Currentc
A brand created to be as ubiquitous as everyday transactions
Challenge
In early 2011, mobile payments was an all-new category being shaped by players as varied as Google, Square, mobile carriers and credit cards. Major retailers, frustrated by transaction fees, saw mobile payments as the opportunity to eliminate transaction processing fees while providing a unique platform to enhance and manage the customer experience. In early 2012, a select group of retailers formed Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) to develop the solution and attract new members.
MBLM helped MCX articulate, create and shape a new value proposition—the brand and user experience—to offer customers the ability to have a single-payment relationship with their beloved brands.
Creating a new brand to work in close relationship with some of the world’s ubiquitous brands, in virtually every retail and service category, was incredibly complex. The value proposition needed to align seamlessly with each member’s brand and operations, and the new name and visual identity had to differentiate visually and verbally from the merchant brands. The customer experience would then be formed, both from interactions with the new mobile app and the merchants’ apps and stores.
To facilitate the process, MBLM proposed a co-creation workshop to explore and define how the customer relationship would be shared. Once the value proposition and user experience were defined, each milestone required multiple working sessions to align with the needs of a growing membership base.
Created deliberately as a screen icon, the CurrentC brand is meant to become the symbol of a new form of currency, considered “current cash.” The button-like quality is simple, straightforward and meant to live comfortably alongside the merchants’ own identities. The electric green speaks to glowing screen colors, starting associations with technology and hard currency.
Results
For merchants, CurrentC achieves two important objectives: eliminating transaction fees and providing features and functionalities that simplify the user experience and establish a more intimate relationship with customers.
The team’s perseverance paid off. Upon announcement, the press termed CurrentC “disruptive” and a “no-brainer” in the battle for the new category.
With now dozens of member merchants representing over $1 trillion in annual sales, CurrentC is poised to become one of the defining players in the mobile payments category, and an important ingredient in the merchant’s customer experience.
