SUMMARY
Goal: This study aims to investigate the best promotional communication strategy for health insurance products, to prove or refute the hypothesis that messages should explore risk and loss aversion.Method: This research was of the causal conclusive type, in which the cause-and-effect relationships were obtained through the presentation of two promotional communications with different structures and determination of the purchase intention based on each one of them.Results: It was possible to observe that individuals with a regulatory promotional focus do not engage with the idea of insurance, a product that has a protective character and does not encompass the characteristics of achievement and progress preferred by that group. This low adherence does not depend on the type of communication used – with positive or negative emotional appeal. However, it is useful to pay attention to the considerably better performance of communications with negative emotional appeal when reaching the audience with preventive regulatory focus.Originality: This study innovates by extending the understanding of the influence of the regulatory focus on the effectiveness of the use of the promotional communication strategy in health insurance.