Three years ago Klarna was at a crossroads. A fintech product for the masses was to emerge from a rather boring brand only for online retailers. The Swedish payment pioneer reinvented itself, developed an app, introduced pink as the company color and brought rapper Snoop Dogg on board as an advertising face. Marketing manager Sibyll Brüggemann talks about the change.
Traditional finance houses would have avoided the hip-hop legend Snoop Dogg as a testimonial. “The only certainty was that there would be no new scandals, because he has already ticked them all,” says Sibyll Brüggemann, who is responsible for marketing for Klarna in the German-speaking markets. The pay pioneer just decided to do it – and received attention. Nobody expected the campaign with the US rapper to “go through the roof”, says the marketing expert. It was the starting shot to develop a hip mass product from a boring B2B brand. To attract more attention, the company even changed its corporate color to a striking pink.
So far the bet has paid off. Fintech has grown rapidly in recent years, with millions of people paying with Klarna. With fintech, users can pay their bills later or in installments, the so-called buy-now-pay-later trend. This is going online and increasingly also in stores. Klarna has just announced a partnership with Verifone, which sells many payment terminals.
In the FinanceFWD podcast, Brüggemann talks about …
… a brand decision with many consequences
… the campaign with rapper Snoop Dogg
… the cooperation with German celebrities
… the debt trap
… more banking products on the Klarna platform
The FinanceFWD podcast is also available at Spotify, Deezer or iTunes. If you like the format, we look forward to every positive rating!
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