Technology is creating wonders in our lives. Every day we are seeing more and more organisations making use of technology to reach out to new customers. Also, most of the new start-ups that are emerging in present era are mainly dependent on technology. The easy availability of mobiles is taking the game to next level. The deep penetration of internet has led to emergence of many small and big start-ups that are changing the consumer behaviour in a great sense. But, with every small change there comes a great challenge to target the market segment. If the target segment is not analysed at the inception stage then repercussions of failed execution or implementation are difficult to mitigate. So, it is very important that we take care of the market segment before we start something big. We, at Craft Driven, are trying to analyse and decipher strategy of Airtel Payment with its payment bank in the sector of finance.
Good And Bad For Users
To begin with, opening an account with Airtel Payment Bank is damn easy. The user will have to download myAirtel app and go to payment bank screen. Enter your Aadhar card and some basic information of Nominee etc. Then, go to a registered Airtel retailer and he will do the other formalities for you. In short, it will less than 5 minutes of work after which you can have you Airtel payment bank account open. The account will be opened with a minimum balance of Rs 100. The balance can be seen in Airtel money app (another app that the user should download). We believe that here Airtel must work out in order to provide one stop solution in one app only. Hope, they are listening and working on it. So, what is the big difference with Airtel providing Payment banking service? We believe that it has a great potential to ease out the customers problems of paying their bill in one go. Today, we have many big players like PayTm, FreeCharge, MobiKwik which not only provide billing solution but help customer to do lot many other things shopping etc. There are apps from every bank that help to take the payments and provide other services as well. Now, if user is getting on stop solution to get his all transactions done then he will rarely use or download a different app for the same purpose. If, in addition, an app start providing all other service along with a safe banking option then we believe that it has potential to change the game in a big way. Do we realize that how difficult to memorize our bank account number as compared to memorizing your phone number? And, when your phone number is your bank account number don’t you think that things will become a lot easier for every one of us.
The Campaign Strategy
Airtel, very cleverly started their campaign for payment bank services in Rajasthan. The response was overwhelming and the company opened more than 10000 account on very first day of its launc. We believe that beta testing of the product was also executed with live customers. The execution was good and we hardly receive any news regarding glitches in the implementation strategy. The company started its pan India operation in Jan 2017 only and the traction of the customers are good. We think is what Airtel doing with the consumer is try to tick their mind by providing a great RoI (rate of interest) on saving with it. A whooping 7.25 RoI is what catching eye of majority of customers. No bank or financial institute is providing such comparative RoI for short term and even the long-term schemes are that beneficial after the rate cut war post demonetisation. We think this is another benefit working for Airtel right now. According to ET, bharti Airtel launched Airtel Payments Bank with an initial investment of Rs 3,000 crore, and aims to connect more than a lakh individuals daily for banking needs.
It will have a network of 250,000 banking points (Airtel retail stores) across 29 states from day one. Airtel claims that this is more than the total number of ATMs in the country. The company has already onboarded one million merchants and aims to develop a nation-wide digital payments ecosystem with over five million merchants (kindly visit http://bit.ly/2jIhhA6).
Conclusion
The main target sector for the company will be to cater people who yet to be included in to financial section. It will be time taking process but nevertheless Airtel has blown its trumpet to enter financial sector and it has chosen it arena wisely. But, with competitors fierce to get into the game as soon as possible, it will be interesting to see how the service get response in near future. We, at Craft Driven, will try our best to provide the possible information so our readers will be aware of the things happening in Start-up sector. Kindly share your views and thoughts in the comment section below.
Author: Sandeep Dogra ([email protected])
He is an enthusiastic blogger in the finance field. He has a great experience of the field and looks forward to learn abouth new trends coming up in this industry.