Do Microfinance Institutions Really Need to Worry About Their Brand?

• by Lisa Parrott
• Oct 1, 2006
• 1 min
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This paper documents experiences of MicroSave’s Action Research Partners (ARPs) in strategically building a corporate brand to reach more clients, increase profitability and become more market-led.

This paper documents experiences of MicroSave’s Action Research Partners (ARPs) in strategically building a corporate brand to reach more clients, increase profitability and become more market-led. The principles outlined are drawn from MicroSave and Women’s World Banking (WWB)’s Corporate Brand and Identity Toolkit.

With increasing competition in the microfinance sector, it would be unrealistic for MFIs to assume that customers would not switch to other providers. Consequently, the industry is moving towards a more market-led approach in which financial service providers are re-oriented towards researching and responding to customer needs. Given these conditions a strong, well-defined corporate brand becomes the key to reaching and retaining more target clients.

This paper highlights the need for MFIs to realise the power of corporate brand and provides insights into the process of brand building that can assist financial service providers in designing their strategy for brand development, implementation and monitoring.