Effects of Marketing Intelligence on Sales Performance of Bancassurance Among Financial Institutions in Kenya

Abstract

The ever changing marketing environment requires that marketers continuously gather and disseminate information for timely decision making and improved organizational performance. Developments in information, communication and Technology (ICT) have revolutionized the way organizations gather relevant market information to position themselves appropriately. Marketing intelligence is the key necessity of any business procedure and is the technique for transforming crude data into profitable data, transforming that significant information into plan, and transforming system into business performance which can keep up an organization's CA. The high competition among insurance companies coupled with higher confidence level among customers to commercial banks compared to insurance companies has seen commercial banks include insurance services as part of their service offerings. Today, 26 Kenyan commercial banks have implemented bancassurance. However, in order to improve the sales volume of insurance services through banks, there needs to be adequate market intelligence to inform the tailoring of their services for higher customer appeal. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of marketing intelligence on sales performance of bancassurance among financial institutions in Kenya. This study adopted a cross- sectional descriptive survey design. The target population of the study comprised of 26 commercial banks that had implemented bancassurance by December 2015. The study used primary data collected using a questionnaire data analyzed using descriptive statistics using SPSS regression analysis was used to establish the effects of marketing intelligence on sales performance of Bancassurance. The study found that majority of the banks mostly adopts the identification of ways to modify current strategy to add value for customers as a marketing intelligence practice. It was also found that the marketing intelligence practices least employed by the banks include conducting of pilot studies to collect information on customer preferences and developing and using marketing information systems to gather market data and the investment in R&D to discover new knowledge of serving customers. The study recommends that Kenyan financial institutions dealing in bancassurance not only identify ways to modify their current strategies in order to add value for pilot studies to better understand their customers’ needs and preferences. The study also recommends all banks dealing in insurance products to come up with sound and workable marketing insurance strategies that will not only see them enhance performance in terms of profitability but also increase their sales volumes.