Taking protection as an “extended family”, it is possible to suppose a different image of the products we sell. And one view could see the family tree as follows:
Grandfather – Life Cover
Due to market share and longevity in the market. This should not be underestimated, nor should his relationship with Uncle (Trusts). He is expected to be there but often he is ignored until called upon, when he may have already expired if not looked in on often.
Grandmother – Private Medial Insurance
Grandma can be relied upon to look after the health of her family when called upon to do so, but is often ignored and seen as expensive when used in conjunction with the existing Nanny (State). Grandma can, however, sometimes provide cures that Nanny won’t – and in a more personal/loving way.
Grandma’s living expenses are often seen as expensive because she keeps buying new cures and likes to make sure the family’s rooms are well kept and that the decor is fresh.
Father = Income Protection
His job is to provide money for the family in the form of income. He acts as a personal banker, when Nanny won’t or can’t continue to pay for items for the young or infirm. He can go absent if he is not given enough attention, just when he is needed most.
The family members often assume Nanny is more important because they are in contact with her more and she has been on hand everyday since as far back as they can remember, but Father won’t normally change family employment (as nannies have been known to do, working instead for someone else’s family). Father is often silently in the background, just getting on with his work unseen until his pay is needed.
Because he is difficult to find the correct shoes size for in the market, he is often forced to wear shoes of differing fits (off the shelves, some are too large and some are too small). He is often jokingly nicknamed Cinderella because of this problem of achieving suitable fitting footwear from the manufacturers.
Mother = Critical Illness Cover
This is possibly one of the most important growth areas, especially because baby’s function is vertically limited whereas Mother’s is diverse and can have both more babies (through innovation), or adopt them (by adaptation) ie, CI claims could also be used to purchase immediate long term care as well as performing a number of other functions.
Like a real life mother, CI is both hardworking, loved by nearly everyone and undervalued in terms of use and responsibility and can more often be relied upon to protect baby, rather than the other way around at this point of baby’s development.
Baby = Long Term Care
Due to potential government changes and their effects, Baby’s protective nappy may need to be changed often during the growth period by someone other than Nanny and inattentive people may not realise this until there is a big stink.
Nanny is interested in baby’s nappy, but her husband (Regulator) will get very upset if called upon to change Baby’s nappy and likely to take it out on the person responsible for Baby’s nappy changes.
The tiny proportion of sales within the protection market place also makes it a precious and delicate, but minority concern, rather than mainstream. It is currently outside the family unit.