The big ethical challenge for insurers in 2021 will be to learn the lessons from events in 2020 and to apply them systematically across the firm. It will be a bigger task than many insurers think, but those who get it right will reap reputational rewards.
(read more)Marketing - full of ethical opportunities and risks
Marketers are involved in some of the most important aspects of the customer proposition. This is bringing them into contact with some of the most important ethical decisions facing the sector.
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Insurance Marketing - the ethical lens
A few years ago, I wrote a detailed overview of the ethical issues that marketers working in insurance should have on their radar. Published by the UK's Chartered Insurance Institute, it is still the stand out text for guiding insurance marketers through the ethical issues they are encountering.
The paper addressed five themes in some detail...
Products and Services - putting the customer at the heart of a business, on three levels: product governance, product strategy and product design.
Information and Insight - ever increasing amounts of data are providing marketers with new insights into consumer attitudes. It is also raising some of the fundamental ethical questions that insurance firms face.
Pricing - an important component of every marketer's toolkit, but one which is under intense scrutiny at the moment. It presents some complex ethical challenges for insurance marketers.
Distribution - the proliferation of channels and players has its downsides. Roles become confused and intentions questioned. Conflicts of interest still abound, needing attention.
Partners and Suppliers - insurance marketers, in their role as champion of the customer, need to be aware of the ethical downsides to the many partnerships and suppliers arrangements in the market.
Click on the guide to go to the CII download page
Marketing and Digital Ethics
The digital era that insurance is entering presents marketers with countless insights from the data and analytics that insurers are now exploiting. Yet there is a world of difference between 'can I do this' and 'should I do this'. This will present marketers with some challenging ethical decisions.
Two of the key issues are manufactured vulnerability and emotion analysis...
Insurance marketing and the dangers of manufactured vulnerability (link)
Manufactured vulnerability – how might insurers respond? (link)
How do you feel about insurers tracking and analysing your emotions? (link)
Automating the emotions that drive marketing and sales (link)
Nudging, ethics and modern insurance design (link)
Client Project
This client had a distinctive reputation in the market and one of its senior directors wanted a clear map of the ethical issues that might disrupt its growth strategy. A facilitated workshop allowed for a range of issues to be aired, analysed and assigned for more detailed attention. The result was a more confident firm paying attention to how it used new digital techniques to engage with target markets.
Click on the course outline for download details
I help marketing people to understand more about ethical issues so that they can make better decisions...
I help insurers explore the positioning of trust within their customer proposition and the steps needed to manage it. This moves trust from being something everyone likes the idea of, to being something managed and monitored on an active basis.
I often work with firms in a ‘critical friend’ role, bringing them insight from outside their normal thinking. I’ve identified ethical risks that their plans could run into, as well as highlighted when blind spots were influencing their performance. It’s informed, sometimes challenging, often insightful.
Data and analytics are now bringing marketing and underwriting closer together. I’ve participated in a number of insurer workshops looking at the big ethical themes that can come out of this. Some of them have been reputationally very significant.
I’ve developed a number of ethical frameworks through which senior marketing people have better understood the ethical landscape for their part of the business. This has helped them move from a reactive to proactive approach, giving the right leadership for building trust
Get in touch for an informal chat about how I might help your firm - my details are on the contact page.
A Good Read
'Emotional AI' by Andrew McStay is an important book for insurance people to read because it gets to the heart of the questions they need to be thinking about as they weigh up the use of voice and facial analytics in underwriting and marketing. It's coverage is thorough and well argued.
Recent Articles on Marketing...
Nudging, ethics and modern insurance design
Nudging is a concept at the heart of much ‘new thinking’ about insurance. Yet it’s a complex thing and insurers need to take care when using it in the design of new products and services.
(read more)Some thoughts on ethics, insurance and the pandemic
It is in times like the present that the reputation of the insurance sector will be defined. Here are some thoughts on ethics, insurance and the current pandemic.
(read more)The big ethical challenges facing insurers in 2020
2020 will be an eventful year for insurers. During the many years I’ve been tracking the ethical challenges facing insurers, never before have I seen so many issues demanding attention. Some firms will find the learning curve steep and challenging.
(read more)The radical new approach to tackling insurance mis-selling
Mis-selling has been a perennial problem for the insurance market. In the last couple of years, the UK regulator’s approach has changed, radically. Intermediaries and representatives should prepare for a new regulatory experience.
(read more)The Fundamental Challenges that Insurance faces from Data Analytics
What are the fundamental challenges that data and analytics pose to insurance? Here are six that I think raise profound questions for the sector.
(read more)Conflicts of Interest – the vital step from recognising to reporting
Conflicts of interest are a feature of most insurance markets. And a vital step in managing them is helping people move from recognising to reporting them. Yet that isn’t as easy as most might think.
(read more)Will the ‘best interests of the customer’ sink some sector business models?
Is the oft heard call from within the sector to be more customer centric about to be put to the test? Some sector business models will struggle to pass, and change could be painful.
(read more)How do you feel about insurers tracking and analysing your emotions?
Insurers are using data and analytics to track and predict our emotions. Yet using it in underwriting and claims decisions raises some significant ethical issues. Here’s why.
(read more)Where the really fundamental changes in insurance will emerge
How transformative are the changes happening in insurance at the moment? In amongst the noise of disrupting start ups, is a paradigm shift under way?
(read more)A checklist for conflicts of interest in insurance firms
Are conflicts of interest in insurance being taken seriously enough? It’s a question that needs to be addressed, given recent headlines. So what should insurance firms check for when it comes to being better at conflicts of interest? Here are nine suggestions.
(read more)Honest Insurance is now a marketing favourite. What does it say to you?
When you’re told that what’s being offered is honest insurance, what do you think? Some will be reassured that all is bound to be well with the policies of an insurer like that. Which indeed it might be. If however you’re curious about what is meant by honest insurance, then read on.
(read more)