Kotak MF has been leveraging different formats in different client segments to engage effectively with investors, as part of its investor education program. Kaiyomurz takes us through his team's learnings with different formats of IAPs and some of the key messages that his team has taken back from investors in these sessions. A simple way you can get all your retail clients to go up the learning curve he says, is to get them to give a missed call to Faydelal. Read on to understand more about "Faydelal ke Funde" and why your clients should give Faydelal a missed call today.

WF : You have teamed up with regional media to conduct investor education programs in smaller towns. How has this experience been? What are the benefits of this partnership approach? How have investors responded to this effort?

Kaiyomurz : We realised that reaching out to the retail investor at the ground level and talking to him in his language was the most apt approach to create awareness and overall financial literacy. Regional media is very strong in tier 2 cities and they have the power to connect very well with the right audience. Hence we tied up with them to conduct IAP camps in 5-6 cities in each state. We have covered Maharashtra, UP, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka till now and the response has been phenomenal. Over 2-3 hours, we reach out to around 300-350 people. Essentially there are discussions that happen at these events. You will be amazed to hear the real concerns, the myths associated and the barriers to investing. So many investors just prefer keeping cash due to the perceived safety of cash and the risk perceptions of investing in markets. Very few actually understand the difference between buying a stock and an equity fund. We aim to address those. We try and take the audience on a journey from savings to prudent investing and how mutual funds can be a friend in all their life stages.

WF : What is your experience with conducting IAPs in corporate campuses? How receptive are the audience to considering mutual funds? What are your key learnings from this exercise?

Kaiyomurz : Yes another initiative which we are taking is conducting IAP's in corporates. The salaried employee sometimes gets confused with the many investment choices available. Our goal is to make him aware of basic concepts like inflation to the need to invest with a long term wealth creation objective. Many of them only invest in tax saving products in March and feel they have fulfilled their investment objectives. Another popular belief is that salary hikes are the best hedge against inflation. Many of these participants feel that as long as their salaries keep rising, they really don't need to take risks with investing in markets to fight inflation. To take them through the much wider, yet simpler scope of planning their investment goals is what we seek at these camps.

WF : You have recently launched the "Faydelal ke Funde" series. What does this initiative aim to do? How are you delivering it?

Kaiyomurz : We got this idea in one of our internal meetings. One of my colleagues asked ' is product ka kya funda hai ?', referring to a marketing idea we were debating. We realised that there were so many jargons and fundas which the retail investor did not understand. And since it looked so complicated, they really didn't want to spend the time reading through a lot of material to understand that.

We had launched Mr Faydelal a while back as our mascot for investor education. Hence starting the 'Faydelal ke Funde' series came very naturally. The series helps in putting out a short and crisp explanation of some terms and as we call it 'fundas'. We have consciously restricted these notes to a maximum of 1 page only and they capture the key points which the reader can easily absorb and put it into perspective. We have done several fundas till now and it is developed once every month and sent out as a mailer to investors, distributors and our sales teams.

We have just started the 'Missed call to Faydelal' initiative, where the user has to give a missed call on 09227492274 to start receiving 2 weekly tips on his mobile. We tried to combine the widely popular & loved 'Missed call' lingo with Faydelal through this initiative.

WF : How has response been so far to Kotak Gyanshala? What are plans for this education initiative?

Kaiyomurz : Kotak Gyanshala was launched as a e-learning module a couple of years back. The idea was to have a platform where our partners could sharpen their knowledge, take short tests and self evaluate themselves. We have several modules like Equity, Debt, Economics, Derivatives. Recently we have launched 2 new modules - Currency and Global Markets. We have seen increased participation over the years but still there are a lot of our partners who are yet to visit Kotak Gyanshala. We urge more and more of our partners to come on board and visit www.kotakyouandi.com, the microsite where Gyanshala is available.

WF : To what extent is social media a relevant medium for investor education? Does the subject demand a more intensive form of face-to-face engagement than what social media can enable?

Kaiyomurz : I believe, while social media is relevant but only to an extent. As I mentioned earlier, ground level events where we meet the retail investors, spend time to discuss their concerns and shape their financial understanding is a more effective way to reach out and it is in the spirit of spreading substantial financial awareness to the masses.

WF : Out of the various initiatives that you have taken and from what you have seen others in the industry do, what in your opinion is the best manner in which we must engage with first time investors and get them to consider mutual funds?

Kaiyomurz : One, we have to create awareness about mutual funds as a easy, convenient, cost effective product. The Neilson Brandtrack each year continues to highlight factors such as 'money gets tied up in MF's', 'No guarantee of returns' 'Too many hassles in investing' as the barriers to investing. We must keep addressing these through regular reach outs to potential investors. At many of our investor camps we realized that people approach us post the formal presentation and q and a sessions. People are more comfortable to discuss and ask questions during personal interaction.

Secondly, our partners must keep highlighting the role of mutual funds in complete life stage planning continually to their clients. This along with the overall awareness and educational push by the entire industry will, I am confident, help a great deal.

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