Abstract
The South African Immigration Act 19 of 2004 requires that all international students have proof of medical insurance cover for the academic year of study. The medical insurance cover must be from a registered provider with the South African Council for Medical Schemes. Some medical insurance companies provide gifts to students to gain a larger market share within the educational institutions. Health insurance products are very crucial in the lives of university students and therefore the students must be familiar with medical product benefits and exclusions. It seems that many students lack relevant knowledge of health insurance products. Students seem to have a perception that medical insurance products cover all healthcare expenses. Dissatisfied customers may tarnish the image of the respective medical insurance company and result in customers seeking alternate products. The purpose of this paper is to determine the influence of promotional tools in creating awareness amongst international university students’ selection of medical insurance products. The study was descriptive and quantitative in nature. Four hundred international students studying at two state universities in Durban, South Africa completed a structured questionnaire. The results indicate that the respondents are very sensitive to price and the majority of them are influenced by advertising and word of mouth. The results of the study indicated that medical insurance companies should consider the quality of service and price as being very important factors when designing a promotional mix. Awareness creation is the backbone of sales growth and market share.
Highlights
According to the Immigration Amendment Act 19 of 2004, all higher education institutions require proof of medical aid cover from international students before enrolment to any academic programme
Medical insurance products are very crucial to the lives of each student; the target market needs to be aware of the medical benefits and exclusions when obtaining medical insurance products
The purpose of this paper is to determine the influence of promotional tools in awareness creation amongst international university student’s selection of medical insurance products
Summary
According to the Immigration Amendment Act 19 of 2004, all higher education institutions require proof of medical aid cover from international students before enrolment to any academic programme. Most medical insurance companies are competing to gain market share in educational institutions. A variety of promotional tools may be used to create awareness, in the competitive medical insurance sector. The theory of diffusion of innovation states that the concept is to be communicated and given enough time to cement in the long term. In support of this theory, social influence theory and social network theory state that the social norms of a group are considered. The Medical Insurance companies should consider the diffusion of innovation theory so that promotional tools are implemented effectively
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