“Edelweiss is trying to bring financial services to every home through storytelling”

Edelweiss Mutual Fund is one of the fastest growing and youngest AMCs in India. It offers a robust platform to a diversified client base across domestic and global geographies. The fund product suite company encompasses the entire risk return spectrum and is designed to offer the best opportunity for investment growth in Indian and global asset classes. Its world class knowledge platforms ensure its partners and investors are abreast of information and insights at all times. Through innovation and cutting-edge technology, the company has been striving to provide the best digital experience to investors and partners.

Also read:  "Media industry suffered 17 bn credential stuffing attacks between Jan 2018 & Dec 2019"

In the last few yhttps://www.adgully.com/media-industry-suffered-17-bn-credential-stuffing-attacks-between-jan-2018-dec-2019-96388.htmlears, mutual funds as an investment option are gaining popularity and efforts are being made by the mutual fund associations to educate investors. Mutual Fund communication is perceived to be technical and complicated and, therefore, demystifying it has been one of the key objectives. To simplify the same to the investor community, Edelweiss AMC has used the power of storytelling and everyday analogies with universal themes to drive home the message to invest in mutual funds. In their latest initiative, they brought in the game of kabaddi to drive home the message of Balanced Advantage funds. This fund category, like a perfect raider in kabaddi, manages market ups and downs by making the best of both trends.

In an exclusive conversation with Adgully, Radhika Gupta, MD & CEO, Edelweiss Asset Management Limited, speaks about the company’s latest campaign, long-term strategy, power of storytelling in the finance business, financial service in the new normal and much more.

The stock markets have revived and are quite stable now. Have you seen the investor sentiments gone up on the Mutual fund investments? How does the road ahead look? What is going to be your long-term strategy for Edelweiss AMC?

Of course, 2020 has been a volatile year for markets – impacting both investor sentiment and equity flows in particular. This year, people have taken money off the table in equities after markets have rallied – which may not be a bad thing. It’s not about short term flows, but investors choosing the right solutions, while having a good overall experience. We are excited about the industry in the long term.

As far as our plans for Edelweiss AMC are concerned, the focus is on building a quality franchise – providing good investment solutions for client needs and enhancing their experience through high quality communication and digital platforms. Ours is a simple business – a business of managing money honestly and doing what you say, staying in touch with your investors and giving them that comfort. Our hope is to be a trusted provider of investment solutions that cater to our clients’ needs and help them experience these solutions via high quality digital platforms and constant engagement. 80% of our focus is dedicated to scaling up our existing products and 20% to new ideas and innovations that solve a customer problem.

Edelweiss AMC is on an education drive on mutual funds. What is the strategy that you are following here and what kind of audience are you trying to reach to create awareness?

In our view, the colour of investor education has to change. Financial services can no longer be about technicalities and jargon. It’s about connecting with investors and simplifying complex financial ideas into a language that they understand. At Edelweiss AMC, we’ve embraced storytelling, using simple everyday analogies to make our message more relatable and, therefore, touch the heart of our consumers. Our consumer is someone who is probably 25-55, online savvy, wants to achieve more in life and hopefully will connect to these stories. Through campaigns like ‘Advice Zaroori Hai’, which is using topicals and everyday events to emphasise the importance of advice, or through our Money Konnect platform which uses Ramayana (something that we’ve all grown up with) to talk about money tips, or our recent campaign around Balanced Advantage Funds and kabaddi, we’re trying to bring financial services to every home through storytelling.

You have launched a new TVC with Kabaddi. What was the objective for this commercial? Why did you not go for a mass reach sports like cricket? Kabaddi is a niche sport and is not popular pan-India, will this deliver your end objective?

Balanced Advantage Funds (BAFs) is a fund category that is very close to our hearts. We truly believe that it can solve the needs of most Indian investors and we wanted a concept that can simplify it and connect with every Indian. Sports is a universal theme – relatable and understood by all, and kabaddi is a game that every Indian has either watched or played at some point in time. It has an interesting connection with Balanced Advantage Funds. This fund category, like a perfect kabaddi raider, manages market ups and downs by knowing when to be aggressive and when to be defensive. As far as cricket goes, as a Group, Edelweiss has always supported sports that don’t have a mainstream audience. Having said that, I do believe kabaddi, with Pro Kabaddi League, has seen a huge surge in popularity. So, I think the combination is a very powerful one, a concept that every Indian understands and a way to demystify BAFs for the masses, and hopefully connect to investors in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

How are you staying engaged with your customers and business partners during these times? More importantly, how do you keep your business partners motivated?

I think the digital COVID world has made it easier to stay connected with customers and partners, to enrich the quality of content and to bring scale to our communication. We have multiple platforms to connect, but the most powerful of them all has been our Konnect platform. Konnect used to be a physical platform, but has now turned digital, one where we use webinars to connect with our investors and distribution partners. We’ve had some great speakers from both the investment industry, like Mohnish Pabrai and Utpal Sheth, but also from outside investments who have something to say about investments, like Vishwanathan Anand or Gaur Gopal Das. Over the last six months, we have engaged with over 20,000 investors and partners through our Konnect platform. We also recently launched our podcast, Money Konnect, where we feature a variety of subjects, including lessons one could learn from stories in the Ramayana, enriching advice from investment gurus and legends across the globe and much more. These podcasts garner over 2,000 downloads a month.

Customer centricity is important for every financial brand. How are the customer grievances managed without much flaw? Also, how is the helpline team attending to customers as there are too many restrictions?

Customer centricity is about being empathetic, about resolving queries efficiently and making sure we monitor them. One of the things that matters most to us is the concept of Net Promoter Score. We take customer grievances very seriously. Unhappy customers are treated with utmost empathy and priority, wherein the turnaround time to resolve such grievances are closely monitored. Of course, grievances are part of the process, but we’re also trying to make sure that we keep in touch with our customers and ensure that we sell them the right products at the right time. We also see to it that when funds have a dry run, we communicate with investors and ease their unrest.

There are a few Mutual Fund brands that have launched some IPO recently. Are there any plans or are there any MF schemes from Edelweiss AMC that are being planned or in the pipeline for a launch?

Right now, our focus is on growing the business – no listing plans.

What is your overall media strategy for your new campaign? Since the tone of this communication is aimed at smaller towns, are you looking only at the traditional medium or you will explore the digital medium as well?

It’s a 360-degree category building campaign, aimed to build reach and awareness through TV, Outdoor, Print and Digital. We plan to primarily use digital to increase reach in wider markets and sustain it for a longer duration. Over 50% of our spends will be on digital in order to reach an audience beyond metro cities. Our outdoor focus will be Tier 2 and 3 cities, connecting and spreading awareness for BAFs in remote markets. PR, TV and digital in regional markets will also be an important part of our strategy.

Disclaimer: Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks, read all scheme related documents carefully.

Media
@adgully

News in the domain of Advertising, Marketing, Media and Business of Entertainment