HDFC Life: Ensuring You to Always Live with Your Head Held High Date:   Wednesday , January 28, 2015 With the Indian government further opening up the doors to increase FDI to 49 percent, the Indian insurance industry has entered into a state of flux. This has, in turn, attracted major players from around the world. Though several of the early entrants in this space grabbed a large portion of the opportunity pie, few failed to keep their promises, as they fell short of reaching out to their customers. But HDFC Life � a joint venture between HDFC Ltd and Standard Life - emerged as the first company to occupy an emotional space in the industry, since their inception in 2000. \"HDFC Life, as a name, has two critical aspects. HDFC, our parent company, is one of the most valuable companies in India. This parentage has added a large amount of credibility to our brand. The other aspect is \'Life\', which is our primary business i.e. Life Insurance,\" says Sanjay Tripathy, Senior Executive Vice President, HDFC Life. The Mumbai-based insurance company\'s popular tag line \'Sar Utha Ke Jiyo\' means \'Always Live with Your Head Held High\' and is positioned as a brand that allows people to live a life with pride and dignity. The brand characterizes its customers as a strong, independent individual for whom, living a life of pride is of the highest importance. Today, HDFC Life is one of the leading insurance companies in India, offering a range of individual and group insurance solutions that meet several customers\' needs in the space of protection, pension, savings & investment and health, along with specific plans for women and children. An Enabler of Financial Independence People associate financial independence with pride and as a life insurance company HDFC Life promises to offer this independence through its investment products that provide financial security throughout their customers\' lives. Its life insurance cover ensures that the customer\'s family always stays financially independent. Today, HDFC Life is one of the few brands to consistently position itself and deliver on one single promise, while others have wavered from theirs. This initiative helped the company to successfully park itself in the mind of the customers as an entity that strives to deliver its brand promise. HDFC Life adopted unique marketing strategies, highlighted by its two towers of strength � Brand and Business. On one hand, Brand takes the centre stage and helps HDFC Life embrace the \'pull strategy\' � getting the customers to come to them by driving the long term value; on the other, the Business facet helps in achieving short term objectives. The team, in conjunction with traditional marketing, uses digital marketing strategy as a key ingredient to reach its target audience. Major focus is now being placed on independent women who play a crucial role in the emerging economy of the country. This gives the company an edge over other players occupying the same space. Objective of Retaining & Engaging with Customers With every new insurance player entering the market, the pie got smaller. While all the existing players had to suffer customer attrition, the secret of HDFC Life lies beneath the silver lining of sticking to the core brand promise. Many players witnessed their share being taken by new entrants and changed their core business values to serve customers. But HDFC Life expanded its target audience, based on the market trends, and retained its brand promise. The company\'s dynamic analytics team has made significant efforts to gain traction with a younger target, primarily male, between the 30-40 years age group. They reside in Tier I and Tier II cities and have been considered because of their efficiency to earn more at a considerably young age. In addition, the series of \'do-it-yourself\' online products made a strong impact on the younger population. Thus, HDFC Life took the bull by the horns and achieved the objective of retention and engagement of customers. \"While our primary target has been men, we\'ve never ignored the growing importance of women as influencers and decision makers when it comes to investments. We are known to be a brand that is trustworthy, progressive, yet firmly rooted in the Indian value system,\" Sanjay adds. These values and practices keep the company ethical and trustworthy in the eyes of its customers. Key Management: Sanjay Tripathy, Senior Executive Vice President � Marketing, Product, Digital & e-Commerce Sanjay joined HDFC Life in 2004 and has been responsible for Marketing Strategy, Brand Planning, Advertising, Communication & Media, Customer Insights, New Product Development, Product Life Cycle Management, Online & Digital Strategy, e-Commerce, Customer Analytics, and Corporate Communication. Prior to working with HDFC Life, Sanjay held key roles in GCMMF Ltd., Frito-Lay (PepsiCo), Mattel and Reliance Infocomm. Sanjay has been honored with the \'Marketer of the Year Award\' for Insurance category by the International Advertising Association (IAA) in their flagship Leadership Awards, 2014. He was also featured in Campaign India \'The A list 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013\' of most influential people in Media, Marketing and Advertising apart from winning several other awards. Awards & Accolades: � HDFC Life has been recognized for its excellence in cost management at the 11th National Awards for Excellence in Cost Management organized by Institute of Cost Accountants of India. � The company was honored with TDWI Best Practices Award 2014 under the category BI on a Limited Budget. � It was also ranked amongst Top 100 CISOs at the Infosec Maestros Awards 2014. Offices: India � Mumbai and Chennai International � Dubai