ABSA was lagging behind competitors in some key areas and experiencing below-market growth. They also had an aging customer base and a high drop-off rate between the ages of 18 to 20.
I was brought in as a consultant to make a case for transforming the MegaU youth banking product, which itself lacked strategic vision, engaging features, and proper marketing.
The aim was to win over the youth market to help make growth less reliant on the acquisition of new customers. The average person in this segment holds the highest potential lifetime value. The better they are served today, the more likely they are to be a lifelong customer.
MegaU would be the first step of a seamlessly integrated digital banking ecosystem journey built around a deep and proactive understanding of the life-stage needs of ABSA's customers in order to enable them to become financially ‘healthy' from a young age. A financially healthy customer is a more profitable customer.
MegaU's vision was to create a managed tool that helps parents safely teach their kids good money habits from a young age. In order for ABSA to become a leader in youth banking, we had to:
Provide services ABSA's customers could trust to prioritize their personal financial health and success over our short-term profits
Provide engaging life stage-specific tools, learning experiences, and rewards that encourage good financial habits from a young age.
Articulate a clear, simple, and compelling value proposition.
Prioritise the design, development, and delivery of key features which help parents teach kids about money.
We conducted extensive multi-modal research including secondary research, in-depth interviews with parents and their children, and diary studies.
The final deliverable was a presentation containing customer and secondary research, a business case, feasibility study, brand design and copy, product design and marketing material.
Absa 2018.
Cape Town