bKash, a subsidiary of BRAC Bank, provides safe, convenient and easy ways to make payments and money transfer services via mobile phones to both the unbanked and the banked people of Bangladesh. Through partnerships with all major mobile operators of Bangladesh, bKash's technology allows 98% of the country's mobile users to access its service via very basic handsets.

With 76,000 agents and 180 distributors, bKash accounts now stand at close to 8.0 million across the country. Mr Rumee Ali, Chairman of bKash, expected to achieve the bKash accounts to nearly 15 million at the end of 2014 by exploiting the huge business-expansion opportunity in Bangladesh having over 110 million cell phone users, and 60 per cent unbanked people out of 160 million population.

Till now, around 20 banks launched the MFS(Mobile Financial service). As of November 11, 2013, mobile banking subscriber base crossed 10 million-mark, according to recent data at the Bangladesh Bank. bKash is not only to create mobile financial services and make money, rather also to increase inclusivity, which is the way of sustaining and quality growth of a country.

bKash is using the mobile network as an IT backbone to create a franchise of independently owned mini- bank branches. The problem with franchises is that the inability of one shop to deliver an adequate level of service reflects poorly on the whole franchise. The problem is especially acute in this case since delivery of a service, for example remittance transfer depends on the successful operation of the franchisee sat both the sender’s and recipient’s end. If the franchisee at the recipient’s end does not has sufficient liquidity, the system fails and the brand is hurt. Kinks are part and parcel of any real world business especially starting up. The problem is startup links would reduce popularity and early adoption in a business where value for both customers and producer increases with the number of users.

Three factors have combined to drive bKash’s fast start:

1. A specialized organization built to deliver mobile financial services
2. A shared vision for scale among a diverse investor group
3. An enabling and flexible regulatory environment

On their own these three factors are not uncommon, but in this case they combined to drive bKash’s fast start. This Brief provides background on bKash and explores the three factors driving early growth.

The reason behind bKash being a successful and sustainable brand in Bangladesh mobile banking market is due to the communication strategy of bKash.

Visibility

This is one of the core requirements for any branding, without proper visibility level the branding is not profitable.bkash branding it is more visible then other brand.bKash have 400 billboards all over the country and those are in well visible label. Beside this DBBL have 500 boards in every sub-District in Bangladesh, but those are not in good visibility level.

Uniqueness

One of the most important side of any product or service branding is its uniqueness. If we see the branding of bKash and DBBL, both the company try to be unique in their branding. Beside this if we compare these two  brand,then bKash branding is more unique then DBBL. bKash have boat branding, Car Sticker branding, Drama Branding, on the other site DBBL try to Branding in a traditional way newspaper advertisement and TV.

Target Audience

In this industry the main target audiences are rural and low income people in our country. MFS tries to provide banking service to the people who are usually not interested in banking. So that the company are branding their product to the target market.If we see the all TVC of bKash and DBBL the made a scenario of rural people. Beside this bkash is more advance then others as they are targeting urban people also by providing payment service.

Emotional Connections: Emotion is main way to attract the target audience by branding. Some TVC of bkash and and other company is related to emotional activity but bkash is doing some extra to hit the target market. In addition with TVC bkash have some documentary on some successful people who are benefited by the bkash services. Beside this in recent time bkash introduce a new event which is related to the direct target market.

After analyzing the branding activity of this two company we can find that bkash is far ahead then DBBL, it also reflects in their market share and subscriber growth rate.

Reference:
1.Home | bKash (Home | bKash)

http://www.bkash.com/

2. http://www.thedailystar.net/the-story-of-bkash-21235

3. From early days of PayPal Mobile and bKash to what's next in Mobile Financial Services? (mPay Connect Mobile Payments Blog)

4.http://mobilepayments.wordpress.com/2014/04/14/from-early-days-of-paypal-mobile-and-bkash-to-whats-next-in-mobile-financial-services/http://blog.brac.net/tag/bkash/

5. bKash Bangladesh: A Fast Start for Mobile Financial Services (CGAP)

http://www.cgap.org/publications/bkash-bangladesh-fast-start-mobile-financial-services

6. http://dspace.bracu.ac.bd/bitstream/handle/10361/3276/10104097.pdf?sequence=1