Marketing Audit for AIA Singapore

This report discusses the marketing audit of AIA, highlighting the external and internal factors, SWOT analysis, and strategic priorities. It suggests that AIA has a big opportunity in the growing insurance sector in Singapore.

MARKETING AUDIT: AIA
Marketing Audit for AIA Singapore
Student’s name
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MARKETING AUDIT: AIA
Executive Summary
This report discusses the marketing audit of AIA. The report highlights that AIA is one of
the top market players in Singapore. The report discusses the external factors and internal factors
for AIA. The report also discusses the SWOT analysis and strategic priorities for AIA. Based on
the discussion it can be said that AIA have a big opportunity as the insurance sector is a growing
industry in Singapore. It is important that AIA should have a clear mission and vision in place to
tap the market.

MARKETING AUDIT: AIA
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction.........................................................................................................................................4
2.0 Organizational background...........................................................................................................4
3.0 Situational Analysis...........................................................................................................................5
3.1 Environmental analysis....................................................................................................................... 5
3.1.1 Macro environmental analysis........................................................................................................................................ 5
3.1.2 Micro environment.............................................................................................................................................................. 8
3.2 SWOT analysis......................................................................................................................................... 9
3.3 Competitive Analysis.......................................................................................................................... 11
4.0 Strategic Priorities..........................................................................................................................12
5.0 Conclusion and Recommendations............................................................................................13
References.................................................................................................................................................15

MARKETING AUDIT: AIA
1.0 Introduction
Today, marketing has emerged as a key organizational function. The large organizations
have realized the importance of marketing audit. Simply defined, a marketing audit is a thorough
review of the marketing plan, objectives, strategies, and current activities being executed in the
business. The goal is to see what's working and what isn’t, so businesses can identify areas for
improvement. It is important that the marketing audit should be based on the overall business
strategy of organization. At the same time, organizations and leaders should involve various
internal and external stakeholders to conduct marketing audit. There are various activities that
are done as part of marketing audit (Brodie, Ilic, Juric & Hollebeek, 2013). The two-key set of
activities undertaken as a part of marketing audit is to assess the internal and the external
environment. The tools like competitive analysis and SWOT analysis are used to assess the
internal and external environment. A Marketer has to study local culture of the desired market in
depth before offering any product or services in order to have a certain chance of success for that
particular offering. This has to be done because every product required a communication channel
in order to do promotions and to influence customer’s decision (Stratton & Northcote, 2014). As
per human tendency, everything comes under the judgement as per their cultural measurements
and self-learning process. The objective of this report is to do the market audit of AIA-
Singapore. A brief organizational background can be discussed as:
2.0 Organizational background
AIA Group Limited, known as AIA, is the largest public listed pan-Asian life insurance
group. It offers insurance and financial services, writing life insurance for individuals and

MARKETING AUDIT: AIA
businesses, as well as accident and health insurance, and offers retirement planning, and wealth
management services. The company was established in the year 1919 and since then it has
emerged as a matured brand in Singapore insurance industry. AIA is a global brand that is
present in 18 Asia-Pacific nations. The head quarter of the company is in Hong-Kong. AIA
offers various insurance products like life insurance, employee benefits, health insurance,
pension services and credit services. The competition is really high in the insurance industry and
there are number of players that operate in Singapore market. However, AIA has been able to
establish itself as a known player in the market. The company is known for quality services to its
consumers (Stratton & Northcote, 2014). The claim settlement rate of AIA is also very good as
compared to its competitors.
3.0 Situational Analysis
There are various tools to perform the situational analysis for organizations. The
environmental analysis for AIA Singapore can be discussed as
3.1 Environmental analysis
The environmental analysis would include the analysis of both micro and macro
environment. The micro environment are external factors that organizations would find it
difficult to manage (Brodie, Ilic, Juric & Hollebeek, 2013). The macro and micro environmental
analysis for insurance sector in Singapore can be discussed as:
3.1.1 Macro environmental analysis
One of the most widely used macro environmental analysis tool is PESTLE analysis. The
PESTLE analysis is done at the industry level (Stratton & Northcote, 2014). It consists of various

MARKETING AUDIT: AIA
factors like political & legal, economic, environmental, etc. The PESTLE analysis for insurance
sector and AIA in Singapore can be discussed as:
3.1.2 PESTLE analysis
The influence of these external forces on the business of insurance companies can be
discussed as:
3.1.2.1 Political & Legal
The political and legal factors are positive for the business operations of organizations in
the insurance sector. The insurance sector in Singapore is a highly regulated sector. The
government wants to create a system of check and balance over the insurance providers in the
company. However, government supports the initiatives of players in the insurance sector. The
government support has also enabled the private players to have large scale operations in the
country (Berman & Evans, 2015). With time, the Singapore government has opened the door to
number of internal players in the Insurance sector. Today a large number of private insurance
players operate in the market. It is expected that the political and legal factors would remain
positive for the insurance companies in the country (Shaomian & Heere, 2015).
3.1.2.2 Economical
The economic factors are also positive for insurance players in Singapore. The disposable
income of consumers is high in the country and this is a positive sign for insurance providers.
The consumers want to buy the insurance products as they want to safeguard their lives. The
economy of Singapore is also growing at a good growth rate. It is expected that the economic
factors would remain positive for insurance companies (Shaomian & Heere, 2015). With time,

MARKETING AUDIT: AIA
the economic conditions of Singapore have improved a lot. A lot of foreign companies have
entered and expanded in Singapore. This has further strengthened the economic environment in
the country.
3.1.2.3 Social
The social factors are also positive for insurance players in Singapore. However, one of
the concern for insurance players is the issue of scalability. Singapore is a small country and it is
not possible to scale the business operations within the country. The retirement age is 62 years in
the country and the good thing for organization is that the citizens realise the importance of
insurance (Kuo & Feng, 2013). There is already a great push in the marketing. The market of
insurance has been greatly governed by the social factors and it is expected that that the social
factors would remain positive.
3.1.2.4 Technological
The technology factors also have a great impact on the operations of insurance sector in
the company. Today, Singapore citizens can purchase the insurance at a click on their laptop or
with a touch on their smart phone. With the penetration of Internet and technological
advancements, the insurance products have also evolved (Zablocki, Schlegelmilch & Schant,
2017). The technological factors have been a key strength of efficiency improvement in the
insurance segment.
3.1.2.5 Environmental
It is expected that the companies operating in the insurance sector would have a policy
toward sustainability and corporate social responsibility. The environmental concern is one of

MARKETING AUDIT: AIA
the biggest concern for the Singapore government (Berman & Evans, 2015). The government
always support the organizations that have a sustainable policy in place.
3.1.2 Micro environment
The micro environment are the factors that have an impact at the company level. The key
difference between macro environment factors and micro environment factors is that macro
environment factors affects at industry level and micro environment factors affects at the
organization level (Kuo & Feng, 2013). The key factors that are part of micro environment of
AIA can be discussed as:
3.1.2.1 Employees
It would be correct to say that employees are the biggest asset for AIA. The performance
of employee directly impacts the business of AIA. Therefore, AIA wants that it should have
strong employee base. AIA is known to provide good incentives to its employees so that
employees can work with high level of productivity (Laroche, Habibi, Richard &
Sankaranarayanan, 2012).
3.1.2.2 Culture of innovation & research
AIA would be able to emerge as a market leader when it would have a culture of
innovation (Stratton & Northcote, 2014). The innovation accounting also considers the process
of MVP, which allows the business to indicate the progress and validation of their products or
services. As Tasci (2018) mentioned that it allows the business to take decision about investment
of new product or modification of existing products. It is also important that AIA should be able
to understand the pulse of consumers through market research and survey (Zablocki,
Schlegelmilch & Schant, 2017). In order to make the research study in an effective manner the

MARKETING AUDIT: AIA
concept of the innovation accounting should be clear, it will help the reader to understand all the
aspect related with the topic that will be presented in later section of the study and other financial
practices shed an unappealing light on process of innovation, so that it can be said that concept of
innovation accounting makes effect on value of intangible assets of a business organisation.
There are two different types of research approach and they are inductive and deductive
(Vomberg, Homburg & Bornemann, 2015). Deductive research approach is used to test or
establish the research hypothesis, so that deductive method is applicable for those research works
which have hypothesis based on research topic.
3.1.2.3 Customers
In the end the key stakeholder for the company is customers. Therefore, every strategy
and policy in the company is made with customers in mind. It would be correct to say that
customers have a deep impact on the operations of AIA (Tasci, 2018). Moreover, customers can
choose form number of insurance companies and a switching cost is also low in insurance sector.
Therefore, it is important that AIA should provide good quality and better services to its
customers.
3.2 SWOT analysis
Another key tool to assess the environment of any organization is SWOT analysis. With
SWOT analysis any organization can realize its area of improvements. It is important that the
future plans of the organization should be based on the learning from SWOT analysis
(Baumgarth, Kaluza & Lohrisch, 2016). The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for
AIA can be discussed as:
3.2.1 Strengths

MARKETING AUDIT: AIA
The brand name and the brand reputation of the company is its biggest strength. The
company has excellent financials, and this is also one of the key strengths of the company
(Keller, 2016). The company has good decent cash reserves to spend on marketing and other
activities. The financial snapshot of AIA can be shown as:
3.2.2 Weaknesses
The lack of flexibility is one of the weaknesses of the company. The attrition rate is
generally high for players in the insurance sector and this is one of the key problems for AIA
also (Vomberg, Homburg & Bornemann, 2015). The employee loyalty is low in insurance
industry and people would frequently switch job. It is important that AIA should work on its
weaknesses.
3.2.3 Opportunities

MARKETING AUDIT: AIA
The market is growing at an exponential rate and this is the biggest opportunity for AIA.
It is expected that the insurance industry would grow at a CAGR of 10% and this is a great
opportunity for AIA (Keller, 2016). Every year, there would be more and more people who will
need insurance and AIA has the opportunity to target these people.
3.3.4 Threats
The biggest threat for AIA is the threat from other players in the market. It is difficult for
AIA or any other player to create differentiation in the market and this is also an area of threat
for the company. Basically, AIA does not have any great positioning that can keep customer
stick to the company (Laroche, Habibi, Richard & Sankaranarayanan, 2012).
3.3 Competitive Analysis
With the tool of competitive analysis, organizations can actually analyse the standing of
competitors against its own standing. The competitive positioning map of AIA and its
competitors can be shown as:

MARKETING AUDIT: AIA
The above competitive map shows that AXA is a leader in the market. The map also
shows that the position of AIA is also good. The competitive analysis suggests that none of the
players has less cost for the offerings and all the competitors believes in providing high quality to
consumers (Mokwa, 2017). In recent times a lot has been changed in the insurance sector in
Singapore. The changing nature of the industry is one of the biggest driver of change in the
competition in the insurance sector. In last decade or so a transformational change is observed in
the insurance delivery. With the incorporation of Electronic Health Record system, the health
care insurance and life insurance is not the same. This or any other change in the health care
system demands change in the workface. It is expected that the health care and life insurance
would continue to change and as a result the competitive landscape would keep on changing.
There is a need that insurance workforce should be given regular training about the new things in
industry. The employer can also conduct various workshops where people get to know about the

MARKETING AUDIT: AIA
latest industry news. It is the responsibility of insurance leaders to ensure that their workforces
and affiliated providers are well positioned for the future (Datta, Ailawadi & Van Heerde, 2017).
It would need considerable investments from employers and it is important that the leaders
should be willing to make this investment.
4.0 Strategic Priorities
The important thing for AUA is to have a vision in place and this vision should be
developed based on the inputs of various internal and external stakeholders. It is also important
that this vision should be communicated to employees at different levels (Mullakhmetov,
Sadriev, Gabidinova & Akhmetshin, 2016). The engagement from the workforce would be high
only when they feel motivated. Therefore, motivation of employees is the key. The
communication should be effective in the organization and leaders should always be available to
answer the queries of team members. It is recommended that leaders should engage the
workforce through various training and developmental programs. The engagement levels would
be high if the employees are given some incentives to attend and participate in training and
developmental programs (Dietz et al., 2015). In the entire process, planning is the key and it is
suggested that health care leader should have strong planning so that they can implement their
program efficiently. The support from various internal and external stakeholders would also help
the leaders to have effective strategy in place (Song et al., 2014). The bottom line is that leaders
should not be fear any change in the industry and insurance industry is an ever-changing industry
(Datta, Ailawadi & Van Heerde, 2017).
The strategic priority for AIA would also include the focus on service improvement
through tools like lean management (Zhang, Zhou, Su & Zhou, 2013). With lean management

MARKETING AUDIT: AIA
the focus is on collaboration among all the departments so that the overall efficiency of the
organization is high and waste in the system is limited. With six-sigma, the objective of our
organization is to reduce the defects to continuously improve the service levels. Six Sigma can
also be thought of as a measure of process performance, with Six Sigma being the goal, based on
the defects per million. Once the current performance of the process is measured, the goal is to
continually improve the sigma level striving towards six-sigma (Baumgarth, Kaluza & Lohrisch,
2016).
5.0 Conclusion and Recommendations
The above paper discusses the marketing audit of AIA. With the above discussion, it can
be said that the company is doing good in the market. One of the good thing for AIA is that it is
amongst the market leaders. However, the strategic positioning of AIA appears to little less than
AXA. Therefore, there is a scope of improvement and with a focused marketing plan in place,
AIA can definitely attain the position of market leader. It is recommended that AIA group should
create the best working environment. This can happen by eliminating the discrimination. It is
about taking specific actions against the people belonging to the particular’s group. Although, it
is illegal to practice discrimination at workplace, but it is common practice at subtle level. For
instance, if the management consists of all the males, it will prevent the reaching any female to
take up such position. At the same time, ANZ group should also work on tokenism. It means that
an organization appoints a small number of the members of the minority group to higher
management position without seeking the active representation of that group. By practicing
tokenism, organizations are trying to safeguard themselves so that no one raises questions.

MARKETING AUDIT: AIA
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MARKETING AUDIT: AIA
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