It is time to 'March' ahead!!!!

It is that time of the year, when calculators come out of the drawers, excel becomes the hottest thing ever and tax consultants make obscene amount of money. Yes, you have guessed it right, this is March. A month which has IPL 3, but for once that is not the most important reason behind the importance of this month...To remind you, this is also the month that most of us pay our taxes in!!!!

In this context, getting hold of proper tax saving instruments become very important...Investments are made and declared and we 'donate' our hard earned money with a lot of grudge against the government...Insurance, is a widely used instrument in this period.

Over the last couple of weeks, when I myself have been losing sleep over how to save taxes, have often hit upon the idea of buying insurance policies. It is here that I started thinking about all the ads of various products from insurance companies.

Insurance, is a negative reinforcement product. This means that Insurance is bought to avoid the aftermaths of an unwanted situation, like death, accident, and in most cases taxes. The underlying emotion or sentiment belying an insurance buying decision is fear. We fear that we might not be able to support ourselves financially if the earning member/s of the family are no more there, and hence we buy an insurance policy!!!

Now if we have noticed carefully, none of the insurance ads, with a few aberrations, even remotely speak of this. Insurance ads are mostly feel good ads where a daughter is shown gifting her father a bigger and better car. A grandfather who wants to extend a helping hand to his grandson who is about to trip, is stopped by the father, et al.

There is a reason to it.


Research shows that we, as consumers do not prefer to see negative messages on television. We do not empathise with them. What happens is that we form a very clear demarcation of 'them' and 'we'. If an ad shows a death, we analyze that it happenned or can happen to 'them' (the characters potrayed in the ad) and not us. Also, the average Indian consumer, is pretty egoistic when it comes to his/her family. In the case of insurance, the decision maker is mostly, the earning member of the family, that is largely, the male. If we look carefully, there is a good amount of ego massage that is done by these ads. How? Recollect the HDFC Standard Life "Sar Utha Ke Jiyo: ads.

One aberration in recent times, has been, again, HDFC Standard Life. The ad shows two friends. One is going on a tour, and the other friend is seeing him off tha the airport. They discuss what will happen to the family if the friend does not return from the tour at all. To me, this ad is a very blatant and in your face kind of an ad, that drives home the point without mincing or sugarcoating words. I am eagerly looking forward to the kind of reaction that the ad stirrs!!!

Till that time, I shall continue contemplating on which insurance to buy, how much investments to declare, etc. Ads or no ads..Life, you see, has to 'March' ahead!!!!