Launch in start-up land is exciting, terrifying, exhilarating, and unpredictable. As you will recall from my “KOBA – Go To Market” blog, with all research and planning, collaboration and preparation, you’re never quite sure the pace and appetite and scale of take up and growth.
[And all of that is dictated to by cashflow. Prioritisation of investment is key.]
Within all of that, REDTAIL and KOBA have been working closely to be sure that, having gone to market, the device and data stuff works!
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- Devices are being accepted by policyholders and they can plug them in
- Those devices are transmitting journey data swiftly and accurately
- That journey data is being transferred to KOBA systems in an actionable and valuable form
Luckily not too many teething issues thus far with the device – the only one that comes to mind is the below:
“When there aren’t enough satellites in the sky, the device defaults to Santa’s workshop in the North pole. This way we know the device is clearly incorrect and are able to trouble-shoot and credit them back incorrect trips with our customers for something that’s out of their control.”
The well-documented component shortages have added complexity.
Again, REDTAIL and KOBA have worked closely together to inform on-demand vs supply timings with intent to both meet the market excitement that KOBA are generating, but also anticipate what might happen later in the year.
For founder Andrew and his team, the focus on highly cost-effective marketing and promotion is paramount.
Brand and Communications Director Erica Lam:
“As one of the first pay-per-KM insurers in Australia, our goal is to give low-usage drivers a fairer alternative to pay for what they use. While it’s exciting to see our product resonate with audiences, as a start-up, we’re also being selective and highly targeted with our marketing at launch. Test and learn is key, and then once we’ve got good traction, we’ll really focus in and ramp-up.”
KOBA live on www.comparethemarket.au …
Clearly market seeding and promotion efforts are very much sales focussed, which needs to be aligned with capacity to serve policy holders. A second unknowable component is the participation of the insurance aggregator channel, which is both vital (for scale) and to an extent unpredictable. Any delay is of course frustrating but also to be expected!
However, KOBA went live on www.comparethemarket.au early March, and demand is growing – and of course there is an absolute must to disappoint no one! Nice problem to have.
Looking forward, the necessity of proactive and reactive communication and dialogue is paramount.
As market demand builds, policy holders sign up – as volume of journey data increases and all transactional elements scale, the partner approach will intensify and flourish.
We both look forward to that!