FULLERTON INDIA CREDIT CO.'s challenge is it needs to sell microfinance to rural people with limited access to media and no bank accounts. Even efforts to reach urban retailers, self-employed and salaried people were falling flat. So how do you reach the so called media-dark, financially under-served Indians in rural areas and urban money-makers? On the ground.
To reach populations with limited reach to traditional media, marketers in India turn to a discipline called activation, a hybrid of event and direct marketing that targets population outside of traditional media channels.
Elsewhere, India is dominated by traditional media, and the most mass of mass media is radio, according to research firm Indicus Analytics, Internet penetration is only at 7% and reaches a primarily male and affluent audience, so interactive marketing needs to take an entirely different form. Activation campaigns often manifest as street teams and live events. With people on the ground as the medium marketers can overcome the country's many differences in language and customs as well as low literacy, especially in rural areas.
Ravi Shankar, Fullerton India's exec VP-marketing and microfinance, opted for an in-house activation strategy to reach both rural and urban populations. Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai, had developed a direct response TV campaign for the bank, but Shankar felt it wasn't working, since even consumers with access to TV weren't likely to step into the bank seeking more information.
So the two parted ways and, with more than 10,000 employees in more than 200 cities, Shankar thought he could use Fullerton's local branches and its own people to reach new consumers with a "below-the-line-only" strategy.
"When Fullerton India [went] into the rural areas, we found that media reach was very poor and we had to develop some other unique method to establish awareness in the villages among women customers and influencers," Shankar said.
That turns branch employees into "relationship managers". As local recruits, these managers know the language and customs indigenous and can translate Fullerton's message to local markets, which is especially valuable in a country with hundreds of languages and ethnic groups.
Low- and middle-income Indians are generally underserved by financial institutions - less than 50% of people have insurance or bank accounts. Fullerton wanted to reach a population unaccustomed to its services. So Fullerton's task was to not only differentiate its bank from rivals, but to introduce the category and create the need for its services in the first place.
With the funds saved from the agency fees, Fullerton hired production partners to develop software tools audio-visual aids and events that branch employees could translate into local languages and customs.
"Customers in this segment were shy of expressing their needs to anyone; so their aspirations remained unfulfilled as they had limited financial resources" said Shankar. "This meant that the company needed to have its own officers to reach out door-to-door to customers to help customize financial solutions for them."
Fullerton's program is known as Gram Sabha, (“the village meeting”), which is organized by the local branch manager. Before the meeting, a branded van is parked near the village center. The van, which seats 10 to 12 people, is outfitted with a TV and DVD player and, significantly, air conditioning, a luxury in such areas. Potential customers can sit in the vans and watch 30-minute films about how Fullerton India has affected village economies.
Since those prospects are often distrustful of financial services, the films aim to establish an emotional connection, Shankar said. Officers then do a presentation on the company and group borrowing to women in villages using a flip-chart visual iad.
Fullerton's major hurdle in acquiring new financial customers is actually finding them. Customers new to financial services have no credit history, bank accounts, income statements or business records. “Evaluating customers in this scenario is the main challenge.” he said.
Other efforts include Vyapaar Samaroh, a two-day conference for small-town businesses featuring videos offering advice on growth strategies and one-on-one consultations with local Fullerton officers. The videos follow a talk-show format and mimic the design of TV programs. Conferences are used to generate awareness and feed a database of potential customers.
Ads aimed at urban markets featured local merchants and ways Fullerton can help them, such as one ad which pictures a drug store owner and the tagline “Even your business needs vitamins.” Other ads feature the owner of a show store (“Watch your footwear business race ahead”), the owner of a housewares store (“Because success does not come gift-wrapped”) and an apparel retailer (“Because success is not as easily available as readymade clothes”).
Conversions for this program have been high, Shankar reports. The company is also pioneering mobile efforts like apps for its sales force and text-message-reminder services for customers.
Through this “reach-out” initiative, Fullerton has created a base of more than 600,000 customers in the past three years. Even more importantly, 50% of those customers are categorized as first-time borrowers with financial institutions, meaning Fullerton did find a way to reach a whole new group of consumers.
Fullerton competes with other personal-finance and microfinance institutions in India across both urban and rural markets. As a relative newcomer in the market, Fullerton has tried to distinguish itself by owning the customer relationship, Shankar said, since marketing happens through its branch officers.
“Most other sell through agents and therefore do not own the customer relationship,” he said.
FULLERTON INDIA CREDIT CO.'s challenge is it needs to sell microfinance to rural people with limited access to media and no bank accounts. Even efforts to reach urban retailers, self-employed and salaried people were falling flat. So how do you reach the so called media-dark, financially under-served Indians in rural areas and urban money-makers? On the ground.
Elsewhere, India is dominated by traditional media, and the most mass of mass media is radio, according to research firm Indicus Analytics, Internet penetration is only at 7% and reaches a primarily male and affluent audience, so interactive marketing needs to take an entirely different form. Activation campaigns often manifest as street teams and live events. With people on the ground as the medium marketers can overcome the country's many differences in language and customs as well as low literacy, especially in rural areas.
So the two parted ways and, with more than 10,000 employees in more than 200 cities, Shankar thought he could use Fullerton's local branches and its own people to reach new consumers with a "below-the-line-only" strategy.