M.Comm. / Historically a company like Sanlam's business was mainly derived from government and mining markets, but political and economical factors are currently the reason for a decline in those areas. The SBDC predicts that in future small to medium size industries will provide 70% of all job opportunities in South Africa. With these expected changes in the market place, life assurance companies are on the lookout for new target markets with high profit and growth potential. In the past, a company like Sanlam was not successful in the business market, although they have excellent products and concepts available. The object of the study is to determine the market potential of the business environment in the North West Province for the life assurance market, as well as the unique needs, expectations and problems of the business market, so that a marketing action, would be acceptable to the business people, and that it would provide a life assurance company that implements it, with a competitive advantage. Chapter 2 deals with the relevant theory. A distinction was made between the marketing of a product and a service as well as differentiation between marketing to the consumer and industrial markets. Different market segmentation methods were reviewed to determine the different needs of a business person, as well as to determine the most effective products and marketing methods per segment. Measuring methods to determine market potential as well as.the elements that contribute to a competitive advantage were researched. It is mainly a value added service that is sold with a life assurance product and the focus group pointed out that it provides a life assurance company with a competitive advantage. That is why the theory of service quality and measuring instruments for service quality were also researched. In chapter 3 the research methodology as well as the questionnaire for the imperical research are being discussed. The questionnaire consists offive5 sections. The purpose of section A was to determine the demographically information for market segmentation purposes. The purposes of section B and C were to determine the subconscious and conscious needs of business people, so that the market potential and sales force for each competitor could be determined. Subconscious needs were determined through the problems that businesses experienced, which can be solved by life assurance. Section D determines the expectations of businesses in respect of a life assurance company, as well as the perceptions business people have of the five main competitors' service quality. For this purpose the Servqual Instrument was used to measure service in the industrial sector. The information gained from section D, as well as section E's critical success factors was used to determine the competitive advantage elements for a life assurance company planning to target the business market. In chapter 4 the research results of the survey are discussed, bases on the research goals that was set in chapter 3. In chapter 5, based on the research results, nine conclusions and recommendations were made for use by life assurance companies wishing to embark on the business sector as a future target market.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:9069 |
| Date | 13 August 2012 |
| Creators | Ferreira, Hermanus Solomon |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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