Marketing strategies on acquisition of generation y customers among insurance companies in Kenya

Abstract

Generation Y occupies a leading edge of technology and other marketplace changes. Generation Y’s characteristics shed light on its purchasing behaviors and rising expectations of insurers. By paying systematic attention to Generation Y’s expectations, insurers need to put in place appropriate marketing strategies to develop better customer experience strategies through suitably tailored product offerings, marketing, and distribution. All these need to be done by taking into account their distinct behaviors, preferences, attitudes, and values that set them apart from other market segments. To overcome the challenges of this generation, insurance companies need to think strategically when implementing strategies to attract, acquire and retain millennial consumers. The purpose of this study was to establish the effect of marketing strategies on the acquisition of generation Y customers among insurance companies in Kenya. The study was guided by the following objectives; to determine the effect of product innovation strategy, pricing rationalization strategy, distribution strategies, promotional strategies, and social media on the acquisition of generation Y customers among insurance companies in Kenya. The study was anchored on the market power theory, and diffusion of innovation theory, supplemented by the resource-based view theory and theory of planned behavior. The study adopted a descriptive research design targeting 280 top management employees from marketing, claims, and operations departments in the 55 Insurance Companies in Kenya. The study adopted a stratified random sampling technique to select a sample size of 165. The primary research data was collected using a questionnaire. The quantitative data in this research was analyzed through descriptive statistics. The analyzed data was then interpreted and presented in frequency tables, bar charts, graphs, and pie charts. This data was tested for normality, heteroscedasticity, and autocorrelation using the Jarque-Bera test. The coefficient of determination (R2) was used to measure the extent to which the variation in, the acquisition of generation y customers is explained by the variations in marketing strategies determinants. The study found that there is a significant relationship between; product innovation, pricing rationalization, distribution strategy promotional strategy, and the acquisition of generation Y customers among insurance companies in Kenya. The study also found that social media significantly moderated the relationship between the effect of market strategies and the acquisition of generation Y customers among insurance companies in Kenya. The study recommends insurance companies adopt more to come up with diversified products and standardize prices, enhance their distribution channels and promote the products more to acquire more generation Y customers, Besides, the study recommended that the insurance companies should align all their marketing strategies with social media because social media significantly moderated the effect of the different marketing strategies on the acquisition of generation Y customers.