Sun Life undertakes market studies in Asia

MANILA, Philippines - Sun Life Financial, a global leader in protection and wealth management, is conducting simultaneous market surveys in its regional Asian markets mainly to study changes, if any, in consumer behavior and priorities and find out if these are greatly affected by the ongoing recession in developed market economies.

The surveys are currently being undertaken in the Philippines, Hongkong, Indonesia, China and India, said Gregory S. Martin, Chief Strategic Marketing Officer of SunLife Financial – Philippines.

Martin told The Star that while the Philippines is still largely unaffected by the global crisis, “we may yet feel the delayed impact of the crisis and must be prepared for any eventuality. The survey is a first step to keeping ourselves on top of the situation,” he added.

Sun Life is heavy on consumer research and market surveys. “For last week, we started farming out questionnaires for our yearly survey on lifestyle, attitudes and relationships (SOLAR) in Manila, Cebu and Davao to get a better understanding of what our clients think and feel about our products and services and if the crisis has changed their attitudes towards them,” Martin said.

Through the survey, which is expected to be completed by March 2009, “we want to know the difference between the attitudes of clients and the public in Davao as against that of Metro Manila, their priorities and their views of life insurance so we will know how to approach these markets,” Martin said.

One thing sure is that all our products are market-driven. We do not offer what the market does not need, Martin stressed.

He also said that top performers of the company, counting 3,000 agents (both face to face and trained advisers) are properly recognized and given incentives to maintain their passion for what they do. He said agents are made to feel like part of a big family with occasional meriendas and drinks after work.