If you would like to see a preview of Deft’s latest study, please e-mail Barb Strnad at bstrnad@deftresearch.com

Deft Research’s new study, Senior Market Dynamics and it’s sister study, National Senior Loyalty both predict and explain the Medicare consumer’s plan switching behavior during the last Annual Enrollment Period. The table above shows that the Loyalty Study conducted prior to AEP predicted an upswing in the number of persons who would switch. And the Market Dynamics Study shows that an upswing did indeed occur. We also can see that the Loyalty Study predictions of higher switching rates were more accurate for Medicare Advantage customers, who switched at a rate of one in five, than for Medigap customers, whose switch rate was about half of MA’s. These different switch rates occurred despite our findings that similar percents of both MA and Medigap customers shopped.

Deft’s new Senior Market Dynamics will focus on the phenomenon of Medigap stickiness. Many Medicare marketers are wondering why so many Medigap customers shop, but fail to switch. Conventional wisdom is being challenged by this information suggesting that our assumptions about consumer price sensitivity and income brackets are flawed.

More Questions Answered

Not only do these the studies help you understand what happened, but they also help you plan for the future. Clients of Deft’s syndicated studies spend less time obtaining information and more time analyzing, discussing, and developing clear strategies that everyone on their team understands. The information leads to answers to marketing’s most important questions.

• Product What products should we emphasize?
• Price What should the price be?
• Place What should the marketing mix be?
• Position What market position should we take?