Delta Milayo Ndou #Digital Dialogue
I recently read about the worst technological failures of 2016 and beyond, and I noted that the recurring explanation given for why a product or service failed to take off was simply the refusal by consumers to adopt it, in other words the market rejected it. I was reminded of how NetOne was first on the market with mobile money sometime in early 2011 (it’s hard to say when exactly because even the Internet doesn’t seem to have a record of the OneWallet launch – did it even happen if uncle Google doesn’t know of it?).

Going by the adage first come first serve, NetOne should be enjoying dominance on the mobile money front by virtue of being the first mobile network operator to introduce it locally.

We all know that is not the case and there are many reasons why OneWallet failed to take off but for the purposes of this discussion, I would wager it is because the market rejected it more of out of ignorance than spite.

What OneWallet proposed was simply incomprehensible to the market (as are many innovations when first introduced) and the innovation needed to be buoyed by an aggressive customer education campaign and a willingness on the part of the company to believe there would be a return on its investment.

Companies who have little faith in the innovations they push onto the market usually hesitate to pour in the required human and financial resources necessary to evangelise about the product.

I use the word evangelise advisedly because it takes nothing less than a fervent, almost fanatical belief, in the worthy of a product to be able to sway a sceptical market.

You must be beyond convinced that what you are offering is of value and that once the market understands the benefits, they’ll be more than happy to rally behind the product or service.

The thing is evangelism costs money and companies hate to spend money.

It doesn’t help that oftentimes customer education is an arduous and unglamorous exercise whose impact is not easily measurable in the short term, therefore easily discarded when budgets get strained.

In the face of scepticism, innovation needs evangelism
So why is it that the same market that gave OneWallet a cool reception at best, turned around and gave EcoCash so much love?

I honestly don’t know how EcoCash pulled it off but I do hope to one day ambush the head of EcoCash, Natalie Jabangwe, and ask her.

What I can narrate is how I came to be acquainted with EcoCash and how I reluctantly adopted it.

In summary, I registered for EcoCash after succumbing to pressure from friends and family who complained that my not being registered on the service meant they had to pay higher charges to send me money. So, I did it for them, not for EcoCash.

I state this to make the point that the reasons why people adopt an innovation or product differ but they fall into at least two categories: convenience and necessity.

With convenience, an individual seeks out a product or service that improves their life whilst with necessity an individual is driven to adopt a product or service because it’s the only way to remedy a pain point they have.

If I was to guess what set EcoCash and OneWallet apart, I’d say it was that the former was spearheaded by people who believed in the product and the latter was led by people who wanted to “check and see” if the product would work.

I say this because the strategies around marketing the service and educating consumers about it were very different. I missed most of EcoCash’s initial marketing blitz as I was abroad by then but just before I left, I remember the odd mention of OneWallet here and there.

It was clear what the service was “supposed to be” and what it was “supposed to do” but I never got the sense (from those ads) that NetOne was sure that the service “could” in fact do what it was purported to do.

And if NetOne was sure that the service could do the things it claimed it could do, I never got the sense that NetOne was particularly interested in persuading anyone of this fact.

In other words, the gospel of mobile money as preached by OneWallet back then seemed rather “iffy” – which is not the best tone for evangelising.

The first time I heard EcoCash was from my brother when I’d returned for a brief visit in July of 2012 (at which time the service was 10 months on the market).

As I recall, my brother did a rather poor job of explaining the EcoCash service to me, but his enthusiasm compensated for his lack of detailed information.

I left with a sense of “yeah whatever” and a complete lack of conviction in this new phenomenon of pressing digits and characters to send, receive and have money on your mobile phone.

How fervent are your marketing evangelists?

As the cash crisis takes its toll, necessity is pushing more customers to adopt digital wallets and cashless means of transacting.

The most convenient payment method in my view is the ZIPIT facility on USSD platform. For my bank FBC, the USSD code is *220# and this code has been a great convenience.

I adopted it with little nudging from FBC because a colleague pressed me to register to make it easier for us to do our money-pool – again the deciding factor for adopting a service was unrelated to the direct marketing efforts of the service provider.

But the secondary informants, my brother and my colleague, were likely converted by the marketing evangelists then turned into preachers themselves.

Beyond consumer adoption, the success of an innovation rests on its acceptance by the mass market which is often determined by the level of converts touting its benefits.

I’m an early adopter, generally but as I’ve shared in some instances, I am susceptible to the influence of people I trust who recommend a service or product.

Many people can relate to having a family member convert into a new faith and then going on and on about their newfound beliefs – it can get annoying.

I think the goal of marketing a new product in particular should be to convert at least one person who will spread the gospel within their own sphere of influence.

These are pretty basic goals to aspire for but oftentimes the extent to which a company invests and believes in a product determines the marketing budget they will avail for it.

I’ve noted that sometimes marketing new products tends to be about showing off how nice and shiny this new thing is rather than emphasising the benefits to sway the purchasing decisions of the targeted market.

Passion is infectious and when you evangelise about a product from a premise of conviction, the message has a ring of authenticity, in my view.

Do the marketing you need but also remember to evangelise, it’s not granted that the potential client will see the benefits of what you’re offering.

At the end of the day, innovations rise and fall on the basis of consumer adoption and mass market penetration.

How good is the gospel you’re preaching?

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