Mahindra Mutual Fund - Ek Nayi Soch Ek Nayi Raah

Mahindra Mutual Fund was the 46th entrant in the highly cluttered mutual fund category. While most players in the category are focused on urban markets contributing to over 94% of mutual fund investments, Mahindra Mutual fund was keen on the semi-urban / rural play given the existing reach and cred value in these markets.

The Semi-Urban / Rural consumer

These markets boast of a large untapped base which hasn’t been actively seeking mutual funds. Existing behaviour towards money dictates a savings oriented mindset, focused on investments in land, cattle, savings account, fixed deposits etc. They aspire to move to cities and aim for a stable income which can support the individual and the family.

The Proposition

Ek Nayi Soch, Ek Nayi Raah is a call out to this consumer, awakening him/her to new possibilities of wealth creation. Given the internet access and infrastructure boom in the country the semi-urban aspiration is constantly scaling up. This further fuels the need for money to do more than it currently does. Going beyond generational wisdom, Mahindra Mutual Fund presents a new opportunity urging the audience to move from an age old savings mindset to a growth mindset. The Ek Nayi Soch is the new thinking and approach to money - mutual funds and the outcome (upgraded lifestyle, more consumption) paves a Nayi Raah for the individual, the family and community the consumer belongs to.

The proposition is an opportunity and subtle promise of growth oriented change that is designed to shapeshift lives positively over time

Reflecting the proposition across efforts

Ek Nayi Soch, Ek Nayi Raah needed to guide our marketing efforts and the positioning we adopt in the market. While the proposition was an appeal to the masses it was important to do justice to ‘Nayi’ Soch, and demonstrate the ‘nayapan’ or newness in everything we do.

The Nayi Soch for the brand needed to stem from challenging the existing norm of how the category functions, bringing to fore new thoughts and not adhering to the blur of parity of themes exhibited by other players

Hindi Nomenclature

All funds intentionally adopted Hindi Nomenclature to own a quasi-government orientation. Instead of calling them ‘schemes’ the purposeful use of ‘Yojana’ projected them as sarkaari thereby subliminally cuing a belief that my money is safe, complementing the existing credibility that Mahindra commands in these markets. This was further extended to design language and the visual vocabulary across all communication efforts.

Product Launches

TAXES ACHHE HAIN

Mahindra Mutual Fund is the 46th entrant in the Asset Management Business and offers a variety of mutual fund schemes pan-India, with special focus in rural and semi-urban regions. The intent was drive awareness & consideration towards Mahindra Mutual Fund’s new ELSS offering - Kar Bachat Yojana. Two days prior to the 2017 Union Budget announcement, when the nation was ripe with speculations and rumours about what the 2017 budget would entail, we delivered a bold statement on Twitter - “Taxes Acche Hain”. Igniting conventional thinking and conditioning, conversations exploded around how taxes dent our salaries, how they eat into our savings and the best strategies to avoid it if not evade it. The statement hit the target creating knee jerk reactions across the board. Triggering the conversation on Twitter made opinions fly fast and thick as the Twitterati jumped in either to attack or defend the statement. This was further aggravated by the topical nature of the activity organically attracting influencers like Ajit Ranade, an economist himself & Nitin Pai, director of the Takshila university, who got wondering if this was an activity by the government itself as a defensive mechanism to prop up the upcoming tax structure. The frenzy was dialled up even further when some Twitter folks tagged the finance minister asking for an explanation. The Twitter drama headlined Zee Business, The Better India on the same day with exclusive articles featuring the speculation.

MAHINDRA MUTUAL FUND BADHAT YOJANA

With a heavily regulated category like mutual funds, ‘being rich’ was deftly woven into the core communication allowing for a ripe conversation starter when it came to last mile selling. Regulations don’t allow for a promise of ‘rich’ embedded in communication. The approach subverted the technicality, by urging users to answer - when would they call themselves rich. Each one of the response was a shade card of varying milestones of what individuals called rich. With a primary equity component the product was designed for disproportionate returns and the ‘ When would you call yourself rich’ structure allowed for appropriating the promise subtly in the communication narrative.

When will you consider yourself rich? Part 9

Mr. Ashutosh Bishnoi, MD & CEO, Mahindra AMC

When will you consider yourself rich? Part 1

When will you consider yourself rich? Part 2

When will you consider yourself rich? Part 3

When will you consider yourself rich? Part 4

When will you consider yourself rich? Part 5

When will you consider yourself rich? Part 6

When will you consider yourself rich? Part 7

When will you consider yourself rich? Part 8

MAHINDRA RURAL BHARAT AND CONSUMPTION YOJANA

The flagship fund for Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund was launched as a thematic fund personifying the intent of celebrating the bolstering rural economy of the country. The fund was focused on investing in companies that are playing an active role in the rural parts of India focused on driving consumption. Generating interest in this fund required the communication to lend a demonstrable insight into the dramatic change in lives of rural Indians in current times. The best representation for the same came from understanding how consumption, behaviour, habits and lifestyle of the new age rural consumer have shapeshifted owing to internet penetration, seamless access to mobile phones and availability through ecommerce. The story is narrated through the viewpoint of the younger kid travelling to the city, living the aspiration and communicating the story about his family back home. He tells the story of how shelf spaces have transformed, so has the kitchen, evolving tastes and preferences, modernised business models replacing the old ledgers, roads, access and possibilities making the village almost citylike.

TOP 250 NIVESH YOJANA

Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund erstwhile Mahindra Mutual fund was launched in 2016 with a special focus on semi-urban rural markets. Focused on long term capital growth through investments in both large cap and mid cap stocks , Mahindra Mutual fund Top 250 Nivesh Yojana was launched to arm the investor with the power of benefiting from the Top 250 stocks in the market. Positioning the fund was critical especially in a category that is usually a blur with multiple scheme offerings and little scope for segregation in the minds of the consumer. The ability to generate a genuine inquiry from the consumer lies in the provocation one can initiate with their communication intent and positioning. Delving into the product structure, the uniqueness was overt, the product allowed for a dual advantage to the consumer - large caps that provided stability and mid caps were the potential growth opportunity drivers. A product that does both for an investor offers the best of both worlds, then what else would you look for. A simple articulation that helped the fund take an exaggerated stance proclaiming - Isse Zyada Aur Kya Chahiye (What more do you need)

MAHINDRA PRAGATI BLUECHIP YOJANA

Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund erstwhile Mahindra Mutual fund was launched in 2016 with a special focus on semi-urban rural markets. Mahindra Pragati Bluechip Yojana was launched as a large-cap equity fund investing only in the top 100 blue chip companies.

Mutual fund product offerings are inherently at parity, making it a big challenge to differentiate. When it comes to BlueChip funds the common repetitive communication theme across the category was focused on the dependability of large caps and the word ‘bluechip’

Thus the intent was to position the fund uniquely in a sea of sameness that exists around BlueChip Mutual Fund category communication and make the communication simple and lucid enough to provoke an enquiry

We explored the facet most critical to the fund - safest bet when it came to mutual fund investments as the companies were time tested and reliable.This demanded that the fund be positioned as a ‘must have’ in the portfolio of any investor.

To ensure relatability we elevated the ‘must have’ to a hyperbolic stance comparing it to all the must-have combinations in everyday life. A juxtaposition that was extremely simple - imagine a milk without milkshake, a city without roads, gold without its sheen equating to a portfolio without a bluechip fund.

Making bluechip funds as the fundamental of any portfolio we enabled an inquiry - Shouldn’t I have a bluechip fund in my portfolio?

RESULTs

Rs. 9,093 Cr

Building an AUM Crores over 5 Yrs.
Rs. 1.20 Lac

Customers Pan India