????此外，信諾還非常重視電視與互聯(lián)網(wǎng)營銷。招商信諾在中國的代言人是曾在1994年憑借處女作獲得威尼斯電影節(jié)（Venice Film Festival）最佳男主角獎(jiǎng)的演員夏雨。夏雨為招商信諾代言的是一款癌癥保險(xiǎn)產(chǎn)品，之所以選中夏雨是因?yàn)樗募彝ス适略谥袊矣鲬魰裕阂晃挥H人罹患癌癥，于是夏雨工作之余抽出時(shí)間悉心照料，在中國引起了很多人的共鳴。

????信諾比其他競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手更早地預(yù)見到了中國市場(chǎng)的發(fā)展。它在中國的業(yè)務(wù)與美國國內(nèi)的業(yè)務(wù)存在巨大差異。與所有競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手一樣，公司在美國市場(chǎng)幾乎只銷售集體保險(xiǎn)，而且鑒于奧巴馬醫(yī)改計(jì)劃所帶來的不確定性，目前公司的利潤也面臨縮水。如果保險(xiǎn)公司永遠(yuǎn)都無法拒絕客戶，不管他們是多么地不情愿，那么公司的會(huì)計(jì)人員還能如何確定風(fēng)險(xiǎn)敞口？由于國內(nèi)盈利能力下降，信諾集團(tuán)在很早以前便將重心轉(zhuǎn)移到國外市場(chǎng)，在20年前打開的韓國市場(chǎng)，以及印尼和澳大利亞等地區(qū)，個(gè)人保險(xiǎn)銷售均取得了令人矚目的業(yè)績(jī)。目前，韓國市場(chǎng)占它國際銷售額的三分之一。

????由于中國法律規(guī)定，保險(xiǎn)公司必須在開展業(yè)務(wù)的每一個(gè)省都獲得獨(dú)立的許可。而信諾剛剛獲得了其第11個(gè)省級(jí)許可，因此在中國可以獲得沃倫?巴菲特所稱的“寬護(hù)城河”的保護(hù)。所謂“寬護(hù)城河”是指牢固的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)壁壘，因?yàn)樾赂?jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手要想進(jìn)入市場(chǎng)，必須遵循同樣冗長(zhǎng)乏味、耗時(shí)耗力的過程，獲得許可。

????當(dāng)然，其他美國保險(xiǎn)公司，如美國國際集團(tuán)（AIG）和安泰保險(xiǎn)金融集團(tuán)（Aetna）等，也在中國銷售健康保險(xiǎn)，但它們?cè)谥袊袌?chǎng)的滲透程度遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不及信諾。

????韋德布什證券（Wedbush Securities）分析師薩拉?詹姆斯表示，由于冗長(zhǎng)的注冊(cè)過程，其他大型保險(xiǎn)公司緊跟信諾進(jìn)入中國市場(chǎng)的可能性不大。她說：“這對(duì)于他們而言是個(gè)很好的機(jī)會(huì)。我沒有看到有其他公司進(jìn)入這個(gè)市場(chǎng)。”

????信諾集團(tuán)CEO柯偉健表示，招商信諾的成功很大一部分要?dú)w因于中國招商銀行這個(gè)合作伙伴。柯偉健解釋稱，公司選擇合作伙伴不看它是否具有保險(xiǎn)行業(yè)的經(jīng)驗(yàn)，而是選擇優(yōu)秀的市場(chǎng)營銷者。

????中國招商銀行是中國最大的股份制銀行，負(fù)責(zé)人是一位激情澎湃的商人馬蔚華。哈佛商學(xué)院（Harvard Business School）兩次將他的經(jīng)驗(yàn)作為案例。招商銀行是中國首家真正以零售市場(chǎng)、而非企業(yè)市場(chǎng)作為重心的中國銀行，推出的各種創(chuàng)新業(yè)務(wù)包括“一卡通”借記卡和網(wǎng)上銀行，用戶通過一個(gè)賬號(hào)便可以控制其所有銀行活動(dòng)——這對(duì)于一個(gè)不久之前還必須到窗口填各種表格才能辦理銀行業(yè)務(wù)的國家來說，實(shí)屬一項(xiàng)巨大的創(chuàng)新。馬蔚華告訴《財(cái)富》雜志（Fortune）：“我的策略是我們必須早一點(diǎn)、快一點(diǎn)、好一點(diǎn)。這樣我們就能比其他國有競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手提前三年或五年想到和做到一些事情。”今年六月，馬蔚華將從銀行行長(zhǎng)的職位上卸任，但退休之后，他仍將擔(dān)任招商信諾人壽保險(xiǎn)有限公司（Cigna & CMB Life Insurance Co. Ltd.）董事長(zhǎng)。

????Cigna also is selling hard on television and the Internet. As its TV pitchman Cigna uses a popular Chinese movie star named Xia Yu, who won the best actor award at the Venice Film Festival for his debut film in 1994. Xia, who sells a cancer policy in the commercial, was selected in part because he is well known among Chinese for his family story: A relative had cancer, and Xia took time out from his career to be a caregiver, a problem that resonates with many Chinese in a country where an estimated 80% of the people still smoke cigarettes.

????Cigna had the foresight to see this market developing long before most of its competitors. It's a big contrast to the company's domestic business, which is focused almost exclusively on selling group plans and, like all of its competitors, now faces thin margins because of the uncertainties raised by Obamacare. How, for example, will the number crunchers determine risk exposure when they can never turn away a customer, no matter how sick? As a result of declining domestic profitability, Cigna long ago turned to the overseas market, building an impressive record selling policies to individuals in South Korea, a market it opened 20 years ago and which now accounts for a third of its international sales, and such other countries as Indonesia and Australia.

????Because of Chinese regulations, insurance companies need to obtain a separate license for each province they operate in. Cigna, which just obtained its 11th provincial license, thus enjoys in China what Warren Buffett has termed "a wide moat," a tough barrier to competition because any new rival would have to follow the same tedious and time-consuming process of obtaining licenses in order to enter the market.

????To be sure, other American insurers, such as AIG (AIG) and Aetna (AET), are selling health products in China, but they haven't yet achieved Cigna's depth of market penetration.

????Wedbush Securities analyst Sarah James says that because of the lengthy registration process, it's unlikely that other big insurers will follow Cigna into the market. "It's a great opportunity for them," she says. "I don't see anyone else entering the market there."

????Cigna CEO Cordani ascribes much of the success of the joint venture to the choice of China Merchants Bank as its partner. Cordani explains that the company seeks partners that are primarily great marketers, regardless of their insurance experience.

????The largest shareholder-owned bank in China, CMB is run by an ebullient businessman named Ma Weihua, the focus of not one but two case studies at the Harvard Business School. CMB was the first Chinese bank to really focus on the retail market rather than the corporate world, introducing such innovations as the first "all-in-one" debit card and Internet banking, so that customers could control all their banking activities with one account number -- a huge innovation in a country where banking was until very recently confined to multiple slips of colored paper. "My strategy was we had to be a little earlier, a little faster, and a little better," Ma tells Fortune. "So we always have to think and do things three to five years ahead of our state-owned competitors." Ma is retiring as president of the bank in June, but he will remain chairman of the joint venture with Cigna, known as Cigna & CMB Life Insurance Co. Ltd.