A few brands in the financial space seems to be working towards developing a different category for their brands to thrive in the financial sector and one of such banks seems to be Jaiz bank.
Jaiz Bank is Nigeria’s pioneer non-interest bank. A national bank and a quoted public company owned by over 26,000 shareholders spread over the six geo-political zones of Nigeria.
The Bank’s product offerings have grown substantially ranging from friendly retail to commercial and corporate products.
Non-Interest Banking is a profitable growing global phenomenon practised in many countries across the world including the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States of America, the United Arab Emirate, Malaysia, China, Singapore, South Africa, Kenya etc.
Global Banks such as HSBC, Citibank, Barclays Bank etc. are also offering non-interest banking products and service. It is an alternative financial service offering which is open to all irrespective of race or religion.
What this bank stands for makes them stand out from the other banking Nigeria due to their business model. It differentiates them and also places them in a spot where any other bank who tries to imitate an aspect of their would have no choice than to copy them exactly for that particular Product offering and that probably increase the other bank’s tendency to fail.
The tendency of this bank to be sustainable is centred around this non-interest banking model as this appeals to the Muslim religious segment at the core of its business but if done well this appeal can serve as the backbone to capture other markets or Target segments in the banking industry.
What might look like targeting a niche with the model of no interest can aid them in becoming the market leader in this newly created category by becoming people’s go-to bank when they want banking with no interest attached to whenever they want to conduct a transaction.
In order for them to improve, they need to focus on this non-interest offering as the core of their business and use it to work out different product manifestations. How can this non-interest manifest itself in various financial offerings that the bank can provide?
They also need to increase the quality of their communications and increase the money spent on Communications. The brand has to find ways to make it easy for people to adopt Jaiz as their Bank of choice by making their brand easy to remember and easy to locate. By being easy to locate both online and offline, it makes it easier for people to do transactions with them.
The Bank seems to be one with plenty of potentials. Will they be able to tap into this potentials? Can they determine where growth can come from? Who do they need to target in order to achieve that growth?
For now, I guess they have part of that answer with regards to targeting Muslims but they can look into other target segments they can sell to?. This brand has chosen its battlefield and where it wants to play but determining how it wants to play is what will change the game for them.
