Environmental Factors And Strategic Marketing Planning In Nigerian Insurance Industry

Abstract

The Nigerian insurance industry is saddled with the responsibility of financing economicactivities and underwriting risks resulting from uncertainties created by the volatileNigerian marketing environment. In performing this role, insurance companies are facedwith multiplicity of problems and challenges that undermine their ability to deliver qualityservices at reasonable cost. The present study was designed to examine the relationshipbetween environmental factors and strategic marketing planning in the selected NigerianInsurance Companies. The five companies selected for the study are Niger Insurance,Cornerstone Insurance, NEM Insurance, Crusader Insurance and Industrial and GeneralInsurance Company. The study obtained secondary data spanning between 1999 and 2013.In addition, 246 top and middle managers were administered questionnaire. The result ofthis study revealed a positive relationship between environmental factors and strategicmarketing planning (R = 0.78, R2 = 0.61).This means that environmental factors havepositive influence and effect on strategic marketing planning in Nigerian insurancecompanies. The study findings revealed that environmental factors have relationship withstrategic marketing planning among the selected insurance companies. The findingsfurther showed that social responsibility, service scopes, and service culture gave P valuesof 0.000, 0.019, and 0.000 respectively which are less than 0.05 (< 0.05). However, employeesatisfaction is negatively related to environmental factors (4 = -0.017). The study concludesthat the major problem of strategic marketing planning in the insurance industry was theirinability to develop necessary manpower and on- the- job training to meet the needs andexpectations of customers. Based on the findings, it was recommended that if theenvironment of service delivery was critical to strategic marketing planning, then, serviceorganisations should scan the environment before designing it. Implication of the study isthat environmental factors are major factor that must be considered when designingstrategic marketing planning by insurance firms. Successful strategic marketing planningrequires scanning the organizational environment and analyzing its internal situation.These inward and outward views are the backbone of strategic marketing planning.