Fintech start-up Dosh has expanded its horizons and is looking to go global, after successfully launching the Dosh Visa Debit Card.
A global push
Dosh was set up to show Kiwis new, different and better ways to manage their money. As a young challenger brand, this meant bringing innovation, technology and change to the New Zealand market.
Internationally there are good examples of tech-led disruptors who have targeted early adopters and unsettled incumbents, and the founders of Dosh felt with the right approach, the opportunity exists in New Zealand to make the same impact. They created a business plan with three stages:
Stage one (2021) was about the launch of Dosh with a peer2peer payments proposition around an innovative everyday, transaction account managed via a “very cool, very funky” app. This new digital account allowed consumers to change the way they send and receive payments amongst friends and family.
Stage two (2022-2023) was about enabling users the ability to go a step further to the merchant retail environment, where consumers can use Dosh to buy goods and services (bricks and mortar or online) with the same speed and ease with which they have been making their other Dosh payments.
Stage three (2024-2030) is all about expansion of the product and service set, and the development of a wider set of banking and finance products like savings, foreign exchange, credit card, mortgages and business banking.
One problem to overcome when executing stage two was how to extend Dosh into retail, because while merchant QR codes were an option, this would never lead to scalable growth and adoption was slow.
A solution was proposed to approach one of the schemes (Visa) and build a card product that connected to the Dosh app and facilitate retail transactions, while addressing perceived in the New Zealand banking system and allowing the consumer to use their Dosh digital account more often.
Launching the card into an environment with limited understanding of who Dosh is and unfamiliar with what Dosh offers was another major problem. One of the key insights was to ‘normalise’ the use of Dosh.
Data from the platform audiences (Meta, Google) showed how the proposed audience (18-35, skew male, comfortable with tech, early adopters) often had food and dining out as a key interest.
Dosh took this information and developed a communications strategy around “owning the occasion – not the person”, focusing on dining scenarios, paying the bill at a restaurant and buying delivery meals.
Despite the technical challenges of this ambitious plan, and a limited budget, the Dosh Visa campaign achieved commercial success and won numerous awards.
Emboldened by the card launch, Dosh has recently embarked on a global strategy.
Category:
Excellence Consumer Products & Services Strategy
Company:
Dosh
Marketing Initiative:
Launch of the Dosh Visa Debit Card
Marketing Partners:
Rainger & Rolfe, Tilt Digital
Judges’ comments:
“A clearly defined strategy to break into a challenging market, requiring clever product innovation and wide partner/stakeholder engagement in the face of entrenched players. Excellent commercial outcomes over a short period.“
Finalists:
ANZ Bank New Zealand, ASB, Contact Energy, IAG, Spark
This article was originally published in the September/October 2023 issue of NZ Marketing. Click here to subscribe.
