School of African Microfinance

“To See Africa Rise...” 

Africa will rise and sustain itself, not through more aid & relief funding, but through the increase of entrepreneurial activity and small business growth.

The School of African Microfinance is a passionate training program in Moombasa, Kenya focused on one simple goal: To see Africa rise through Micro-entrepreneurship.

They believe in helping individuals of financial institutions develop technical know-how in order to create a profitable model for micro loans. An efficient and more profitable institution means more capacity to make more micro loans creating more access to capital for more Micro-entrepreneurs.

 Challenge

Originally the School of Applied Microfinance, SAM was the microfinance sub-brand for the relatively new and unknown parent company, FrontFin. Additionally, FrontFin was a subsidiary of another brand called JM Mantle. Notably, Our first goal was to organize and clarify the overall brand architecture to make it as simple and intuitive as possible as well as transition personal equity and reputation built in the founder over to the new brand of FrontFin. Our last challenge was to to discover true distinctions in the Front Fin and SAM brands while navigating cultural barriers.

 Solution

Brand Architecture
We developed a scalable brand strategy model that clearly defined all brands by a simple statement of focus. Frontfin becomes “a training brand” and JM Mantle becomes “a consulting brand”, creating a “Key Partnership” between the two for referral and communication purposes. FrontFin becomes a “House of Brands” allowing each sub-brand to function independently as well as giving recognition to the parent brand through statements like “Another world-class training by FrontFin”. 

 Solution

Positioning
A competitive audit revealed similar language, positioning, and product offerings for both Frontfin and SAM. All claim expertise in knowledge, practical skills, and all are American or European based organizations, but none focus on a single geographical area. FrontFin (and SAM), however, is the only financial training institution that “is for Africans by Africans”, with a unique expertise in the African Market. This strategy radically differentiates FrontFin from the competition and brings clarity and focus to the brand. A simple name change from “School of Applied Micro-finance” to “School of African Micro-finance” helped us further the new positioning and retain the SAM acronym.

 Solution

Logo Development
We created two very distinct and memorable marks for both brands SAM and FrontFin. For SAM we create an identity system based on microdots spreading through Africa, representing the potential of micro-finance across the continent. For FrontFin we developed an upward rising symbol with two interweaving “F” characters to ambitiously proclaim the vision of Africa Rising.

 Results

With a solid brand strategy, architecture, and identity in place FrontFin & SAM have managed to clarify internal organization structure as we all grow their businesses with several private training engagements, and additionally hiring a full time CEO.