point of view
In a world that only knew enterprise software (required expensive contracts, installed on local servers, managed on-site by the user), Marc Benioff evangelized a new and different category of software application that was hosted on a remote network and accessed through the Internet/website.
This new market category was known as cloud computing or Software as a Service, which did not require direct active management by the user and had a relatively low-cost subscription pricing model.
Benioff knew it wasn’t enough to just promote his company because their was little to no awareness of the industry it was part of (SaaS). Therefore, it was essential to get the public to see that enterprise software was a problem (outdated, resource-intensive) and that SaaS was the solution.
Evangelizing the category legitimized it and provided the necessary context to position Salesforce as the natural, logical, and obvious choice for people within this new market category.
The Point of View is a brief story that defines the new market category we are creating: Save-to-Pay. The PoV evangelizes Save-to-Pay as the solution to the problems caused by the “old” way of accessing credit (a la FICO).
Clusivi is not mentioned because the PoV is not meant to showcase the company–it’s about introducing the world to Save-to-Pay, the market category Clusivi is in.
For millions of Americans, FICO is that four-letter “F” word.
Commonly known as a credit score, FICO’s three digits can affect almost every aspect of our lives.
Where we can live…what job we can get…what we can buy…and how much it will cost us.
When FICO was introduced nearly 70 years ago, it was supposed to end out-of-control discrimination and predatory lending practices.
It was supposed to fix these problems that were rooted in flawed human judgment.
Instead, these racial biases and data inconsistencies ended up being baked into FICO’s automated algorithms.
And so over the last seven decades, FICO has had a hand in widening the divide between the haves and the have-nots.
Currently, 19% of the U.S. adult population is either credit invisible or credit unscorable.
And 42% of Americans are denied a personal loan or credit card because of their credit score.
This can be credited—no pun intended—to FICO arbitrarily penalizing a person’s past financial setbacks that may not have been entirely their fault.
For example, how is getting sick and receiving a medical procedure–one that you can’t afford because American medical costs are the highest in the world–a sign that you are NOT a trustworthy person and therefore should not have access to loans, a mortgage, a good job, or good insurance?
Despite being told the American dream is possible through hard work, sacrifice, and discipline, for far too many, FICO can be a seemingly impossible barrier to realizing it.
Once again, their frustration and despair are expressed through that other four-letter “F” word.
UNTIL NOW.
Introducing…Save-to-Pay.
Where FICO sees faceless three-digit scores, Save-to-Pay sees real people with goals and dreams who recognize that achieving them takes planning, patience, and perseverance.
Save-to-Pay is straightforward, focusing on a person’s specific, real-time behavior.
This gives lending institutions an unbiased and consistent standard for determining a person’s creditworthiness, creating brand-new opportunities for equitable and inclusive financial access.
(Imagine that: having your creditworthiness based strictly on what you do and not on assumptions of who you are.)
As a result, individuals are empowered, communities are elevated, and economies are expanded.
Ultimately, Save-to-Pay helps people realize their visions of a better life that’s defined by another four-letter “F” word…
Fair.
Some Save-to-Pay Market Category Descriptors:
planned purchasing
democratizing/fair access to credit
simple, unbiased, transparent
income and schedule-friendly
non-predatory
prepayments
no interest, no debt (obviously, if the financing piece isn’t involved)
socioeconomic mobility