Webinar: Insights from the mFarmer initiative

January 2015

Insights from the mFarmer initiative

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January 2015

Insights from the mFarmer initiative

Sharing Insights from the mFarmer Initiative

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GSMA mFarmer grantees

Grantee Country Service name Services currently offered Channels Number of users

Tanzania Tigo Kilimo

Agronomy tips

1-5 day weather forecasts

Market prices

• USSD (pull)

• SMS subscription

(push)

• IVR (pull)

• Helpline (pull)

~ 390,000

Kenya Airtel KilimoAgronomy tips

1 day weather forecasts


(push) / USSD/chat

application

~ 15,000

Mali Sènèkèla

Agronomy tips

Weather forecasts

Market prices

• USSD (pull)

• Helpline (pull)~ 150,000

India mKisan

Agronomy and livestock tips

Weather forecasts

Market prices

Non-agri content – health,

educational, finance


(push)

• IVR (pull)

• Call centre (pull)

~ 840,000

Let’s define adoption

A potential customer …. Discovers the service

through marketing…

Registers/ subscribes/

trials the service…

Trusts and uses as a

regular source of

agricultural information

Unaware Aware Engage Adopt

The majority of these markets are still untapped

Reaching scale

~ 2% of addressable market are the

user base for these services

~ 98% of addressable market

have not tried the services*

*(range: 0.1 - 4.7% reach into addressable market based on number of smallholder farmers, local teledensity)


Are users adopting the service?

User base quality


~ 79% of the user

base*

* (range: 19 – 81% of the user base have registered, subscribed or trialled the service)

** (range: 19 – 81% of the user base have used a service multiple times)

~ 21% of the user

base**

using the tools of the trade

Marketing

How do you inform new users,

and remind lapsed users,

about the service?

Value proposition

What is the service offering?

How will the offering add value

for users?

Usability

How easy is it for the user to

get to the offering?

Encouraging adoption and scale

Understanding user needs Value proposition


Value proposition

Content must beActionable, relevant and timely


Value proposition

What content is popular? Value proposition


0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Q3 2013 Q4 2013 Q1 2014 Q2 2014 Q3 2014

Quarterly accesses (content only) to all IVR categories

Weather Advisory

News/Alerts

Market Prices

Livestock Advisory

Crops Advisory



0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Q3 2013 Q4 2013 Q1 2014 Q2 2014 Q3 2014

Crop stage accesses per quarter

Harvest

Emergency

Grow

Plan

58% 63% 59%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Repeat users Trial users All users

Livestock content accesses

Outputs

Disease

Care

Breeding

What content is actionable? Value proposition


52%

37%

2%

1%

9%

Customers reporting behaviour change by category

Agronomy

Livestock

Market prices

Weather

No change

33%

29%

10%

8%

9%

2% 9%

Benefits reported

Better harvest

Better income or pricesfrom crop sale

Better prediction ofweather

Less damage from pestsand disease

More knowledge aboutimproved seed varieties

Other benefit

No benefit



0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Q4 2012 Q1 2013 Q2 2013 Q3 2013 Q4 2013 Q1 2014 Q2 2014 Q3 2014

% r

eque

sts

for

each

ser

vice

per

mon

th

Most requested content each month since service launch (USSD and IVR channels)

Agronomy tips Market prices Weather

Show them what you know


Value proposition

Users need to understand the value of the service to adopt it

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

140000

160000

180000

OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP

2012 2013 2014

USSD IVR Subscription packs

Users like to try before they buy

Se

rvic

e fre

e o

f ch

arg

e

Service uptake for Tigo Kilimo increased when the service is offered for free –

the user base grew exponentially (from 32,000 to 320,000 in 6 months)


Value proposition

Will customers pay?

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

The service should be free Less than 1000 Tsh(< 0.6 USD)

1000 - 2000 Tsh(0.6-1.2 USD)

3000 - 5000 Tsh(1.8 - 3.0 USD)

More than 5000 Tsh(> 3 USD)

80% of surveyed Tigo users who have tried the

service said they would pay for it


Value proposition

What makes a user value a service?

• Ask them!

• Choose relevant and actionable content for your target market

• A freemium model to give users a taste of the service

• A pricing scheme which the user understands and feels is good

value

• Marketing which relates the value of the service through story-

telling

USSD/SMS services present a barrier to illiterate users

Think about the channels you offer

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Tanzania (2010) Kenya (2007) Mali (2011) India (2006)

Adult literacy rate (World Databank)


Usability

Timeout is a major problem

USSD

00:00:00 00:02:30 00:05:00 00:07:30 00:10:00 00:12:30 00:15:00

User registration

Average USSD timeout

Average time to register

Average number of keystrokes: 41

Average number of timeouts: 4.5

00:00:00 00:02:30 00:05:00 00:07:30 00:10:00 00:12:30 00:15:00

Searching for market price, weather and agronomy information

Average USSD timeout

Average time to access information

Average number of keystrokes: 114

Average number of timeouts: 2


Usability

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Menu 1 Menu 2 Menu 3 Menu 4

Users faced with a menu (USSD, IVR)should browse as few sub-menus as possible


Usability

Identify through usage analysis and user testingService design issues

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8

USSD channel – service improvements since launch

Delivered Service issue User issue


Usability

the content users reachService design influences


Usability

Can provide great value – but not scalable

Helplines

“

”I never got an opportunity to have a

direct conversation with the experts. Itnever happened.

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

Nov-13 Dec-13 Jan-14 Feb-14 Mar-14 Apr-14 May-14 Jun-14 Jul-14

Helpline use

Active users Total number of calls Number of successful calls


Usability

I talked to an expert from mKisan about

blight control in potato, because my crop

was affected by it. The potatoes were not

forming properly under the plant. It

reduced my potato production

significantly… The expert told me to use

Zed-78. It is a fungicide. It helped in protecting my plant.

What makes a service usable?

• Choose channels which are appropriate for your target audience

• Remember the limits your technologies when designing your service

• Keep menus short by personalising the service as much as possible

• Test your service with users to ensure they are able to find what they’re

searching for

• Helplines can deliver great value, but need to be carefully positioned

due to high costs


along the customer journey

Four stage marketing strategy

Education

stage: teaching the

audience how to use

the product they have

heard about

• Face to face

campaigns

• Leaflets, posters,

TV/ radio/

newspaper

advertorials

Awareness

stage: teaching the

users that phones do

more than make calls.

Communicating little

information, raising

interest.

• Face to face

campaigns (e.g. at

farmers fairs)

• National campaigns

(e.g. TV, radio)

Life cycle

management:keep people on the

service and make

them ambassadors

• Bundles

• Deals

• Loyalty rewards

• Methods of viral

marketing

Trial stage:once you have a user

base, keep them

engaged

• Freemium models

• SMS, OBD

Use a combination of marketing methods for different stages of the process

Marketing

Raising awareness

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

90000

w27 w28 w29 w30 w31

Successful USSD queries and radio spots July 2014

USSD successfull queries Radio spots

using targeted campaigns


Marketing

Education

69%61%

18%21%

13% 17%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

SMS blast Marketing event

Users generated by two marketing campaigns

Non-user Trial user Repeat users


Marketing

Trial and useMethods: Blast SMS/USSD attach/OBD

0

50

100

150

200

250

Days

Days till first time access of the service


Marketing

Brand ambassadors


Marketing

55% 60%

18%17%

27% 23%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

RAF users User base

Registered non-user Trial users Repeat users

What marketing methods acquire quality customers?

A scheduled blend of marketing methods:

• Well researched traditional marketing

• A trained and properly incentivised agent workforce to educate users

• Partnering with an organisation who already has agents and farmer groups in

the right areas

• Complementary SMS/USSD/OBD marketing to engaged lapsed customers

• Recruit brand ambassadors who will evangelise the service for low costs

mAgri resources:

http://www.gsma.com/magri/

mAgri deployment tracker update

http://www.gsma.com/magri/

Technology

Webinar: Insights from the mFarmer initiative