【正文】
ctors being paid missions on sales to merely sell and market their products. The marketing of life insurance products, property and liability policies such as fire, marine, accident and allied policies were always mostly marketed by these pany agents. For example, while I was employed at the National Insurance Company (NIC) 19811985, the pany39。s sales cadre was its marketing officers who sometimes with little or no technical knowledge of the intricacies of risk management and the insurance products coverages merely sold policies as modities. The unpleasant task most often in advising policyholders that their claims were not covered under the terms of the insurance contract generally was our responsibility in the claims department. By then, it had bee too late to remedy as the right coverage was not either sold to the policyholder by the agents or alternative umbrella policies that could have covered whatever gaps existed in the sold policy were not made available or explained to the policyholder. Mostly issues of lack of coverage, adequacy of coverage for the losses claimed resulted in denial or underpayment of claims. The sales function of these agents revolved mainly around the marketing of products or policies with little or no product differentiation or creativity in their design and marketing to meet the contemporary risks confronting a country such as Sierra Leone, emerging from a decade long civil war and longing for creative policies to address her developmental aspirations. For example, the old Kebbay insurance syndrome, practiced in Sierra Leone where an insurance pany became so notorious in the practice of collection of motor premiums from customers without any conitant claims payout when accidents occurred. Such a practice as prevalent in the Sierra Leone Insurance marketplace of the 197039。s through 199039。s must be prevented from rearing its ugly head in today39。s marketplace. Marketing as defined by the American Marketing Association (AMA) is the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from the producer to the ultimate consumer. Property, casualty and liability insurance marketing however not only includes the traditional marketing sales function but incorporates services such as customer needs analysis, market segmentation, product development and distribution that must be incorporated into a successful marketing mix. INSURANCE MARKETING: A fundamental principle of insurance marketing dictates that insurance products and policies must be marketed and sold primarily on the basis of the need for security and the ability of the insurance product and policy to provide adequate financial security from fortuitous losses. Moreover, new sources of production of business that includes new ways of selling old traditional insurance policies and products, in conjunction with the marketing of new services, such as risk management, loss control and loss adjustment services should be pursued by insurance panies. Loss control However, in some lines of insurance, a governmentallegal or regulatory pulsion to insure is the driving factor. For example, purchase of automobile liability insurance is required by law in most jurisdictions the world over. The recently advocate