The situation
The management team had a new app to help people use banking services. The goal was to circumvent the banking system for it’s users. In order to test the new business model the company chose to test into Columbia but they had no information about the market and no esthablished business ties in the country.
The Problem
Through research, we discovered that Colombia is organized into different strata that classify people economically based on where they live. The strata are organized from 1-6, where the people living in Strata 1 are the poorest and people living in Strata 6 are the wealthiest. Those living in the wealthiest strata tend to live close to city centers, while those living in poorer strata tend to further out in more rural areas.
Banks in the country locate themselves in urban areas where more business is occurring which is prohibitive for those living in lower strata from receiving banking services. This phenomenon makes it difficult for those in lower strata to save money or to receive remittance payments from family members abroad.
Of course, this means that people who have lived in the lower strata their whole lives have less ties with traditional banks and therefore less trust for them and have the lowest financial literacy rates. They rely on saving money in their homes and receiving remittances through local shops and supermarkets and on occasion have a savings account to receive payroll mostly
The idea
Due to the low rates of financial literacy and distrust of the banking system we needed to create a strategy that focused on gaining the trust of the market before converting them into customers.
We created the E.A.S.E. (Educate, Acquire, Support, Expand strategy. The strategy focused on using experiential marketing techniques to get customers to download the app then focused on a series of different actions that would create and increase engagement for the long term with the client to increase their usage of the client’s financial services.
Results
The company was projected to be able to capture roughly 25% of the market through their apps due to the strata system and the lack of access to banking services
