Fund houses are starting to speak investors’ language to promote their funds. One such example is the recent campaign by Axis MF for its Axis Children’s Gift Fund in which the fund house has tried to change the way the mutual fund industry communicates with investors.
Though this fund is like any other balanced fund albeit with a few new features like mandatory lock-in period and allowing family members to gift this fund, what has grabbed the industry’s attention is the way the fund house is promoting this scheme. Instead of promoting the product features of their children scheme, the fund house has decided on the core theme of children’s education.
For instance in a ground level activity, Axis MF asked parents and their kids to draw a painting of their career aspirations. At the end of this activity, the fund house found that the aspirations of kids and their parents differed widely. In fact, in some cases, kids aspired to pursue unconventional careers like bakery and painting while their parents wanted their kids to become engineers and doctors. The fund house has captured this activity in a video and uploaded it on YouTube. This video grabbed the eyeballs of over 5 lakh viewers.
Sharing the rationale behind this communication strategy, Karan Datta, Chief Business Officer, Axis MF has said that his fund house aims to increase the average holding period of retail investors. He said, “The average holding period of retail investors is only 18 months. For the past 15 years, the industry has been talking about market, themes and economy. However, nothing has worked. Hence, through this fund, we are trying to bridge the communication gap and focus on financial goals of investors to change the mindset of retail investors towards mutual funds. So far, the strategy has paid off well and we have seen that investors have committed to invest for 10 years in our fund. Instead of collecting Rs. 1,000 crore for 18 months, we are better off mopping up Rs.200 crore for 10 years.”
In addition, the fund house is helping distributors talk to their clients through child psychologists and experts to help them understand their kid’s career aspirations.
Also, the fund house has launched a mobile application called ‘Homework’ on android platform to help investors plan for children’s education. This application guides investors on how to plan for children’s education.
