Paper

Market Research for Financial Education (Working Paper #2)

How does market research help in defining the goals of financial education?

This paper attempts to illustrate the role and importance of qualitative market research in developing financial education modules that address the needs and challenges of the poor.

The paper presents the following information about the 'Financial Education for the Poor Project':

  • The framework for its development builds on MicroSave's product development paradigm;
  • Market research leads to the concept and prototype development stages;
  • The project adjusts its approach to accommodate the demands of products that aim to bring about behavior change;
  • By applying principles of adult learning to the market research content, the project arrives at the behavioral goals of the learning activities;
  • The learning sessions match the content and delivery to the needs and capabilities of the target populations.

The market research led to the identification of consistent global themes:

  • Budgeting, savings and debt management;
  • Learning how to use a range of bank services effectively;
  • The acquisition of financial negotiation skills.

The project:

  • Gave program partners responsibility to design training modules;
  • Used an adult-centered learning approach;
  • Defined the knowledge, skills and attitudes that are needed to ensure behavior change;
  • Ranged from campaigns, to classroom training, to video-based courses.

The paper concludes that partner institutions gained the capacity to assess client preferences for financial education, both in terms of the content and delivery of training and to move on to the next step of designing the learning sessions.

About this Publication

By Cohen, M., McGuiness, E., Sebstad, J. & Stack, K.
Published