Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

How To Spread Awareness For Monney Transfer Busine

Posted by Anonymous on 7/9/2011 at 5:47 PM ET 250 Points
We are an affiliate of a large money transfer in the US and we specialize in money transfers between the United States and Nigeria.

Our business was created specifically to market and establish a presence in the US to Nigeria corridor for money transfers. Consider us a start-up with limited resources to spend on marketing. We know we have a good product (we have affiliated agents all over America, we have an innovative service called direct to bank account that none of our existing competitors Western Union, & Moneygram have) but what we don't have is name, brand or mind share recognition that should be giving our customers (Nigerian's in the US) pause to try our service out.

We have already launched some electronic and print advertising campaigns i.e. local magazines read by the Nigerian immigrant, plus some Facebook ads but overall we think that these are not giving us enough exposure. Someone recently mentioned that PR might be the way to go, but we are inexperienced in the marketing field and wonder if some one can answer the question "How do we increase the awareness of our service to a consumer that is already bombarded with messages from entrenched competitors?"
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 7/9/2011 at 8:13 PM Moderator
    The good news is that your market segment is very clearly defined and you have a distinctive offering for that audience with a benefit they will value.

    The not-so-good news is that generating serious awareness takes a serious investment. The free and very-low-cost approaches are not likely to get you what you need by themselves. They can be great multipliers once you have a real marketing plan in place.

    So the first thing you need is a marketing plan that makes sense for the business. You'll need to calculate the lifetime value of a customer, so you know how much you can afford to spend to gain trial. You'll also need to figure out what you'll do to generate loyalty and get your customers to return on a regular basis.

    Once you've thought through the marketing plan, you'll have a great start on coming up with a name. Trying to name the company before you have a marketing plan will probably result in a name that's not quite right. Better to take things one step at a time, even though it will be frustrating to not be able to get started quickly.

    In the long run, a carefully planned and well executed approach will always win out.
  • Posted on 7/10/2011 at 5:28 AM Author
    Thanks for the repines, but we are stillma ways from the heart of this topic. We have already coined a phrase for the business " simple, safe, and convenient", we have a rudimentary market plan that was targeted on using conventional print media -flyers, & posters, prominently displayed in the areas where our customers typically congregate - churches, ethnic grocery stores. But these are not working sufficiently or fast enough to give us confidence we are on the right path. I''m looking for other ideas of how to reach an audience we already know quite well. Should we try events, like sponsoring town halls, advertising in church brochures. Someone has to have tacked the knotty problem of raising awareness with a clearly defined demographic that already has well entrenched deep pocket players who have defined the market to suit their strengths.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 7/10/2011 at 8:53 AM Member
    Focus on a single community to raise awareness first. Once you figure out how to get clients in this community, attempt to replicate in other communities.

    Next, clearly identify how your services are better/different from the competition. Is your direct to bank account service something your customers care about, or are you offering something simply "different"?
    Are your clients trying to get money from or send money to Nigeria?
    What's the typical reasons for the transfer?
  • Posted on 7/10/2011 at 10:57 AM Author
    Ok, lets take this discussion a little further, if we were to target costumers in one specific geographic locale i.e say the Bronx and Brooklyn, we''ve tried to use print advertising in that market to woo them but we haven''t given an emphasis on the most salient message which is direct to bank account. Most of our clients are sending money to loved ones, or to finance construction projects. Do we try to find other publications in the NY metropolitan area that target our customers? We would like to try PR related type marketing, does anyone have suggestions on what that might be? Sponsor cook outs, block party??
  • Posted by mvaede on 7/11/2011 at 11:17 AM Member
    To raise the awareness of your customers, you have to talk to them where they are and where they gather.

    If church or community events are where you can reach the largest number of you potential customers within the shortest period of time, I'd suggest to do a small ad in associated magazines or in their associated online communities.

    To speed up acceptance, sponsoring events or activities within these communities would be good.

    Maybe a referral program, where an existing customer would get a temporary benefit by suggesting a new customer.

    Doing PR for the sake of PR most likely will not drive customers to you services. Since your service is both well define in scope and customer base, engaging with your customers more directly will allow you to build up that positive branding you want much quicker.

    Mikael
    B2B Marketing
  • Posted on 7/11/2011 at 2:33 PM Accepted
    Either your messages are not reaching the target audience or what you're communicating isn't compelling enough to get them to act. You need to deal with each of those possibilities (separately) before you go off and try new things.

    Have you done research among your target audience to see how they learn about alternatives for sending money home? Why do the customers who use your service like it? Why do those who are aware of you but don't use your service not do so? What's the difference between those two groups?

    What criteria do Nigerians in the US use to select a company to transmit money home? What's important to them? What words do they use to express their attitudes toward the companies who do what you do?

    It sounds like you're trying to solve a problem without knowing exactly what the problem is. PR is a tool, not a goal. Maybe it's the right tool and maybe it's not. Let's define the problem clearly, and then we can see what tools are most likely to solve the problem.

    (Have you tried search advertising -- like Google Adwords -- yet? If your target audience is doing online search, it may be perfect for you. You can start out locally while you fine tune the ad copy and landing page, and you only pay when someone clicks.)
  • Posted on 7/11/2011 at 7:06 PM Author
    Any ideas of who does market research in the NY metropolitan area, and could correctly survey Nigerian/West African immigrants in that area? I''m not sure that I would agree in principle that we haven''t quite defined our audience, we do have a more than general idea of what a reasonable profile if our target customer is, since we have been in business for two months now. Instead I am willing to concede that we may be taking a simplistic approach to marketing to our customers, our research literally consisted of asking ourselves and not others what would drive them to use our service over another service that has had thirty odd years to make itself the dominant brand in this space.
  • Posted on 7/17/2011 at 7:47 AM Moderator
    You may contact me via email for a recommendation of someone who conducts the kind of market research you need. I do know someone who grew up in NY and knows the city well and who is now a market research professional.

    Use the email address in my profile.

    BTW, defining your target audience goes much deeper than demographics. It includes knowing their attitudes and behaviors when it comes to your product/service category. It is those nuances that will allow you to capture market share from your competitors with large war chests.
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