not individual offerings. There are enough options and channels out there for tourists and travelers to buy their tickets or book their accommodation.

Solution: Let your DMO focus on marketing the experience of visiting your destination. They are not there to handle the sales of tickets or rooms. Instead, they should keep their eyes on the bigger picture of experience marketing and destination branding.

 

DMOs Think In The Long-Term

 

Looking for support from your DMO to meet the current quarter’s sales targets is fine, but, DMOs have bigger things to worry about. They need to look at the tourism figures for your entire province, state or even country. They need to develop long-term strategies to keep inbound tourists coming and returning.

Solution: Let the DMO focus on the long-term view of building your destination’s brand, reputation, and desirability.

 

DMOs Want You To Succeed

 

DMOs are public organizations and that makes them subject to politics and media scrutiny. Often, they need to be careful about what they engage in and deal with complications that might not be evident at first glance. Though they have to solve complex problems and consider manifold red tape, they usually love what they do and share common goals with you. When you succeed, they too take immense pride in the positive outcome of their work.

Solutions: Try and understand that DMOs want the best for you, but, have their own challenges to deal with. So, collaborate with them towards a common goal instead of questioning their motives.

 

Accept Their Failures

 

Allow your DMO to fail without them worrying about their jobs or their resources. The industry cannot grow without a little failure now and then. Remaining steadfast in the face of adversity or failure will only strengthen their marketing, allow them to innovate, and try new and different things that can set you apart from other destinations.

Solution: Let your DMO conducts its experiments and testing with the goals of fine-tuning the strategy and the execution. Let them go beyond outdated methods of destination marketing to yield exceptional results for you.

To cut a long story short, tourism boards and travel businesses need to give DMOs their space to think big, see far, and perform well. DMOs need to have a certain amount of autonomy to carry out their functions. They cannot be spending their efforts in trying to satisfy everybody, especially when their goals is to boost tourism and not just profits.

7 Must-Haves in Your FinTech Website

7 Must-Haves in Your FinTech Website

In the fiercely competitive FinTech market, your website is a key differentiator, drawing potential customers to your product, ethos and voice. Naturally, it should be appealing and functional, giving visitors the confidence to take the desired call to action – fill up your contact form, call you, or seek live chatting assistance immediately. What can set your website apart from the competition?

 

1. Persuasive Copy

 

Great copy is a sum of many parts. Besides communicating succinctly how your service can solve a challenge or help capitalize on an opportunity, you also need to establish an authentic voice that conveys your brand personality clearly. When replicated across your social media pages, consistent messaging and voice can make you memorable and appear more trustworthy.

 

2. User-Centric Design

 

A website focused on the user considers a number of factors in its design, such as fast loading times, uncluttered webpages, and quick and easy access to information by utilizing an appropriate format and navigational features.

 

3. An Active Blog

 

A blog continuously updated with new content can improve your website’s search engine performance. It can also distinguish you as a thought leader and encourage people to engage with your brand.

 

4. Multilingual Support

 

As you move forward with your internationalization goal, it’ll become necessary to localize your website. 73% of Internet users are not browsing in English. To effectively reach out to online audiences in other countries, get translations right, make it easy to select the language of choice on your homepage, and ensure that your website feels and works as good as it does in its original language.

 

5. An FAQ Page

 

An FAQ page not only gives visitors a quick overview of your product and answers to specific questions, but also allows you to promote some of the other pages on your website. If your FAQ page is long, break it down into sections with relevant queries and answers under each section.

 

6. Add Photos of Your Management Team

 

Build trust and make your brand more human by including photographs of Founder(s) and key Management Executives. Professionally taken photographs of smiling Executives – along with their brief bio – can give visitors yet another reason to connect with your brand.

 

7. Interactive Widget

 

An interactive widget to your landing page can explain your product and pricing in 30 seconds or less. It’s a useful, strategic feature for busy visitors, who after briefly considering your product and quote, can bookmark your website and return at a later time.

 

Localised Advantage for Businesses: Fact or Myth?

We are now living in a world of globalisation. Businesses have ceased to develop their commerce inwards and started to embrace the new trend of internationalisation. After all, the more consumers you are able to reach, the higher chances of attracting better sales. On the contrary, does this mean that there is no advantage for localised business anymore? We will find out.

In order to keep up with the changes in the business industry, small businesses and large organisations alike are moving towards creating their own international presence. On the other hand, there are some disadvantages and advantages of having a globalised market. And it will depend on the type of services or products your company are offering. It is, therefore, safe to assume that localised business still have some advantages.

Advantages of Localised Business:

Better Reputation – whether you are a start-up or a recognised business, it is a good strategy to aim for establishing a name locally first. Why? It is a faster approach in gaining clients due to accessibility and convenience.

Facility Growth – this comes in line with a good reputation of the business. It will be easier to expand your facilities since there are people who can testify for your products or services. When there are branches of your company locally, it is a good impression of your business in the market.

Good Communication – communication is essential in any endeavor. In business, when advertising is focused locally, there is a higher chance of having better communication with the members of your company and even with your people.

Amidst the advantages of a localised business, there are also a number of disadvantages it presents. Let us try to identify them as well.

Disadvantages of Localised Business:

Social Problems – centralising a business in a certain region may create industrial slums and un­healthy living conditions. Criminal activities arise and may cause bigger problems for the business.

Un-healthy Competition – when a business establishes another branch on a local region, there is a possibility of rivalry to occur. Competition might be good in the beginning, but it can turn a business upside-down in the long run.

As we can see, localised businesses have its advantages and disadvantages over globalization. In the end, it will be dependent on the company which approach will provide a satisfactory result.

Cross-Culture Interactions: How Your Partner May Think Differently From You

Thanks to globalisation, and the advent of technology and the Internet, our world has broadened, spanning over numerous geographic locations and cultures worldwide. Our day-to-day interactions with people, be it for business or for pleasure, are no longer limited to ones who share the same background, ethnicity, and culture as us. While this is mostly a very good thing, there are certain drawbacks that are easy to overcome if you have a little patience and a willingness to learn. One of the drawbacks would be the clash of cultures, or more simply, little misunderstandings that may arise due to the difference in culture.

Culture is defined as “the ideas, customs, and social behavior of a particular people or society”. Thus, culture governs how we perceive things around us and dictates the way we act and respond to things about us. One of the first steps people must take to solve this is to acknowledge that the conflict between two people of different cultures may arise, not due to any sinister reasons, but purely due to cross-cultural differences especially with regards to values, assumptions or beliefs.

Here are some of how cross-cultural differences may come into play.

Communication

Verbal communication may be one of the biggest challenges when dealing with people of a different culture, especially if the language used is not the first language of one party. When someone picks up a language having been a stranger to it all his life, he may not be able to quickly adapt to the intricacies of the language, and he might sound very “textbook” in his usage. This may be falsely misinterpreted as rudeness or being off-handed/cold. One way to counter this is to keep in mind that your partner might not be trying to be offensive or rude, it’s just that his language capabilities are limited and he may not know how to soften his words or make them sound more polite.

Non-verbal communication may also be an issue. Things like facial expressions, gestures, timing, and even personal distance, may lead to conflicts between people. For example, some Westerns tend to be louder and quick to invade personal space (by hugging, touching, etc.), which is normal in their culture but considered rude and aggressive by Asians.

Conflicts

People from different cultures view conflict differently. Some people view it as a good thing to air out your grievances and solve it on the spot, while others view it as a thing to be avoided at all costs – even if it means keeping your issues a secret and bearing it in silence. In Western culture, people are encouraged to handle conflicts and deal with them head on. However, in Asian culture, it may be better to suppress the desire to confront anyone head on.

This also applies to differences in disclosure. People from certain cultures may be more comfortable with letting their feelings known and thus more inclined to share the reasons behind conflicts. However, people from other cultures may be reluctant to share such private information about themselves.

Decision-making

Even things like decision-making are different depending on your culture. Some cultures may place the decision-making task onto the most powerful person present, and if your partner is one such person, he might make the decision taking it for granted that the rest will comply. Some cultures make decisions based on what the majority wants, perhaps something more democratic countries are used to. While other cultures may not reach an actual decision unless they convince the remaining doubters to see their point of view.

Ultimately, overcoming difficulties when it comes to cross-cultural interactions involve a lot of patience and acceptance. Purposely leaving behind things like prejudice, racism and stereotypes will help you inculcate into this new situation better.