Abstract:
Consumers spend substantial sum of money on insurance and a key
question facing insurance marketer is who in the family makes the insurance purchase
decision. The answer to this question would be informative in the design and
implementation of marketing programs directed at insurance purchasing families.
Purchasing life, automobile or homeowner insurance involves a major purchasing
decision for many families since after such agreement substantial annual premium paid
by most families, hence the importance of the purchase decision would appear
substantial. Indicators of family decision making responsibility in Purchasing insurance
were investigated for a sample of SO MBA students. The focus of the study was to
identify whether certain demographic variables could differentiate between families
whether the insurance purchase decision was made solely by the husband or entailed
wife involvement Employment status of the wife and education of the husband were
found to differentiate between which family member is responsible for insurance
purchasing decisions. Other significant selective variables included wife's educational
level, husband's employment status, family income and husband's occupation. A high
degree of consistency was found in the predictive value of these characteristics in
insurance purchasing decision. Finding suggest that key decision maker within the
family can be identified based on demographic characteristics and study result will
definitely assist insurance marketers in designing effective marketing strategy and
training programs.
