Great-West Woos Dentists

TALK ABOUT DRILLING DOWN: Great-West Life Assurance Co. increased its coverage of dentists by 7% by offering enhanced benefits — and changing its list segmentation.

Great-West specializes in group insurance, retirement plans and annuities. The American Dental Association has been a client since 1934, and now is its largest.

The ADA has about 150,000 member dentists, 70,000 of whom participate in Great-West's insurance program. These members, the targets of this campaign, typically are between the ages of 22 and 65, skewing on the older side, and most are male.

The problem Great-West faced was that the product was mature, a commodity in a heavily saturated market.

“It's hard to make it exciting,” said Diane Dvorak, account supervisor at Wilde Direct, Great-West's agency, during the New England Direct Marketing Association's annual conference last month in Waltham, MA. “Insurance isn't exactly a sexy thing to market.”

The first thing the insurer did was add enhancements. These included bigger volume discounts for several levels of coverage, higher maximum coverage for dentists and their spouses, expanded age eligibility and preferred rates for very healthy applicants.

It also altered its list segmentation. Great-West usually has taken a customer-centric approach. It looks at variables like age, product history, membership type and family status.

For this effort, though, the firm divided its file by product attributes. Five segments were identified. They included “cusps” (people on the cusp of hitting a volume product discount); “old max” and “spouse old max” (members who had the old maximum amount of coverage allowed for themselves or their husband or wife); and “new opportunity” (people who might benefit from the extended age eligibility).

Great-West conducted a 70,000-piece direct mailing, creating outer envelopes with teaser copy, personalized letters with rate quotes, slim-jim brochures and applications for each segment. Timed to hit just before the December billing period, the overall campaign pulled a 2% response, considerably above the usual 0.4% to 0.5%, said Leslie Franklin, Great-West's director of marketing.

In addition, applicants doubled their coverage on average, and call center volume doubled as well. The average spouse coverage grew by 10% to $198,000; 132 customers purchased extra coverage; and 116 more customers qualified for new or higher volume discounts.