Before taking a look at the marriage between Mobile Money , Self Bank and Integration Marketing in South Africa, let us quickly take a look at one of the most notable examples of Integration Marketing in modern marketing history.

It is the classic example of Integration Marketing made by Bill Gates, when he approached IBM with his then unknown Disk Operating System (DOS). That one deal highlights the 3 most important elements of Integration Marketing-

1. Parties to Integration Marketing Deal, IBM and Bill Gates

2. A Unit of Marketing Value (UMV)- the Disk Operating System (DOS)

3. An Integration Traffic Stream, ie IBM customers, and an Integration Transaction Stream, ie Operating systems upgrades.

When Bill Gates approached IBM for Integration, he had a Unit of Marketing Value- the DOS, while IBM had the Integration Traffic Stream- IBM customers. By going into this Integration deal, IBM effectively handed their then current customer base and their future customers to Bill Gates’ Microsoft and Bill Gates who a moment ago had no customers, walked away with thousand and thousands of loyal customers. It was a perfect Integration for Bill Gates’ Microsoft. But that was then and this now.

Today, I want to focus your attention to an Integration Marketing Deal unfolding in South Africa, with potential to engulf the entire African continent and beyond. It is an Integration deal between Mobile Network Operators MNOs in South Africa and Wizzit Bank, a subsidiary of The South African Bank of Athens Limited.

In 2005, Africa had 135 million mobile subscribers. It is estimated that mobile subscribers in Africa will hit 400 million by 2010 and this will continue to rise beyond 2010. Majority of these subscribers do not have access to banks. These are the disenfranchised masses of Africa’s poor whom traditional banks do not want to bother with. A lot are migrant workers, but they have banking needs and need a way to send and receive money. It is estimated that $93 billion in remittances are sent to Africa each year.

But Wizzit Bank of Athens Limited, a forward thinking bank caught the vision- a vision to provide banking services- Unit of Marketing Value (UMV) to these millions of unbanked migrant population- Integration Traffic Stream, through their mobile devices, through an Integration Marketing Deal with the Mobile Network Operators MNOs. It is estimated that in South Africa, there are 2000 cell phones to every internet connection.

A closer look at this integration reveals that there is more than one UMV involved. Not only is Wizzit Bank providing Self Banking, they are also providing Mobile banking and Mobile Money. Unlike traditional branch banking, these mobile bankers are not limited by distance. Another associated UMV in this Integration Deal is Mobile Commerce or MCommerce. There is also the potential to integrate a transaction stream into the already existing traffic stream. The potential for this Integration Marketing Deal is huge. As mobile technology evolves, and system become more interoperable, these UMVs have the potential to be enhanced and expanded. The sky is the limit for Wizzit Bank.

In Kenya, Safaricom’s M-Pesa is tapping into the existing Mobile Subscriber network to boost their operations in that country. The major difference between Wizzit’s Mobile money and Safaricom’s self banking is that while Wizzit’s Mobile Money is linked an actual account with Wizzit Bank, Safaricom’s M-Pesa is not. It is simply Mobile Money with self banking.

In North America, SelfBank Mobile Financial, a Canadian entity, has set up a platform to exploit the Traffic stream of mobile device users to provide self banking and mcommerce for anyone with a mobile device anywhere in the world. They are billed to launch any moment.

In all three examples above, the scenario is similar- an already existing mobile subscriber network, most or many of whom do not have bank accounts, a Mobile Network Operator MNO, and a financial services provider who is willing to tap into the already existing traffic stream to integrate his unit of marketing value, UMV.

I think this is exceptionally exciting and interesting because it holds enormous potential for the coming MCommerce as it brings banking to the reach of the neglected masses of the world’s poor in a way that only technology can. It also opens up banking for the average small operator. Self Bank or Mobile Money involves an element of decentralization of banking. The average mom and pop business entity, serving as a middleman for the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), can now provide some of the services that banks traditionally provide. No longer will the poor masses be held in disdain by banks by reason of their economic disability.

Article Source:  http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Austin_Akalanze