Those stopping investments will miss the bus as things turn around: MVS Murthy

Established in 1994, Tata Asset Management Ltd is the investment manager for Tata Mutual Fund. It is among the oldest and most trusted fund houses in India, with an investor base of over 20 lakh (as on January 31, 2020). Tata Mutual Fund takes pride in managing the investments of the common man right from childhood to retirement. It offers a wide choice of funds for every need across the entire risk return spectrum. These include equity funds, hybrid funds and fixed income funds. With some cheer in the stock market the sentiments of the investors have gone up and more investors are coming forward to invest in the mutual fund markets.

Even during the lockdown, the company was actively engaged with business partners and customers. New campaigns were released every two weeks to keep the brand top of mind and stay connected with the audience with a lot of emphasis on the digital front. Digital has helped the company penetrate further to the interiors of the country, as mutual fund still needs to reach the hinterland of India. With aspirations and progress in living happening in the rural sector, the company sees more investors entering the mutual fund market.

In conversation with Adgully, MVS Murthy, Head-Marketing & Digital, Tata Asset Management, gives an overview of the BFSI market, specifically Mutual Funds, during the COVID-19 period. Murthy also speaks about keeping Brand Tata Mutual Fund relevant through various channels during this period, use of AI/ML and increasing move towards digital.

The stock markets have partially revived. Have you seen the investor sentiments going up on the Mutual fund investments? How does the road ahead look like? What is going to be your long-term strategy for Tata Mutual Fund?

The markets are holding up, but to say it has revived is too early, given the impact of the pandemic on multiple sectors. Having said so, if it holds on a steady upward trajectory, it would mean that we have adapted or factored the loss of revenue in some sectors and are optimistic of the existing stack and of the Indian economy as a whole. I guess a cataclysmic event of this scale can make us more circumspect. Even a well-set batsman can get a few rattling overs in the middle of a strong innings. Must see it through before opening arms and playing in full glory. The investors are worried – is a very relative thing to say, depending on who you are speaking too. There are definitely new investors and fresh funds coming in. As an industry we are under-penetrated and digital can help us probe deeper parts of the country, which has common aspirations for progress and good living. Those who have invested must be seeing returns blurry. Its only time before the fog clears. Keep driving, carefully.

Our approach is simply this, everyone is affected, everyone will eventually get out if it, let us not stop the good habits because of a few bad days. Those investors stopping investments will surely miss the bus as things turn around. Anyone who feels 3 months is long term enough to take a call, isn’t getting the core of Mutual Fund Investing – 3-5 years horizon at the very least, disciplined investing and now adding more to the investment ticket size since all discretionary expenses are cut down. As a fund house, our CIO and Investment team is focussed on GARP – Growth At Reasonable Prices – as an approach and our funds like the Tata Short Term Bond, Tata Treasury Advantage and some equity funds too are attractive for investors.

What is the strategy that you are adopting to stay connected with your audience and what kind of message is being delivered?

In these confusing and delirious times, we are following the adage of not erring by under-communicating. Our Investor Education series, Fund-centric campaigns to garner investments, channel-usage campaigns, new initiatives to increase use of voice as a form of engagement have all been on a roll without any slowing of intent or execution speed. In fact, we launched our second series of ‘Ishq Bhi Risk Bhi’, an investor education initiative and ‘Mind Over Markets’, a podcast featuring our CIO, Rahul Singh. We have tried to be the part and play the part by demonstrating our ability to keep it Business As Usual, with enough guidance on caution being given to our investors.

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

Our engagement with our Business Partners has only deepened over the last 18 months. What began 6 quarters back is bearing fruit now through solid inflows coming from the top channel partners and banking partners. We have launched many innovative solutions to help them bridge the chasm of lack of physical meetings due to the pandemic. Product and Channel Innovation like TMFLink – an ARN embedded transaction enabler, POST – a digital delivery channel for daily updates on views, fund performance, marketing initiatives,  perspectives from experts who have studied and analysed different kinds of global crisis not just financially, sharing of fund manager views through live broadcasts, digital co-branding support to increase reach, etc. The list itself is an interview! (laughs) My personal view is that we have been very progressive and forward thinking when it comes to providing support for a non-physical business model. It is our contribution in a way to effect digital transformation of their business and the industry. Much needs to be done and we are cognizant of it. We have transformed as soon has we have sensed a need for building strong foundations for a post-pandemic world.

There are a few Mutual Fund brands that have launched some IPO recently. Are there any plans or are there any new MF schemes from TMF that are planned or in the pipeline?

No, none that I am aware of. And we wish them a strong IPO, it is good for our industry.

Customer centricity is important for every financial brand. How are the customer grievances managed flawlessly? Also, how is the helpline team attending to customers during these times due to social distancing and lockdown?

Trust is a default expectation from our Brand, and we are deeply conscious of the responsibility that we have. All our Customer Support Channels are running full capacity as per the guidelines issued for conducting workplaces during COVID.

To strengthen customer support, we launched Mr Simple, our AI/ ML powered BOT. We made its services available on our website, our Whatsapp channel and it is learning every day. An average query gets resolved in 40 seconds and it has an ISAT (Intelligence Satisfaction) score of 92 per cent – this is peak efficiency, assuming some interactions may have a neutral response and those with a negative score, is something the BOT is unaware of but learns on the go, so there is no repeat of the error.

To keep your customers engaged you must be active on digital media. Are you noticing enough traction in terms of clicks and are people investing in your funds in these times?

Our website traffic is peaking over the last 3 months, this is largely driven by the fact that we have opened up many more ports of investor interaction. We have not only increased the number of digital touch points to communicate, but are also facilitating different ports to invest – you can invest through our BOT as well. We encourage you to try it.

There is a whole crop of new investors and fresh funds coming in, at least into the Tata Mutual Fund Ecosystem. The fresh purchases have been on the rise in the last 3 months, we have seen both y-o-y and q-o-q growth across AUM, count of SIPs, new users added – across all our marketing centric initiatives. In the month of June, we were amongst the top 5 Funds for continued in-flows.

Any new campaigns planned to stay engaged with your audience? Will your media strategy be to stay focussed only on digital or you will be leveraging some of the traditional media to reach smaller towns?

We are launching a new campaign every 2 weeks, testing and scaling it. In a hyper-conversational world, brands need to have a variety of conversations at the same time and all the time. At any point in time, we have a 3X3 matrix for our communication, covering the type and the channels of purchase. We have always been a digital first brand and it is working well for us, even across smaller towns in the country. Pre-COVID-19 we were visible in the outdoor medium for a long time, there is a pause now and hopefully not an indefinite one. Much as everyone, we, too, are looking forward to our brand being seen from far and beyond.

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