How Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance is building its brand based on evolving millennial mindsets

• Bajaj Allianz Life India’s Life Goals Preparedness Survey 2019 was designed to get a complete picture of the Life Goals that drive Indians, their aspirations, their influences, their preparedness and how they are working towards achieving these goals.
• Emergence of unconventional life goals marked the findings – entrepreneurship, focus on health and fitness, aim to travel more, and giving back to society – topped the list.
• The insurance company’s new campaign thus aims to change the meaning of ‘retirement’ and encourage millennials to pursue their goals whenever they want to.

There is a shift in the way Indians are planning their lives; from simply pursuing standardised milestones such as having children, throwing a lavish wedding, retiring at the age of 60, they are branching out to unconventional Life Goals that are individualistic in nature.

In order to deepen its understanding of Life Goals in India, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance undertook a Life Goals Survey with Kantar IMRB to learn more about this age group and their goals. The study was conducted across 13 metros, Tier I and emerging Tier-II cities and over 150 life goals were mapped.

Some of the new-age Life Goals that emerged include entrepreneurship, focus on healthcare and fitness, travel, life enrichment to strengthen or re-establish the connection with ‘self’, amongst others. These goals are also enabling Indians to move past their comfort zones, experiment with life – whether it’s taking that plunge or starting up or rekindling a long-lost passion. Indians are willing to invest time and money on these goals at their early age, which presents a huge opportunity for Life Insurance companies. These new, emerging Life Goals have the power to shape the choices, actions, emotions, and investment choices of Indians.

The Bajaj Allianz Life India’s Life Goals Preparedness Survey 2019 was designed to get a complete picture of the life goals driving Indians, their aspirations, their influencers, their preparedness and how they are working towards achieving these goals.

Bajaj Allianz Life has seen 60% of its traffic coming from millennials and after this survey, the brand is hoping to see more millennials resonating with it.

Chandramohan Mehra, CMO, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, said, “Some of the early indicators including our website traffic, engagement on social media pages and inbound call traffic witnessed a significant share from millennials, validating the fact that millennials are inclined towards life insurance products for fulfilling their Life Goals. They have higher preference towards brands and products who they resonate with the most.”

Emergence of Unconventional Life Goals in the Survey

• Becoming an entrepreneur in early 30s: A rising life goal of Indians is being an entrepreneur, where 1 in every 10 Indian wants to start something new or pursue a parallel career -- highlighting that new-age Indians are no longer playing it safe and are willing to put in an effort and take the risks

• More focus on planning retirement: 2 in 5 Indians have retirement related life goals; more so in metros, where every 1 in 2 people have a retirement-related life goal. Amongst Indian millennials, retirement related life goals features in the top 5 life goals, and 42% millennials consider it as their life goal. More than 1 in 4 millennials in metros aspire to retire rich by growing their wealth

• One in three respondents cited focus on health and fitness as a life goal -- being physically and mentally fit was amongst the top 10 life goals of Indians and 1 in 2 respondents seek a balanced life, which straddles work-life balance, reliving a passion and leading a peaceful life

• Travel is catching-up as a part of the mainstream culture; 1 in 4 respondents want to travel abroad or travel to new exotic locations

• Philanthropy is a new-age life goal that emerged as well, clearly showcasing that Indians are keen on creating social impact. 1 in 5 respondents said one of their life goals is the need to give back to society. Philanthropic avenues included providing employment opportunities, support another’s dream or imparting knowledge through teaching

While there is a trend that new-age Indians want to pursue unconventional life goals, certain conventional goals continue to remain on India’s mind – these include children’s education, buying their own house, or owning a luxury car. The survey reveals that these conventional goals are typically influenced by family and social circles.

Although Indians are dreaming big, they remain unsure of achieving 38% of their life goals. Interestingly, metros are more under-confident than non-metros. Metros cite 48% goals as ‘unsure of achieving’, as against 29% in non-metros, revealed the study.

Mehra thinks that after this study, the entire financial ecosystem has a great role to play in bridging the gap between what Indians want, what they end up doing, and how they do it.

“While Indians are optimistic, they are inadequately prepared to accomplish the majority of their life goals. One of the reasons for the lack of preparedness for 'me' goals, I guess, is from the social conditioning. The 'we' goals like child education continue to take priority over unconventional Life Goals like travel or fitness,” he expounded.

“To address this challenge, the solution is to deepen the understanding of the consumer, aid simplification and build relevant engagement with the category,” he adds.

Inspiration Behind these Goals

The consumer research findings from Bajaj Allianz Life India’s Life Goal Preparedness Survey indicated that 1 in 5 Life Goals are influenced by social media. Unconventional Life Goals including travel and health related-goals are largely driven by social media. It was also found that the impact of social media is 20% higher for millennials than non-millennials, whereas the influence of movies is 50% higher for millennials than non-millennials.

Changing the Company’s Positioning

Bajaj Allianz also changed its positioning to a company that is young, approachable and solutions-enabler, and through its latest campaign, the brand is challenging the common meaning of ‘retirement.’ It unveiled a 360-degree campaign that breaks a stereotypical mind-set and focuses on driving home the message that retirement need not happen later in one’s career, but can happen anytime -- all they need is a bit of planning. Early Retirement Goals can be achieved is the key message of the entire campaign. The young protagonist in the video reminds the audience that now is the best time to retire as he doesn’t want to wait for tomorrow.


Telling us why the company decided to change its product’s positioning and the aim behind their new campaign, Mehra said, “We always had different kinds of retirement plans but the challenge now was – how can you build an engaging conversation on a retirement category? Generally, the younger audience does not relate to ‘retirement’ as a word. However, the definition of retirement itself is changing. It is not about someone waiting till 58. Retirement doesn’t mean you have zero income -- it is more about people wanting to pursue their passion on their own terms. You can be a photographer, a chef, or an organic farmer. Second is being able to take care of your health and spending time with your family. Since consumers echoed these sentiments in the study, we wondered if we can position our products as Early Retirements Products. Therefore, we embarked on this campaign and our aim is to capture a sentiment that resonates with millennials.”

End Goals

After a year into the campaign, Bajaj Allianz aims to change the meaning of retirement, erase the stigma around it, come up with relevant solutions for millennials by eliminating the middlemen, and being the ‘authentic Life Goals enabler’ that millennials can feel home at. By executing this plan, it further aims to become the ‘undisputed leader’ of the industry.

“We continue to grow at a rate higher than industry on the back of strong holistic business fundamentals. We aspire to become the undisputed leader amongst non-bank promoted company in both topline and profitability,” shares Mehra.