Market research: insights from the women’s market

Published in

Impact Insurance

7 min readJan 25, 2021

By Lisa Morgan and José Miguel Flores Contro

The Insurance for Development course is a unique learning opportunity for insurance professionals to study business models and strategies for inclusive insurance. During September and October 2020, over 70 participants from around the world joined the ILO’s Impact Insurance Facility and the International Training Centre of the ILO for a series of webinars that accompanied self-paced learning modules. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) collaborated with ILO on the course for the third consecutive year through conducting expert panels that share insights on the women’s insurance market opportunity. In this blog, we provide some highlights from the webinar on market research into the women’s market.

The women’s market represents a substantial commercial opportunity for the insurance industry. It is estimated that the global women’s insurance market has the opportunity to grow to USD 1.7 trillion by 2030[1]. And, as detailed later in the blog, there are other equally good reasons to focus on women and close the financial inclusion gender gap, which renders women underrepresented across all financial services.

However, to fulfil this potential, key challenges still need to be addressed, such as:

increasing the supply of appropriate and affordable solutions accessible to women across the socio-economic spectrum;
reaching women who live in remote areas and/or work in the informal economy; and
establishing an insurance culture within a group that has been, or may still be, marginalized.

As with serving any specific market segment, market research is an invaluable starting point. It is for this reason that we invited three well-informed speakers to share their insights and findings from their women-focused market research. Webinar attendees had the opportunity to hear from Sarah Ebrahimi from the IFC’s Women’s Insurance Program, Solape Odeniyi from AXA Mansard in Nigeria and Arlene Calimag from Malayan Insurance Company, Inc. in the Philippines, with the latter two being Program Managers for their respective women’s insurance initiatives.

What has market research revealed about the women’s market?

Sarah Ebrahimi shared her experience from working as a core team member of IFC’s Women’s Insurance Program where one of her team’s goals is to help insurance companies better understand women as customers, employers and agents. The organization started its study on the relationship between insurance and women in 2014. Their research culminated in the IFC publishing the SHEforSHIELD report in partnership with AXA and Accenture.

The study was performed over ten emerging markets: Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Morocco, Nigeria, Turkey, India, Thailand, Indonesia and China. In depth interviews with brokers, agents, industry, women, insurance associations, insurance regulators and universities were conducted.

The key finding of the study was the potential USD 1.7 trillion size of the commercial opportunity of developing the women’s market. In addition, projections showed that by 2030, half of the earnings from the women’s market are expected to come from emerging economies.

Trends and attitudes are also detailed in the SHEforSHIELD report. The women interviewed during the market research thought insurance companies are out of touch with their realities, not to be trusted and that, in any event, insurance is only for the wealthy. However, they expressed their desire for well-trained agents that would serve as trusted advisors, listening to their needs, and their aversion to pushy sales representatives. The study also showed that women expect insurance companies to recognize that their needs are different to those of men.

It was verified that women make valuable clients, exhibiting characteristics such as higher levels of loyalty, and lower likelihood of committing fraud than men.

The main methods of market research used by IFC were in-person interviews, surveys, and desktop research.

Solape Odeniyi, Head of AXA Mansard’s Retail Training Academy and Program Manager of AXA Mansard’s SHE Initiative, gave an overview of the study conducted by AXA Mansard in collaboration with IFC and the generous support of Canada and Japan. The purpose was to better understand the needs, preferences and pain points of three specific segments of the Nigerian women’s market: women entrepreneurs, professional women and low-income women. AXA Mansard’s mission is to become the insurer of choice for Nigerian women and so the study provided an opportunity for valuable insights.

Qualitative methods were used to collect information on the behaviours and choices of the three segments, including in-depth interviews, mystery client visits and consumer workshops.

The study, which was carried out in 2016, yielded several interesting findings. Across all segments, women desired financial independence and security. Additionally, they wanted personal empowerment and self-respect within their homes and communities. Some of the women studied sought personal development, education for themselves and networking opportunities. Across the segments, all women were concerned about potential educational and health related problems that they or their families might encounter. Some of the women also considered AXA Mansard to be an elitist company.

AXA Mansard utilised the market research initiative as an opportunity to take some corrective action. They provided the sales staff with additional training, focusing on providing advice as well as product information, and likewise changed their titles to Advisors. These changes were implemented to improve the perception of the sales team by the women’s market — and the general market — in order to build trust.

Thanks to their market research efforts, AXA Mansard was able to understand the insurance needs of the women’s market and develop more tailored client value propositions. Propelled by the research findings, AXA Mansard launched SHE: Super Heroes Everyday products (such as SheDrives) and Business Insurance Plan. The study has also lead to collaborations with and sponsorship from a number of other organizations.

Arlene Calimag, Head of Underwriting Cluster II and Program Head of Malayan Insurance’s We Women Program, gave an overview of the women’s market research conducted by Malayan Insurance Company, Inc. in the Philippines in collaboration with IFC and in partnership with the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi). The study focused on women entrepreneurs, professionals, millennials, retirees and agents.

Market research entailed 117 interviews (including focus group discussions) and mystery shopping by various women who were single, single moms, married, married with kids, married without kids, amongst others. The research was conducted in key urban cities of the Philippines.

The findings concurred with those from the previously mentioned studies. Across all segments, women’s primary concern was the health and safety of their children and family. There was also concern for protecting their assets, including cars and houses.

Malayan Insurance used the market research to develop an innovation specifically for women named “We Women Solutions Designed for Women” (launched in September 2019) and the Stela (Simply the Easiest Live Assistant) brand, including solutions such as the Stela Biz Red, Silver and Gold, Stela Wheels, Stela Shield, Stela Family and Stela Home. The Stela solutions offer women affordable, comprehensive coverage, as well as access to value-added services, such 24/7 personal concierge services, telephone medical aid and childcare assistance.

Why should we focus on the women’s market?

Aside from the commercial opportunity, there are other good reasons to focus on the women’s market. While women around the globe have rising incomes and increasing buying power, they remain an underrepresented group across all financial services. In insurance this is referred to as the “gender protection gap” and is pervasive across all socio-economic groupings.

Many of the root causes contributing to women’s lack of financial resilience lie in deeply embedded social attitudes (gender inequity), and a lag in legal and social care systems. While insurance is not the panacea, it can certainly help. For example, women often miss business opportunities by using inefficient risk management and coping strategies. According to the 2018/2019 Women’s Entrepreneurship Report[2], there is a gender gap in entrepreneurial activity: globally, the total entrepreneurial activity[3] rate for women is 10.2%, approximately three-quarters of that seen for men. Many female entrepreneurs want to take more calculated risks, but are impeded by the gender protection gap and limited access to finance. By helping these women manage their risks, insurance increases their ability to a) shift financial resources from inefficient forms of savings into income-generating opportunities, and b) access credit to invest in their businesses. Removing accessibility barriers to insurance, including discrimination, helps women take the business risks that could lead to higher return.

Finally, improving women’s access to inclusive insurance can help governments achieve public policy objectives related to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, including poverty reduction, better overall health, gender equality and women’s empowerment.

[1] SHEforSHIELD: Insure Women to Better Protect All, IFC, AXA and Accenture. Link.

[2] 2018/2019 Women’s Entrepreneurship Report, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. Link (pulled on 18th November 2020).

[3] The total entrepreneurial activity rate represents the percentage of the adult working-age population (18–64) who are either nascent or new entrepreneurs.

For more information on women’s insurance, see:

Market research: insights from the women’s market

What has market research revealed about the women’s market?

Why should we focus on the women’s market?

Written by Lisa Morgan