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Purvita Chatterjee

Mumbai , Nov. 6

IN a bid to attract a wider retail base, JM Mutual has appointed Lowe Personal as its marketing consultancy firm for distributing and communicating to potential investors its Monthly Income Plan Fund.

The mandate given to Lowe Personal was that of marketing mutual funds to small town investors, who are wary about investing in the capital markets after the UTI debacle. Apart from trying to replicate the UTI model of distribution, the job on hand is to convince small town retail investors about the benefits of its latest scheme.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Chandradeep Mitra, President, Lowe Personal, said, "What we found was that while the mutual fund market had expanded, UTI's market shares had not been captured. Investors had still not come to mutual funds belonging to the private sector".

According to a dipstick survey done by Lowe Personal, the findings revealed that the retail investor was still scared of the equity markets due to the state of the economy as well as the history of scams. However, the concept of regular income was something that appealed to all retail investors. Both salaried and self-employed people are happy to make an investment that would yield regular returns over a period of time.

Consumer insight also showed that every month the consumer had to face `pain points' like settling a series of bills and outflows such as EMIs on loans. The one `pleasure point' happened to be the monthly salary. Lowe Personal decided to add on to the consumers `pleasure points' by bringing in the regular returns from JM Mutual and used the concept of the postman to deliver this message home.

Through the JM Fund which paid out regular dividends, the neighbourhood postman, while bringing in the dividend returns from its scheme every month would serve as that extra `pleasure point' for consumers. In effect, he would be bringing in the right amount of goodwill for the fund from JM Mutual and be the symbol for the brand.

Though a new campaign, Lowe Personal brings in the postman as the harbinger of good news, someone who does not necessarily ring your doorbell to get tips during diwali. "Whoever said Diwali comes only once a year?" claims the postman bringing in the dividend cheques from JM Mutual in its press communication. While the TVC in hindi brings out the same message where the postman is shown to predict the cheque from JM Mutual and harbours hope of getting another tip.

Taking on the job of fulfilling the entire communication needs of JM Mutual, today, Lowe Personal is looking at becoming a one-stop shop as a financial communications player. Apart from JM Mutual, it also has clients in insurance (Tata AIG) and banks (HSBC). Mr Mitra said, "We want to become communications experts in the financial domain and are looking at getting business from brokerages and investment banks in the future".

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