Product - Fab Money (formerly known as Pepper Money) Prepaid Rewards Card

Elevator Pitch - Fab Money has launched a prepaid rewards card for the emerging cities of India. Every payment made with the card earns the user instant cashback. For our launch cities of Lucknow and Indore, we have special cashback offers at eminent local merchants over and above the regular 1% cashback we give all users. It solves the problem of bringing rewards to the population of the emerging cities of India, who often don't get the best credit cards and are thus reward-hungry.

Business Goal

Fab Money wanted to launch as the fintech brand for the emerging Tier 2 and tier 3 cities of India. The prepaid rewards card was an acquisition product to potentially cross sell loans and co-branded credit cards to the users.

Understanding the product

What are we solving?

Consumers in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities of India (eg. Lucknow, Pune, Indore, Chandigarh, etc.) were not catered with the right set of rewards because of low credit card penetration, UPI being 'rewardless' and debit card having no rewards. Fab Money launched the most rewarding prepaid card in India which provided instant cashback on all purchases (except rent and education). We also had a city themed proposition wherein those cities had a city customized card and rewards at some of the top merchants in the city.

Product features and description

Fab Money has launched a prepaid rewards card with the following features

• 1% instant cashback on all purchases made with the card (except rent and education fees)
• Most secure way to pay - since the bank account is not linked to the card
• Zero joining and annual fees, zero charges for physical card
• No approval process - since its a prepaid card, it has no need for credit score or any approvals
• Localized offers - for the launch cities of Lucknow and Indore, there were special offers from some of the famous local merchants across different categories
• Digital card and card controls available on the Android and iOS app
• Offers from national brands like Zoomcar, IGP, Ixigo, etc.

Research on user feedback

Technofino Forum:

Technofino is a forum where early adopters of cards and banking products users engage to give feedback on new products and also find the latest rewarding offering

Insight: Some of the messaging around a city-based prepaid rewards card has led to more confusions than excitement because users were unaware if the card can be used everywhere. Also 1% cashback had to be informed better that it would be available to the user in their card balance directly. Messaging around 'no credit score inquiry' had to be stressed on more.

Insight: Our onboarding experience had been great because we hardly saw any drop in funnels in the digital card creation process. Customers from all over India were attracted to the 1% cashback proposition

Google Playstore:

Insight: Positive reviews on the cashback experience and the design of the card. Negative and critical reviews on the product having sub-par customer support.

User calls:

YouTube:

Insight: Users (especially influencers) were excited about the card's proposition and its look and feel. Features like a small KYC prepaid card, open to users below 18 years of age, a lifetime free card, and cashback were wins for the customer.

Understanding the users

Ideal Customer Profile

ICP Prioritization

Conclusion: Based on the above scoring, it is clear that the primary ICP to target will be that of an early career professional followed by the deal hunter. This prioritization is in line with the company's goal to eventually enter the consumer lending space, with the prepaid card being an acquisition product.

Understanding the market

The major competition for this category is UPI payments because of its ubiquitous and low-cost nature, followed by credit card payments. The average ticket size (ATS) of merchant transactions on UPI is less than ₹800 and we hope to have an ATS of >₹1000 so that the user also finds the value behind the cashback amount.

In the prepaid card space, after the RBI regulations around credit lines on prepaid payment instruments (PPI), players like Slice have all pivoted out of this space. What are left are competitors like Omnicard, Anq Finance, Fampay and Junio. However, there are e-wallet players like Airtel Money, Amazon Pay, etc. that also fall under the PPI bucket.

TAM SAM SOM Calculation

Assumptions for calculations :

• We will only be targeting the urban population of India
• Though anyone with a valid PAN card can create a card, we will target only 18-50 yo individuals
• Total Urban Population = 30% of Indian population = 30% of 1.3Bn = 390Mn

Total Addressable Market : ₹7Bn

Serviceable Addressable Market : ₹1.2Bn

Serviceable Obtainable Market : ₹23Mn (as of July 2024)

Please find the detailed calculations in the sheet below. In case the embedding is not accessible - find the attached sheet

Reference check to test sanity on the numbers : The total prepaid card market is estimated to be $36Bn in 2023 growing at a CAGR of 29.7% (source - Globenewswire). This consists of all prepaid instruments like open loop, closed loop, gift cards, wallets etc.

Core value proposition

Fab Money prepaid rewards card provides instant cashback to users on every payment they make. For the launch cities, it also provides special cashback deals at partner merchants across categories. With its 1% cashback proposition, its better than a lot of credit card rewards as well in terms of cashback. Finally, it is the safest way to pay as it does not connect to the bank account. This point particularly bears well for our target audience as they are often paranoid with financial fraud.

Fab Money prepaid rewards card was the most beneficial for users in Lucknow and Indore - our two launch cities. The thesis was that this card will be the most preferred card in tier 2 and 3 cities. For Lucknow and Indore, the card designs too were different - Rumi Darwaza card design for Lucknow and Rajwada Palace design for Indore. With Lucknow having ~4Mn population and Indore having ~3.4Mn population, the sample size of the potential early adopters for the product is significantly high.

Hence, in the pre-PMF stage, I will be testing the thesis of a city specific rewards card, the fit of instant cashback as a rewarding mechanism and also gain overall feedback on the product's central proposition of 1% cashback. Moreover, ICP 2 for the product will be reached out to via forums and Telegram channels to gain users from cities outside of Lucknow and Indore.

I will be designing experiments on organic and content loops.

Experiment 1: College Ambassadors

💡Insight: From the customers in ICP 1 I spoke to, I learnt that they never searched for the product on Google nor do they do that with any of their financial products (unless its a credit card). They were told about the product from a family member or friend and directly downloaded the app. There were also some users who said that they downloaded the app after seeing the cashback promise but never bothered to Google much about it.
🎯Actionable: The job to be done would be to create product ambassadors who will champion our cause to potential customers

Who are these ambassadors: General secretaries or college council folks from Lucknow and Indore colleges (in the final year of college)

Why these ambassadors: Our ICP 1 are the early career professionals and often the final year students are just gearing their way to start their careers and manage their finances. They also have a social life that can be leveraged upon from a rewards standpoint

Example of colleges: Lucknow - Amity University, Integral University.
Indore - Prestige Institute of Management and Research, DAVV University, SGSITS Indore.

Why these colleges: Most of these are private colleges having students who have a higher disposable income compared to government colleges where often a vast majority of people come from surrounding villages in both the cities

Experiment description: College ambassador's tasks will be as follows:

1- Actively spread awareness of the brand and the product in fests and college events

2- Get feedback from students for improvement in product

3- Conduct engagement activities for eg. "Who scores the highest cashback?" leaderboard

4- Provide feedback around the choice of merchants that are added to the platform and if that matches with the places students go

Additional considerations : To further support the college ambassadors, content strategy focused to both the cities has to be created that talks about areas where the card can be used. For eg. Top 10 places to be this weekend in Lucknow/Indore; Top 5 places where Fab Money card gives the best deal; Best places in Lucknow/Indore for local shopping; etc.

Potential reach : Assuming there are on an average 400 students graduating from each of these colleges at any time -> ~2000 users across Lucknow and Indore.

Hypothesis: For fintech products, often influencers (not "finfluencers" but trusted friends who are early adopters) and a strong trusted word of mouth is crucial for adoption. College ambassadors along with their activity will help us acquire users who will be a part of the ICP 1 cohort. Furthermore, since the cohort of users targetted with this strategy is often the most social and open to new experiences, they can provide us feedback on the quality of merchants in both the cities and also provide strong WOM for more users.

Experiment 2 : Active participation in forums

💡Insight: ICP 2 (The deal hunter) are present across fintech forums and groups where they often get information around the best rewards, 'loots' and best cards in the market.
🎯Actionable: The job to be done would be to be present where the users are and engage with them in the forum

Community examples: Jupiter community, Technofino, Telegram groups of people who uploaded YouTube videos, Facebook groups

Audience description: The people inside such communities and groups are the early adopters of the product who give us quick feedback on features. Retaining such users is difficult since they are only here till the time we have a good deal on the table but in the initial days of building the product, these users can be power users.

Experiment description: For channels where company participation is allowed - join as a customer success associate. For channels where it is not - join as a member and push conversations in the community related to the product

Themes of communication: 1- Preview of upcoming product features through interactive videos and images.

2- Blogs on making the most from the Fab Money card (cashback maximization techniques)

3- Comparison blogs with competitors and also some low reward credit cards

Additional considerations: In our user calls, we observed that since these were power users, they often seemed to have the most issues in terms of customer support. Being a part of these communities helps us in being more available to solve some of these problems and also increasing trust.

Potential reach: ~20,000 users across forums, Telegram channels and groups

Hypothesis: Being closest to the customer can have compounding gains, especially at a pre PMF stage. Having observed the range of issues that have been raised to the support team, being preventive and informing the customer will be very helpful. This can also help us build the type of features which the users want.

Moreover, the content produced during the execution of this experiment will help us in our SEO journey as well.

As a new product, it is important to have some of the nuances around offer configurations and features tested by core/power users. With the aim to be "the most rewarding prepaid card" in India, this cohort is crucial for the journey to achieve product market fit.

Experiment 3 : Flaunt your city card

💡Insight : In my calls with customers from Lucknow and Indore, I have realized that they are very proud of their cities and their identities. They love stories and also love how there is so much culture in their cities.
🎯Actionable : The job to be done will be to make them flaunt their city customized card to people

Background : For Lucknow and Indore, the card designs were different - Rumi Darwaza card design for Lucknow and Rajwada Palace design for Indore.

Experiment : Ask the user to flaunt their physical card next to their favourite place in the city and the best pictures will be broadcasted on our Instagram social channels. We will be creating specific Instagram background filters to brand the images with Fab Money's name.

Hook : The city specific physical card with the corresponding background filter

Content Creator : Users from Lucknow or Indore with the physical card

Distribution Channel : Instagram, Facebook

Flow : User clicks a photo of the physical card with their favourite place in the city as background with a hashtag. #FabLucknowi for Lucknow users; #FabIndori for Indore users

Success criteria : 1- Number of posts created with the filter and shared

2- Brand awareness in each of these cities

3- Increase in number of physical card orders

4- Increase in spends at partner merchants