Marketing Mobile Money in Nigeria: The Critical Success Factors

No doubt, the cashless economy project of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is being pursued gradually but vigorously and the introduction of mobile money in Nigeria in recent times can be better appreciated when appraised within this greater scheme of things. In Nigeria, as it is in other developing nations where mobile money operations have successfully taken off, the use of mobile phones as payment platforms has been necessitated by the need to include a greater proportion of the unbanked and under-banked populations in the financial system. Much-quoted statistics for instance reveal that with a population of 167 million people, only 25 million bank accounts exist in Nigeria. Conversely, the country can boast of 90 million phone subscribers (and that figure continues to grow).

The best model yet of a mobile money platform in Africa and the world over, has been Kenya’s M-PESA. Launched in March 2007 by Safaricom, an affiliate of Vodafone, M-PESA’s subscriber base had reached 6.5 million by May 2009 with 2 million daily transactions. In 2010, with over 700 million domestic and international money transfer transactions, M-PESA accounted for $130 million in revenues. Presently, it boasts of over 20 million subscribers and processes mobile banking transactions for over 70% of the country’s adult population of 14 million.  For a more populous nation as Nigeria, therefore, the potentials for financial transactions through the integration of financial services with mobile telephony are vast.

True, mobile money operations have taken off with such visible brands as Paga (Pagatech), PocketMoni (eTranzact), VCash (VTNetwork) U-Mo (UBA) and IBTC MobileMoney gaining top of mind awareness among consumers. Other brands and players, less visible but equally operating, just starting up, or recently licensed include M-Kudi, PayCom, Eartholeum, Fortis, Monitise, GTBank, EAZYmoney (Zenithbank), Chams Nigeria, Corpereti Services, Parkway, First Bank, EcoBank, etc.

However, Nigeria is not Kenya and at the risk of sounding fatalistic, some of the emerging brands may either fizzle out even before they reach the market or die without ever breaking even. While this may sometimes be due to challenges of inadequate financing and technology, the greatest challenge which may sound the death knell will be Marketing.

How, despite the strictures of financial and telecom regulations by CBN and NCC; the relatively zero- value of the SMS platform to a large majority of the unbanked (they mostly belong to a socio-economic tribe which is called Base of Pyramid -BoP- and may only be conversant and comfortable with mobile voice operations, rather than SMS) and the need to adhere to the fundamental dictates of financial inclusion can the discerning mobile money brand thrive in Nigeria?

Positioning

In order to succeed, a mobile money brand must be able to seek a position within the market that will give it some competitive advantage over others. Such positioning must translate into profitability and resonate with consumers. A well-thought out positioning for instance could be based on excellent value addition. This will not only differentiate the brand in a market where every other brand offers the same range of benefits, but also help the brand to either charge a premium (when it is known for offering additional value) or lower costs (based on rapid rate of sales turnover). The discerning mobile money brand will do well to study the market and determine what else (and how, where and when) consumers need, apart from the intrinsic benefits which the mobile money platform offers. It can then seek out ways to provide these other (extended) offerings as part of a bundle product, thereby occupying a position in the minds of consumers. A strategic positioning may also be based on having the largest and most efficient network of agents. Afterall, one of the leverages which mobile money is expected to offer to the economy is ubiquity of access to the financial system.

Market Segmentation and Target Marketing

The consumer market for mobile money services is not homogenous. One important consideration is the fact that while mobile money benefits are statutorily targeted at Base of Pyramid (BoP) consumers, this segment may not be the driver of product adoption in the Nigerian market. Ultimately, innovators and early adopters will be found among the middle class, enlightened men and women in the C1-3 socio-economic strata, who see the mobile payment platform as a tool of convenience in transferring money, paying utility bills and consummating a myriad of transactions with ease. Nonetheless, consumers at the lower end of the socio-economic strata will definitely come to catch up with the beneficial realities of mobile money, but not as fast as envisaged.

Source: IFC; Mobile Money Adoption Life Cycle

How should the mobile money brand that will succeed talk and sell to disparate, yet profitable segments of the consumer market?

Beyond media (or mass) advertising, a more targeted approach should be employed. A consumer in Ikeja, Lagos, who wishes to use the mobile money platform to pay for say groceries bought at a supermarket, utility bills, or transfer money to a child in school, will be different from a farmer in Arondizuogu in the East, who needs to remit advance payment for genetically-modified seedlings, to a middleman in Onitsha. The demographics and psychographics are different and one should rather recruit or convert the farmer through someone who has a strong influence on him. This could be a traditional head in his town, or the leader of his farmers’ association; influencer relations, rather than media advertising should be strong here. One may thereafter sustain one’s efforts with tactical radio and television spots.

Again, in deploying their services, mobile money brands must profile their consumers and tailor particular services to specific segments. In addition, segment-specific benefits must be emphasized in their communications.

Product Innovation

Technology is never static. The mobile money brand that will breast the tape of market leadership in Nigeria will not wait for the next five years before questioning the present technological platform on which mobile money operations are deployed. Can the rural market woman conclude her transaction on that phone by following voice prompts, rather than looking stupid while asking someone else to help decrypt SMS instructions? Can that mobile money brand, in conjunction with a telco or a mobile hardware manufacturer (say HUAWEI) start now to outsource product design alternatives to a tech geek somewhere in India and be the first to reach the market with this innovation?

Or else, since the present trend globally is for micro and medium scale entrepreneurs to look for informal ways to raise capital, can a mobile money brand partner a Non-Governmental Organization to establish a platform for crowdfunding, whereby mobile money users who believe in the cause of a particular venture can raise some capital for the dreams of an entrepreneur to take shape?

Final Words

The options and opportunities for mobile money brands within the marketing space are limitless. While technology and superb organizational management may be the difference between failure and success for mobile money operators, by far the most important, yet controllable factor is Strategic Marketing. This, ultimately, will separate the bigguns from the smallies and those who have tunnel vision from the ones who may never see beyond their noses.

The race has just begun.

Author Bio:

A 360° marketing professional, Dele Ogundahunsi works with The Field Marketing Company and may be reached at the following addresses: @deneri(twitter), deneri4(skype), and /deneri4 (facebook)

Tags: Mobile Money Marketing

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

Obama Does Reddit AMA: President Answers Questions and Crashes Site

President Obama answering questions on Reddit. Image via Reddit.

If you had any doubt that the presidential candidates were trying to use every possible piece of technology and social media to communicate with voters, this should seal the deal. Today President Obama took to Reddit, a growing social media and forum site which has become a landfill of cat photos and animated GIFs, to participate in one of the site’s AMAs, or Ask Me Anything sessions. AMAs have become popular with other well-known individuals; users ask questions and the individual, well, answers.

The president began the question and answer session at around 4:00 p.m. ET, and within moments had received hundreds of questions. (You can see Obama’s answers here.) At points the site even went down, returning an error message when users tried to update or log on. Many wondered if it was really the president on Twitter and on the service itself. The Obama campaign confirmed it was in fact the president with a photo of him at his computer and a tweet.

The president fielded questions on internet freedom, the space program, the most difficult decision of his first term (the surge in Afghanistan) and the White House beer (“it’s tasty”), among other things.

“Im thrilled, obviously, but what makes this even more exciting is that President Obama is doing this AMA from Charlottesville, VA — the same place where 7 years ago, Steve Huffman and I started the company that’d create Reddit. (We were undergrads at UVA),” Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian told ABC News in a quick email.  

Reddit and Ohanian have also launched an “Internet 2012″ bus. The bus will make its way from Denver to Danville, Kentucky, with organizers talking to Americans, including students and startup founders, about how they use the Internet and about legislation around it.

After an hour, Obama had hundreds of comments and questions on Reddit. The site still appeared to be up… for at least some.  His closing comment: “If you want to know what I think about this whole reddit experience — NOT BAD!”

ABC News’ Mary Bruce contributed reporting.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Drag and drog app platform Tiggzi adds database functionality

WIth an emphasis on a productivity-rich UI and its new database functionality, Tiggzi competes for app developers platform love.

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the app economy has uprooted how we think about the technology market. In a landscape formerly dominated by hardware titans and products that targeted the IT crowd and not the everyday consumer, the app has become not only a legitimate startup idea but the foundation of the hottest, fastest-growing industry — mobile. 

Which is why it stands to reason that there’s plenty of interest not only in developing apps but in developing tools for developing apps (say that three times fast). Apps are supposed to be inherently simple and enjoyable on the user-end — and now that’s being applied to the developer side of things as well. 

One startup attempting to infuse some ease and accessibility into this process is Tiggzi. Founded last year, the company falls under the umbrella of software engineering company Exadel, and it’s a cloud-based mobile app platform that relies on the simplest of the simplest actions for app creation: Drag and drop. 

“We started Tiggzi as a prototyping tool so that developers could create their UI,” says head of community and developer relations Max Katz. “We just realized, ‘Well we can’t go much further than just building the UI with that.’ So it grew from there.” 

With Tiggzi, you’re launched into a digital workshop where, to put this in the simplest terms possible, you drag and drop the elements you want over to the device image. You can use these functions to create iOS, Android, HTML 5, and Windows Phone apps. 

Of course, while the action itself is familiar and easy, don’t confuse Tiggzi with something you can pick up sans developer skills. “At the end of the day this is a development tool, and you’ll need to have Web development skills,” Katz says, adding that HTML, Javascript, and CSS proficiency are generally what you’ll find necessary to use Tiggzi. But these skills, combined with the action-orientation and immediacy of Tiggzi turn it into a great productivity tool for developers. 

The fact that Tiggzi is entirely cloud-based and runs in the browser with no download or install necessary is also part of its allure. 

New to Tiggzi is its database. The platform previously announced it would be adding some a backend and storage for developers’ Tiggzi-made apps. It also comes with plugins so that developers can auto plug pre-made functionalities into their apps — as an example, Katz showed me how a developer could pull and put in the AT&T sms messaging feature via the available plugin. 

“We started as just the builder, but the backend services make us a platform,” says Katz. “A lot of companies have the backend, but they don’t have the builder, but we have both. We can offer the entire stack.” 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Obama Now Taking Your Donations Via Text

Image credit: Obama for America

If you had any doubt that the smartphone was playing a bigger role than ever before in this election, this should do the trick. Today the Obama campaign announced that it will now accept campaign donations via text message. It is the first political campaign to do so.

Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and U.S. Cellular customers will be able to donate via text starting this week; the donations will be billed to their monthly cellular bills. All you have to do is text GIVE to 62262 and you can donate $10 at a time. Yes, 62262 spells out OBAMA.

It is limited to $50 per billing cycle right now. Standard text messaging rates also apply.

Previously the Obama campaign had accepted donations via text, but you had to register your credit card and phone number on the campaign’s website. Now customers will be able to make small donations without signing in. The campaign plans to run ads with the information, making it easy for people to donate.

Mitt Romney’s campaign is expected to offer the same text donations soon, says Reuters. Donors to the Romey campaign will be able to text 466488, which spells out GOMITT.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com