Urban Elderly Life Insurance Market And Its Marketing Strategy Of The Transition Period

In 1982, the People's Insurance Company of China resumed the operations of life insurance. Since then, the life insurance market in China has made great progress. However, the life insurance market of China is still in its initial stage, in which the major operations have largely focused on the market for young and middle-aged people, while the relatively high-risk life insurance market for the elderly has been greatly ignored. More importantly, with a population characterized by rapid population aging and declining family size as well as the establishment of the multi-level social security system, the demand for life insurance for the elderly in urban areas has been gradually increasing. It is a vital time to develop life insurance for the elderly for Chinese insurance agents in the face of entering WTO and international competition environment.Based on theories of supply and demand, marketing, and commodity lifecycle, this paper explores the necessity and feasibility of developing the life insurance market for the elderly in urban areas in three aspects: change in population structure, change in social security system, and change in market competition structure. Then, using population and economic data, the paper applies the regression model and elastic demand analysis to analyze the potential demand and actual demand for life insurance for the elderly, so as to estimate the gap between actual and potential demand in the life insurance market for the elderly. The supply of life insurance for the elderly and causes underlying the gap in demand and supply in life insurance market are further examined, so as to emphasize the importance of improving supply side in the market in terms of domestic and international competition and product life cycle. Considering the elderly consumption features and the integrated marketing concept, the paper proposes new 4c+4p marketing strategies for the life insurance market for the urban elderly.Finally, this paper summarizes the important conclusions from this study and raises some issues to be further analyzed in studies on life insurance market for the elderly. All these are valuable in drawing attention from life insurance companies to life insurance market for the elderly in urban China, and providing useful information for operations of life insurance companies.