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Marketing the Message: The Making of the Market for Life Insurance in Australia, 1850–1940

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2015

MONICA J. KENELEY
MONICA J. KENELEY*
Affiliation:
Monica J. Keneley is Professor at the Deakin University Department of Finance in Warrnambool, Australia. Contact information: Faculty of Business and Law, Deakin University, P.O. Box 423, Warrnambool, Victoria 3280, Australia. E-mail: mkeneley@deakin.edu.au.
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Abstract

During the late nineteenth century, sales of life insurance products in Australia increased at a rapid rate. An investigation of the way in which life insurance products were targeted to the consumers provides insights not only into the marketing approaches, but also the changing nature of the mutual organization. This article uses a “stages” approach to analyze the evolution of the marketing message. The experience of Australian mutual insurers suggests that marketing strategies, as with other types of organizational skills, evolve in response to both the prevailing business environment and the ability of the firm to acquire and implement new knowledge and ways of conducting business.

Type
Articles
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , December 2015 , pp. 929 - 956
Copyright
Copyright © The Author 2015. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved. 

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References

Bibliography of Works Cited

Alborn, Timothy. Regulated Lives: Life Insurance and British Society, 1800–1914. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellis, Clare. The Future Managers Actuaries in Australia 1853–1997. Sydney: Institute of Actuaries, 1997.Google Scholar
Blainey, Geoffrey. A History of the AMP 1948–1998. St Leonards, NSW: Allen and Unwin, 1999.Google Scholar
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Murphy, Sharon. A. Investing in Life Insurance in Antebellum America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Stalson, J. Owen. Marketing Life Insurance: Its History in America, Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press, 1942.Google Scholar
Supple, Barry. The Royal Exchange Assurance: A History of British Insurance 1720–1970. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970.Google Scholar
Zelizer, Viviana A. Morals and Markets: The Development of Life Insurance in the United States. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borscheid, Peter. “Introduction.” In World Insurance: The Evolution of a Global Risk Network, edited by Borscheid, Peter and Haueter, Niels V., 1–34. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Carment, David. “Life Assurance in Australasia.” Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of Actuaries (1904): 521–549.Google Scholar
Church, Roy. “New Perspectives on the History of Products, Firms, Marketing and Consumers in Britain and the United States since the Mid Nineteenth Century.” Economic History Review, New Series 52, no. 3 (1999): 405–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansmann, Henry. “The Organization of Insurance Companies, Mutual versus Stock.” Journal of Law, Economics and Organization 1 (1985): 125–152.Google Scholar
Hollander, Stanley C., Rassulti, Kathleen M., Brian Jones, D.G., and Dix, Laura Fallow. “Periodization in Marketing History.” Marketing History 25, no. 1 (2005): 32–41.Google Scholar
Keneley, Monica. “The Evolution of the Australian Life Insurance Industry.” Accounting, Business and Financial History 11, no. 2 (2001): 145–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keneley, Monica. “The Origins of Formal Collusion in Australian Fire Insurance 1870–1920.” Australian Economic History Review 42, no. 1 (2002): 54–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keneley, Monica. “In the Service of the Society: The Labour Management Practices of an Australian Life Insurer to 1940.” Business History 48, no. 4 (2006): 529–550.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keneley, Monica. “Organizational Capabilities and the Role of Routines in the Emergence of a Modern Life Insurer: The Story of the AMP.” Business History 51, no. 2 (2009): 248–267.Google Scholar
Keneley, Monica. “The Demise of the Mutual Insurer: An Analysis of the Impact of Regulatory Change on the Performance of Australian Life Insurers.” Accounting History 15, no. 1 (2010): 65–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keneley, Monica. “The Path to Project Darwin: The Evolution of the AMP’s Organizational Structure.” Business History 54, no. 3 (2012): 346–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kobrak, Christopher. “USA: The International Attraction of the US Insurance Market.” In World Insurance: The Evolution of a Global Risk Network, edited by Borscheid, Peter and Haueter, Niels V., 274–308. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McFall, Liz and Dodsworth, Francis. “Fabricating the Market: The Promotion of Life Assurance in the Long Nineteenth-Century,” Journal of Historical Sociology 22, no. 1 (2009): 32–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maddock, Rodney and McLean, Ian. “The Australian Economy in the Very Long Run.” In The Australia Economy in the Long Run, edited by Maddock, Rodney and McLean, Ian, 5–18. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.Google Scholar
McLean, Ian. “Australian Economic Growth in Historical Perspective.” Economic Record 80, no. 250 (2004): 330–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morton, Phillip H. “Some Problems of the New Life Insurance Companies in Australia.” Australasian Insurance and Banking Record (1929): 634–635.Google Scholar
Pearson, Robin. “Introduction: Towards an International History of Insurance.” In The Development of International Insurance, edited by Pearson, Robin, 1–24. London: Pickering and Chatto, 2010.Google Scholar
Pearson, Robin. “United Kingdom: Pioneering Insurance Internationally.” In World Insurance: The Evolution of a Global Risk Network, edited by Borscheid, Peter & Haueter, Niels V., 67–97. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spratt, Walter. “Lessons Learned: British, American and Colonial Life Insurance in Australia.” Australasian Insurance and Banking Record (1968): 132–134, 182–184.Google Scholar
Supple, Barry. “Corporate Growth and Structural Change in a Service Industry: Insurance, 1870–1914.” In Essays in British Business History edited by Supple, Barry, 69–87. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Tedlow, Richard S. “The Fourth Phase of Marketing: Marketing History and the Business World Today.” In The Rise and Fall of Mass Marketing, edited by Tedlow, Richard S. and Jones, Geoffrey, 8–35. London: Routledge, 1993.Google Scholar
Teece, Richard. Address to NSW Insurance Institute. Australasian Insurance and Banking Record (1889): 272–277.Google Scholar
Westall, Oliver. “David and Goliath: The Fire Offices Committee and Non-Tariff Competition, 1898–1907.” In The Historian and the Business of Insurance, edited by Westall, Oliver, 130–154. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Westall, Oliver. “Marketing Strategy and the Competitive Structure of British General Insurance, 1720–1980.” Business History 36, no. 2 (1994): 20–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nobbs, Raymond K. “Ventures in Providence: The Development of Friendly Societies and Life Assurance in Nineteenth Century Australia.” PhD dissertation. Sydney: Macquarie University, 1978.Google Scholar
Pursell, Gary. “The Development of Non Life Insurance in Australia.” PhD dissertation. Canberra: Australian National University, 1964.Google Scholar
Australasian Insurance and Banking Record, 1879–1900.Google Scholar
Post Magazine and Insurance Monitor, April 1885.Google Scholar
Sydney Morning Herald, 19 December 1877.Google Scholar
AMP. Prospectus, 1856. AMP Archives, Sydney.Google Scholar
AMP. Chairman’s Address Annual General Meeting, 1857. AMP Archives, Sydney.Google Scholar
AMP. Minutes of Annual General Meeting held on 4th February 1864. AMP Archives, Sydney.Google Scholar
AMP. Prospectus, 1865.Google Scholar
AMP. Prospectus and Table of Rates, 1875. AMP Archives, Sydney.Google Scholar
AMP General Manager’s Office correspondence, June 30, 1932; September 19, 1940.Google Scholar
AMP Guard Book 1930–1934. AMP Archives, Sydney.Google Scholar
National Mutual Life Association (NMLA). Prospectus and Table of Rates, 1878. AMP Archives, Sydney.Google Scholar
Alborn, Timothy. Regulated Lives: Life Insurance and British Society, 1800–1914. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellis, Clare. The Future Managers Actuaries in Australia 1853–1997. Sydney: Institute of Actuaries, 1997.Google Scholar
Blainey, Geoffrey. A History of the AMP 1948–1998. St Leonards, NSW: Allen and Unwin, 1999.Google Scholar
Boyce, Gordon and Ville, Simon. The Development of Modern Business. New York: Palgrave, 2002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ChandlerAlfred, D Alfred, D. Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Coghlan, Timothy A. A Statistical Account of the Seven Colonies of Australasia. Sydney: Government Printer, 1900.Google Scholar
Gray, Arthur C. Life Insurance in Australia, An Historical and Descriptive Account. Melbourne: McCarron Bird, 1977.Google Scholar
Murphy, Sharon. A. Investing in Life Insurance in Antebellum America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Stalson, J. Owen. Marketing Life Insurance: Its History in America, Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press, 1942.Google Scholar
Supple, Barry. The Royal Exchange Assurance: A History of British Insurance 1720–1970. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970.Google Scholar
Zelizer, Viviana A. Morals and Markets: The Development of Life Insurance in the United States. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borscheid, Peter. “Introduction.” In World Insurance: The Evolution of a Global Risk Network, edited by Borscheid, Peter and Haueter, Niels V., 1–34. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Carment, David. “Life Assurance in Australasia.” Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of Actuaries (1904): 521–549.Google Scholar
Church, Roy. “New Perspectives on the History of Products, Firms, Marketing and Consumers in Britain and the United States since the Mid Nineteenth Century.” Economic History Review, New Series 52, no. 3 (1999): 405–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansmann, Henry. “The Organization of Insurance Companies, Mutual versus Stock.” Journal of Law, Economics and Organization 1 (1985): 125–152.Google Scholar
Hollander, Stanley C., Rassulti, Kathleen M., Brian Jones, D.G., and Dix, Laura Fallow. “Periodization in Marketing History.” Marketing History 25, no. 1 (2005): 32–41.Google Scholar
Keneley, Monica. “The Evolution of the Australian Life Insurance Industry.” Accounting, Business and Financial History 11, no. 2 (2001): 145–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keneley, Monica. “The Origins of Formal Collusion in Australian Fire Insurance 1870–1920.” Australian Economic History Review 42, no. 1 (2002): 54–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keneley, Monica. “In the Service of the Society: The Labour Management Practices of an Australian Life Insurer to 1940.” Business History 48, no. 4 (2006): 529–550.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keneley, Monica. “Organizational Capabilities and the Role of Routines in the Emergence of a Modern Life Insurer: The Story of the AMP.” Business History 51, no. 2 (2009): 248–267.Google Scholar
Keneley, Monica. “The Demise of the Mutual Insurer: An Analysis of the Impact of Regulatory Change on the Performance of Australian Life Insurers.” Accounting History 15, no. 1 (2010): 65–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keneley, Monica. “The Path to Project Darwin: The Evolution of the AMP’s Organizational Structure.” Business History 54, no. 3 (2012): 346–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kobrak, Christopher. “USA: The International Attraction of the US Insurance Market.” In World Insurance: The Evolution of a Global Risk Network, edited by Borscheid, Peter and Haueter, Niels V., 274–308. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McFall, Liz and Dodsworth, Francis. “Fabricating the Market: The Promotion of Life Assurance in the Long Nineteenth-Century,” Journal of Historical Sociology 22, no. 1 (2009): 32–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maddock, Rodney and McLean, Ian. “The Australian Economy in the Very Long Run.” In The Australia Economy in the Long Run, edited by Maddock, Rodney and McLean, Ian, 5–18. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.Google Scholar
McLean, Ian. “Australian Economic Growth in Historical Perspective.” Economic Record 80, no. 250 (2004): 330–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morton, Phillip H. “Some Problems of the New Life Insurance Companies in Australia.” Australasian Insurance and Banking Record (1929): 634–635.Google Scholar
Pearson, Robin. “Introduction: Towards an International History of Insurance.” In The Development of International Insurance, edited by Pearson, Robin, 1–24. London: Pickering and Chatto, 2010.Google Scholar
Pearson, Robin. “United Kingdom: Pioneering Insurance Internationally.” In World Insurance: The Evolution of a Global Risk Network, edited by Borscheid, Peter & Haueter, Niels V., 67–97. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spratt, Walter. “Lessons Learned: British, American and Colonial Life Insurance in Australia.” Australasian Insurance and Banking Record (1968): 132–134, 182–184.Google Scholar
Supple, Barry. “Corporate Growth and Structural Change in a Service Industry: Insurance, 1870–1914.” In Essays in British Business History edited by Supple, Barry, 69–87. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Tedlow, Richard S. “The Fourth Phase of Marketing: Marketing History and the Business World Today.” In The Rise and Fall of Mass Marketing, edited by Tedlow, Richard S. and Jones, Geoffrey, 8–35. London: Routledge, 1993.Google Scholar
Teece, Richard. Address to NSW Insurance Institute. Australasian Insurance and Banking Record (1889): 272–277.Google Scholar
Westall, Oliver. “David and Goliath: The Fire Offices Committee and Non-Tariff Competition, 1898–1907.” In The Historian and the Business of Insurance, edited by Westall, Oliver, 130–154. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Westall, Oliver. “Marketing Strategy and the Competitive Structure of British General Insurance, 1720–1980.” Business History 36, no. 2 (1994): 20–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nobbs, Raymond K. “Ventures in Providence: The Development of Friendly Societies and Life Assurance in Nineteenth Century Australia.” PhD dissertation. Sydney: Macquarie University, 1978.Google Scholar
Pursell, Gary. “The Development of Non Life Insurance in Australia.” PhD dissertation. Canberra: Australian National University, 1964.Google Scholar
Australasian Insurance and Banking Record, 1879–1900.Google Scholar
Post Magazine and Insurance Monitor, April 1885.Google Scholar
Sydney Morning Herald, 19 December 1877.Google Scholar
AMP. Prospectus, 1856. AMP Archives, Sydney.Google Scholar
AMP. Chairman’s Address Annual General Meeting, 1857. AMP Archives, Sydney.Google Scholar
AMP. Minutes of Annual General Meeting held on 4th February 1864. AMP Archives, Sydney.Google Scholar
AMP. Prospectus, 1865.Google Scholar
AMP. Prospectus and Table of Rates, 1875. AMP Archives, Sydney.Google Scholar
AMP General Manager’s Office correspondence, June 30, 1932; September 19, 1940.Google Scholar
AMP Guard Book 1930–1934. AMP Archives, Sydney.Google Scholar
National Mutual Life Association (NMLA). Prospectus and Table of Rates, 1878. AMP Archives, Sydney.Google Scholar