Building Sustainable, Commercial Microfinance Programs

Marketing Strategies for Micronance

The relational model of the micronance industry has historically relied on a high-touch strategy which places most of the responsibility for sales at the branch and loan-ofcer level. Today, this oneon-one, relational model is still the main go-tomarket approach to sales and customer retention. The relational approach will continue being a key component of the value offer that differentiates micronance from traditional banking. However, the increasing challenges to grow at faster speed under greater competition, more informed and demanding customers, the evolution towards nancial intermediation (vs. just credit delivery) makes it vital for institutions to adopt more sophisticated marketing strategies and practices that rest on a customer-centric versus product-driven philosophy.

ACCIONs Services
Brand Development As the need increases for MFIs to attract new customers and new segments at greater scale and speed, they must build stronger emotional bonds with existing customers to promote greater loyalty and create institution advocates. Brand-image strategies are vital to this end, particularly as MFIs evolve towards providing integrated nancial services. For successful savings mobilization, for example, building brand values such as trust and superior value offer without being perceived as distant or unfriendly like other traditional nancial institutionsis a basic component of a competitive strategy. Even for creditoriented MFIs, brand development is important in helping the institution to generate good will, promote word-of-mouth advertising and create instant recognitionall critical to successfully positioning the institution against its competitors. ACCION provides a comprehensive and powerful model for brand-image development, to assist MFIs in dening their brand strategy, building upon it and tracking its success, so that they are in greater control of its value. Marketing Strategic Planning As MFIs grow from very small operationsand within markets of increasing competitionplanning at all levels is vital to ensure that the institution develops in the direction and at the pace it wants. Planning should start with the corporate strategic planning process and lead to a business and marketing plan. This process is iterative, rather than sequential, where the marketing area and the market intelligence function provide key strategic inputs for the corporate strategic plan and vice versa. Importantly, the marketing plan should be the guiding tool for all marketing initiatives and decisions with measurable goalsbe it product development, tactical campaigns,

Benefits to Microfinance Institutions (MFIs)

Marketing strategies and practicescommonly used for decades by most industriesare already being applied by some micronance institutions. However, success comes when the practices are carefully applied to the specic needs of micronance customer and the fragmented market where MFIs operate and face strong local competitors. Both in-depth knowledge of micronance customers and marketing practices are needed to execute business strategies that work. To that end, the rst task is to create an awareness and understanding about the value and strategic role of the marketing function in promoting the institutions goals. Then the challenge for micronance institutions is to develop their technical capacities to successfully apply these powerful techniques.

ACCION International

Boston

Washington, DC

Bogota

Bangalore

Accra

Beijing

Building Sustainable, Commercial Microfinance Programs

product launching or brand development efforts. ACCION brings a systematic approach to marketing planning that will help institutions design and implement marketing efforts in an effective and efcient manner that is in line with the corporate strategic and business plan. Tactical Marketing Tactical marketing can become a cost-effective support for achieving specic short-term goals, such as weekly or monthly sales objectives, increasing awareness of a product, promoting retention or renewal, etc. Tactical marketing initiativessuch as product promotions (rebates, free gifts, etc.) or advertising campaignscan vary greatly depending on several considerations and need to be applied with care. For example, not every product or service is susceptible to use with promotions, which have decreasing effects over time. The scope and size of these tactical initiatives can also vary greatly, such as mass media versus direct marketing. ACCION offers principles, best practices and tools for effective tactical marketing to help institutions achieve business goals. For example, ACCION provides a comprehensive

methodology for effective advertising, comprised of conceptual frameworks, tools, processes and best practices that will increase signicantly the chances of success for marketing communications. ACCION brings both methodology and on-the-job training to ensure that staff successfully develops skills in these areas. Marketing Organization ACCION supports institutions that want to develop their marketing function, a demand that is increasing as MFIs transform and formalize. The rst step is to review the state of development of its current marketing area by assessing the institutions strategic orientation, level of integration of its marketing information and its marketing operational efciency. This process includes mapping out the core marketing (macro) processes, designing their organizational structure, dening roles and responsibilities and setting up policies for marketing expenditures. All these decisions and tasks must be done with appropriate methods and tools, and be properly implemented within the organization.

Contact Us
For more information on ACCIONs marketing strategies, please contact: Jacqueline Urquizo ACCION International 1401 New York Avenue Suite 500 Washington, DC 20005 Tel. (202) 393-5113 Email: jurquizo@accion.org Nino Mesarina ACCION International 1401 New York Avenue Suite 500 Washington, DC 20005 Tel. (202) 393-5113 Email: nmesarina@accion.org

ACCION International

Boston

Washington, DC

Bogota

Bangalore

Accra

Beijing