The GSMA Mobile for Development mFarmer initiative has come to a close. Having reached nearly 1.5m users in 2.5yrs, many valuable lessons have been learnt. Our mAgri Analyst, Tegan Palmer, presents these learnings and valuable insights. Quantitative and qualitative evidence was drawn from user behaviour, field interviews and phone surveys across four countries. Here we present lessons on what works and what doesn’t in designing, pitching and marketing mobile agriculture services in emerging markets.
1. January 2015
Insights from the mFarmer initiative
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3. Sharing Insights from the mFarmer Initiative
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4. 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 Kilimo
Agronomy tips
1 day weather forecasts
• SMS subscription
(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
• SMS subscription
(push)
• IVR (pull)
• Call centre (pull)
~ 840,000
5. 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
6. 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)
Unaware Aware Engage Adopt
7. Are users adopting the service?
User base quality
Unaware Aware Engage Adopt
~ 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**
8. 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
11. What content is popular? Value proposition
Unaware Aware Engage Adopt
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
12. What content is popular? Value proposition
Unaware Aware Engage Adopt
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
13. What content is actionable? Value proposition
Unaware Aware Engage Adopt
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 prices
from crop sale
Better prediction of
weather
Less damage from pests
and disease
More knowledge about
improved seed varieties
Other benefit
No benefit
14. What content is popular? Value proposition
Unaware Aware Engage Adopt
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Q4 2012 Q1 2013 Q2 2013 Q3 2013 Q4 2013 Q1 2014 Q2 2014 Q3 2014
%requestsforeachservicepermonth
Most requested content each month since service launch (USSD and IVR channels)
Agronomy tips Market prices Weather
15. Show them what you know
Unaware Aware Engage Adopt
Value proposition
Users need to understand the value of the service to adopt it
16. 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
Servicefreeofcharge
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)
Unaware Aware Engage Adopt
Value proposition
17. 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
Unaware Aware Engage Adopt
Value proposition
18. 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
19. 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)
Unaware Aware Engage Adopt
Usability
20. 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
Unaware Aware Engage Adopt
Usability
22. Identify through usage analysis and user testing
Service 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
Unaware Aware Engage Adopt
Usability
23. the content users reach
Service design influences
Unaware Aware Engage Adopt
Usability
24. Can provide great value – but not scalable
Helplines
“
”
I never got an opportunity to have a
direct conversation with the experts. It
never 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
Unaware Aware Engage Adopt
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.
25. 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
26. Unaware Aware Engage Adopt
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
29. Trial and use
Methods: Blast SMS/USSD attach/OBD
0
50
100
150
200
250
Days
Days till first time access of the service
Unaware Aware Engage Adopt
Marketing
31. 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