Brand And Market Analysis Of AXA Travel Insurance Company Essay. (70 Characters)

By the end of the course students should be able to:

1. Demonstrate a critical awareness of the relationship between marketing plans and marketing communications plans as the basis for selecting and achieving a balanced marketing communications mix.

2. Examine and explain how an organisation communicates with its markets and publics through advertising and the marketing communications mix.
3. Identify and analyse buying motivations in a given market, to ensure that marketing communications plans are correctly based.

4. Understand and evaluate the key elements of successful marketing communications plans and activities

Brand Analysis of AXA Travel Insurance Company

Brand and market analysis is one of the major elements of the marketing in terms of management of communication and advertising. The brand and market analysis of the company helps to understand the status of the brand in its esteemed market and presents the opportunities in the same. The brand and market analysis is found to one of the effective ways for researchers to identify the market position of the AXA travel insurance company in its competitive market environment. The brand analysis helps the identification of the company brand. On the other hand, the market analysis presents a complete analysis of the market situation and environment in which the company is operating. The following section of the report consists of the detail analysis of the brand along with that of the market.

Brand is considered as the most vital aspect of the organisation’s marketing practice, most importantly the advertising and the communication management. Since the advertising and marketing communication determines the profits of the travel company out of the sales of products to the targeted customers, the travel company brand plays an important role into the same. The brand is referred to the name of the company and the acceptability and popularity of the company name within the consumers. The chosen company is AXA Travel Insurance Company and which is known as the brand name AXA. However, AXA is leading the entire travel as well as life insurance industry for last nine years (AXA 2018).

The company is found to be one of the major travel and life insurance companies in The United Kingdom. Since the name suggests that brand provides insurance service to its consumers, the products of the company arereplaced by the different kind ofservices that includes different medical coverage and medical claim and screening provided to the different customers. The brand provides extensive services to the customers who include healthcare insurance, travel insurance, car insurance, commercial and professional insurance and many more. The respective AXA travel company has categorised its services into three parts under which it delivers wide range of insurance services.

The travel insurance service covers various aspects of customers including medical cover up to £15 million, cancellation cover up to £5000. In addition, various activities including sports and natural disasters such as volcano are also being included in their insurance offerings. AXA also provides their customers options of making the claim at any point of time and from anywhere. Product portfolio of travel insurance of AXA includes single trip travel insurance, annual multi-trip travel insurance, winter travel insurance, and adventure sports travel insurance and medical travel insurance. Thus, it can be concluded that, AXA offers diversified product portfolio for their customers. Moreover, it also provides customization options for their customers to select their travel insurance policies according to their requirements.

Product Portfolio of AXA Travel Insurance Company

Another advantage being offered by AXA travel insurance for their customers is the booking of the insurance through both online and offline channels. According to the information given in their official website, customers can book their travel insurance from online within minutes. Thus, it helps to provide the customers convenience in availing the insurance.

The brand of the travel company known as AXA Travel Company is well known to its customers through the activities of the company both in the business and welfare context. The company is devoted into the welfare of the stakeholders though various innovative ideas and activities that enhances the brand values of the company. On the other hand, the wide range of service provided by the organization to its consumers helps them identifying the uniqueness of the brand. The enrichment of the brand values is influenced by the effective marketing communication and innovative advertisement of the company. The customers are able to identify the brand within the competitive market company through the creative and effective promotional strategies used by the respective travel company while advertising the brand.      

There are different kinds of challenges faced by the organization while executing their promotional strategies for the enhancement of the brand values among the customers as well as within the competitive market. The major challenges come from the legal aspects and the financial aspects of the state as well as the nation. The legal changes by the government in the context of advertising and marketing often create barriers for therespective AXA travel insurance organization in performing their purpose. At the same time, changes in the financial aspects of the country such as revenue, discount, taxes and many others put the company in front of the several obligations.

Merger and acquisition is considered as one of the major strategies in marketing for different companies as this will help in making the customers aware about the different services provided by the respective company.The kind of strategy that is executed by the chosen AXA travel company in terms of enhancing the brand awareness and associations helps in making the customers aware about the different trips such as annual and single trip packages.The AXA travel companycollaborated with several governmental and nongovernmental organizations for establishing brand awareness among the customers.  For example, AXA travel insurance company in 2013 sold its financial planning business Blufin Personal Consulting to Towry (AXA 2018). Again, SBJ Group Limited was acquired by AXA insurance to enrich the distribution capabilities of the company. On the other hand, the company also associated with events and programs in order to generating and spreading brand awareness of the organization. Different travel companies sell the two kinds of travel policy in order to make the customers aware about the brand in an effective manner.For example, AXA travel insurance companywas able to establish significant brand awareness with the consumers who are the regular travellers and travel to different parts of the world with their family as well as for business tours. (AXA 2018).

Benefits	Response
Social perception	Travel insurance offered by AXA motivates people to go for new locations around the world without the having the tensions of unwarranted mishaps. They will be full secured in their entire journey.
Response	AXA offers different and diverse types of travel insurance based on different requirements of the customers. This is to make sure that all the requirement of the customers be met effectively.
Customer service	AXA provides the opportunity for the customers to issue their insurance from the online portal and from any point of time and anywhere around the world.
Brand response	AXA is having favourable market penetration around the world. Thus, it is beneficial for the customers to avail the service from any locations around the world.

Benefits Offered by Travel Insurance

As earlier discussed, the diverse product portfolio is being stated. However, one of the key determining factors for the generation of the revenue for AXA travel insurance is the value creation for the customers. This is due to the reason that, it is important for the customers to perceive the positive value of the service offerings of them. One of the key benefits to be gained by the customers from the travel insurance is the financial coverage for any unwarranted incidents in the travel program. Moreover, it is difficult for the travellers to spend huge money in the any hospital related case. In this case, travel insurance will be proved beneficial. In comparison to the cost that may have to incur for any unwarranted incidents, the cost of premium will be much less. Thus, it will attract the target customers to avail the service of travel insurance to reduce their risk.

Campaign is another major part of the marketing activities for the different travel companies. The campaign activities of the organization determine the effectiveness and success of the advertising promotional strategies of the marketing activities. Similarly, the campaign activities are based on the advertisements. The campaign activities include TV and online advertisement, poster, newspaper, hoardings and through sending mails to the customers who are their target and premium customers.  

The visual identity of the brand is the most vital part of advertising as well as of marketing activities. The visual identity refers to the recognition of the brand by the consumers. Moreover, the visual identity helps the consumers to identify the brand with all its uniqueness. The AXA Travel Company uses soft media and print media for creating an identity of it among the customers. The organization emphasizes on its logo in terms of creating unique identity in the competitive market from other existing companies in the esteemed industries. The respective company while sponsoring events uses its logo as the visual identity of AXA (AXA 2018). On the other hand, the soft media advertisement uses the unique features of the organization along with the brand logo while advertising their different products and their offerings as well. Apart from that, the organization being a service provider of travel insurance uses various travel companies to promote the brand.

The marketing activities of the organization are focused mainly on the advertisements. The company creates number of creative advertisements throughout the year (AXA 2018). The company stresses upon the Television and online advertisement, Hoardings as well as by sending different mails to the customers. AXA travel insurance company uses creative and innovative ideas for the advertisements. Every single advertisement presents different ideas and every advertisement contains unique and different slogans to attract the customers towards the brand of the travel insurance. All the previous advertisements of the company till date represent the brand too extensively. The unique ideas presented in the advertisements pulls the attraction of the different customers towards the company and they choose the same brand for the specific purpose.

Challenges Faced in Promotional Strategies by AXA Travel Insurance Company

Previously, before the advent of online media, the company used certain other techniques to advertise its products. These techniques are given as follows:

• Radio advertisements- The insurance company gave out advertisements in radio. It chooses various channels whereby attractive announcements were made about the given products offered by the insurance company.
• Newspaper advertisements- The travel insurance company also gave various newspaper advertisements in order to gain the attention of the newspaper readers.
• Magazine advertisements- It also gave its product lists and other relevant information on the various business magazines.

Market analysis is considered as one of the major and vital steps of marketing. This step is found to be conducted at the initial stage of the marketing activities. The marketing concept includes range of activities and every activity is important from its own aspect. Market analysis of AXA travel insurance companyis based on the situational analysis and the competitor analysis of the company in the completive market environment. However, the basic market analysis for this report is based on the competitors of the company.

On the other hand, the situational analysis is equally important in the market analysis of AXA travel insurance companyin terms of understanding the current market situation of the company based on the competition and other important aspect related to the business. One of the important tools of market analysis is PEST that is comprised of several vital factors related to the business. For AXA travel insurance company, the impact of PEST factors is:

Political: Since the company operates its business in the global context within number of countries, the political factors influence the organization to great extent. The organization being focused on the travel insurance is under the impact of the political factors of its operating countries. The political conditions and its laws and regulations on overseas business are different from each other that affect the business activities of the company. The marketing practices of the firm are also influenced by the political factors of these countries. The travelling insurance business of AXA is mostly affected by the political conditions of different countries.  

Economical: The core business of the company is based on the money of the consumers that they insured in the company for different reasons. The income of the consumers is one of the major influential factors that determine the profits of the organization. On the other hand, the economical condition of a country determines the average income of the people of the country. Therefore, the economical condition is important for the company to operate the business in that particular country. For example, the respective travel insurance firm named AXAcan have more profit in a developed country rather than that of a developing country.

Social: The being a service provider of all kind of insurance is impacted by the social factors of its business context. It has been found that the there is sudden increase in the proportion of young drivers and the same is providing opportunities for the company in terms of car insurance. In addition, the young drivers are prone to accident that adds privilege to the company for focusing in the car insurance. In the travel sector as well, there are different kind of insurances that has to be provided to the customers that include different travel insurance policy for the passengers who are travelling abroad and there are different wildlife tours wherein proper insurance is mandatory to be provided to the customers.

Merger and Acquisition as a Major Marketing Strategy

Technological: The rapid and wide spread activities of internet create opportunities for AXA to lower the operational cost along with performing marketing and promotional activities in a cost effective manner. The communication and promotional strategies of the company is improved by the technological advancement that further enhances the business of the organization in the international market.The respective travel insurance company requires understanding the different other advancements that is offered by other insurance companies as this will help in analyzing the requirements that are provided to the customers in an effective way. The technological advancements in the travel insurance sector is essential in nature as this will help in improving their communication strategies and gain competitive advantage as well.

According to the report, United Kingdom is the largest market in terms of travel insurance followed by Germany and Norway (International Travel & Health Insurance Journal 2018). Thus, AXA travel insurance is having huge potential in the market of the United Kingdom along with in the global market. It is being estimated that, the market share of travel insurance will be worth of €3.35 billion. Moreover, it is also being reported that, European countries such as Denmark saw a huge growth of 11 percent.

From the above figure, it is seen that, though the market for travel insurance is rapidly increasing, but AXA travel insurance is having less market share compared to their competitors. The above figure shows that, majority of their competitors such as Allianz is having more market share.

One of the crucial aspects of market analysis is the competitor analysis. The competitors play important role in determining the effectiveness of marketing as well as the business profit of the organization. The major competitors of the companies are Allianz, Metlife, The Oriental Insurance Company, Allstate, AON, Insure & Go Insurance Services,Reliance General Insurance and many others. The completion of the firm is based on both direct and indirect competition.

Direct competition is based on the main products or service of the company. For AXA, the travelinsurance service creates direct competition for the organization for the different insurances that can be provided to the customers. The mentioned travel companies are responsible for establishing direct competition with the firm. Allianz, Reliance General Insurance and Metlifealong with oriental insurance companies are the major competitors for posing strong and intense competition for the company in its business market.

The above figure shows that, the market of North America will witness more growth compared to other regions. Moreover, it is also being estimated that, the market for travel insurance will grow at the rate of 9.7 percent by 2022.

Indirect competition is based on the target customers of the company and not on the service provided by the same. The target consumers of the organization are people who love to travel, drivers, car owners, general as well as older people. Therefore, it is seen that people from almost every background which can be somehow or other targeted by different organization from diverse industries. The indirect competitor companies offer alternative products or service. For example, the healthcare organizations can be indirect competitor for AXA in terms of travel insurance.

Marketing Activities of AXA Travel Insurance Company

The chosen company has succeeded in establishing its business in its respective industry and used the opportunities to enter various markets in the international context. The primary market of the organization is generally the developing countries. On the other hand, the firm is equally enjoying the market of developed and advanced countries. Along with this, government initiatives also help the organization to gain more customers.

However, the consumers of the firm are divided into two distinct groups such as corporate customers and individual customers. The customer division can be applied on the entire segments of business. However, it has been found from the market research that the customer for the chosen company tend to have service based on economic or efficiency of the service, and these customers tend to depend on the premium service based on high return. 

From the above figure, it is being seen that, social background for the global travel insurance is diversified with having different customers from different fields. It is being seen in the figure that, till 2017, family travellers are the major contributor in availing travel insurance in the global market. On the other hand, it is being projected that, family travellers will be the major contributor. However, sector comprising of senior citizens will witness the maximum growth.

The concept of visual board is to present an overall view of the brand issue of the company existing in the current market scenario. This particular visual board is based on the brand issues that are currently affecting the public image of the company (Appendix 2). The brand image of the company is disrupted mainly by the customer risk profile. There have been both tangible and intangible risksfor the respective travel company in the present market. Apart from this, the necessity of creating the visual board lies in identifying risks of marketing activities attached to the brand image of the company. Cross-cultural co-existence along with the rapid advancement of the social media is posing risks for the company that is capable of disrupting the brand image of AXA in the context of car and travel insurance. The visual board of AXA on brand issues is provided in Appendix 4.

In the given visual board, the various brand risks have been described. The first risk is the social media risk, where the company might face certain problems while communicating with the consumers on social media websites. The second problem faced by the company is the communication risk in which the company is unable to formulate the communication strategy of the business. The third risk is the risk of socio and cultural aspects. These aspects tend to have an impact on the operations of the firm, which need to be customized in order to serve different cultured customers. The last issue is the pricing issue where the firm faces trouble when it needs to decide the various pricing strategies it needs to use.

Visual Identity of AXA Travel Insurance Company

The corporate objectives of the company are to empower people for living a better life. The objectives of the company are based on the service provided by the company to the customers. The goal of the organization is to lead the insurance industry and provide best service to the 107 million customers across the world as every customer demands proper insurance and safety relating to their travel to different parts of the world. This is the duty of the travel insurance companies to analyze the different other criteria that are used by them in order to make their business stable in the competitive environment. On the other hand, the objectives are set on SMART criteriabasis, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound (AXA 2018). Along with this, the strategic goals of the company are also needed to be mentioned in terms of presenting the communication objectives of the same. Since the report is based on the communication and advertisement strategies and activities of AXA, the importance of communication objectives must be analysed (Refer to Appendix 4).

The communication objectives of AXA are set on the basis of communication mix which includes Advertising, Personal Selling and Public Relation (AXA 2018). In terms of advertising, the communication is cantered on the service that is intended for a large number of worldwide consumers. Proper advertising is essential in nature in the travel insurance companies, as this will help them in attracting more customers with proper implementation of technologies. Inorder to reach global customers, the communication goals are to follow cost effective strategies. The next element of communication objectives is personal selling which is indicated towards the establishment of meaningful and effective relationship with the customers. The basic aim of personal selling is to differentiate the nature of customers in the diverse global market. At the same time, public relation is found to be one of the important elements of communication objectives. This elemental goal is set towards the stakeholder involvement with the brand. The public relation aims to strengthen the public image of AXA travel insurance company in the international market in terms of intensifying and enhancing the stakeholder engagement to the organization.

The strategic objectives of AXA travel insurance companyneed to be mentioned in terms highlighting the Ambition 2020 strategic plan of the firm. The focus of the strategic objectives is one the sustainable growth of the company in the global market. Ambition 2020 strategic plan is underpinned by Focus and Transform which the organization considers the two key strategic pillars. The strategic goals of the organization are intended towards the transformation of AXA into the most preferred organization internal as well as external customers, achievement of the three leading position the whole business segments and role play of increased distribution. However, the strategic objective of the company is focused on the travel insurance. The company has specific target customer who exposes excessive travelling behaviours and therefore require having travel insurance.   

• Campaign objectives

• To initiate the awareness drive for the global travellers across all age groups in having the travel insurance. This is due to the reason that, still now, small number of travellers is having travel insurance and thus the market for travel insurance is becoming stagnant. Hence, the key objective of the marketing campaign is to create the awareness regarding the travel insurance and attract more number of customers.
• The younger age group of 20 to 35 will be targeted more compared to the older age group. This is due to the reason that, this age group will more travel around the world. On the other hand, older age groups will have less attraction towards the travel insurance. Thus, another objective of this marketing campaign is to attract more of the customers from the younger age groups.
• Another objective of this marketing campaign is to push different products according to the needs and requirements of the different target segments. Thus, it is the objective of this campaign to have a holistic marketing campaign and the diverse product portfolio to target customers across different segments.

Techniques Used by AXA Travel Insurance Company for Advertising

The target audience of the organization is determined by the lifestyle of the customers and social factors. Generally, the young professionals are the target audience of the company. The profile of these audience includes they are young within the age of 30 and without family. These young professionals need to live near to their work and therefore live on rent or take loan for new home. These young professional people are the centre of the target audience for the organization. The next segment of customers is the corporate people who are likely to take insurance service for their cars and health. The corporate people are tending to travel a lot and hence are targeted by the company in terms of travel insurance. Along with this, people a certain percentage of remaining country people tend to go for travel insurance. Apart from this, the target market of AXA travel insurance company can be divided into three parts: such as emerging affluent millennial, affluent gen X and affluent bloomers (Refer to Appendix 5). The travel insurance is required to be provided to the different customers who travel in a frequent basis, as there are different plans for frequent and annual trip packages. The travel insurance is essential in nature, as this will help in providing insurance. The different channel partners are essential in nature, as this will help in solving the different distribution of the packages among the customers with the usage of insurance brokers or agents in the entire market.

Since the young professionals are the major target audience of this company, the behaviour of these specific consumers, needs to be analysed. The young professionals have some specific financial priorities and the top three priorities are savings for house, paying rent or mortgage, paying of other debts. The general attitude of these young professionals to the retirement indicates that they are not very concerned about their retirement plan and only 36% of these people think of saving money for the retirement. On other hand, a general ratio of the financial outlook of retirement of these people presents that 88% of the people are unaware of necessity of the income in their retirement. On the other hand, there is more than 91% who expect of the government to support them in their retirement and there are many other misconceptions about the financial plan in the retirement by many of these young professionals (AXA 2016). Along with this, the 88% of the people goes for holiday each year and at the same time; the average value of asset and wealth of them is $15k.

Market Analysis of AXA Travel Insurance Company

On the other hand, these professionals like to live a healthy and luxurious life and are tending to go for holiday trip once a year.  Therefore, financial activities of these people are expensive and require having good savings for the future. In addition, as there are different individuals who travel to different parts of the world with different works as well as for conducting trips with their family and relatives. This is the main duty of the travel agent companies to merge with the other travel companies as this will help in solving such issues relating to the different issues that are faced by the different passengers such as injuring themselves or there is mishap that has taken place in the aircraft while travelling. Hence, the need for saving the money for their future makes them target customers for the company. In addition, the habit of frequent and yearly holiday trip requires them to go for travel insurance. Consequently, the travel insurance being the priority to this group of people has enables them to be the target customers of the company. In addition, the lifestyles of these people also requires to have the car and home insurance in terms of saving money and the same poses another reason for the company to target these people as their chief customers.

Target age group	20 - 35
Travel preferences	Majority of the younger age group prefer for adventurous travel program ranging from hill trekking to sea. A good portion is travelling for the work purposes. This is due to the reason that, younger age groups are having good number of professionals who are travelling worldwide.
Marital status	Majority is in the starting point of their professional life. Thus, most of them are single and they are going to have wife and children. Thus, they are having the need of travel insurance to reduce the risk related to travelling.
Living area	Majority of them are having own house, while some of them are living in rented house. Thus, those who are living in the rented house will require insurance with low rate of premium.
Average income	Average income of the target customers is 300£ to 500£. Thus, they are belonging from middle to upper middle class families.

Creative strategy and execution

As discussed earlier, the target customers for AXA travel insurance are the young professionals between the age groups of 20 to 35 years of age. Thus, in order to target this age group, it is important to initiate effective and innovative creative strategies. Initiation of the creative strategies is important and required due to the reason that, there are various other competitors are operating in the market and the intensity of the competition is high. Therefore, it is necessary to have innovative and creative approach to attract the target customers. Major part of the creativity can be shown with the help of the advertisement of AXA travel insurance. Thus, the advertisements will be designed keeping in the mind the lifestyle of the target customers.

The advertisements will be designed by considering two elements. One will be the marketing and business theories and concepts and the other will be the trend and requirements of the target customers. In terms of the marketing theories and concepts, the advertisements will be the publicized in personalized or customized way. This is due to the reason that, AXA travel insurance is having their market presence in different locations around the world. Thus, customers from different locations are having different and diverse cultural and social backgrounds. It is important for the marketers to considers the cultural differences and advertise their service to the customers accordingly.

For the customers from the western economies, the approach of the advertisements will be more extroverts in nature with concentrating more on the facilities to be gained by the travellers. On the other, the advertisements for the developing and third world countries will be more oriented towards the negative motivation. The adverts will feature the threats that may have to face by the travellers if they do not have the travel insurance. This difference in the advertisement will be initiated due to the reason that, customers from the developed economies are more accustomed with the concept of the travel insurance, while major portion of the population in the third world countries do not have the clear idea regarding the travel insurance.

The advertisements will feature young individuals from both genders in order to target the young professionals and both the genders. The advertisements for the developed economies will feature a group of young professionals going for a trip. It will further convey the message of utilities and advantages that will be gained by them from having the AXA travel insurance. The advertisements will be the shot at exotic locations in order to enhance the aesthetic feel of the advert. There will be dual benefits to be gained by AXA from this approach of the advertisements. One will be the generation of the interest among the audience in travelling by showing them exotic locations around the world. Thus, the more will be the interest of the customers in travelling, the more will be the enhancement of the target customer segment. Another benefit to be gained by them is the communication of the competitive advantages of them over their competitors to the audience. Thus, the objective of the advertisement will be to generate the interest of the customers in travelling and further motivate them to opt for AXA travel insurance over their competitors.

The above discussed design of the advert will be applicable for the developed countries. However, this will not be effective for the developing countries. This is due to the reason that, less number of the customer are opting for travelling purpose from the developing countries. Thus, the advertisements for them will be designed in more implicit manner. This one will also feature young individuals from both the genders. However, it will be shown that, what will be the advantages that they will gain from having the travel insurance during travelling. The advert will feature some sort of unwarranted incidents that may get emerged during travelling and how they are overcoming those threats with the help of the travel insurance. This will generate the need factor of the customers in having the travel insurance. Similar to the previous advert, this will also convey the advantages of AXA travel insurance over their competitors. However, the cost difference will be the given more preferences. This is due to the reason that, market in the developing countries is more prices sensitive and having cost leadership will be the key competitive advantages for them.

The adverts will be shown in different mediums around the world. Electronic medium will be the front runner due to the reason that, electronic is having the maximum market penetration in both developed and developing countries and it will be suitable to show the entire advert at once. Moreover, the adverts will also be published in social media channels such as YouTube and Facebook. This will help to gain the feedback from the side of the customers. Music will be attached with the adverts that will create the positive feelings among the customers. Moreover, the appropriate music will be used for the commercials for the developing countries to convey the fear among the customers.

Todor (2014) stated that branding is important so that more people get aware of the company and the features. AXA travel insurance also follows the trend and implements some strategies that help the organization to brand their service products.

Determination of the target audience- Campeloet al. (2014) stated that not all people opted for insurance and hence the selection of the main customers need more focus. In traditional times, only businesspersonwas the main target but in recent times, AXA life insurance targets young professionals and recent married couples so that they can plan early for their future (Petrovski and Pestana 2017). When the customers are travelling to different kind of beach locality, this is the responsibility of the AXA Travel insurance company to take innovative steps. There are different kinds of insurances that include annual trip insurance, single trip and the ranges vary from one another. The insurance provided to the kids are free in nature, as this will promote their brand in a huge manner.

Define a brand mission- The concerned organization develops the brand mission for providing travel insurance policies so that a customer can get all the service under one roof. This is the prime reason AXA travel insurance have a wide service diversity.

Preparing checklists- AXA life insurance formulates a checklist where they listed their important criteria. Thisdeveloping content relates to the satisfaction of the target audience as well as the customer satisfaction level.  It is the duty of the respective insurance company to check the satisfaction level as this is the major criteria and this will help in solving the issues faced by the customers while availing their services during their travel.

Publishing their financial status for promotions- AXA travel insurance company promotes their brands through different advertising mediums like in cinema theatres, door drops, direct malls, press releases, Televisions and radio (Braun et al. 2016). The organization shows the percentage of their total spending in media at the end of every year.

Marketing communication mix is a set of specific communication activities, which is intended for the effective and successful marketing activities of the company in its respective market.the marketing communication mix, is based on the marketing and advertisement objectives of the company. The elements of the marketing communication mix are advertising, sales promotion, public relation, personal selling and direct marketing. For AXA travel insurance company, the marketing communication mix needs to be discussed at the highest priority, as this is the main criteria that have to be taken care off in order to solve such issues with implementation of different strategies.

Advertising: Advertising is one of the most prominent and important elements of the marketing communication mix. This particular aspect of the communication is depended on financial aspect of the company. For AXA travel insurance company that is based in The United Kingdom, the company produces approximately five media advertisement per year. This requires a huge amount of budget. Since the company is very deeply focused on both media advertisements along with creativity within each, the budget for this communication process is more than other communication activities. The company, however, has been able to convey the intended message to the audience. In addition, the company earns a number of audiences from the commotion through advertising.

Sales Promotion: The Company does its sales promotion through direct or indirect marketing. The direct marketing involves the direct selling of the insurance and bank products to the customers, whereas the indirect process requires various intermediaries. For the selling of the company products, the company sponsors various road shows, campaign, events, sports activities and many others in order to promote the sales. Since the company operates its business in the international market, the promotional activities of the organization are more widen in the global context. Consequently, the sales promotion activities are extensive and wider.

Public Relation: The public relation of the company is very strong compared to the other companies in the market. The company has separate department that is responsible for handling of public relation activities of the company. The organization mostly handles the public relation through the business activities of the company. Equal employment opportunity is one of the major and vital factors of the public affairs maintenance that requires the handling of Public Relation department of the company. There are ranges of examples of the company’s public relation. The most recent instances of the company’s public relation are publication of the first driverless report as a part of VENTURER consortium on 11^thJuly 2016. Along with this, the most recent public relation activity is, on 6^thJuly 2017, AXA and Burges Salmon launch first insurance and legal report as part of FLOURSH consortium (AXA 2018). However, there are various other instances can be found in the company website.

Personal Selling: Personal selling is considered to be the most important and effective tool for developing the interest and preferences of the consumers. The company through its sales team and executives does the personal selling of the company’s insurance products to the customers. For the personal selling, the company chooses the target audience that are young professionals and directly sells the diverse kinds of insurance to them. The personal selling of AXA does not include the integration but focuses on the branding. The personal selling of the company is highly intended towards the brand and the core products of the firm.

Direct Marketing: Direct marketing to certain extent linked with the personal selling. In other words, the direct marketing includes both the aspects of sales promotions and personal selling. This particular interaction of the company with the consumers of the same seeks a response from the targeted audience. The organization being an international one has to deal with the customers from the global context. The direct marketing is therefore based on the taste of the customers of different regions accordingly. There has been number of advertisement and commercials based on the direct marketing of the company. It is notable that the commercials and the adverts are different for different countries and regions.  

Therefore, it can be said in the conclusion that the company has invested huge portion of financial assets. The company has been able to create a brand image in the market as well as within the customers. The company is focused on service people through the insurance provided by the same. The uniqueness of the brand and the wide range of services provided by the organization have made the same to enhance the brand values. However, it has been found that the company has been facing several challenges in terms of the advertising and promotional activities in the international market.

The evaluation process is based on the advertisement and promotional activities of the company in the global market. While evaluating the advertisement and the communication process of the firm, it has been identified that AXA is currently having some risks in the context of the promotion and advertisement. Being a multinational company, AXA has to acquire creative strategies for the branding and integration in terms of the advertisement communication. On the other hand, the general objectives and the strategic objectives of the company shed lights on the SMART criteria, in terms of achieving organizations goals. The focus of the organization is on the service of the people, who are the consumers of the organization, deals with the lifestyles of the different individuals. It has been found that the advertisement and the promotional activities of the company are since meant for the targeted customers from the international context, the lifestyles of them are therefore a major concern for the company.

The different marketing activities has to be analyzed in such a manner that this will follow the different techniques in such a manner that this will help in growing in the entire competitive market. Proper entrance into the online market space is essential in nature as this will be highly profitable in nature. The different search engines has to be analyzed in such a manner that this will help in solving the different technologies that will help in optimization of the different linkage programs.

The marketing communication mixes another aspect of this particular report of AXA Insurance on advertising and communication that is needed to be evaluated. The company values the elements of the marketing communication mix. However, the company is mostly focused on the public relations and the direct marketing in the marketing communication mix. In addition, the company has also highlighted the advertisement being the major element. There are several instances of the advertisement in the media and in the posters, which indicates a flexible and active participation of the organization in the advertisement creation. Moreover, all the advertisements are extraordinarily creative and innovative.

Apart from the use of creative ideas in the advertisement and the marketing communication, the integration and the branding of the company must be noted. It has been observed that the company follows a horizontal integration in terms of diversify the products of the company. It is noteworthy that the company is focused on the expansion of the products range and not actually the company. Therefore, the integration in the creative strategies deals with the diversification of the product range. On the other hand, considering the fact of the advertisement and communication on the promotional activities of the organization, the branding is based on some steps that help the company to communicate with the consumers easily. The steps that the firm follows for the branding are determination of the target customers, define a brand mission, preparing checklist and finally publishing the financial status of the organization for public communication.

The strategic objectives and the general aim of the company also must not be missed. Driven by the direct and indirect competition with the other similar companies in the market, the strategic objectives of the company are set. The strategic objectives of AXA Travel Insuranceare aimed at the travel insurance. As per the company data, the numbers of young professionals who are the major target customer of AXA Travel Insurance Companyare increasing and their lifestyles make them go for holiday trip. As the result, the respective travel insurance company finds more profit in the travel insurance, which is meant, for the young professionals. However, there are several challenges found in the way of achieving the strategic objectives of the respective organizations. These factors cannot be ignored and needs to have proper recommendation at the highest priority. There are different isolating factors that have to be considered, as this will help in increasing the differentcredibility of the travel insurance companies. The different suggestions have to be created as this will help in solving the different issues and achieve the strategic objectives. The next section of the report will present some factors thathave been isolated but are creating risks for the company.

Collaboration with governing bodies- The organization faces challenges in legal aspects as well as the financial aspects and this can be solved with the utilization of different strategies. The proper collaboration with the different governing bodies is essential in nature, as this will help in analyzing the financial aspects that is required for the contribution of the different strategies. In this way, they can develop policies that are accredit by UK government and people will also rely more on their regulations as it is supported by government.

Focusing more on regular insurance service- There are many insurance companies that are focusing more on usual insurance policies like life insurances, retirement plans, medical claims and accidents claims. Furthermore, there are different strategies that can be applied by the different issues in such a manner that this will help in solving the queries in an effective manner.These insurances services are present in AXA life insurance but they are more focused towards travel insurance. They can share their brand mission for other insurance facilities and policies through social media and other digital channels so that more people can get the knowledge concerning their services. Furthermore, the social media presence is essential in nature, as this will help in understanding the new initiatives and offers products and services.

Active social media presence-In recent time, a person spends more than 8 hours on social media sites on an average. Retail organizations have targeted this media to share their new initiatives and offers along with the additional facilities that a person will receive by experiencing their products and services. Thus, AXA travel insurance strategies should also adopt this strategy to promote their brand and services through different social media. The managing authorities should also take care whether or not people follow the site and some staffs should be recruited for responding and interacting with the people. The different issues has to be addressed in an effective manner as this will help in solving the matters and make the travel of the different customers in an effective manner.

Website appearance- The website appearance should be effective as first impression always attracts potential customers. Transparency should be properly maintained through the websites and written in simple language. The website design should be dynamic and the details in the website should be regularly updated. In cases, any change has been occurred on the policies, the customer should get the proper and recent information through the websites. The contact details should be correctly given so that potential customer can easily contact with the organization and get the experience of their services. The respective travel insurance company named AXA will help in attracting the different customers in an effective manner as this will help in solving the different queries and reduce the customer risk as well.

Reduce the customer risk- There are mainly two types of risks that is occurred in insurance company- credit risk and risk of loss due to natural calamity. In the first case, customer is unable to pay the premium of their life insurance after continuing for some times. In this case, AXA life insurance should develop two plans- first, where customer can pay their premium in instalment every months and second, where customer get the privilege to pay their premium at the end of every year.

However, in order to minimise the risks of yearly payments AXA Travel insurance can send them reminder mails and SMS in the last three months so that every customer can pay their premium in time. The second risk is the claiming of the insurance amount when a property is damaged in a natural calamity. In such cases, the policy paper should clearly define each condition in normal font so that no future queries should remain.  The risks has to be reduced from the minds of the individuals in an effective manner as this will help in solving the queries and making the travel easier in nature. The AXA Travel insurance company has to identify the different risks that are included in the insurance schemes provided by them and solve them with proper implementation of strategies as well.

Improving the factors that reduce performance risk- This is the risk when the concerned organization does not deliver the benefits and value that was originally intended. The possible reason for such incidence is the sudden changes in policies and monetary fluctuations. In order to overcome this risk, the AXA travel insurance, UK should invest some of their total revenue on Research and Development department for market research.

In this way, all the fluctuations of political changes that will be implemented in the regulations and the organization can be prepared themselves and the staff performances according to the future changes.  The factors that reduce the different risks of performance is essential in nature as this will help in changing the different policies and the fluctuations can be controlledand this will be effective in nature.

Minimise the risk of choice- Sometimes, the clients or customers take the risk of choosing a non-profitable solution. In this case, a customer is not able to pay the premiums due to suffer tangible, intangible and sometimes emotional loss. Thus, in order to overcome this adversity, the concerned organization should formulate a department, where they can provide investment advance to their clients and make them understandable regarding the profitable solutions along with the reason why the solution is profitable and in what ways the solution is beneficial for them. The different ascertainments are required to be made, as this will help in solving the different matters in an effective manner.There can be different losses that can occur in the insurance companies as they can suffer loss due to the other competitors in the market. This is the duty of the respective insurance company named AXA Travel insurance in such a manner that this will help in solving the differences by introducing different schemes that are based on advancement of technologies.

The respective company AXA Travel Insurance Company requires analyzing the different issues that can affect their business in a negative manner. Proper ascertainment are required to be generated and followed by the respective company in such a manner that this will help in understanding their clients and this will be profitable for the business as well. The risks have to be minimized in such a manner that the solution is profitable in nature and this will be beneficial in nature for the formulation of the entire department as well.

The AXA Travel Insurance Company requires understanding the different events that are taken place and adopted by the other competitors in the market. This will help in understanding the different techniques, as this will provide the advancements that are made to be successful in nature. Therefore, it can be concluded that proper ascertainment are required to be made in such a manner that will reduce the risk of the customers in an effective manner. The different techniques are essential in nature as this helps in understanding the other governing policies. This will help the respective company in solving the different other factors in such a manner that this will help in solving the different matters in an effective manner.

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