A year in review by blog – the most popular posts of 2022.
Well, no one can say 2022 was a BORING year. We’ve published regular insight throughout the year, tracking the changes in the market, in the wider environment, in consumer behaviour and brand performance.
This year has been dominated by some key themes – namely, the ban on price walking at renewal set out in the FCA’s General Insurance Pricing Practices (GIPP) reforms, and – you’ve guessed it – the Cost of Living. (Which doesn’t always get capital letters, but certainly deserves them).
These two seismic shifts have changed the GI world over the last few months, and it’s no surprise to find them featuring heavily in our top 5 most-read posts of 2022.
5. In February, we tried to answer the £4bn question – and whether the initial response to GIPP had been cohesive or chaotic. December saw brands still decreasing prices, but by January 85% were increasing – and different strategies were beginning to emerge:
Cohesion or chaos? The £4bn question in personal lines pricing
4. In March, we looked at how different brands had continued to meet the GIPP reckoning – from those building their front books and grabbing market share, to those focussing on protecting their back book. We also tracked the explosion of brand tiering that has seen many providers introduce essentials or bronze/silver/gold offerings as part of their post-GIPP strategy:
The first waves in the insurance market post-GIPP
3. In June, our new Cost-of-Living Consumer Behaviour tracker found that 1 in 4 were already very worried about paying their bills, with nearly half (46%) reporting being ‘quite’ worried. While insurance came down the bottom of the list of cuts and intended cuts, with only 6% making cuts or cancellations, our CEO Ian Hughes warned it could be the tip of the iceberg – and that firms should prepare for more customers to become re-price-sensitive as the weather turned colder:
How will the cost-of-living crisis impact insurance?
2. In the same month, we also stood back to take a look at just how much consumer behaviour had changed since the start of the year. GIPP saw shopping and switching rates drop to the lowest they’d been in years– while the cost of living was leading people to make unprecedented changes in how they spent their money. We came up with 8 ideas for how insurance brands could meet the changing needs of consumers – and face the challenges ahead.
Consumer behaviour, cost of living, and what the insurance industry should do next
1. Despite (or perhaps because of) all of the above, the MOST read Consumer Intelligence article of 2022, however, was… drum roll… a good old-fashioned look at the UK’s biggest home insurance brands. We tracked the movers, shakers, growers and shrinkers – and everyone wanted to see where they came in our top ten charts.
The UK’s biggest home insurance brands
We can’t wait to follow these stories and more into 2023 – from cost-of-living to Consumer Duty, market momentum to behaviour analysis.
See you on the other side.
[Report] Cost of Living Consumer Behaviour Tracker (December edition)
In a time of fast-changing customer trends, it is important businesses are up to date with new customer behaviours and buying intentions. Our Cost of Living tracker allows you to identify opportunities to tailor your products to meet evolving consumer needs.
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