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Brand Strategy for M-Pesa.
Sammy M. Ongalo
Department of Business, University of The People
BUS 5112: Marketing Management
Laura Amerson
22nd September 2021
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Introduction
Safaricom is East and Africa’s leading telecommunications services provider. Its is
described (Safaricom Annual Report, 2021) as a purpose-led technology company providing a
wide range of services and solutions, including mobile voice, messaging, data, financial and
converged services, and digital services that enable platforms and ecosystem partnerships. Below
is a brief overview of the company:
M-Pesa Product Specification (Safaricom Annual Report, 2020)
This is one of the most ground-breaking products from Safaricom. M-PESA is one of the few
pioneering technologies that have put Safaricom on the global map. M-PESA enables customers
to send, receive and store money safely and securely via a basic mobile phone e-wallet.
Launched on 6 March 2007, it was the first mobile money transfer service in the world.
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So far, M-PESA has over 45.97 million active customers and over 550,000 active agents
operating across seven countries: Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania,
Egypt, Ghana, Lesotho and Mozambique.
Competitive Landscape
According to a report by (McCarty & Davidson, n.d.) an understanding of the
competitive landscape is the first step in developing a marketing strategy for mobile money.
They say “specifically, it is crucial to identify the services that potential customers use as
alternatives to mobile money and their advantages and disadvantages so that mobile money can
be positioned compellingly”
M-pesa Strategy
(McCart & Davidson, n.d.) describe in the diagram below the proposed marketing
strategy that one needs to adopt for the marketing of a mobile money service such as m-pesa:
In her research study (Adongo, 2017) describes the key positioning strategies that M-pesa
employed to fuel its roaring success. Hopper (Hopper, 2020) describes the positioning in this
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manner: “Positioning defines how the brand’s offering is unique, how it provides a distinct
benefit to customers. Businesses use marketing to communicate their market position to
customers and influence their perception of the brand’s products or services”
M-pesa’s success lies in its positioning strategy. In her summary of findings Adongo (Adongo,
2017) states that Safaricom’s positioning strategy was premised on low cost and differentiation
focus as its main positioning strategies for M-pesa with its primary strategy being focus
differentiation. This is seen in how they selected a niche for their customer and focused this
service.
Conclusion
The roaring success of the M-pesa brand has been attributed to its unique value proposition and
has grown largely due to the positioning strategy that Safaricom undertook from its inception to
now.
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References
Adongo, R. (November, 2017). Positioning Strategies on Mobile Money Transfer at
Safaricom Limited. Retrieved from
http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/11295/103326/Adongo_Positioning%20Strategie
s%20On%20Mobile%20Money%20Transfer%20At%20Safaricom%20Limited.pdf?sequence=1
&isAllowed=y
Hopper, D. (August 5, 2020). Positioning: 5 Strategies to Stand Out From Your
Competitors. https://www.business2community.com/strategy/positioning-5-strategies-to-standout-from-your-competitors-02333056
McCarty, Y. & Davidson, N. (n.d.). Driving Customer Usage of Mobile Money for the
Unbanked. https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wpcontent/uploads/2012/03/drivingcustomerusagefinallowres.pdf
Safaricom. (2021) Safaricom Annual Report 2021. Retrieved from
https://www.safaricom.co.ke/images/Downloads/2021_Annual_Report_Single_Spread_Final.pdf