The level of development of the insurance market in a country can say a lot about the general level of accountability of the population. Since risk management was never a strong feature of our nation, the insurance process is more often seen as an additional burden imposed by the law.
Magenta Consulting performed a research on a sample of 1400 respondents over 15 years, from 24 urban centers of the country, in order to determine the brand awareness of the insurance agencies and the predisposition of the local consumers to contract certain types of insurance contracts. The research revealed that the insurance services are not popular at all among the local population, as a significant weight of respondents mentioned they do not use these types of services (76%). Only 13% of the participants said they usually conclude insurance policies from a single company (13%), while for 11% of respondents the insurance company doesn’t matter (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1. Consumers’ preference towards a specific insurance company (%), N=1400
Since the majority of our population does not request insurance services at all, it’s interesting to find out what types of contracts do the rest 24% prefer to sign? The study reveals that 66% of respondents prefer to conclude auto insurance contracts, 40% purchase health insurances, 21% insure their homes, and 19% of people choose life insurance (Fig. 2). No other type of insurance contract was mentioned by the respondents, besides the four ones specified above. An interesting finding is that those who buy most of the auto insurance are men aged 25-34 years. The study has also revealed that the higher the income of respondents, less likely they are to purchase health insurance. A proper example could serve the participants with monthly incomes over 8000 MDL, who are more likely to insure their houses, cars and even conclude a life insurance, rather than signing a health insurance contract.
Fig. 2. Most preferred types of insurance contracts among local consumers (%), N=368
In order to analyze the brand awareness of the insurance companies the unassisted questioning was applied as a research method, which implies the consumers to note down the name of companies they know, instead of choosing the names from a provided list. The majority of respondents noted down the following companies: Asito (85%) and Moldasig (45%), Grawe Carat and Donaris Group were mentioned by 10% each, 5% specified Moldcargo, and 2% - Sigur Asigur. Other companies have been mentioned by 7% of all respondents (Fig.3).
Fig. 3. Consumers’ awareness of the insurance companies in Moldova (%), N=1052
The multicriterial analysis has revealed that most of respondents who mentioned the name of Asito provide services in particular (95%), while Moldasig is more popular among those who work abroad (62%). Moldcargo is known mostly among entrepreneurs (9%), but also by public employees (7%). At the same time, those who recognized Donaris Group are divided into service providers (18%) and entrepreneurs (14%), while Grawe Carat is known best among freelancers (16%).
Some say the insurance market is growing, but the local consumer is far from realizing the utility of insurance services. Market participants should, first of all, educate the public toward the need for insurance, and then make attractive offers correlated with the consumers’ expectations. This recession brings on many changes, one of the most important being the change in consumers’ perception, who tend to make savings and reorganize their budgets. A well-thought awareness campaign regarding insurance services may bring long-term benefits both to insurance companies, as well as to their final customers.