Hi all,

My group has chosen Citi-SMU Financial Literacy Club as our client, and we have summarized our findings and recommendations in the blog post below. Enjoy!Club’s History and Background

Citi-SMU Financial Literacy club is a student-led club born out of collaboration between Citi Singapore and Singapore Management University with the support of Citi Foundation. The club was established after a 2005 National Financial Survey concluded that young adults need expert assistance to acquire personal financing skills (Citi-SMU, 2013). The club’s primary objective is to advocate financial literacy to young adults in Singapore.

Club’s Key Activities

(ⅰ) Train-The-Trainers programme

Citi-SMU Financial Literacy club grooms students and aspiring changemakers from diverse backgrounds through an official “Train-The-Trainers programme”. This program is designed to empower them with the soft skills and knowledge to become in-house trainers capable of promoting Financial Literacy. After students have completed the program and are certified as trainers, they subsequently serve as front-line advocates for financial literacy through events and interactions with beneficiaries.

(ⅱ) Spreading Financial Literacy to the Community Service – Beneficiary Engagements

The main role of a qualified trainer would be to engage beneficiaries to affect positive change in financial management behaviour. They will mainly focus on the lower income communities to help them manage their financial resources. There are many ways in which the trainers outreach to their beneficiaries – notable past events include Financial Carnivals, Gamified Activities, Board Games, and also a Mobile App Game centered on Financial Management.Key Stakeholders

We have identified three main groups of Stakeholders, and we have taken into consideration each group’s interest to craft our strategies.

Club’s Competitors

Analysis of Existing Channels – LinkedIn

Given that LinkedIn is a business-oriented platform, the club uses it as a channel to connect with working professionals. However, an analysis of the page reveals that it currently only has 20 followers, 8 connected profiles, and a grand total of 2 posts since its inception in May 2016. Although the club has presence in this front, LinkedIn appears to be a neglected social media channel.

Analysis of Existing Channels – Facebook

In comparison to LinkedIn, the club’s Facebook page has a greater degree of media activity. As of October 2016, the club has received 1208 likes, which is a decent number for a student-led club. In addition, the club has also other rich mediums beside word centric posts – it has 8 videos showcasing the various aspects of the club as well as hundreds of photos accentuating the various workshops, co-operation and training that had taken place over the years.

Post Engagement

On Facebook, the club generally posts on a weekly basis. There are three different types of posts that can be seen: original content, third party content, and event-centric content. Original content refers to financial news articles or blogs written by the club’s executive committee. Third party content is shared content from an outside source that provides financial news. Event-centric content is posted whenever the club holds or participates in events that promote financial literacy. The posts with the fewest number of views appear to be those where there are articles and links to third party organizations or services. These tend to receive only 1 like. The types of posts which receive the greatest number of “likes” are those involving and engaging a large number of people or students such as photos from large events, competitions or workshops. Posts that involve a large number of people tend to receive the most “likes”.

In contrast to LinkedIn, Facebook has a higher frequency of posts, likes and comments. However, our analyses reveals that the club lacks engagement with its audience. Furthermore it can be said that there were no clear direction or strategy the club has for its Facebook page – most of the strategies and content on Facebook felt inconsistent and haphazard.

Underlying Concept behind our Social Media Strategies

We took reference from a book titled “UnMarketing” by Scott Stratten published in 2010. In the book, a particular quote stood out – “Marketing is not a task, it is not a department. It is not a job. Marketing happens every time you engage (or not) with your past, present, and potential customers”.

There were three key points we obtained through this book:

Be Funny (if it suits your brand)

Create viral content by being funny, evoking emotions, and by making people laugh and say “Wow!”.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing (WOM)

To build strong WOM, one must portray himself as an expert in his field, or at least be marketed as an expert.

Focus on your customers

All marketing foundations are built on relationships. It is important to always consider the customer’s perspective, and provide something of value to them.

Obtaining insights from on these three key points, we developed our “UnMarketing” trident to tackle the problems currently faced by Citi-SMU Financial Literacy Club.

Strategies for the First Prong

Strategies for the Second Prong

Strategies for the Third Prong

Evaluation of our Strategies

Summary

Our strategic trident adopts a triple-pronged approach – focussing on different objectives with each strike. Our group believes that the most pressing issues for the club will be mitigated if strategies from the first two prongs are adopted. In the event there is sufficient resources, strategies from the third prong should be implemented in order to improve the club’s branding and outreach in Singapore.