Sabirova A.E.

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine

PR in the marketing communications of the insurance company

The role of marketing communications and public relations has increased along with the increasing role of marketing for the effective functioning of the insurance company in recent years.

It is not enough to have good insurance products. It at necessary to bring to the consciousness of policyholders benefits of insurance products in order to increase sales and profits. Marketing communications allow companies to communicate with the client and help companies to make their products and services attractive to the target audience. Effective communications with customers are key factors in the success of insurers.

Traditionally, the system of marketing communications consists of four main elements:

- public relations (in some books one can see public relations term such as "propaganda" or "publicity");

- advertising;

- sales promotion;

- personal selling.

Some authors also tend to allocate exhibition technologies and direct marketing in separate groups of marketing communications.

Public relations of the insurance company - is a function of management, providing the establishment and maintenance of effective communications between the insurer and its public. PR promotes the organization, its ideas and people among target audiences. Currently interest groups, opinion leader, professional community and the broader public are associated with the target audience of buyers.

The main objective of the PR - activities of an insurance company is creating favorable internal and external environment for its successful functioning to ensure the required behavior of the environment regarding to the organization.

PR - experts of the insurance company, in fact, are the intermediaries between an organization and its public, and PR - activities can be summarized and presented in two ways:

- public opinion studying, and informing the TOP-managers of the company about it;

-

information creation and dissemination which enable the public to understand the policies and activities of the insurance company.

It is believed that the PR in the insurance company has three main functions:

- control (purposeful shaping )of the views and behavior of the public in order to meet the needs and achieve the interests of the company;

- responding to the public (event,

problem and behavior monitoring, and the development of reciprocal action program on this basis);

- the achievement of a mutually beneficial relationship between community groups within the organization by providing them with constructive engagement, or promote it [1, pg.9].

These functions define the basic principles of PR - activities:

- to ensure the mutual benefit of the organization and the public, the implementation of programs and policies of the insurance company through the lens of the public interest;

- integrity, honesty and openness when dealing with the public and the media;

- implementation of communication to get the result. As long as there is no mutual understanding was reached between the insurance company and its public the communication haven’t been implemented;

- implementation of communication should be carried out with the use of scientific methods for the public opinion study and interdisciplinary approach, based on the findings of psychology, sociology, political science and other social and economic sciences;

- PR - professionals are required to inform the public about the nature of problems before the problems escalated into a crisis;

- the activities of PR - professionals must be assessed from the point of view of a single criterion-ethics.

"The public"

is one of the key concepts in the theory and practice of PR. The public is defined as any group of people (and individuals) that are more or less connected with the life of the organization.

It is considered to provide two community groups: external and internal one.

External public is a group of people who are not directly connected with the insurance company:

- members of the media ;

- suppliers and partners ;

- consumers, insurers;

- locals inhabitants;

- state agencies;

- investors (real and potential);

- special interest groups (educators, sports, health , etc.).

Internal public - is a group of people that make up the organization (workers, employees, insurance agents, managers, shareholders, board of directors, etc.).

Situational approach is widely used in theory and practice of PR, which involves the perception of the public as a group of people rallied around specific common interests or experiences in certain circumstances [1, pg.8].

In the Ukrainian insurance market PR has not yet reached the level and scope, as in other sectors of the economy, but its prospects are favorable, with a reasonable campaign planning and due attention to the unfavorable factors, PR-company can be successful.

In the first half of 2013 according to the Internet portal "My insurance agent", the leader in PR-activity of Ukrainian insurance companies was "Allianz Ukraine", which gained 67 points and won the first place in the ratings for 6 months (Table 1.).

Table 1.

Rating of PR-activity of insurance companies (6 months, 2013)

№	Name	The amount of placed material				Total score
		News	Comment	Article	Interview
1	"Allianz Ukraine"	37	3	1	2	67
2	"Oranta"	29	4	0	2	57
3	"NGS"	18	3	4	0	47
4	"АХА Insurance"	22	4	1	1	47
5	"Аska"	11	0	5	0	36
6	"Arsenal Insurance"	17	3	0	0	26
7	"Universalna"	15	3	0	0	24
8	"Illichivske"	24	0	0	0	24
9	"Kraina"	22	0	0	0	22
10	"Brokbiznes"	19	0	0	0	19

Source: [4].

Rating of PR-activity of insurance companies is determined by adding up the points, which the company can gain by publishing the material in the online resources. Each item has its own score (specific gravity): news - 1 point, comment - 3 points; article - 5 points; interview - 8 points. According to the calculations "Allianz Ukraine" won the first place in this rating.

PR- campaign of insurance company is a complete range of PR- instruments, as well as promotional materials as part of a unified concept or the plan of

influence on the opinions and attitudes of people in order to promote the image of the insuranec company, maintenance the reputation and create the publicity.

The ratio of marketing, advertising and PR activities in the modern insurance companies is one of the most pressing problems of communication strategy

development. Different companies in different ways deal with this problem, which is expressed in a variety of positions that are occupied by PR- specialists.

In some companies, PR function is the responsibility of the advertising department, in others - the marketing department. In a number of insurance companies marketin, PR and advertising are united by horizontal communication not vertical. There is a general understanding of the interaction of marketing and PR in the world and Ukrainian practice despite significant differences in the definition of their role.

Earlier marketologists of insurance companies perceived PR as additional and optional activity of the insurance company. First of all, they focused their efforts on developing the right insurance product, determined the competitive price and established a network of distributors, as well as provided promotional support. This view has undergone some changes due to the modern global trends, so today the PR is necessary for the efficient operation of the insurance company.

References:

1. Aleshina I.V.Public Relations for managers and marketers Text] / I.V. Aleshina. – Moscow: Ekmos, 2003.-480 p.

2. Bouari F.A. PR strategy or trust [Text]/ F.A. Bouari. – M., 2001.-178 p.

3. Insurance: textbook / [Bazylevych V., Bazylevych K., Picus R., and others.]; ed. V. Bazylevych - K.: Znannya, 2008. – 1019 p.

4. Rating of PR-activity of insurance companies [E-resource] / / My insurance agent [website]. - Mode of access: http://myagent.com.ua/pr-rating-activity-of-insurance-companies-6-months-2013.html (Accessed 17 October 2013).

5. Tulenty D. Insurance marketing. Topical issues of methodology, theory and practice. 2nd ed. / [D. Tulenty, V. Gomellya]. – M.: Ankil, 2000. – 128 p.

6. Wexler A. Public Relations for business [Text]/ A. Wexler. - N. Novgorod: PR-Judge, 2001. – 202 p.