An effective model to emulate in service of the South African public

We don't often talk about things other than technicalities of insurance, but a very important side of insurance, whether you're a broker or whether you're an underwriter, is the marketing game. A lot of the time it is neglected a bit in terms of strategy, focus time and having specialists assigned to it.

We decided that the best person to talk to on this overlooked, yet highly important topic, is Elliot Schwartz, an independent consultant for business strategy and marketing and CEO of a specialist brokerage in the insurance industry.

After getting his Economics degree and then his MBA at the University of Chicago, Elliot started his working career in retail as a handbag buyer for Bloomingdales. Elliot moved on from there into an international management consulting firm, working as a retail strategy expert which eventually led to him moving to Cape Town.

Since his move to Cape Town he has been a successful entrepreneur and the CEO of a JSE-listed group of businesses.

Elliot got involved in the insurance field in the early 2000's when one of his old advertising clients, who had become the CEO of Hollard's Life insurance business, contacted him and said there was a lot of things that he could help with in Hollard. Through the Hollard connection, he got involved with some brokers and UMA's and began to work for other insurance companies on non competitive work to what he was doing with Hollard, one of which was Renasa. Elliot helped Renasa build their brand from being new, tiny and relatively unknown to now being an important insurance company.

Watch our interview with Elliot below to get some valuable insight into why a good marketing strategy is so important

https://vimeo.com/588400058