One of the challenges I face with an Insurance client is the fact that the majority of insureds don't ever place a claim. They never experience the caring that potentially sets our client apart. And we struggle with what to do. Do we take them emotionally to the point of calamity so we can discuss the benefits? Or do we create a warm emotional state where they know they are protected?
Today I sat on a bus and listened to some young women in the back discuss politics. One was an artist and relatively educated on the platforms of the Left and the Right. The other (her friend) was not. She had lots of questions. And I couldn't help but listen as the questions were shockingly innocent and uneducated.
What struck me first was the honesty of the conversation. Something hard to match in traditional media channels. It was fascinating as it quickly became clear that this artists friend really just wanted to know why politics should matter to her. No dancing around the issue. She was just looking for personal context and impact.
The artist was doing everything she could to show the connection to this young ladies life. But to no avail. Tuition caps removed translated to "I'm going into Senior Year... so it won't affect me." Grants lost affected her friend the artist, but not her. Healthcare was something for old people to deal with.
At this point I had missed my stop and wasn't even pretending to read the book in my lap anymore.
Her view of the world was severely limited by a sense of the immediate. Anything 3-5 years out was not valid. Anything impacting her friends or family was also close to immaterial.
It got me thinking. How different is this from the majority in this younger age bracket? Or the majority in ANY age bracket?
Or back to the point at hand, what happens when it does come home? What happens when suddenly she is sick, can't afford to go to school or suddenly finds herself on welfare? Or in the case of our insurance client, why should anyone worry or care about how good the claim process is? And it explains why most people just focus on the warm fuzzy sense of being protected.
This interaction bothered me all day. And not because of it's impact on my view of marketing or even Insurance. Rather, I was unable to shake the question, "How do we make politics matter?"
The answer may be that we have to change politics.
Tags: insurance, politics, obama, selfish
Photo Source: aleanndra
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I've heard a lot of grumbling from the feminine side of the fence about this whole Mo'vember thing. How it is a ripoff of the Pink thing. Or that it robs a certain person of her birthday fame. But ya gotta admit, it's the program with the payoff.
I love that it's sponsored by Playboy. It's not your father's magazine any more. And neither is it his mustache. 
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