Evaluating a go-to-market strategy for a business-to-business software-as-a-service insurtech startup
(2024) INTM01 20231Innovation Engineering
- Abstract
- Every company on the verge of market entry faces a myriad of tough choices. Few are as fateful as which go-to-market strategy a company chooses to establish a foothold, entailing crossroads such as whether to prioritise growth or profitability and how to structure sales. This is the position that the white label insurtech Alpha Insurance find themselves in, with a go-to-market strategy in place but seeking to understand it in the context of how other software-as-a-service business-to-business companies are operating, and how forerunners have approached the same decision.
Since its emergence around 2010, insurtech has reached higher maturity and become established as part of the software-as-a-service industry. One of the subcategories... (More) - Every company on the verge of market entry faces a myriad of tough choices. Few are as fateful as which go-to-market strategy a company chooses to establish a foothold, entailing crossroads such as whether to prioritise growth or profitability and how to structure sales. This is the position that the white label insurtech Alpha Insurance find themselves in, with a go-to-market strategy in place but seeking to understand it in the context of how other software-as-a-service business-to-business companies are operating, and how forerunners have approached the same decision.
Since its emergence around 2010, insurtech has reached higher maturity and become established as part of the software-as-a-service industry. One of the subcategories within insurtech is white label insurance, meaning insurance sold by non-insurers. Before its deployment in insurance, white label has an extensive history in fields such as the food industry, where grocery retailers for more than a century have offered store brand products. These business processes are often organised in a business-to-business-to-consumer supply chain. In designing a go-to-market strategy, it is valuable to gauge outside perspectives, in this case from end customers concerning the future of insurance and views on white label insurance. Hence, beyond compiling some of the most widely used go-to-market strategies in the software-as-a-service business-to-business sphere and how they compare to Alpha's, qualitative interviews are carried out with insurance end customers to assist in tracing Alpha's roadmap. (Less) - Popular Abstract
- How are the new wave of insurance companies, collectively known as insurtechs, approaching critical strategic decisions regarding market entry?
In this thesis the go-to-market strategy for a business-to-business software-as-a-service insurtech startup company is evaluated, alongside a market survey of the insurance of the future and views on insurance sold by non-insurance companies.
Since roughly 2010, the insurance industry has seen a profound change. This has been done by moving away from brick-and-mortar locations and integrating technology with insurance, thus giving rise to the moniker insurtech. Through developing such insurance platforms, expedited quotes and claims processes have been made possible. Insurtech is closely... (More) - How are the new wave of insurance companies, collectively known as insurtechs, approaching critical strategic decisions regarding market entry?
In this thesis the go-to-market strategy for a business-to-business software-as-a-service insurtech startup company is evaluated, alongside a market survey of the insurance of the future and views on insurance sold by non-insurance companies.
Since roughly 2010, the insurance industry has seen a profound change. This has been done by moving away from brick-and-mortar locations and integrating technology with insurance, thus giving rise to the moniker insurtech. Through developing such insurance platforms, expedited quotes and claims processes have been made possible. Insurtech is closely connected to the industry software-as-a-service, as both are often sold as subscriptions. White label insurance is simply insurance sold by non-insurance companies. White label has an extensive history in the food industry. A recent example of white label insurance is the launch of Sky Protect, marking the media group's first foray into insurance. White label insurance is also the niche that Alpha have settled on, the company that is the subject of this thesis. Since its inception in 2022, Alpha has set out with the aim of crafting insurance solutions to be sold by non-insurers. As the initial phase of its strategy, car dealerships have been identified as a desirable segment. This is because car manufacturers are increasingly making dealerships redundant in their current guise, prompting the need for new sources of income. Given this backdrop, insurance becomes an attractive revenue stream. This is also how the business model becomes one of business-to-business-to-consumer. It is also at this stage that Alpha are looking to answer two key questions: how does their approach to entering the white label insurance space, their go-to-market strategy, compare to literature on the subject and what companies actually are doing, generalised to software-as-a-service business-to-business? Furthermore, how do customers wish to purchase insurance in the future, and how do they feel about white label insurance? Consumer attitudes to white label insurance are sought as white label solutions have not always been clearly presented to end customers. This thesis finds three distinct go-to-market strategies widely deployed by software-as-a-service business-to-business companies: business-to-business-to-consumer partnerships, growth with profits, and product-led sales. At this moment in time Alpha are closely aligned with business-to-business-to-consumer partnerships, but project to prioritise growth higher in coming stages and may also explore product-led sales further ahead. In the market survey, customers express a willingness to develop a more intimate relationship with their insurer. If properly managed, closer personal profiling will result in a more tailored insurance that offers customers more insight and agency over their insurance quote and can lead customers and insurers to jointly propel white label insurance. Independently of stage in their go-to-market strategy, Alpha can find success by maintaining a steadfast focus on the buying behaviours of insurance end customers. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9150373
- author
- Velin, Olle LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- INTM01 20231
- year
- 2024
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Business-to-business-to-consumer, Consumer attitudes, Go-to-market strategy, Insurtech, Software-as-a-service, White label insurance
- language
- English
- id
- 9150373
- date added to LUP
- 2024-04-05 13:43:23
- date last changed
- 2024-04-05 13:43:23
@misc{9150373,
abstract = {{Every company on the verge of market entry faces a myriad of tough choices. Few are as fateful as which go-to-market strategy a company chooses to establish a foothold, entailing crossroads such as whether to prioritise growth or profitability and how to structure sales. This is the position that the white label insurtech Alpha Insurance find themselves in, with a go-to-market strategy in place but seeking to understand it in the context of how other software-as-a-service business-to-business companies are operating, and how forerunners have approached the same decision.
Since its emergence around 2010, insurtech has reached higher maturity and become established as part of the software-as-a-service industry. One of the subcategories within insurtech is white label insurance, meaning insurance sold by non-insurers. Before its deployment in insurance, white label has an extensive history in fields such as the food industry, where grocery retailers for more than a century have offered store brand products. These business processes are often organised in a business-to-business-to-consumer supply chain. In designing a go-to-market strategy, it is valuable to gauge outside perspectives, in this case from end customers concerning the future of insurance and views on white label insurance. Hence, beyond compiling some of the most widely used go-to-market strategies in the software-as-a-service business-to-business sphere and how they compare to Alpha's, qualitative interviews are carried out with insurance end customers to assist in tracing Alpha's roadmap.}},
author = {{Velin, Olle}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Evaluating a go-to-market strategy for a business-to-business software-as-a-service insurtech startup}},
year = {{2024}},
}