Institutional ServicesACCION helps partners become more market-driven, improve competitive position and customer satisfaction by applying tools and building technical capacity around: Marketing Tools and Strategies
As microfinance institutions (MFIs) start to realize the critical need to develop their marketing competencies, ACCION is actively promoting the development of marketing practices through specific modules of technical assistance such as the following: - Market Intelligence: analysis of the context, competition and customer
- Value Creation:
- Marketing segmentation and defining the target market
- Market mix: product development, promotion, pricing and delivery channels
- Customer Retention
Now, ACCION, leading the "coming of age of marketing" in the industry, is introducing other marketing disciplines to the field, such as brand development models, marketing strategic planning, tactical marketing initiatives (including effective advertising methods), and marketing organization and processes.
Market Intelligence
The marketing area at any institution aims to condition the market and create an environment in which the target client chooses the institutions offerings over that of the competition. Creating such an environment requires extensive market data and intelligence. ACCION gathers market intelligence through quantitative and/or qualitative studies that yield meaningful results to help partners: - Penetrate new markets and deepen reach in existing ones
- Understand customer behavior with regard to financial services and identify customer priorities
- Identify market segments in the vast low income markets;
- Refine existing financial products and introduce new ones;
- Recognize customers and market perception to build brand awareness and image
- Better understand desertion and delinquency and improve client retention;
To address these marketing needs, ACCION’s market intelligence team supports its institutional clients with a variety of technical assistance modules through a systemic process to gather quantitative and qualitative data, yielding meaningful results for our partners. The quantitative tools that ACCION has developed include both survey design and statistical analysis of the results. The qualitative tools include focus groups, in-depth interviews, mystery shopping, and creative dynamics to understand consumer buying behavior.
Delivery Channels
Recently, microfinance institutions have been considering non-traditional – as in, alternative – channels for distributing credit and other financial services to the poor. These alternative delivery channels include banking agents, cards (especially pre-paid and debit), automatic teller machines (ATMs) and other traditional branch extensions (like kiosks); mobile banking and cell phone banking The current excitement on new delivery channels is due to the opportunity of massive outreach and cost reduction afforded by these alternative delivery systems. Among the specific benefits include:
- Customer acquisition: Penetrating rural markets, or fully capturing hard-to-reach urban areas
- Customer retention: Keeping the best customers away from the encroaching competition
- Product cross-sell: Offering higher-margin products (e.g., bill payments) or useful clients services (e.g., financial literacy)
- Product diversification: Being able to offer valuable products such as micro-savings and remittances – profitably and efficiently
- Operational efficiency: Reducing branch congestion and getting the most of the MFIs’ tellers and loan officers
- Cash reduction: Reducing cash in the financial system saves money, is more transparent, less vulnerable to fraud risk, and safer for the client.
ACCION has widely published its experience in marketing and product development. The most updated publications are available in English and in Spanish as part of ACCION's InSight series, which can be downloaded free-of-charge in our Center for Financial Inclusion's resources area.
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