consumer buying behaviour towards mutual funds investment

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 Page 1 Research Report A STUDY ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS MUTUAL FUNDS INVESTMENT At In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Degree of Master of Business Administration Submitted by: Arun Kumar, Reg. No. 10804509 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY PUNJAB

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Page 1: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 1

Research Report

A STUDY

ON

ldquoCONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR

TOWARDS MUTUAL FUNDS

INVESTMENTrdquo

At

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of

Degree of Master of Business Administration

Submitted by

Arun Kumar Reg No 10804509

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

PUNJAB

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Page 2

DECLARATION

I Arun Kumar student of MBA program at Lovely School of Business (LPU) I

hereby declare that all the information facts and figures produce in this report are

based on my own experience and study during my study on ldquoCustomer

perception towards mutual fundrdquo at Karvy Stock Broking Ltd Dehradun

The matter embodied in this project report has not been submitted to any other

University or Institution for the award of degree

Date (ARUN KUMAR)

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Page 3

PREFACE

ldquoGive a man a fish he will eat it

Train a man to fish he will feed his familyrdquo

The above saying highlights the importance of Practical knowledge Practical

training is an important part of the theoretical studies It is of an immense

importance in the field of management It offers the student to explore the valuable

treasure of experience and an exposure to real work culture followed by theindustries and thereby helping the students to bridge gap between the theories

explained in the books and their practical implementations

Research Project plays an important role in future building of an

individual so that heshe can better understand the real world in which he has to

work in future The theory greatly enhances our knowledge and provides

opportunities to blend theoretical with the practical knowledge

I have completed the Research Project on ldquoConsumer buying behaviour

towards mutual fundrdquo I have tried to cover each and every aspect related to the

topic with best of my capability

I hope research would help many people in the future

(Arun kumar)

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Page 4

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is with deep sense of gratitude that I would like to thanks Karvy Stock Broking

(DEHRADUN) for providing me with an opportunity to take up a project in

KARVY on ldquoCustomer perception towards mutual fundsrdquo I am very grateful

to Mr TRIBHUVAN MALL (Branch Head) for being able to give me some of

his valuable time and able guidance Without his guidance support and

encouragement it would not have been possible to complete this project

successfully

I would also like to express my sincere work of gratitude and heartiest thanks to

my faculty guide Mr Lokesh Jasrai who helped me in some manner or other and

this have been a constant source of inspiration throughout the project

(ARUN KUMAR)

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Page 5

CONTENTS

Topic Page No

Company Pr ofilehelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip6

Introductionhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip23

Backgroundhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip27

Objectives of the studyhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip29

Mutual fund for whomhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip34

Why mutual fundhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip35

Types of investorshelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip37

Marketing str ategieshelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip40

Research Methodologyhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip54

Findingshelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip57

Data Analysis amp interpretationhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip63

Conclusionhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip72

Recommendationhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip74

Bibliographyhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip75

Questionnairehelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip76

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Page 6

OVERVIEW

KARVY is a premier integrated financial services provider and ranked among the top

five in the country in all its business segments services over 16 million individual investors in

various capacities and provides investor services to over 300 corporate comprising the who is

who of Corporate India KARVY covers the entire spectrum of financial services such as Stock

broking Depository Participants Distribution of financial products - mutual funds bonds fixed

deposit equities Insurance Broking Commodities Broking Personal Finance Advisory

Services Merchant Banking amp Corporate Finance placement of equity IPO‟s among others

Karvy has a professional management team and ranks among the best in technology operations

and research of various industrial segments

KARVY-EARLY DAYS

The birth of Karvy was on a modest scale in 1981 It began with the vision and enterprise

of a small group of practicing Chartered Accountants who founded the flagship company

hellipKarvy Consultants Limited We started with consulting and financial accounting automation

and carved inroads into the field of registry and share accounting by 1985 Thus over the last 20

years Karvy has traveled the success route towards building a reputation as an integrated

financial services provider offering a wide spectrum of services And we have made this journey

by taking the route of quality service path breaking innovations in service versatility in service

and finallyhelliptotality in service

With the experience of years of holistic financial servicing behind us and years of complete

expertise in the industry to look forward to we have now emerged as a premier integrated

financial services provider

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Page 7

SERVICES

Commodities trading (NCDEX amp MCX)

Personal finance advisory services

Corporate finance amp merchant banking

Depository participant services (NSDL amp CDSL)

Financial products distribution (investmentsloan products)

Mutual fund services

Stock broking (NSE amp BSE FampO)

E-Tds tanpan cardmapin

Insurance (life amp general)

Registrar amp transfer agents

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Page 8

MILESTONE OF KARVY CONSULTANTS LTD

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Page 9

As the flagship company of the Karvy Group Karvy Consultants Limited has always remained

at the helm of organizational affairs pioneering business policies work ethic and channels of

progress

We have now transferred this business into a joint venture with Computer share Limited

of Australia the world‟s largest registrar With the advent of depositories in the Indian capital

market and the relationships that we have created in the registry business we believe that we

were best positioned to venture into this activity as a Depository Participant today we service

over 6 lakhs customer accounts in this business spread across over 250 citiestowns in India and

are ranked amongst the largest Depository Participants in the country With a growing secondary

market presence we have transferred this business to Karvy Stock Broking Limited (KSBL) our

associate and a member of NSE BSE and HSE

IT enabled services

Our Technology Services division forms the ideal platform to unleash our technology

initiatives and make our presence felt on the Internet Our past achievements include many

quality websites designed developed and deployed by us We also possess our own web hosting

facilities with dedicated bandwidth and a state-of-the-art server farm (data center) with services

functioning on a variety of operating platforms such as Windows Solaris Linux and UNIXThe corporate website of the company ldquowwwkarvycomrdquo gives access to in -depth information

on financial matters including Mutual Funds IPOs Fixed Income Schemes Insurance Stock

Market and much more

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Page 10

Stock Broking Services | Distribution of Financial Products | Depository Participants | Advisory Services | Research | Private Client Group

Member - National Stock Exchange (NSE) the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and The

Hyderabad Stock Exchange (HSE)

Karvy Stock Broking Limited one of the cornerstones of the Karvy edifice flows freely

towards attaining diverse goals of the customer through varied services Creating a plethora of opportunities for the customer by opening up investment vistas backed by research-based

advisory services Here growth knows no limits and success recognizes no boundaries Helping

the customer create waves in his portfolio and empowering the investor completely is the

ultimate goal

Stock Broking Services

It is an undisputed fact that the stock market is unpredictable and yet enjoys a high

success rate as a wealth management and wealth accumulation option The difference between

unpredictability and a safety anchor in the market is provided by in-depth knowledge of market

functioning and changing trends planning with foresight and choosing one amp rescue‟s options

with care This is what we provide in our Stock Broking service

KARVY offer services that are beyond just a medium for buying and selling stocks and

shares Instead we provide services that are multi dimensional and multi-focused in their scope

It offer trading on a vast platform National Stock Exchange Bombay Stock Exchange and

Hyderabad Stock Exchange It make trading safe to the maximum possible extent by accounting

for several risk factors and planning accordingly It is assisted in this task by our in-depth

research constant feedback and sound advisory facilities

It have skilled research team comprising of technical analysts as well as fundamental specialists

secure result-oriented information on market trends market analysis and reviewed

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Page 11

KARVY publish a monthly magazine amp ldquo Karvy The Finapolisamprdquo which analyzes

the latest stock market trends and takes a close look at the various investment options and

products available in the market while a weekly report called amp ldquo

It also offer special portfolio analysis packages that provide daily technical advice on scrips for

successful portfolio management and provide customized advisory services to help you make the

right financial moves that are specifically suited to your portfolio Our Stock Broking services

are widely networked across India with the number of our trading terminals providing retail

stock broking facilities Our services have increasingly offered customer oriented convenience

which we provide to a spectrum of investors high-net worth or otherwise with equal dedication

and competence

To empower the investor further we have made serious efforts to ensure that our researchcalls are disseminated systematically to all our stock broking clients through various delivery

channels like email chat SMS phone calls etc

In the future our focus will be on the emerging businesses and to meet this objective we

have enhanced our manpower and revitalized our knowledge base with enhances focus on

Futures and Options as well as the commodities business

DEPOSITORY PARTICIPANTS

The onset of the technology revolution in financial services Industry saw the emergence of

Karvy as an electronic custodian registered with National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL)

and Central Securities Depository Ltd (CSDL) in 1998 Karvy set standards enabling further

comfort to the investor by promoting paperless trading across the country and emerged as the top

3 Depository Participants in the country in terms of customer serviced Offering a wide trading platform with a dual membership at both NSDL and CDSL we are a powerful medium for

trading and settlement of dematerialized shares

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Page 12

DISTRIBUTION OF FINANCIAL PRODUCTS

The paradigm shift from pure selling to knowledge based selling drives the business

today With our wide portfolio offerings we occupy all segments in the retail financial services

industry

A 1600 team of highly qualified and dedicated professionals drawn from the best of

academic and professional backgrounds are committed to maintaining high levels of client

service delivery This has propelled us to a position among the top distributors for equity and

debt issues with an estimated market share of 15 in terms of applications mobilized besides

being established as the leading procurer in all public issues

To further tap the immense growth potential in the capital markets we enhanced the scopeof our retail brand Karvy ndash the Finapolis thereby providing planning and advisory services to

the mass affluent Here we understand the customer needs and lifestyle in the context of present

earnings and provide adequate advisory services that will necessarily help in creating wealth

Judicious planning that is customized to meet the future needs of the customer deliver a service

that is exemplary The market-savvy and the ignorant investors both find this service very

satisfactory The edge that we have over competition is our portfolio of offerings and our

professional expertise The investment planning for each customer is done with an unbiased

attitude so that the service is truly customized

Our monthly magazine Finapolis provides up-dated market information on market

trends investment options opinions etc Thus empowering the investor to base every financial

move on rational thought and prudent analysis and embark on the path to wealth creation

ADVISORY SERVICES

Under our retail brand bdquoKarvy ndash the Finapolis we deliver advisory services to a cross-

section of customers The service is backed by a team of dedicated and expert professionals with

varied experience and background in handling investment portfolios They are continually

engaged in designing the right investment portfolio for each customer according to individual

needs and budget considerations with a comprehensive support system that focuses on trading

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Page 13

customers portfolios and providing valuable inputs monitoring and managing the portfolio

through varied technological initiatives This is made possible by the expertise we have gained in

the business over the years Another venture towards being investor-friendly is the circulation of

a monthly magazine called bdquoKarvy - the Finapolis Covering the latest of market news trends

investment schemes and research-based opinions from experts in various financial fields

PRIVATE CLIENT GROUP

This specialized division was set up to cater to the high net worth individuals and

institutional clients keeping in mind that they require a different kind of financial planning and

management that will augment not just existing finances but their life-style as well Here we

follow a hard-nosed business approach with the soft touch of dedicated customer care and

personalized attention

For this purpose we offer a comprehensive and personalized service that encompasses

planning and protection of finances planning of business needs and retirement needs and a host

of other services all provided on a one-to-one basis

Our research reports have been widely appreciated by this segment The delivery and

support modules have been fine tuned by giving our clients access to online portfolio

information constant updates on their portfolios as well as value-added advise on portfolio

churning sector switches etc The investment recommendations given by our research team in

the cash market have enjoyed a high success rate

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Page 14

MERCHANT BANKINGRecognized as a leading merchant banker in the country we are registered with SEBI as a

Category I merchant banker This reputation was built by capitalizing on opportunities in

corporate consolidations mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring which have

earned us the reputation of a merchant banker Raising resources for corporate or Government

Undertaking successfully over the past two decades have given us the confidence to renew our

focus in this sector

Our quality professional team and our work-oriented dedication have propelled us to

offer value-added corporate financial services and act as a professional navigator for long term

growth of our clients who include leading corporate State Governments foreign institutional

investors public and private sector companies and banks in Indian and global markets

We have also emerged as a trailblazer in the arena of relationships both at the customer

and trade levels because of our unshakable integrity seamless service and innovative solutions

that are tuned to meet varied needs Our team of committed industry specialists having extensive

experience in capital markets further nurtures this relationship

Our financial advice and assistance in restructuring divestitures acquisitions de-

mergers spin-offs joint ventures privatization and takeover defense mechanisms have elevated

our relationship with the client to one based on unshakable trust and confidence

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Page 15

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES I ISSUE REGISTRY I CORPORATE SHAREHOLDERSSERVICES

We have traversed wide spaces to tie up with the world‟s largest transfer agent the leading

Australian company Computer share Limited The company that services more than 75 million

shareholders across 7000 corporate clients and makes its presence felt in over 12 countries across 5

continents has entered into a 50-50 joint venture with us

With our management team completely transferred to this new entity we will aim toenrich the financial services industry than before The future holds new arenas of client servicing

and contemporary and relevant technologies as we are geared to deliver better value and foster

bigger investments in the business The worldwide network of Computershare will hold us in

good stead as we expect to adopt international standards in addition to leveraging the best of

technologies from around the world

Excellence has to be the order of the day when two companies with such similar

ideologies of growth vision and competence get together wwwkarismakarvycom

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES

We have attained a position of immense strength as a provider of across-the-board

transfer agency services to AMCs Distributors and Investors

Nearly 40 of the top-notch AMCs including prestigious clients like Deutsche AMC and

UTI swear by the quality and range of services that we offer Besides providing the entire back

office processing we provide the link between various Mutual Funds and the investor including

services to the distributor the prime channel in this operation We have been with the AMCs

every step of the way helping them serve their investors better by offering them a diverse and

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Page 16

customized range of services The bdquofirst to market approach that is our anthem has earned us the

reputation of an innovative service provider with a visionary bent of mind

Our service enhancements such as bdquoKarvy Converz a full-fledged call center a top-line website

(wwwkarvymfscom) the bdquom-investor and many more creating a galaxy of customer

advantages

ISSUE REGISTRY

In our voyage towards becoming the largest transaction-processing house in the Indian

Corporate segment we have mobilized funds for numerous corporate Karvy has emerged as the

largest transaction-processing house for the Indian Corporate sector With an experience of

handling over 700 issues Karvy today has the ability to execute voluminous transactions andhard-core expertise in technology applications have gained us the No1 slot in the business

Karvy is the first Registry Company to receive ISO 9002 certification in India that stands

testimony to its stature

Karvy has the benefit of a good synergy between depositories and registry that enables faster

resolution to related customer queries Apart from its unique investor servicing presence in all

the phases of a public Issue it is actively coordinating with both the main depositories to develop

special models to enable the customer to access depository (NSDL CDSL) services during an

IPO Our trust-worthy reputation competent manpower and high-end technology and

infrastructure are the solid foundations on which our success is built

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Page 17

CORPORATE SHAREHOLDER SERVICES

Karvy has been a customer centric company since its inception Karvy offers a single

platform servicing multiple financial instruments in its bid to offer complete financial solutions

to the varying needs of both corporate and retail investors where an extensive range of servicesare provided with great volume-management capability

Today Karvy is recognized as a company that can exceed customer expectations which is

the reason for the loyalty of customers towards Karvy for all his financial needs An opinion poll

commissioned by ldquoThe Merchant Banker Updaterdquo and conducted by the reputed market research

agency MARG revealed that Karvy was considered the ldquoMost Admiredrdquo in the registrar

category among financial services companies

We have grown from being a pure transaction processing business to one of complete

shareholder solutions

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Page 18

The specialist Business Process Outsourcing unit of the Karvy Group The legacy of

expertise and experience in financial services of the Karvy Group serves us well as we enter the

global arena with the confidence of being able to deliver and deliver well

Here we offer several delivery models on the understanding that business needs are

unique and therefore only a customized service could possibly fit the bill Our service matrix has

permutations and combinations that create several options to choose from

Be it in re-engineering and managing processes or delivering new efficiencies our

service meets up to the most stringent of international standards Our outsourcing models are

designed for the global customer and are backed by sound corporate and operations philosophies

and domain expertise Providing productivity improvements operational cost control cost

savings improved accountability and a whole gamut of other advantages

We operate in the core market segments that have emerging requirements for specialized

services Our wide vertical market coverage includes Banking Financial and Insurance Services

(BFIS) Retail and Merchandising Leisure and Entertainment Energy and Utility and

Healthcare

Our horizontal offerings do justice to our stance as a comprehensive BPO unit and

include a variety of services in Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Operations Human

Resource Outsourcing Operations Research and Analytics Outsourcing Operations and

Insurance Back Office Outsourcing Operations

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Page 19

At Karvy Commodities we are focused on taking commodities trading to new

dimensions of reliability and profitability We have made commodities trading an essentially

age-old practice into a sophisticated and scientific investment option

Here we enable trade in all goods and products of agricultural and mineral origin that

include lucrative commodities like gold and silver and popular items like oil pulses and cotton

through a well-systematized trading platform

Our technological and infrastructural strengths and especially our street-smart skills

make us an ideal broker Our service matrix is holistic with a gamut of advantages the first and

foremost being our legacy of human resources technology and infrastructure that comes from

being part of the Karvy Group

Our wide national network spanning the length and breadth of India further supports

these advantages Regular trading workshops and seminars are conducted to hone trading

strategies to perfection Every move made is a calculated one based on reliable research that is

converted into valuable information through daily weekly and monthly newsletters calls and

intraday alerts Further personalized service is provided here by a dedicated team committed to

giving hassle-free service while the brokerage rates offered are extremely

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Page 21

ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

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Page 22

QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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Page 23

INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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Page 24

MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 25

THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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Page 26

ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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Page 27

BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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Page 47

clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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Page 48

pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 2: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 2

DECLARATION

I Arun Kumar student of MBA program at Lovely School of Business (LPU) I

hereby declare that all the information facts and figures produce in this report are

based on my own experience and study during my study on ldquoCustomer

perception towards mutual fundrdquo at Karvy Stock Broking Ltd Dehradun

The matter embodied in this project report has not been submitted to any other

University or Institution for the award of degree

Date (ARUN KUMAR)

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Page 3

PREFACE

ldquoGive a man a fish he will eat it

Train a man to fish he will feed his familyrdquo

The above saying highlights the importance of Practical knowledge Practical

training is an important part of the theoretical studies It is of an immense

importance in the field of management It offers the student to explore the valuable

treasure of experience and an exposure to real work culture followed by theindustries and thereby helping the students to bridge gap between the theories

explained in the books and their practical implementations

Research Project plays an important role in future building of an

individual so that heshe can better understand the real world in which he has to

work in future The theory greatly enhances our knowledge and provides

opportunities to blend theoretical with the practical knowledge

I have completed the Research Project on ldquoConsumer buying behaviour

towards mutual fundrdquo I have tried to cover each and every aspect related to the

topic with best of my capability

I hope research would help many people in the future

(Arun kumar)

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Page 4

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is with deep sense of gratitude that I would like to thanks Karvy Stock Broking

(DEHRADUN) for providing me with an opportunity to take up a project in

KARVY on ldquoCustomer perception towards mutual fundsrdquo I am very grateful

to Mr TRIBHUVAN MALL (Branch Head) for being able to give me some of

his valuable time and able guidance Without his guidance support and

encouragement it would not have been possible to complete this project

successfully

I would also like to express my sincere work of gratitude and heartiest thanks to

my faculty guide Mr Lokesh Jasrai who helped me in some manner or other and

this have been a constant source of inspiration throughout the project

(ARUN KUMAR)

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Page 5

CONTENTS

Topic Page No

Company Pr ofilehelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip6

Introductionhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip23

Backgroundhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip27

Objectives of the studyhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip29

Mutual fund for whomhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip34

Why mutual fundhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip35

Types of investorshelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip37

Marketing str ategieshelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip40

Research Methodologyhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip54

Findingshelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip57

Data Analysis amp interpretationhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip63

Conclusionhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip72

Recommendationhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip74

Bibliographyhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip75

Questionnairehelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip76

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Page 6

OVERVIEW

KARVY is a premier integrated financial services provider and ranked among the top

five in the country in all its business segments services over 16 million individual investors in

various capacities and provides investor services to over 300 corporate comprising the who is

who of Corporate India KARVY covers the entire spectrum of financial services such as Stock

broking Depository Participants Distribution of financial products - mutual funds bonds fixed

deposit equities Insurance Broking Commodities Broking Personal Finance Advisory

Services Merchant Banking amp Corporate Finance placement of equity IPO‟s among others

Karvy has a professional management team and ranks among the best in technology operations

and research of various industrial segments

KARVY-EARLY DAYS

The birth of Karvy was on a modest scale in 1981 It began with the vision and enterprise

of a small group of practicing Chartered Accountants who founded the flagship company

hellipKarvy Consultants Limited We started with consulting and financial accounting automation

and carved inroads into the field of registry and share accounting by 1985 Thus over the last 20

years Karvy has traveled the success route towards building a reputation as an integrated

financial services provider offering a wide spectrum of services And we have made this journey

by taking the route of quality service path breaking innovations in service versatility in service

and finallyhelliptotality in service

With the experience of years of holistic financial servicing behind us and years of complete

expertise in the industry to look forward to we have now emerged as a premier integrated

financial services provider

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Page 7

SERVICES

Commodities trading (NCDEX amp MCX)

Personal finance advisory services

Corporate finance amp merchant banking

Depository participant services (NSDL amp CDSL)

Financial products distribution (investmentsloan products)

Mutual fund services

Stock broking (NSE amp BSE FampO)

E-Tds tanpan cardmapin

Insurance (life amp general)

Registrar amp transfer agents

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Page 8

MILESTONE OF KARVY CONSULTANTS LTD

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Page 9

As the flagship company of the Karvy Group Karvy Consultants Limited has always remained

at the helm of organizational affairs pioneering business policies work ethic and channels of

progress

We have now transferred this business into a joint venture with Computer share Limited

of Australia the world‟s largest registrar With the advent of depositories in the Indian capital

market and the relationships that we have created in the registry business we believe that we

were best positioned to venture into this activity as a Depository Participant today we service

over 6 lakhs customer accounts in this business spread across over 250 citiestowns in India and

are ranked amongst the largest Depository Participants in the country With a growing secondary

market presence we have transferred this business to Karvy Stock Broking Limited (KSBL) our

associate and a member of NSE BSE and HSE

IT enabled services

Our Technology Services division forms the ideal platform to unleash our technology

initiatives and make our presence felt on the Internet Our past achievements include many

quality websites designed developed and deployed by us We also possess our own web hosting

facilities with dedicated bandwidth and a state-of-the-art server farm (data center) with services

functioning on a variety of operating platforms such as Windows Solaris Linux and UNIXThe corporate website of the company ldquowwwkarvycomrdquo gives access to in -depth information

on financial matters including Mutual Funds IPOs Fixed Income Schemes Insurance Stock

Market and much more

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Page 10

Stock Broking Services | Distribution of Financial Products | Depository Participants | Advisory Services | Research | Private Client Group

Member - National Stock Exchange (NSE) the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and The

Hyderabad Stock Exchange (HSE)

Karvy Stock Broking Limited one of the cornerstones of the Karvy edifice flows freely

towards attaining diverse goals of the customer through varied services Creating a plethora of opportunities for the customer by opening up investment vistas backed by research-based

advisory services Here growth knows no limits and success recognizes no boundaries Helping

the customer create waves in his portfolio and empowering the investor completely is the

ultimate goal

Stock Broking Services

It is an undisputed fact that the stock market is unpredictable and yet enjoys a high

success rate as a wealth management and wealth accumulation option The difference between

unpredictability and a safety anchor in the market is provided by in-depth knowledge of market

functioning and changing trends planning with foresight and choosing one amp rescue‟s options

with care This is what we provide in our Stock Broking service

KARVY offer services that are beyond just a medium for buying and selling stocks and

shares Instead we provide services that are multi dimensional and multi-focused in their scope

It offer trading on a vast platform National Stock Exchange Bombay Stock Exchange and

Hyderabad Stock Exchange It make trading safe to the maximum possible extent by accounting

for several risk factors and planning accordingly It is assisted in this task by our in-depth

research constant feedback and sound advisory facilities

It have skilled research team comprising of technical analysts as well as fundamental specialists

secure result-oriented information on market trends market analysis and reviewed

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Page 11

KARVY publish a monthly magazine amp ldquo Karvy The Finapolisamprdquo which analyzes

the latest stock market trends and takes a close look at the various investment options and

products available in the market while a weekly report called amp ldquo

It also offer special portfolio analysis packages that provide daily technical advice on scrips for

successful portfolio management and provide customized advisory services to help you make the

right financial moves that are specifically suited to your portfolio Our Stock Broking services

are widely networked across India with the number of our trading terminals providing retail

stock broking facilities Our services have increasingly offered customer oriented convenience

which we provide to a spectrum of investors high-net worth or otherwise with equal dedication

and competence

To empower the investor further we have made serious efforts to ensure that our researchcalls are disseminated systematically to all our stock broking clients through various delivery

channels like email chat SMS phone calls etc

In the future our focus will be on the emerging businesses and to meet this objective we

have enhanced our manpower and revitalized our knowledge base with enhances focus on

Futures and Options as well as the commodities business

DEPOSITORY PARTICIPANTS

The onset of the technology revolution in financial services Industry saw the emergence of

Karvy as an electronic custodian registered with National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL)

and Central Securities Depository Ltd (CSDL) in 1998 Karvy set standards enabling further

comfort to the investor by promoting paperless trading across the country and emerged as the top

3 Depository Participants in the country in terms of customer serviced Offering a wide trading platform with a dual membership at both NSDL and CDSL we are a powerful medium for

trading and settlement of dematerialized shares

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DISTRIBUTION OF FINANCIAL PRODUCTS

The paradigm shift from pure selling to knowledge based selling drives the business

today With our wide portfolio offerings we occupy all segments in the retail financial services

industry

A 1600 team of highly qualified and dedicated professionals drawn from the best of

academic and professional backgrounds are committed to maintaining high levels of client

service delivery This has propelled us to a position among the top distributors for equity and

debt issues with an estimated market share of 15 in terms of applications mobilized besides

being established as the leading procurer in all public issues

To further tap the immense growth potential in the capital markets we enhanced the scopeof our retail brand Karvy ndash the Finapolis thereby providing planning and advisory services to

the mass affluent Here we understand the customer needs and lifestyle in the context of present

earnings and provide adequate advisory services that will necessarily help in creating wealth

Judicious planning that is customized to meet the future needs of the customer deliver a service

that is exemplary The market-savvy and the ignorant investors both find this service very

satisfactory The edge that we have over competition is our portfolio of offerings and our

professional expertise The investment planning for each customer is done with an unbiased

attitude so that the service is truly customized

Our monthly magazine Finapolis provides up-dated market information on market

trends investment options opinions etc Thus empowering the investor to base every financial

move on rational thought and prudent analysis and embark on the path to wealth creation

ADVISORY SERVICES

Under our retail brand bdquoKarvy ndash the Finapolis we deliver advisory services to a cross-

section of customers The service is backed by a team of dedicated and expert professionals with

varied experience and background in handling investment portfolios They are continually

engaged in designing the right investment portfolio for each customer according to individual

needs and budget considerations with a comprehensive support system that focuses on trading

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Page 13

customers portfolios and providing valuable inputs monitoring and managing the portfolio

through varied technological initiatives This is made possible by the expertise we have gained in

the business over the years Another venture towards being investor-friendly is the circulation of

a monthly magazine called bdquoKarvy - the Finapolis Covering the latest of market news trends

investment schemes and research-based opinions from experts in various financial fields

PRIVATE CLIENT GROUP

This specialized division was set up to cater to the high net worth individuals and

institutional clients keeping in mind that they require a different kind of financial planning and

management that will augment not just existing finances but their life-style as well Here we

follow a hard-nosed business approach with the soft touch of dedicated customer care and

personalized attention

For this purpose we offer a comprehensive and personalized service that encompasses

planning and protection of finances planning of business needs and retirement needs and a host

of other services all provided on a one-to-one basis

Our research reports have been widely appreciated by this segment The delivery and

support modules have been fine tuned by giving our clients access to online portfolio

information constant updates on their portfolios as well as value-added advise on portfolio

churning sector switches etc The investment recommendations given by our research team in

the cash market have enjoyed a high success rate

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Page 14

MERCHANT BANKINGRecognized as a leading merchant banker in the country we are registered with SEBI as a

Category I merchant banker This reputation was built by capitalizing on opportunities in

corporate consolidations mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring which have

earned us the reputation of a merchant banker Raising resources for corporate or Government

Undertaking successfully over the past two decades have given us the confidence to renew our

focus in this sector

Our quality professional team and our work-oriented dedication have propelled us to

offer value-added corporate financial services and act as a professional navigator for long term

growth of our clients who include leading corporate State Governments foreign institutional

investors public and private sector companies and banks in Indian and global markets

We have also emerged as a trailblazer in the arena of relationships both at the customer

and trade levels because of our unshakable integrity seamless service and innovative solutions

that are tuned to meet varied needs Our team of committed industry specialists having extensive

experience in capital markets further nurtures this relationship

Our financial advice and assistance in restructuring divestitures acquisitions de-

mergers spin-offs joint ventures privatization and takeover defense mechanisms have elevated

our relationship with the client to one based on unshakable trust and confidence

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Page 15

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES I ISSUE REGISTRY I CORPORATE SHAREHOLDERSSERVICES

We have traversed wide spaces to tie up with the world‟s largest transfer agent the leading

Australian company Computer share Limited The company that services more than 75 million

shareholders across 7000 corporate clients and makes its presence felt in over 12 countries across 5

continents has entered into a 50-50 joint venture with us

With our management team completely transferred to this new entity we will aim toenrich the financial services industry than before The future holds new arenas of client servicing

and contemporary and relevant technologies as we are geared to deliver better value and foster

bigger investments in the business The worldwide network of Computershare will hold us in

good stead as we expect to adopt international standards in addition to leveraging the best of

technologies from around the world

Excellence has to be the order of the day when two companies with such similar

ideologies of growth vision and competence get together wwwkarismakarvycom

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES

We have attained a position of immense strength as a provider of across-the-board

transfer agency services to AMCs Distributors and Investors

Nearly 40 of the top-notch AMCs including prestigious clients like Deutsche AMC and

UTI swear by the quality and range of services that we offer Besides providing the entire back

office processing we provide the link between various Mutual Funds and the investor including

services to the distributor the prime channel in this operation We have been with the AMCs

every step of the way helping them serve their investors better by offering them a diverse and

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Page 16

customized range of services The bdquofirst to market approach that is our anthem has earned us the

reputation of an innovative service provider with a visionary bent of mind

Our service enhancements such as bdquoKarvy Converz a full-fledged call center a top-line website

(wwwkarvymfscom) the bdquom-investor and many more creating a galaxy of customer

advantages

ISSUE REGISTRY

In our voyage towards becoming the largest transaction-processing house in the Indian

Corporate segment we have mobilized funds for numerous corporate Karvy has emerged as the

largest transaction-processing house for the Indian Corporate sector With an experience of

handling over 700 issues Karvy today has the ability to execute voluminous transactions andhard-core expertise in technology applications have gained us the No1 slot in the business

Karvy is the first Registry Company to receive ISO 9002 certification in India that stands

testimony to its stature

Karvy has the benefit of a good synergy between depositories and registry that enables faster

resolution to related customer queries Apart from its unique investor servicing presence in all

the phases of a public Issue it is actively coordinating with both the main depositories to develop

special models to enable the customer to access depository (NSDL CDSL) services during an

IPO Our trust-worthy reputation competent manpower and high-end technology and

infrastructure are the solid foundations on which our success is built

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Page 17

CORPORATE SHAREHOLDER SERVICES

Karvy has been a customer centric company since its inception Karvy offers a single

platform servicing multiple financial instruments in its bid to offer complete financial solutions

to the varying needs of both corporate and retail investors where an extensive range of servicesare provided with great volume-management capability

Today Karvy is recognized as a company that can exceed customer expectations which is

the reason for the loyalty of customers towards Karvy for all his financial needs An opinion poll

commissioned by ldquoThe Merchant Banker Updaterdquo and conducted by the reputed market research

agency MARG revealed that Karvy was considered the ldquoMost Admiredrdquo in the registrar

category among financial services companies

We have grown from being a pure transaction processing business to one of complete

shareholder solutions

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Page 18

The specialist Business Process Outsourcing unit of the Karvy Group The legacy of

expertise and experience in financial services of the Karvy Group serves us well as we enter the

global arena with the confidence of being able to deliver and deliver well

Here we offer several delivery models on the understanding that business needs are

unique and therefore only a customized service could possibly fit the bill Our service matrix has

permutations and combinations that create several options to choose from

Be it in re-engineering and managing processes or delivering new efficiencies our

service meets up to the most stringent of international standards Our outsourcing models are

designed for the global customer and are backed by sound corporate and operations philosophies

and domain expertise Providing productivity improvements operational cost control cost

savings improved accountability and a whole gamut of other advantages

We operate in the core market segments that have emerging requirements for specialized

services Our wide vertical market coverage includes Banking Financial and Insurance Services

(BFIS) Retail and Merchandising Leisure and Entertainment Energy and Utility and

Healthcare

Our horizontal offerings do justice to our stance as a comprehensive BPO unit and

include a variety of services in Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Operations Human

Resource Outsourcing Operations Research and Analytics Outsourcing Operations and

Insurance Back Office Outsourcing Operations

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Page 19

At Karvy Commodities we are focused on taking commodities trading to new

dimensions of reliability and profitability We have made commodities trading an essentially

age-old practice into a sophisticated and scientific investment option

Here we enable trade in all goods and products of agricultural and mineral origin that

include lucrative commodities like gold and silver and popular items like oil pulses and cotton

through a well-systematized trading platform

Our technological and infrastructural strengths and especially our street-smart skills

make us an ideal broker Our service matrix is holistic with a gamut of advantages the first and

foremost being our legacy of human resources technology and infrastructure that comes from

being part of the Karvy Group

Our wide national network spanning the length and breadth of India further supports

these advantages Regular trading workshops and seminars are conducted to hone trading

strategies to perfection Every move made is a calculated one based on reliable research that is

converted into valuable information through daily weekly and monthly newsletters calls and

intraday alerts Further personalized service is provided here by a dedicated team committed to

giving hassle-free service while the brokerage rates offered are extremely

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Page 21

ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

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Page 22

QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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Page 23

INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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Page 24

MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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Page 25

THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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Page 26

ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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Page 27

BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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Page 28

SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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Page 47

clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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Page 48

pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 3: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 3

PREFACE

ldquoGive a man a fish he will eat it

Train a man to fish he will feed his familyrdquo

The above saying highlights the importance of Practical knowledge Practical

training is an important part of the theoretical studies It is of an immense

importance in the field of management It offers the student to explore the valuable

treasure of experience and an exposure to real work culture followed by theindustries and thereby helping the students to bridge gap between the theories

explained in the books and their practical implementations

Research Project plays an important role in future building of an

individual so that heshe can better understand the real world in which he has to

work in future The theory greatly enhances our knowledge and provides

opportunities to blend theoretical with the practical knowledge

I have completed the Research Project on ldquoConsumer buying behaviour

towards mutual fundrdquo I have tried to cover each and every aspect related to the

topic with best of my capability

I hope research would help many people in the future

(Arun kumar)

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Page 4

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is with deep sense of gratitude that I would like to thanks Karvy Stock Broking

(DEHRADUN) for providing me with an opportunity to take up a project in

KARVY on ldquoCustomer perception towards mutual fundsrdquo I am very grateful

to Mr TRIBHUVAN MALL (Branch Head) for being able to give me some of

his valuable time and able guidance Without his guidance support and

encouragement it would not have been possible to complete this project

successfully

I would also like to express my sincere work of gratitude and heartiest thanks to

my faculty guide Mr Lokesh Jasrai who helped me in some manner or other and

this have been a constant source of inspiration throughout the project

(ARUN KUMAR)

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Page 5

CONTENTS

Topic Page No

Company Pr ofilehelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip6

Introductionhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip23

Backgroundhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip27

Objectives of the studyhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip29

Mutual fund for whomhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip34

Why mutual fundhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip35

Types of investorshelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip37

Marketing str ategieshelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip40

Research Methodologyhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip54

Findingshelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip57

Data Analysis amp interpretationhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip63

Conclusionhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip72

Recommendationhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip74

Bibliographyhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip75

Questionnairehelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip76

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Page 6

OVERVIEW

KARVY is a premier integrated financial services provider and ranked among the top

five in the country in all its business segments services over 16 million individual investors in

various capacities and provides investor services to over 300 corporate comprising the who is

who of Corporate India KARVY covers the entire spectrum of financial services such as Stock

broking Depository Participants Distribution of financial products - mutual funds bonds fixed

deposit equities Insurance Broking Commodities Broking Personal Finance Advisory

Services Merchant Banking amp Corporate Finance placement of equity IPO‟s among others

Karvy has a professional management team and ranks among the best in technology operations

and research of various industrial segments

KARVY-EARLY DAYS

The birth of Karvy was on a modest scale in 1981 It began with the vision and enterprise

of a small group of practicing Chartered Accountants who founded the flagship company

hellipKarvy Consultants Limited We started with consulting and financial accounting automation

and carved inroads into the field of registry and share accounting by 1985 Thus over the last 20

years Karvy has traveled the success route towards building a reputation as an integrated

financial services provider offering a wide spectrum of services And we have made this journey

by taking the route of quality service path breaking innovations in service versatility in service

and finallyhelliptotality in service

With the experience of years of holistic financial servicing behind us and years of complete

expertise in the industry to look forward to we have now emerged as a premier integrated

financial services provider

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Page 7

SERVICES

Commodities trading (NCDEX amp MCX)

Personal finance advisory services

Corporate finance amp merchant banking

Depository participant services (NSDL amp CDSL)

Financial products distribution (investmentsloan products)

Mutual fund services

Stock broking (NSE amp BSE FampO)

E-Tds tanpan cardmapin

Insurance (life amp general)

Registrar amp transfer agents

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Page 8

MILESTONE OF KARVY CONSULTANTS LTD

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Page 9

As the flagship company of the Karvy Group Karvy Consultants Limited has always remained

at the helm of organizational affairs pioneering business policies work ethic and channels of

progress

We have now transferred this business into a joint venture with Computer share Limited

of Australia the world‟s largest registrar With the advent of depositories in the Indian capital

market and the relationships that we have created in the registry business we believe that we

were best positioned to venture into this activity as a Depository Participant today we service

over 6 lakhs customer accounts in this business spread across over 250 citiestowns in India and

are ranked amongst the largest Depository Participants in the country With a growing secondary

market presence we have transferred this business to Karvy Stock Broking Limited (KSBL) our

associate and a member of NSE BSE and HSE

IT enabled services

Our Technology Services division forms the ideal platform to unleash our technology

initiatives and make our presence felt on the Internet Our past achievements include many

quality websites designed developed and deployed by us We also possess our own web hosting

facilities with dedicated bandwidth and a state-of-the-art server farm (data center) with services

functioning on a variety of operating platforms such as Windows Solaris Linux and UNIXThe corporate website of the company ldquowwwkarvycomrdquo gives access to in -depth information

on financial matters including Mutual Funds IPOs Fixed Income Schemes Insurance Stock

Market and much more

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Page 10

Stock Broking Services | Distribution of Financial Products | Depository Participants | Advisory Services | Research | Private Client Group

Member - National Stock Exchange (NSE) the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and The

Hyderabad Stock Exchange (HSE)

Karvy Stock Broking Limited one of the cornerstones of the Karvy edifice flows freely

towards attaining diverse goals of the customer through varied services Creating a plethora of opportunities for the customer by opening up investment vistas backed by research-based

advisory services Here growth knows no limits and success recognizes no boundaries Helping

the customer create waves in his portfolio and empowering the investor completely is the

ultimate goal

Stock Broking Services

It is an undisputed fact that the stock market is unpredictable and yet enjoys a high

success rate as a wealth management and wealth accumulation option The difference between

unpredictability and a safety anchor in the market is provided by in-depth knowledge of market

functioning and changing trends planning with foresight and choosing one amp rescue‟s options

with care This is what we provide in our Stock Broking service

KARVY offer services that are beyond just a medium for buying and selling stocks and

shares Instead we provide services that are multi dimensional and multi-focused in their scope

It offer trading on a vast platform National Stock Exchange Bombay Stock Exchange and

Hyderabad Stock Exchange It make trading safe to the maximum possible extent by accounting

for several risk factors and planning accordingly It is assisted in this task by our in-depth

research constant feedback and sound advisory facilities

It have skilled research team comprising of technical analysts as well as fundamental specialists

secure result-oriented information on market trends market analysis and reviewed

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Page 11

KARVY publish a monthly magazine amp ldquo Karvy The Finapolisamprdquo which analyzes

the latest stock market trends and takes a close look at the various investment options and

products available in the market while a weekly report called amp ldquo

It also offer special portfolio analysis packages that provide daily technical advice on scrips for

successful portfolio management and provide customized advisory services to help you make the

right financial moves that are specifically suited to your portfolio Our Stock Broking services

are widely networked across India with the number of our trading terminals providing retail

stock broking facilities Our services have increasingly offered customer oriented convenience

which we provide to a spectrum of investors high-net worth or otherwise with equal dedication

and competence

To empower the investor further we have made serious efforts to ensure that our researchcalls are disseminated systematically to all our stock broking clients through various delivery

channels like email chat SMS phone calls etc

In the future our focus will be on the emerging businesses and to meet this objective we

have enhanced our manpower and revitalized our knowledge base with enhances focus on

Futures and Options as well as the commodities business

DEPOSITORY PARTICIPANTS

The onset of the technology revolution in financial services Industry saw the emergence of

Karvy as an electronic custodian registered with National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL)

and Central Securities Depository Ltd (CSDL) in 1998 Karvy set standards enabling further

comfort to the investor by promoting paperless trading across the country and emerged as the top

3 Depository Participants in the country in terms of customer serviced Offering a wide trading platform with a dual membership at both NSDL and CDSL we are a powerful medium for

trading and settlement of dematerialized shares

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DISTRIBUTION OF FINANCIAL PRODUCTS

The paradigm shift from pure selling to knowledge based selling drives the business

today With our wide portfolio offerings we occupy all segments in the retail financial services

industry

A 1600 team of highly qualified and dedicated professionals drawn from the best of

academic and professional backgrounds are committed to maintaining high levels of client

service delivery This has propelled us to a position among the top distributors for equity and

debt issues with an estimated market share of 15 in terms of applications mobilized besides

being established as the leading procurer in all public issues

To further tap the immense growth potential in the capital markets we enhanced the scopeof our retail brand Karvy ndash the Finapolis thereby providing planning and advisory services to

the mass affluent Here we understand the customer needs and lifestyle in the context of present

earnings and provide adequate advisory services that will necessarily help in creating wealth

Judicious planning that is customized to meet the future needs of the customer deliver a service

that is exemplary The market-savvy and the ignorant investors both find this service very

satisfactory The edge that we have over competition is our portfolio of offerings and our

professional expertise The investment planning for each customer is done with an unbiased

attitude so that the service is truly customized

Our monthly magazine Finapolis provides up-dated market information on market

trends investment options opinions etc Thus empowering the investor to base every financial

move on rational thought and prudent analysis and embark on the path to wealth creation

ADVISORY SERVICES

Under our retail brand bdquoKarvy ndash the Finapolis we deliver advisory services to a cross-

section of customers The service is backed by a team of dedicated and expert professionals with

varied experience and background in handling investment portfolios They are continually

engaged in designing the right investment portfolio for each customer according to individual

needs and budget considerations with a comprehensive support system that focuses on trading

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Page 13

customers portfolios and providing valuable inputs monitoring and managing the portfolio

through varied technological initiatives This is made possible by the expertise we have gained in

the business over the years Another venture towards being investor-friendly is the circulation of

a monthly magazine called bdquoKarvy - the Finapolis Covering the latest of market news trends

investment schemes and research-based opinions from experts in various financial fields

PRIVATE CLIENT GROUP

This specialized division was set up to cater to the high net worth individuals and

institutional clients keeping in mind that they require a different kind of financial planning and

management that will augment not just existing finances but their life-style as well Here we

follow a hard-nosed business approach with the soft touch of dedicated customer care and

personalized attention

For this purpose we offer a comprehensive and personalized service that encompasses

planning and protection of finances planning of business needs and retirement needs and a host

of other services all provided on a one-to-one basis

Our research reports have been widely appreciated by this segment The delivery and

support modules have been fine tuned by giving our clients access to online portfolio

information constant updates on their portfolios as well as value-added advise on portfolio

churning sector switches etc The investment recommendations given by our research team in

the cash market have enjoyed a high success rate

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Page 14

MERCHANT BANKINGRecognized as a leading merchant banker in the country we are registered with SEBI as a

Category I merchant banker This reputation was built by capitalizing on opportunities in

corporate consolidations mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring which have

earned us the reputation of a merchant banker Raising resources for corporate or Government

Undertaking successfully over the past two decades have given us the confidence to renew our

focus in this sector

Our quality professional team and our work-oriented dedication have propelled us to

offer value-added corporate financial services and act as a professional navigator for long term

growth of our clients who include leading corporate State Governments foreign institutional

investors public and private sector companies and banks in Indian and global markets

We have also emerged as a trailblazer in the arena of relationships both at the customer

and trade levels because of our unshakable integrity seamless service and innovative solutions

that are tuned to meet varied needs Our team of committed industry specialists having extensive

experience in capital markets further nurtures this relationship

Our financial advice and assistance in restructuring divestitures acquisitions de-

mergers spin-offs joint ventures privatization and takeover defense mechanisms have elevated

our relationship with the client to one based on unshakable trust and confidence

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Page 15

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES I ISSUE REGISTRY I CORPORATE SHAREHOLDERSSERVICES

We have traversed wide spaces to tie up with the world‟s largest transfer agent the leading

Australian company Computer share Limited The company that services more than 75 million

shareholders across 7000 corporate clients and makes its presence felt in over 12 countries across 5

continents has entered into a 50-50 joint venture with us

With our management team completely transferred to this new entity we will aim toenrich the financial services industry than before The future holds new arenas of client servicing

and contemporary and relevant technologies as we are geared to deliver better value and foster

bigger investments in the business The worldwide network of Computershare will hold us in

good stead as we expect to adopt international standards in addition to leveraging the best of

technologies from around the world

Excellence has to be the order of the day when two companies with such similar

ideologies of growth vision and competence get together wwwkarismakarvycom

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES

We have attained a position of immense strength as a provider of across-the-board

transfer agency services to AMCs Distributors and Investors

Nearly 40 of the top-notch AMCs including prestigious clients like Deutsche AMC and

UTI swear by the quality and range of services that we offer Besides providing the entire back

office processing we provide the link between various Mutual Funds and the investor including

services to the distributor the prime channel in this operation We have been with the AMCs

every step of the way helping them serve their investors better by offering them a diverse and

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Page 16

customized range of services The bdquofirst to market approach that is our anthem has earned us the

reputation of an innovative service provider with a visionary bent of mind

Our service enhancements such as bdquoKarvy Converz a full-fledged call center a top-line website

(wwwkarvymfscom) the bdquom-investor and many more creating a galaxy of customer

advantages

ISSUE REGISTRY

In our voyage towards becoming the largest transaction-processing house in the Indian

Corporate segment we have mobilized funds for numerous corporate Karvy has emerged as the

largest transaction-processing house for the Indian Corporate sector With an experience of

handling over 700 issues Karvy today has the ability to execute voluminous transactions andhard-core expertise in technology applications have gained us the No1 slot in the business

Karvy is the first Registry Company to receive ISO 9002 certification in India that stands

testimony to its stature

Karvy has the benefit of a good synergy between depositories and registry that enables faster

resolution to related customer queries Apart from its unique investor servicing presence in all

the phases of a public Issue it is actively coordinating with both the main depositories to develop

special models to enable the customer to access depository (NSDL CDSL) services during an

IPO Our trust-worthy reputation competent manpower and high-end technology and

infrastructure are the solid foundations on which our success is built

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Page 17

CORPORATE SHAREHOLDER SERVICES

Karvy has been a customer centric company since its inception Karvy offers a single

platform servicing multiple financial instruments in its bid to offer complete financial solutions

to the varying needs of both corporate and retail investors where an extensive range of servicesare provided with great volume-management capability

Today Karvy is recognized as a company that can exceed customer expectations which is

the reason for the loyalty of customers towards Karvy for all his financial needs An opinion poll

commissioned by ldquoThe Merchant Banker Updaterdquo and conducted by the reputed market research

agency MARG revealed that Karvy was considered the ldquoMost Admiredrdquo in the registrar

category among financial services companies

We have grown from being a pure transaction processing business to one of complete

shareholder solutions

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Page 18

The specialist Business Process Outsourcing unit of the Karvy Group The legacy of

expertise and experience in financial services of the Karvy Group serves us well as we enter the

global arena with the confidence of being able to deliver and deliver well

Here we offer several delivery models on the understanding that business needs are

unique and therefore only a customized service could possibly fit the bill Our service matrix has

permutations and combinations that create several options to choose from

Be it in re-engineering and managing processes or delivering new efficiencies our

service meets up to the most stringent of international standards Our outsourcing models are

designed for the global customer and are backed by sound corporate and operations philosophies

and domain expertise Providing productivity improvements operational cost control cost

savings improved accountability and a whole gamut of other advantages

We operate in the core market segments that have emerging requirements for specialized

services Our wide vertical market coverage includes Banking Financial and Insurance Services

(BFIS) Retail and Merchandising Leisure and Entertainment Energy and Utility and

Healthcare

Our horizontal offerings do justice to our stance as a comprehensive BPO unit and

include a variety of services in Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Operations Human

Resource Outsourcing Operations Research and Analytics Outsourcing Operations and

Insurance Back Office Outsourcing Operations

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Page 19

At Karvy Commodities we are focused on taking commodities trading to new

dimensions of reliability and profitability We have made commodities trading an essentially

age-old practice into a sophisticated and scientific investment option

Here we enable trade in all goods and products of agricultural and mineral origin that

include lucrative commodities like gold and silver and popular items like oil pulses and cotton

through a well-systematized trading platform

Our technological and infrastructural strengths and especially our street-smart skills

make us an ideal broker Our service matrix is holistic with a gamut of advantages the first and

foremost being our legacy of human resources technology and infrastructure that comes from

being part of the Karvy Group

Our wide national network spanning the length and breadth of India further supports

these advantages Regular trading workshops and seminars are conducted to hone trading

strategies to perfection Every move made is a calculated one based on reliable research that is

converted into valuable information through daily weekly and monthly newsletters calls and

intraday alerts Further personalized service is provided here by a dedicated team committed to

giving hassle-free service while the brokerage rates offered are extremely

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Page 21

ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

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Page 22

QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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Page 23

INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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Page 24

MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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Page 25

THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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Page 26

ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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Page 27

BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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Page 47

clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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Page 48

pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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Page 51

design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 4: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 4

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is with deep sense of gratitude that I would like to thanks Karvy Stock Broking

(DEHRADUN) for providing me with an opportunity to take up a project in

KARVY on ldquoCustomer perception towards mutual fundsrdquo I am very grateful

to Mr TRIBHUVAN MALL (Branch Head) for being able to give me some of

his valuable time and able guidance Without his guidance support and

encouragement it would not have been possible to complete this project

successfully

I would also like to express my sincere work of gratitude and heartiest thanks to

my faculty guide Mr Lokesh Jasrai who helped me in some manner or other and

this have been a constant source of inspiration throughout the project

(ARUN KUMAR)

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Page 5

CONTENTS

Topic Page No

Company Pr ofilehelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip6

Introductionhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip23

Backgroundhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip27

Objectives of the studyhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip29

Mutual fund for whomhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip34

Why mutual fundhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip35

Types of investorshelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip37

Marketing str ategieshelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip40

Research Methodologyhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip54

Findingshelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip57

Data Analysis amp interpretationhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip63

Conclusionhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip72

Recommendationhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip74

Bibliographyhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip75

Questionnairehelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip76

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Page 6

OVERVIEW

KARVY is a premier integrated financial services provider and ranked among the top

five in the country in all its business segments services over 16 million individual investors in

various capacities and provides investor services to over 300 corporate comprising the who is

who of Corporate India KARVY covers the entire spectrum of financial services such as Stock

broking Depository Participants Distribution of financial products - mutual funds bonds fixed

deposit equities Insurance Broking Commodities Broking Personal Finance Advisory

Services Merchant Banking amp Corporate Finance placement of equity IPO‟s among others

Karvy has a professional management team and ranks among the best in technology operations

and research of various industrial segments

KARVY-EARLY DAYS

The birth of Karvy was on a modest scale in 1981 It began with the vision and enterprise

of a small group of practicing Chartered Accountants who founded the flagship company

hellipKarvy Consultants Limited We started with consulting and financial accounting automation

and carved inroads into the field of registry and share accounting by 1985 Thus over the last 20

years Karvy has traveled the success route towards building a reputation as an integrated

financial services provider offering a wide spectrum of services And we have made this journey

by taking the route of quality service path breaking innovations in service versatility in service

and finallyhelliptotality in service

With the experience of years of holistic financial servicing behind us and years of complete

expertise in the industry to look forward to we have now emerged as a premier integrated

financial services provider

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Page 7

SERVICES

Commodities trading (NCDEX amp MCX)

Personal finance advisory services

Corporate finance amp merchant banking

Depository participant services (NSDL amp CDSL)

Financial products distribution (investmentsloan products)

Mutual fund services

Stock broking (NSE amp BSE FampO)

E-Tds tanpan cardmapin

Insurance (life amp general)

Registrar amp transfer agents

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Page 8

MILESTONE OF KARVY CONSULTANTS LTD

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Page 9

As the flagship company of the Karvy Group Karvy Consultants Limited has always remained

at the helm of organizational affairs pioneering business policies work ethic and channels of

progress

We have now transferred this business into a joint venture with Computer share Limited

of Australia the world‟s largest registrar With the advent of depositories in the Indian capital

market and the relationships that we have created in the registry business we believe that we

were best positioned to venture into this activity as a Depository Participant today we service

over 6 lakhs customer accounts in this business spread across over 250 citiestowns in India and

are ranked amongst the largest Depository Participants in the country With a growing secondary

market presence we have transferred this business to Karvy Stock Broking Limited (KSBL) our

associate and a member of NSE BSE and HSE

IT enabled services

Our Technology Services division forms the ideal platform to unleash our technology

initiatives and make our presence felt on the Internet Our past achievements include many

quality websites designed developed and deployed by us We also possess our own web hosting

facilities with dedicated bandwidth and a state-of-the-art server farm (data center) with services

functioning on a variety of operating platforms such as Windows Solaris Linux and UNIXThe corporate website of the company ldquowwwkarvycomrdquo gives access to in -depth information

on financial matters including Mutual Funds IPOs Fixed Income Schemes Insurance Stock

Market and much more

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Page 10

Stock Broking Services | Distribution of Financial Products | Depository Participants | Advisory Services | Research | Private Client Group

Member - National Stock Exchange (NSE) the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and The

Hyderabad Stock Exchange (HSE)

Karvy Stock Broking Limited one of the cornerstones of the Karvy edifice flows freely

towards attaining diverse goals of the customer through varied services Creating a plethora of opportunities for the customer by opening up investment vistas backed by research-based

advisory services Here growth knows no limits and success recognizes no boundaries Helping

the customer create waves in his portfolio and empowering the investor completely is the

ultimate goal

Stock Broking Services

It is an undisputed fact that the stock market is unpredictable and yet enjoys a high

success rate as a wealth management and wealth accumulation option The difference between

unpredictability and a safety anchor in the market is provided by in-depth knowledge of market

functioning and changing trends planning with foresight and choosing one amp rescue‟s options

with care This is what we provide in our Stock Broking service

KARVY offer services that are beyond just a medium for buying and selling stocks and

shares Instead we provide services that are multi dimensional and multi-focused in their scope

It offer trading on a vast platform National Stock Exchange Bombay Stock Exchange and

Hyderabad Stock Exchange It make trading safe to the maximum possible extent by accounting

for several risk factors and planning accordingly It is assisted in this task by our in-depth

research constant feedback and sound advisory facilities

It have skilled research team comprising of technical analysts as well as fundamental specialists

secure result-oriented information on market trends market analysis and reviewed

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Page 11

KARVY publish a monthly magazine amp ldquo Karvy The Finapolisamprdquo which analyzes

the latest stock market trends and takes a close look at the various investment options and

products available in the market while a weekly report called amp ldquo

It also offer special portfolio analysis packages that provide daily technical advice on scrips for

successful portfolio management and provide customized advisory services to help you make the

right financial moves that are specifically suited to your portfolio Our Stock Broking services

are widely networked across India with the number of our trading terminals providing retail

stock broking facilities Our services have increasingly offered customer oriented convenience

which we provide to a spectrum of investors high-net worth or otherwise with equal dedication

and competence

To empower the investor further we have made serious efforts to ensure that our researchcalls are disseminated systematically to all our stock broking clients through various delivery

channels like email chat SMS phone calls etc

In the future our focus will be on the emerging businesses and to meet this objective we

have enhanced our manpower and revitalized our knowledge base with enhances focus on

Futures and Options as well as the commodities business

DEPOSITORY PARTICIPANTS

The onset of the technology revolution in financial services Industry saw the emergence of

Karvy as an electronic custodian registered with National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL)

and Central Securities Depository Ltd (CSDL) in 1998 Karvy set standards enabling further

comfort to the investor by promoting paperless trading across the country and emerged as the top

3 Depository Participants in the country in terms of customer serviced Offering a wide trading platform with a dual membership at both NSDL and CDSL we are a powerful medium for

trading and settlement of dematerialized shares

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Page 12

DISTRIBUTION OF FINANCIAL PRODUCTS

The paradigm shift from pure selling to knowledge based selling drives the business

today With our wide portfolio offerings we occupy all segments in the retail financial services

industry

A 1600 team of highly qualified and dedicated professionals drawn from the best of

academic and professional backgrounds are committed to maintaining high levels of client

service delivery This has propelled us to a position among the top distributors for equity and

debt issues with an estimated market share of 15 in terms of applications mobilized besides

being established as the leading procurer in all public issues

To further tap the immense growth potential in the capital markets we enhanced the scopeof our retail brand Karvy ndash the Finapolis thereby providing planning and advisory services to

the mass affluent Here we understand the customer needs and lifestyle in the context of present

earnings and provide adequate advisory services that will necessarily help in creating wealth

Judicious planning that is customized to meet the future needs of the customer deliver a service

that is exemplary The market-savvy and the ignorant investors both find this service very

satisfactory The edge that we have over competition is our portfolio of offerings and our

professional expertise The investment planning for each customer is done with an unbiased

attitude so that the service is truly customized

Our monthly magazine Finapolis provides up-dated market information on market

trends investment options opinions etc Thus empowering the investor to base every financial

move on rational thought and prudent analysis and embark on the path to wealth creation

ADVISORY SERVICES

Under our retail brand bdquoKarvy ndash the Finapolis we deliver advisory services to a cross-

section of customers The service is backed by a team of dedicated and expert professionals with

varied experience and background in handling investment portfolios They are continually

engaged in designing the right investment portfolio for each customer according to individual

needs and budget considerations with a comprehensive support system that focuses on trading

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Page 13

customers portfolios and providing valuable inputs monitoring and managing the portfolio

through varied technological initiatives This is made possible by the expertise we have gained in

the business over the years Another venture towards being investor-friendly is the circulation of

a monthly magazine called bdquoKarvy - the Finapolis Covering the latest of market news trends

investment schemes and research-based opinions from experts in various financial fields

PRIVATE CLIENT GROUP

This specialized division was set up to cater to the high net worth individuals and

institutional clients keeping in mind that they require a different kind of financial planning and

management that will augment not just existing finances but their life-style as well Here we

follow a hard-nosed business approach with the soft touch of dedicated customer care and

personalized attention

For this purpose we offer a comprehensive and personalized service that encompasses

planning and protection of finances planning of business needs and retirement needs and a host

of other services all provided on a one-to-one basis

Our research reports have been widely appreciated by this segment The delivery and

support modules have been fine tuned by giving our clients access to online portfolio

information constant updates on their portfolios as well as value-added advise on portfolio

churning sector switches etc The investment recommendations given by our research team in

the cash market have enjoyed a high success rate

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Page 14

MERCHANT BANKINGRecognized as a leading merchant banker in the country we are registered with SEBI as a

Category I merchant banker This reputation was built by capitalizing on opportunities in

corporate consolidations mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring which have

earned us the reputation of a merchant banker Raising resources for corporate or Government

Undertaking successfully over the past two decades have given us the confidence to renew our

focus in this sector

Our quality professional team and our work-oriented dedication have propelled us to

offer value-added corporate financial services and act as a professional navigator for long term

growth of our clients who include leading corporate State Governments foreign institutional

investors public and private sector companies and banks in Indian and global markets

We have also emerged as a trailblazer in the arena of relationships both at the customer

and trade levels because of our unshakable integrity seamless service and innovative solutions

that are tuned to meet varied needs Our team of committed industry specialists having extensive

experience in capital markets further nurtures this relationship

Our financial advice and assistance in restructuring divestitures acquisitions de-

mergers spin-offs joint ventures privatization and takeover defense mechanisms have elevated

our relationship with the client to one based on unshakable trust and confidence

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Page 15

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES I ISSUE REGISTRY I CORPORATE SHAREHOLDERSSERVICES

We have traversed wide spaces to tie up with the world‟s largest transfer agent the leading

Australian company Computer share Limited The company that services more than 75 million

shareholders across 7000 corporate clients and makes its presence felt in over 12 countries across 5

continents has entered into a 50-50 joint venture with us

With our management team completely transferred to this new entity we will aim toenrich the financial services industry than before The future holds new arenas of client servicing

and contemporary and relevant technologies as we are geared to deliver better value and foster

bigger investments in the business The worldwide network of Computershare will hold us in

good stead as we expect to adopt international standards in addition to leveraging the best of

technologies from around the world

Excellence has to be the order of the day when two companies with such similar

ideologies of growth vision and competence get together wwwkarismakarvycom

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES

We have attained a position of immense strength as a provider of across-the-board

transfer agency services to AMCs Distributors and Investors

Nearly 40 of the top-notch AMCs including prestigious clients like Deutsche AMC and

UTI swear by the quality and range of services that we offer Besides providing the entire back

office processing we provide the link between various Mutual Funds and the investor including

services to the distributor the prime channel in this operation We have been with the AMCs

every step of the way helping them serve their investors better by offering them a diverse and

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Page 16

customized range of services The bdquofirst to market approach that is our anthem has earned us the

reputation of an innovative service provider with a visionary bent of mind

Our service enhancements such as bdquoKarvy Converz a full-fledged call center a top-line website

(wwwkarvymfscom) the bdquom-investor and many more creating a galaxy of customer

advantages

ISSUE REGISTRY

In our voyage towards becoming the largest transaction-processing house in the Indian

Corporate segment we have mobilized funds for numerous corporate Karvy has emerged as the

largest transaction-processing house for the Indian Corporate sector With an experience of

handling over 700 issues Karvy today has the ability to execute voluminous transactions andhard-core expertise in technology applications have gained us the No1 slot in the business

Karvy is the first Registry Company to receive ISO 9002 certification in India that stands

testimony to its stature

Karvy has the benefit of a good synergy between depositories and registry that enables faster

resolution to related customer queries Apart from its unique investor servicing presence in all

the phases of a public Issue it is actively coordinating with both the main depositories to develop

special models to enable the customer to access depository (NSDL CDSL) services during an

IPO Our trust-worthy reputation competent manpower and high-end technology and

infrastructure are the solid foundations on which our success is built

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Page 17

CORPORATE SHAREHOLDER SERVICES

Karvy has been a customer centric company since its inception Karvy offers a single

platform servicing multiple financial instruments in its bid to offer complete financial solutions

to the varying needs of both corporate and retail investors where an extensive range of servicesare provided with great volume-management capability

Today Karvy is recognized as a company that can exceed customer expectations which is

the reason for the loyalty of customers towards Karvy for all his financial needs An opinion poll

commissioned by ldquoThe Merchant Banker Updaterdquo and conducted by the reputed market research

agency MARG revealed that Karvy was considered the ldquoMost Admiredrdquo in the registrar

category among financial services companies

We have grown from being a pure transaction processing business to one of complete

shareholder solutions

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Page 18

The specialist Business Process Outsourcing unit of the Karvy Group The legacy of

expertise and experience in financial services of the Karvy Group serves us well as we enter the

global arena with the confidence of being able to deliver and deliver well

Here we offer several delivery models on the understanding that business needs are

unique and therefore only a customized service could possibly fit the bill Our service matrix has

permutations and combinations that create several options to choose from

Be it in re-engineering and managing processes or delivering new efficiencies our

service meets up to the most stringent of international standards Our outsourcing models are

designed for the global customer and are backed by sound corporate and operations philosophies

and domain expertise Providing productivity improvements operational cost control cost

savings improved accountability and a whole gamut of other advantages

We operate in the core market segments that have emerging requirements for specialized

services Our wide vertical market coverage includes Banking Financial and Insurance Services

(BFIS) Retail and Merchandising Leisure and Entertainment Energy and Utility and

Healthcare

Our horizontal offerings do justice to our stance as a comprehensive BPO unit and

include a variety of services in Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Operations Human

Resource Outsourcing Operations Research and Analytics Outsourcing Operations and

Insurance Back Office Outsourcing Operations

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Page 19

At Karvy Commodities we are focused on taking commodities trading to new

dimensions of reliability and profitability We have made commodities trading an essentially

age-old practice into a sophisticated and scientific investment option

Here we enable trade in all goods and products of agricultural and mineral origin that

include lucrative commodities like gold and silver and popular items like oil pulses and cotton

through a well-systematized trading platform

Our technological and infrastructural strengths and especially our street-smart skills

make us an ideal broker Our service matrix is holistic with a gamut of advantages the first and

foremost being our legacy of human resources technology and infrastructure that comes from

being part of the Karvy Group

Our wide national network spanning the length and breadth of India further supports

these advantages Regular trading workshops and seminars are conducted to hone trading

strategies to perfection Every move made is a calculated one based on reliable research that is

converted into valuable information through daily weekly and monthly newsletters calls and

intraday alerts Further personalized service is provided here by a dedicated team committed to

giving hassle-free service while the brokerage rates offered are extremely

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Page 21

ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

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Page 22

QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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Page 23

INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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Page 24

MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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Page 25

THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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Page 26

ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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Page 27

BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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Page 28

SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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Page 47

clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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Page 48

pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 5: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 5

CONTENTS

Topic Page No

Company Pr ofilehelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip6

Introductionhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip23

Backgroundhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip27

Objectives of the studyhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip29

Mutual fund for whomhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip34

Why mutual fundhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip35

Types of investorshelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip37

Marketing str ategieshelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip40

Research Methodologyhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip54

Findingshelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip57

Data Analysis amp interpretationhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip63

Conclusionhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip72

Recommendationhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip74

Bibliographyhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip75

Questionnairehelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip76

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Page 6

OVERVIEW

KARVY is a premier integrated financial services provider and ranked among the top

five in the country in all its business segments services over 16 million individual investors in

various capacities and provides investor services to over 300 corporate comprising the who is

who of Corporate India KARVY covers the entire spectrum of financial services such as Stock

broking Depository Participants Distribution of financial products - mutual funds bonds fixed

deposit equities Insurance Broking Commodities Broking Personal Finance Advisory

Services Merchant Banking amp Corporate Finance placement of equity IPO‟s among others

Karvy has a professional management team and ranks among the best in technology operations

and research of various industrial segments

KARVY-EARLY DAYS

The birth of Karvy was on a modest scale in 1981 It began with the vision and enterprise

of a small group of practicing Chartered Accountants who founded the flagship company

hellipKarvy Consultants Limited We started with consulting and financial accounting automation

and carved inroads into the field of registry and share accounting by 1985 Thus over the last 20

years Karvy has traveled the success route towards building a reputation as an integrated

financial services provider offering a wide spectrum of services And we have made this journey

by taking the route of quality service path breaking innovations in service versatility in service

and finallyhelliptotality in service

With the experience of years of holistic financial servicing behind us and years of complete

expertise in the industry to look forward to we have now emerged as a premier integrated

financial services provider

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Page 7

SERVICES

Commodities trading (NCDEX amp MCX)

Personal finance advisory services

Corporate finance amp merchant banking

Depository participant services (NSDL amp CDSL)

Financial products distribution (investmentsloan products)

Mutual fund services

Stock broking (NSE amp BSE FampO)

E-Tds tanpan cardmapin

Insurance (life amp general)

Registrar amp transfer agents

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Page 8

MILESTONE OF KARVY CONSULTANTS LTD

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Page 9

As the flagship company of the Karvy Group Karvy Consultants Limited has always remained

at the helm of organizational affairs pioneering business policies work ethic and channels of

progress

We have now transferred this business into a joint venture with Computer share Limited

of Australia the world‟s largest registrar With the advent of depositories in the Indian capital

market and the relationships that we have created in the registry business we believe that we

were best positioned to venture into this activity as a Depository Participant today we service

over 6 lakhs customer accounts in this business spread across over 250 citiestowns in India and

are ranked amongst the largest Depository Participants in the country With a growing secondary

market presence we have transferred this business to Karvy Stock Broking Limited (KSBL) our

associate and a member of NSE BSE and HSE

IT enabled services

Our Technology Services division forms the ideal platform to unleash our technology

initiatives and make our presence felt on the Internet Our past achievements include many

quality websites designed developed and deployed by us We also possess our own web hosting

facilities with dedicated bandwidth and a state-of-the-art server farm (data center) with services

functioning on a variety of operating platforms such as Windows Solaris Linux and UNIXThe corporate website of the company ldquowwwkarvycomrdquo gives access to in -depth information

on financial matters including Mutual Funds IPOs Fixed Income Schemes Insurance Stock

Market and much more

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Page 10

Stock Broking Services | Distribution of Financial Products | Depository Participants | Advisory Services | Research | Private Client Group

Member - National Stock Exchange (NSE) the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and The

Hyderabad Stock Exchange (HSE)

Karvy Stock Broking Limited one of the cornerstones of the Karvy edifice flows freely

towards attaining diverse goals of the customer through varied services Creating a plethora of opportunities for the customer by opening up investment vistas backed by research-based

advisory services Here growth knows no limits and success recognizes no boundaries Helping

the customer create waves in his portfolio and empowering the investor completely is the

ultimate goal

Stock Broking Services

It is an undisputed fact that the stock market is unpredictable and yet enjoys a high

success rate as a wealth management and wealth accumulation option The difference between

unpredictability and a safety anchor in the market is provided by in-depth knowledge of market

functioning and changing trends planning with foresight and choosing one amp rescue‟s options

with care This is what we provide in our Stock Broking service

KARVY offer services that are beyond just a medium for buying and selling stocks and

shares Instead we provide services that are multi dimensional and multi-focused in their scope

It offer trading on a vast platform National Stock Exchange Bombay Stock Exchange and

Hyderabad Stock Exchange It make trading safe to the maximum possible extent by accounting

for several risk factors and planning accordingly It is assisted in this task by our in-depth

research constant feedback and sound advisory facilities

It have skilled research team comprising of technical analysts as well as fundamental specialists

secure result-oriented information on market trends market analysis and reviewed

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Page 11

KARVY publish a monthly magazine amp ldquo Karvy The Finapolisamprdquo which analyzes

the latest stock market trends and takes a close look at the various investment options and

products available in the market while a weekly report called amp ldquo

It also offer special portfolio analysis packages that provide daily technical advice on scrips for

successful portfolio management and provide customized advisory services to help you make the

right financial moves that are specifically suited to your portfolio Our Stock Broking services

are widely networked across India with the number of our trading terminals providing retail

stock broking facilities Our services have increasingly offered customer oriented convenience

which we provide to a spectrum of investors high-net worth or otherwise with equal dedication

and competence

To empower the investor further we have made serious efforts to ensure that our researchcalls are disseminated systematically to all our stock broking clients through various delivery

channels like email chat SMS phone calls etc

In the future our focus will be on the emerging businesses and to meet this objective we

have enhanced our manpower and revitalized our knowledge base with enhances focus on

Futures and Options as well as the commodities business

DEPOSITORY PARTICIPANTS

The onset of the technology revolution in financial services Industry saw the emergence of

Karvy as an electronic custodian registered with National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL)

and Central Securities Depository Ltd (CSDL) in 1998 Karvy set standards enabling further

comfort to the investor by promoting paperless trading across the country and emerged as the top

3 Depository Participants in the country in terms of customer serviced Offering a wide trading platform with a dual membership at both NSDL and CDSL we are a powerful medium for

trading and settlement of dematerialized shares

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Page 12

DISTRIBUTION OF FINANCIAL PRODUCTS

The paradigm shift from pure selling to knowledge based selling drives the business

today With our wide portfolio offerings we occupy all segments in the retail financial services

industry

A 1600 team of highly qualified and dedicated professionals drawn from the best of

academic and professional backgrounds are committed to maintaining high levels of client

service delivery This has propelled us to a position among the top distributors for equity and

debt issues with an estimated market share of 15 in terms of applications mobilized besides

being established as the leading procurer in all public issues

To further tap the immense growth potential in the capital markets we enhanced the scopeof our retail brand Karvy ndash the Finapolis thereby providing planning and advisory services to

the mass affluent Here we understand the customer needs and lifestyle in the context of present

earnings and provide adequate advisory services that will necessarily help in creating wealth

Judicious planning that is customized to meet the future needs of the customer deliver a service

that is exemplary The market-savvy and the ignorant investors both find this service very

satisfactory The edge that we have over competition is our portfolio of offerings and our

professional expertise The investment planning for each customer is done with an unbiased

attitude so that the service is truly customized

Our monthly magazine Finapolis provides up-dated market information on market

trends investment options opinions etc Thus empowering the investor to base every financial

move on rational thought and prudent analysis and embark on the path to wealth creation

ADVISORY SERVICES

Under our retail brand bdquoKarvy ndash the Finapolis we deliver advisory services to a cross-

section of customers The service is backed by a team of dedicated and expert professionals with

varied experience and background in handling investment portfolios They are continually

engaged in designing the right investment portfolio for each customer according to individual

needs and budget considerations with a comprehensive support system that focuses on trading

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Page 13

customers portfolios and providing valuable inputs monitoring and managing the portfolio

through varied technological initiatives This is made possible by the expertise we have gained in

the business over the years Another venture towards being investor-friendly is the circulation of

a monthly magazine called bdquoKarvy - the Finapolis Covering the latest of market news trends

investment schemes and research-based opinions from experts in various financial fields

PRIVATE CLIENT GROUP

This specialized division was set up to cater to the high net worth individuals and

institutional clients keeping in mind that they require a different kind of financial planning and

management that will augment not just existing finances but their life-style as well Here we

follow a hard-nosed business approach with the soft touch of dedicated customer care and

personalized attention

For this purpose we offer a comprehensive and personalized service that encompasses

planning and protection of finances planning of business needs and retirement needs and a host

of other services all provided on a one-to-one basis

Our research reports have been widely appreciated by this segment The delivery and

support modules have been fine tuned by giving our clients access to online portfolio

information constant updates on their portfolios as well as value-added advise on portfolio

churning sector switches etc The investment recommendations given by our research team in

the cash market have enjoyed a high success rate

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Page 14

MERCHANT BANKINGRecognized as a leading merchant banker in the country we are registered with SEBI as a

Category I merchant banker This reputation was built by capitalizing on opportunities in

corporate consolidations mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring which have

earned us the reputation of a merchant banker Raising resources for corporate or Government

Undertaking successfully over the past two decades have given us the confidence to renew our

focus in this sector

Our quality professional team and our work-oriented dedication have propelled us to

offer value-added corporate financial services and act as a professional navigator for long term

growth of our clients who include leading corporate State Governments foreign institutional

investors public and private sector companies and banks in Indian and global markets

We have also emerged as a trailblazer in the arena of relationships both at the customer

and trade levels because of our unshakable integrity seamless service and innovative solutions

that are tuned to meet varied needs Our team of committed industry specialists having extensive

experience in capital markets further nurtures this relationship

Our financial advice and assistance in restructuring divestitures acquisitions de-

mergers spin-offs joint ventures privatization and takeover defense mechanisms have elevated

our relationship with the client to one based on unshakable trust and confidence

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Page 15

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES I ISSUE REGISTRY I CORPORATE SHAREHOLDERSSERVICES

We have traversed wide spaces to tie up with the world‟s largest transfer agent the leading

Australian company Computer share Limited The company that services more than 75 million

shareholders across 7000 corporate clients and makes its presence felt in over 12 countries across 5

continents has entered into a 50-50 joint venture with us

With our management team completely transferred to this new entity we will aim toenrich the financial services industry than before The future holds new arenas of client servicing

and contemporary and relevant technologies as we are geared to deliver better value and foster

bigger investments in the business The worldwide network of Computershare will hold us in

good stead as we expect to adopt international standards in addition to leveraging the best of

technologies from around the world

Excellence has to be the order of the day when two companies with such similar

ideologies of growth vision and competence get together wwwkarismakarvycom

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES

We have attained a position of immense strength as a provider of across-the-board

transfer agency services to AMCs Distributors and Investors

Nearly 40 of the top-notch AMCs including prestigious clients like Deutsche AMC and

UTI swear by the quality and range of services that we offer Besides providing the entire back

office processing we provide the link between various Mutual Funds and the investor including

services to the distributor the prime channel in this operation We have been with the AMCs

every step of the way helping them serve their investors better by offering them a diverse and

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Page 16

customized range of services The bdquofirst to market approach that is our anthem has earned us the

reputation of an innovative service provider with a visionary bent of mind

Our service enhancements such as bdquoKarvy Converz a full-fledged call center a top-line website

(wwwkarvymfscom) the bdquom-investor and many more creating a galaxy of customer

advantages

ISSUE REGISTRY

In our voyage towards becoming the largest transaction-processing house in the Indian

Corporate segment we have mobilized funds for numerous corporate Karvy has emerged as the

largest transaction-processing house for the Indian Corporate sector With an experience of

handling over 700 issues Karvy today has the ability to execute voluminous transactions andhard-core expertise in technology applications have gained us the No1 slot in the business

Karvy is the first Registry Company to receive ISO 9002 certification in India that stands

testimony to its stature

Karvy has the benefit of a good synergy between depositories and registry that enables faster

resolution to related customer queries Apart from its unique investor servicing presence in all

the phases of a public Issue it is actively coordinating with both the main depositories to develop

special models to enable the customer to access depository (NSDL CDSL) services during an

IPO Our trust-worthy reputation competent manpower and high-end technology and

infrastructure are the solid foundations on which our success is built

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Page 17

CORPORATE SHAREHOLDER SERVICES

Karvy has been a customer centric company since its inception Karvy offers a single

platform servicing multiple financial instruments in its bid to offer complete financial solutions

to the varying needs of both corporate and retail investors where an extensive range of servicesare provided with great volume-management capability

Today Karvy is recognized as a company that can exceed customer expectations which is

the reason for the loyalty of customers towards Karvy for all his financial needs An opinion poll

commissioned by ldquoThe Merchant Banker Updaterdquo and conducted by the reputed market research

agency MARG revealed that Karvy was considered the ldquoMost Admiredrdquo in the registrar

category among financial services companies

We have grown from being a pure transaction processing business to one of complete

shareholder solutions

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Page 18

The specialist Business Process Outsourcing unit of the Karvy Group The legacy of

expertise and experience in financial services of the Karvy Group serves us well as we enter the

global arena with the confidence of being able to deliver and deliver well

Here we offer several delivery models on the understanding that business needs are

unique and therefore only a customized service could possibly fit the bill Our service matrix has

permutations and combinations that create several options to choose from

Be it in re-engineering and managing processes or delivering new efficiencies our

service meets up to the most stringent of international standards Our outsourcing models are

designed for the global customer and are backed by sound corporate and operations philosophies

and domain expertise Providing productivity improvements operational cost control cost

savings improved accountability and a whole gamut of other advantages

We operate in the core market segments that have emerging requirements for specialized

services Our wide vertical market coverage includes Banking Financial and Insurance Services

(BFIS) Retail and Merchandising Leisure and Entertainment Energy and Utility and

Healthcare

Our horizontal offerings do justice to our stance as a comprehensive BPO unit and

include a variety of services in Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Operations Human

Resource Outsourcing Operations Research and Analytics Outsourcing Operations and

Insurance Back Office Outsourcing Operations

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Page 19

At Karvy Commodities we are focused on taking commodities trading to new

dimensions of reliability and profitability We have made commodities trading an essentially

age-old practice into a sophisticated and scientific investment option

Here we enable trade in all goods and products of agricultural and mineral origin that

include lucrative commodities like gold and silver and popular items like oil pulses and cotton

through a well-systematized trading platform

Our technological and infrastructural strengths and especially our street-smart skills

make us an ideal broker Our service matrix is holistic with a gamut of advantages the first and

foremost being our legacy of human resources technology and infrastructure that comes from

being part of the Karvy Group

Our wide national network spanning the length and breadth of India further supports

these advantages Regular trading workshops and seminars are conducted to hone trading

strategies to perfection Every move made is a calculated one based on reliable research that is

converted into valuable information through daily weekly and monthly newsletters calls and

intraday alerts Further personalized service is provided here by a dedicated team committed to

giving hassle-free service while the brokerage rates offered are extremely

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Page 21

ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

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Page 22

QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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Page 23

INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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Page 24

MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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Page 25

THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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Page 26

ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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Page 27

BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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Page 28

SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Page 29

Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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Page 30

CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 48

pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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Page 50

4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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Page 51

design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 6: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 6

OVERVIEW

KARVY is a premier integrated financial services provider and ranked among the top

five in the country in all its business segments services over 16 million individual investors in

various capacities and provides investor services to over 300 corporate comprising the who is

who of Corporate India KARVY covers the entire spectrum of financial services such as Stock

broking Depository Participants Distribution of financial products - mutual funds bonds fixed

deposit equities Insurance Broking Commodities Broking Personal Finance Advisory

Services Merchant Banking amp Corporate Finance placement of equity IPO‟s among others

Karvy has a professional management team and ranks among the best in technology operations

and research of various industrial segments

KARVY-EARLY DAYS

The birth of Karvy was on a modest scale in 1981 It began with the vision and enterprise

of a small group of practicing Chartered Accountants who founded the flagship company

hellipKarvy Consultants Limited We started with consulting and financial accounting automation

and carved inroads into the field of registry and share accounting by 1985 Thus over the last 20

years Karvy has traveled the success route towards building a reputation as an integrated

financial services provider offering a wide spectrum of services And we have made this journey

by taking the route of quality service path breaking innovations in service versatility in service

and finallyhelliptotality in service

With the experience of years of holistic financial servicing behind us and years of complete

expertise in the industry to look forward to we have now emerged as a premier integrated

financial services provider

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Page 7

SERVICES

Commodities trading (NCDEX amp MCX)

Personal finance advisory services

Corporate finance amp merchant banking

Depository participant services (NSDL amp CDSL)

Financial products distribution (investmentsloan products)

Mutual fund services

Stock broking (NSE amp BSE FampO)

E-Tds tanpan cardmapin

Insurance (life amp general)

Registrar amp transfer agents

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MILESTONE OF KARVY CONSULTANTS LTD

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Page 9

As the flagship company of the Karvy Group Karvy Consultants Limited has always remained

at the helm of organizational affairs pioneering business policies work ethic and channels of

progress

We have now transferred this business into a joint venture with Computer share Limited

of Australia the world‟s largest registrar With the advent of depositories in the Indian capital

market and the relationships that we have created in the registry business we believe that we

were best positioned to venture into this activity as a Depository Participant today we service

over 6 lakhs customer accounts in this business spread across over 250 citiestowns in India and

are ranked amongst the largest Depository Participants in the country With a growing secondary

market presence we have transferred this business to Karvy Stock Broking Limited (KSBL) our

associate and a member of NSE BSE and HSE

IT enabled services

Our Technology Services division forms the ideal platform to unleash our technology

initiatives and make our presence felt on the Internet Our past achievements include many

quality websites designed developed and deployed by us We also possess our own web hosting

facilities with dedicated bandwidth and a state-of-the-art server farm (data center) with services

functioning on a variety of operating platforms such as Windows Solaris Linux and UNIXThe corporate website of the company ldquowwwkarvycomrdquo gives access to in -depth information

on financial matters including Mutual Funds IPOs Fixed Income Schemes Insurance Stock

Market and much more

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Stock Broking Services | Distribution of Financial Products | Depository Participants | Advisory Services | Research | Private Client Group

Member - National Stock Exchange (NSE) the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and The

Hyderabad Stock Exchange (HSE)

Karvy Stock Broking Limited one of the cornerstones of the Karvy edifice flows freely

towards attaining diverse goals of the customer through varied services Creating a plethora of opportunities for the customer by opening up investment vistas backed by research-based

advisory services Here growth knows no limits and success recognizes no boundaries Helping

the customer create waves in his portfolio and empowering the investor completely is the

ultimate goal

Stock Broking Services

It is an undisputed fact that the stock market is unpredictable and yet enjoys a high

success rate as a wealth management and wealth accumulation option The difference between

unpredictability and a safety anchor in the market is provided by in-depth knowledge of market

functioning and changing trends planning with foresight and choosing one amp rescue‟s options

with care This is what we provide in our Stock Broking service

KARVY offer services that are beyond just a medium for buying and selling stocks and

shares Instead we provide services that are multi dimensional and multi-focused in their scope

It offer trading on a vast platform National Stock Exchange Bombay Stock Exchange and

Hyderabad Stock Exchange It make trading safe to the maximum possible extent by accounting

for several risk factors and planning accordingly It is assisted in this task by our in-depth

research constant feedback and sound advisory facilities

It have skilled research team comprising of technical analysts as well as fundamental specialists

secure result-oriented information on market trends market analysis and reviewed

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Page 11

KARVY publish a monthly magazine amp ldquo Karvy The Finapolisamprdquo which analyzes

the latest stock market trends and takes a close look at the various investment options and

products available in the market while a weekly report called amp ldquo

It also offer special portfolio analysis packages that provide daily technical advice on scrips for

successful portfolio management and provide customized advisory services to help you make the

right financial moves that are specifically suited to your portfolio Our Stock Broking services

are widely networked across India with the number of our trading terminals providing retail

stock broking facilities Our services have increasingly offered customer oriented convenience

which we provide to a spectrum of investors high-net worth or otherwise with equal dedication

and competence

To empower the investor further we have made serious efforts to ensure that our researchcalls are disseminated systematically to all our stock broking clients through various delivery

channels like email chat SMS phone calls etc

In the future our focus will be on the emerging businesses and to meet this objective we

have enhanced our manpower and revitalized our knowledge base with enhances focus on

Futures and Options as well as the commodities business

DEPOSITORY PARTICIPANTS

The onset of the technology revolution in financial services Industry saw the emergence of

Karvy as an electronic custodian registered with National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL)

and Central Securities Depository Ltd (CSDL) in 1998 Karvy set standards enabling further

comfort to the investor by promoting paperless trading across the country and emerged as the top

3 Depository Participants in the country in terms of customer serviced Offering a wide trading platform with a dual membership at both NSDL and CDSL we are a powerful medium for

trading and settlement of dematerialized shares

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DISTRIBUTION OF FINANCIAL PRODUCTS

The paradigm shift from pure selling to knowledge based selling drives the business

today With our wide portfolio offerings we occupy all segments in the retail financial services

industry

A 1600 team of highly qualified and dedicated professionals drawn from the best of

academic and professional backgrounds are committed to maintaining high levels of client

service delivery This has propelled us to a position among the top distributors for equity and

debt issues with an estimated market share of 15 in terms of applications mobilized besides

being established as the leading procurer in all public issues

To further tap the immense growth potential in the capital markets we enhanced the scopeof our retail brand Karvy ndash the Finapolis thereby providing planning and advisory services to

the mass affluent Here we understand the customer needs and lifestyle in the context of present

earnings and provide adequate advisory services that will necessarily help in creating wealth

Judicious planning that is customized to meet the future needs of the customer deliver a service

that is exemplary The market-savvy and the ignorant investors both find this service very

satisfactory The edge that we have over competition is our portfolio of offerings and our

professional expertise The investment planning for each customer is done with an unbiased

attitude so that the service is truly customized

Our monthly magazine Finapolis provides up-dated market information on market

trends investment options opinions etc Thus empowering the investor to base every financial

move on rational thought and prudent analysis and embark on the path to wealth creation

ADVISORY SERVICES

Under our retail brand bdquoKarvy ndash the Finapolis we deliver advisory services to a cross-

section of customers The service is backed by a team of dedicated and expert professionals with

varied experience and background in handling investment portfolios They are continually

engaged in designing the right investment portfolio for each customer according to individual

needs and budget considerations with a comprehensive support system that focuses on trading

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Page 13

customers portfolios and providing valuable inputs monitoring and managing the portfolio

through varied technological initiatives This is made possible by the expertise we have gained in

the business over the years Another venture towards being investor-friendly is the circulation of

a monthly magazine called bdquoKarvy - the Finapolis Covering the latest of market news trends

investment schemes and research-based opinions from experts in various financial fields

PRIVATE CLIENT GROUP

This specialized division was set up to cater to the high net worth individuals and

institutional clients keeping in mind that they require a different kind of financial planning and

management that will augment not just existing finances but their life-style as well Here we

follow a hard-nosed business approach with the soft touch of dedicated customer care and

personalized attention

For this purpose we offer a comprehensive and personalized service that encompasses

planning and protection of finances planning of business needs and retirement needs and a host

of other services all provided on a one-to-one basis

Our research reports have been widely appreciated by this segment The delivery and

support modules have been fine tuned by giving our clients access to online portfolio

information constant updates on their portfolios as well as value-added advise on portfolio

churning sector switches etc The investment recommendations given by our research team in

the cash market have enjoyed a high success rate

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Page 14

MERCHANT BANKINGRecognized as a leading merchant banker in the country we are registered with SEBI as a

Category I merchant banker This reputation was built by capitalizing on opportunities in

corporate consolidations mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring which have

earned us the reputation of a merchant banker Raising resources for corporate or Government

Undertaking successfully over the past two decades have given us the confidence to renew our

focus in this sector

Our quality professional team and our work-oriented dedication have propelled us to

offer value-added corporate financial services and act as a professional navigator for long term

growth of our clients who include leading corporate State Governments foreign institutional

investors public and private sector companies and banks in Indian and global markets

We have also emerged as a trailblazer in the arena of relationships both at the customer

and trade levels because of our unshakable integrity seamless service and innovative solutions

that are tuned to meet varied needs Our team of committed industry specialists having extensive

experience in capital markets further nurtures this relationship

Our financial advice and assistance in restructuring divestitures acquisitions de-

mergers spin-offs joint ventures privatization and takeover defense mechanisms have elevated

our relationship with the client to one based on unshakable trust and confidence

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Page 15

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES I ISSUE REGISTRY I CORPORATE SHAREHOLDERSSERVICES

We have traversed wide spaces to tie up with the world‟s largest transfer agent the leading

Australian company Computer share Limited The company that services more than 75 million

shareholders across 7000 corporate clients and makes its presence felt in over 12 countries across 5

continents has entered into a 50-50 joint venture with us

With our management team completely transferred to this new entity we will aim toenrich the financial services industry than before The future holds new arenas of client servicing

and contemporary and relevant technologies as we are geared to deliver better value and foster

bigger investments in the business The worldwide network of Computershare will hold us in

good stead as we expect to adopt international standards in addition to leveraging the best of

technologies from around the world

Excellence has to be the order of the day when two companies with such similar

ideologies of growth vision and competence get together wwwkarismakarvycom

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES

We have attained a position of immense strength as a provider of across-the-board

transfer agency services to AMCs Distributors and Investors

Nearly 40 of the top-notch AMCs including prestigious clients like Deutsche AMC and

UTI swear by the quality and range of services that we offer Besides providing the entire back

office processing we provide the link between various Mutual Funds and the investor including

services to the distributor the prime channel in this operation We have been with the AMCs

every step of the way helping them serve their investors better by offering them a diverse and

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Page 16

customized range of services The bdquofirst to market approach that is our anthem has earned us the

reputation of an innovative service provider with a visionary bent of mind

Our service enhancements such as bdquoKarvy Converz a full-fledged call center a top-line website

(wwwkarvymfscom) the bdquom-investor and many more creating a galaxy of customer

advantages

ISSUE REGISTRY

In our voyage towards becoming the largest transaction-processing house in the Indian

Corporate segment we have mobilized funds for numerous corporate Karvy has emerged as the

largest transaction-processing house for the Indian Corporate sector With an experience of

handling over 700 issues Karvy today has the ability to execute voluminous transactions andhard-core expertise in technology applications have gained us the No1 slot in the business

Karvy is the first Registry Company to receive ISO 9002 certification in India that stands

testimony to its stature

Karvy has the benefit of a good synergy between depositories and registry that enables faster

resolution to related customer queries Apart from its unique investor servicing presence in all

the phases of a public Issue it is actively coordinating with both the main depositories to develop

special models to enable the customer to access depository (NSDL CDSL) services during an

IPO Our trust-worthy reputation competent manpower and high-end technology and

infrastructure are the solid foundations on which our success is built

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CORPORATE SHAREHOLDER SERVICES

Karvy has been a customer centric company since its inception Karvy offers a single

platform servicing multiple financial instruments in its bid to offer complete financial solutions

to the varying needs of both corporate and retail investors where an extensive range of servicesare provided with great volume-management capability

Today Karvy is recognized as a company that can exceed customer expectations which is

the reason for the loyalty of customers towards Karvy for all his financial needs An opinion poll

commissioned by ldquoThe Merchant Banker Updaterdquo and conducted by the reputed market research

agency MARG revealed that Karvy was considered the ldquoMost Admiredrdquo in the registrar

category among financial services companies

We have grown from being a pure transaction processing business to one of complete

shareholder solutions

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The specialist Business Process Outsourcing unit of the Karvy Group The legacy of

expertise and experience in financial services of the Karvy Group serves us well as we enter the

global arena with the confidence of being able to deliver and deliver well

Here we offer several delivery models on the understanding that business needs are

unique and therefore only a customized service could possibly fit the bill Our service matrix has

permutations and combinations that create several options to choose from

Be it in re-engineering and managing processes or delivering new efficiencies our

service meets up to the most stringent of international standards Our outsourcing models are

designed for the global customer and are backed by sound corporate and operations philosophies

and domain expertise Providing productivity improvements operational cost control cost

savings improved accountability and a whole gamut of other advantages

We operate in the core market segments that have emerging requirements for specialized

services Our wide vertical market coverage includes Banking Financial and Insurance Services

(BFIS) Retail and Merchandising Leisure and Entertainment Energy and Utility and

Healthcare

Our horizontal offerings do justice to our stance as a comprehensive BPO unit and

include a variety of services in Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Operations Human

Resource Outsourcing Operations Research and Analytics Outsourcing Operations and

Insurance Back Office Outsourcing Operations

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At Karvy Commodities we are focused on taking commodities trading to new

dimensions of reliability and profitability We have made commodities trading an essentially

age-old practice into a sophisticated and scientific investment option

Here we enable trade in all goods and products of agricultural and mineral origin that

include lucrative commodities like gold and silver and popular items like oil pulses and cotton

through a well-systematized trading platform

Our technological and infrastructural strengths and especially our street-smart skills

make us an ideal broker Our service matrix is holistic with a gamut of advantages the first and

foremost being our legacy of human resources technology and infrastructure that comes from

being part of the Karvy Group

Our wide national network spanning the length and breadth of India further supports

these advantages Regular trading workshops and seminars are conducted to hone trading

strategies to perfection Every move made is a calculated one based on reliable research that is

converted into valuable information through daily weekly and monthly newsletters calls and

intraday alerts Further personalized service is provided here by a dedicated team committed to

giving hassle-free service while the brokerage rates offered are extremely

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ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

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QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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Page 25

THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Page 29

Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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Page 31

have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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Page 32

1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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Page 51

design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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Page 52

leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 7: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 7

SERVICES

Commodities trading (NCDEX amp MCX)

Personal finance advisory services

Corporate finance amp merchant banking

Depository participant services (NSDL amp CDSL)

Financial products distribution (investmentsloan products)

Mutual fund services

Stock broking (NSE amp BSE FampO)

E-Tds tanpan cardmapin

Insurance (life amp general)

Registrar amp transfer agents

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 8

MILESTONE OF KARVY CONSULTANTS LTD

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Page 9

As the flagship company of the Karvy Group Karvy Consultants Limited has always remained

at the helm of organizational affairs pioneering business policies work ethic and channels of

progress

We have now transferred this business into a joint venture with Computer share Limited

of Australia the world‟s largest registrar With the advent of depositories in the Indian capital

market and the relationships that we have created in the registry business we believe that we

were best positioned to venture into this activity as a Depository Participant today we service

over 6 lakhs customer accounts in this business spread across over 250 citiestowns in India and

are ranked amongst the largest Depository Participants in the country With a growing secondary

market presence we have transferred this business to Karvy Stock Broking Limited (KSBL) our

associate and a member of NSE BSE and HSE

IT enabled services

Our Technology Services division forms the ideal platform to unleash our technology

initiatives and make our presence felt on the Internet Our past achievements include many

quality websites designed developed and deployed by us We also possess our own web hosting

facilities with dedicated bandwidth and a state-of-the-art server farm (data center) with services

functioning on a variety of operating platforms such as Windows Solaris Linux and UNIXThe corporate website of the company ldquowwwkarvycomrdquo gives access to in -depth information

on financial matters including Mutual Funds IPOs Fixed Income Schemes Insurance Stock

Market and much more

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 10

Stock Broking Services | Distribution of Financial Products | Depository Participants | Advisory Services | Research | Private Client Group

Member - National Stock Exchange (NSE) the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and The

Hyderabad Stock Exchange (HSE)

Karvy Stock Broking Limited one of the cornerstones of the Karvy edifice flows freely

towards attaining diverse goals of the customer through varied services Creating a plethora of opportunities for the customer by opening up investment vistas backed by research-based

advisory services Here growth knows no limits and success recognizes no boundaries Helping

the customer create waves in his portfolio and empowering the investor completely is the

ultimate goal

Stock Broking Services

It is an undisputed fact that the stock market is unpredictable and yet enjoys a high

success rate as a wealth management and wealth accumulation option The difference between

unpredictability and a safety anchor in the market is provided by in-depth knowledge of market

functioning and changing trends planning with foresight and choosing one amp rescue‟s options

with care This is what we provide in our Stock Broking service

KARVY offer services that are beyond just a medium for buying and selling stocks and

shares Instead we provide services that are multi dimensional and multi-focused in their scope

It offer trading on a vast platform National Stock Exchange Bombay Stock Exchange and

Hyderabad Stock Exchange It make trading safe to the maximum possible extent by accounting

for several risk factors and planning accordingly It is assisted in this task by our in-depth

research constant feedback and sound advisory facilities

It have skilled research team comprising of technical analysts as well as fundamental specialists

secure result-oriented information on market trends market analysis and reviewed

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 11

KARVY publish a monthly magazine amp ldquo Karvy The Finapolisamprdquo which analyzes

the latest stock market trends and takes a close look at the various investment options and

products available in the market while a weekly report called amp ldquo

It also offer special portfolio analysis packages that provide daily technical advice on scrips for

successful portfolio management and provide customized advisory services to help you make the

right financial moves that are specifically suited to your portfolio Our Stock Broking services

are widely networked across India with the number of our trading terminals providing retail

stock broking facilities Our services have increasingly offered customer oriented convenience

which we provide to a spectrum of investors high-net worth or otherwise with equal dedication

and competence

To empower the investor further we have made serious efforts to ensure that our researchcalls are disseminated systematically to all our stock broking clients through various delivery

channels like email chat SMS phone calls etc

In the future our focus will be on the emerging businesses and to meet this objective we

have enhanced our manpower and revitalized our knowledge base with enhances focus on

Futures and Options as well as the commodities business

DEPOSITORY PARTICIPANTS

The onset of the technology revolution in financial services Industry saw the emergence of

Karvy as an electronic custodian registered with National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL)

and Central Securities Depository Ltd (CSDL) in 1998 Karvy set standards enabling further

comfort to the investor by promoting paperless trading across the country and emerged as the top

3 Depository Participants in the country in terms of customer serviced Offering a wide trading platform with a dual membership at both NSDL and CDSL we are a powerful medium for

trading and settlement of dematerialized shares

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Page 12

DISTRIBUTION OF FINANCIAL PRODUCTS

The paradigm shift from pure selling to knowledge based selling drives the business

today With our wide portfolio offerings we occupy all segments in the retail financial services

industry

A 1600 team of highly qualified and dedicated professionals drawn from the best of

academic and professional backgrounds are committed to maintaining high levels of client

service delivery This has propelled us to a position among the top distributors for equity and

debt issues with an estimated market share of 15 in terms of applications mobilized besides

being established as the leading procurer in all public issues

To further tap the immense growth potential in the capital markets we enhanced the scopeof our retail brand Karvy ndash the Finapolis thereby providing planning and advisory services to

the mass affluent Here we understand the customer needs and lifestyle in the context of present

earnings and provide adequate advisory services that will necessarily help in creating wealth

Judicious planning that is customized to meet the future needs of the customer deliver a service

that is exemplary The market-savvy and the ignorant investors both find this service very

satisfactory The edge that we have over competition is our portfolio of offerings and our

professional expertise The investment planning for each customer is done with an unbiased

attitude so that the service is truly customized

Our monthly magazine Finapolis provides up-dated market information on market

trends investment options opinions etc Thus empowering the investor to base every financial

move on rational thought and prudent analysis and embark on the path to wealth creation

ADVISORY SERVICES

Under our retail brand bdquoKarvy ndash the Finapolis we deliver advisory services to a cross-

section of customers The service is backed by a team of dedicated and expert professionals with

varied experience and background in handling investment portfolios They are continually

engaged in designing the right investment portfolio for each customer according to individual

needs and budget considerations with a comprehensive support system that focuses on trading

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Page 13

customers portfolios and providing valuable inputs monitoring and managing the portfolio

through varied technological initiatives This is made possible by the expertise we have gained in

the business over the years Another venture towards being investor-friendly is the circulation of

a monthly magazine called bdquoKarvy - the Finapolis Covering the latest of market news trends

investment schemes and research-based opinions from experts in various financial fields

PRIVATE CLIENT GROUP

This specialized division was set up to cater to the high net worth individuals and

institutional clients keeping in mind that they require a different kind of financial planning and

management that will augment not just existing finances but their life-style as well Here we

follow a hard-nosed business approach with the soft touch of dedicated customer care and

personalized attention

For this purpose we offer a comprehensive and personalized service that encompasses

planning and protection of finances planning of business needs and retirement needs and a host

of other services all provided on a one-to-one basis

Our research reports have been widely appreciated by this segment The delivery and

support modules have been fine tuned by giving our clients access to online portfolio

information constant updates on their portfolios as well as value-added advise on portfolio

churning sector switches etc The investment recommendations given by our research team in

the cash market have enjoyed a high success rate

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Page 14

MERCHANT BANKINGRecognized as a leading merchant banker in the country we are registered with SEBI as a

Category I merchant banker This reputation was built by capitalizing on opportunities in

corporate consolidations mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring which have

earned us the reputation of a merchant banker Raising resources for corporate or Government

Undertaking successfully over the past two decades have given us the confidence to renew our

focus in this sector

Our quality professional team and our work-oriented dedication have propelled us to

offer value-added corporate financial services and act as a professional navigator for long term

growth of our clients who include leading corporate State Governments foreign institutional

investors public and private sector companies and banks in Indian and global markets

We have also emerged as a trailblazer in the arena of relationships both at the customer

and trade levels because of our unshakable integrity seamless service and innovative solutions

that are tuned to meet varied needs Our team of committed industry specialists having extensive

experience in capital markets further nurtures this relationship

Our financial advice and assistance in restructuring divestitures acquisitions de-

mergers spin-offs joint ventures privatization and takeover defense mechanisms have elevated

our relationship with the client to one based on unshakable trust and confidence

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MUTUAL FUND SERVICES I ISSUE REGISTRY I CORPORATE SHAREHOLDERSSERVICES

We have traversed wide spaces to tie up with the world‟s largest transfer agent the leading

Australian company Computer share Limited The company that services more than 75 million

shareholders across 7000 corporate clients and makes its presence felt in over 12 countries across 5

continents has entered into a 50-50 joint venture with us

With our management team completely transferred to this new entity we will aim toenrich the financial services industry than before The future holds new arenas of client servicing

and contemporary and relevant technologies as we are geared to deliver better value and foster

bigger investments in the business The worldwide network of Computershare will hold us in

good stead as we expect to adopt international standards in addition to leveraging the best of

technologies from around the world

Excellence has to be the order of the day when two companies with such similar

ideologies of growth vision and competence get together wwwkarismakarvycom

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES

We have attained a position of immense strength as a provider of across-the-board

transfer agency services to AMCs Distributors and Investors

Nearly 40 of the top-notch AMCs including prestigious clients like Deutsche AMC and

UTI swear by the quality and range of services that we offer Besides providing the entire back

office processing we provide the link between various Mutual Funds and the investor including

services to the distributor the prime channel in this operation We have been with the AMCs

every step of the way helping them serve their investors better by offering them a diverse and

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customized range of services The bdquofirst to market approach that is our anthem has earned us the

reputation of an innovative service provider with a visionary bent of mind

Our service enhancements such as bdquoKarvy Converz a full-fledged call center a top-line website

(wwwkarvymfscom) the bdquom-investor and many more creating a galaxy of customer

advantages

ISSUE REGISTRY

In our voyage towards becoming the largest transaction-processing house in the Indian

Corporate segment we have mobilized funds for numerous corporate Karvy has emerged as the

largest transaction-processing house for the Indian Corporate sector With an experience of

handling over 700 issues Karvy today has the ability to execute voluminous transactions andhard-core expertise in technology applications have gained us the No1 slot in the business

Karvy is the first Registry Company to receive ISO 9002 certification in India that stands

testimony to its stature

Karvy has the benefit of a good synergy between depositories and registry that enables faster

resolution to related customer queries Apart from its unique investor servicing presence in all

the phases of a public Issue it is actively coordinating with both the main depositories to develop

special models to enable the customer to access depository (NSDL CDSL) services during an

IPO Our trust-worthy reputation competent manpower and high-end technology and

infrastructure are the solid foundations on which our success is built

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CORPORATE SHAREHOLDER SERVICES

Karvy has been a customer centric company since its inception Karvy offers a single

platform servicing multiple financial instruments in its bid to offer complete financial solutions

to the varying needs of both corporate and retail investors where an extensive range of servicesare provided with great volume-management capability

Today Karvy is recognized as a company that can exceed customer expectations which is

the reason for the loyalty of customers towards Karvy for all his financial needs An opinion poll

commissioned by ldquoThe Merchant Banker Updaterdquo and conducted by the reputed market research

agency MARG revealed that Karvy was considered the ldquoMost Admiredrdquo in the registrar

category among financial services companies

We have grown from being a pure transaction processing business to one of complete

shareholder solutions

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The specialist Business Process Outsourcing unit of the Karvy Group The legacy of

expertise and experience in financial services of the Karvy Group serves us well as we enter the

global arena with the confidence of being able to deliver and deliver well

Here we offer several delivery models on the understanding that business needs are

unique and therefore only a customized service could possibly fit the bill Our service matrix has

permutations and combinations that create several options to choose from

Be it in re-engineering and managing processes or delivering new efficiencies our

service meets up to the most stringent of international standards Our outsourcing models are

designed for the global customer and are backed by sound corporate and operations philosophies

and domain expertise Providing productivity improvements operational cost control cost

savings improved accountability and a whole gamut of other advantages

We operate in the core market segments that have emerging requirements for specialized

services Our wide vertical market coverage includes Banking Financial and Insurance Services

(BFIS) Retail and Merchandising Leisure and Entertainment Energy and Utility and

Healthcare

Our horizontal offerings do justice to our stance as a comprehensive BPO unit and

include a variety of services in Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Operations Human

Resource Outsourcing Operations Research and Analytics Outsourcing Operations and

Insurance Back Office Outsourcing Operations

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At Karvy Commodities we are focused on taking commodities trading to new

dimensions of reliability and profitability We have made commodities trading an essentially

age-old practice into a sophisticated and scientific investment option

Here we enable trade in all goods and products of agricultural and mineral origin that

include lucrative commodities like gold and silver and popular items like oil pulses and cotton

through a well-systematized trading platform

Our technological and infrastructural strengths and especially our street-smart skills

make us an ideal broker Our service matrix is holistic with a gamut of advantages the first and

foremost being our legacy of human resources technology and infrastructure that comes from

being part of the Karvy Group

Our wide national network spanning the length and breadth of India further supports

these advantages Regular trading workshops and seminars are conducted to hone trading

strategies to perfection Every move made is a calculated one based on reliable research that is

converted into valuable information through daily weekly and monthly newsletters calls and

intraday alerts Further personalized service is provided here by a dedicated team committed to

giving hassle-free service while the brokerage rates offered are extremely

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ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

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QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 8: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 8

MILESTONE OF KARVY CONSULTANTS LTD

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Page 9

As the flagship company of the Karvy Group Karvy Consultants Limited has always remained

at the helm of organizational affairs pioneering business policies work ethic and channels of

progress

We have now transferred this business into a joint venture with Computer share Limited

of Australia the world‟s largest registrar With the advent of depositories in the Indian capital

market and the relationships that we have created in the registry business we believe that we

were best positioned to venture into this activity as a Depository Participant today we service

over 6 lakhs customer accounts in this business spread across over 250 citiestowns in India and

are ranked amongst the largest Depository Participants in the country With a growing secondary

market presence we have transferred this business to Karvy Stock Broking Limited (KSBL) our

associate and a member of NSE BSE and HSE

IT enabled services

Our Technology Services division forms the ideal platform to unleash our technology

initiatives and make our presence felt on the Internet Our past achievements include many

quality websites designed developed and deployed by us We also possess our own web hosting

facilities with dedicated bandwidth and a state-of-the-art server farm (data center) with services

functioning on a variety of operating platforms such as Windows Solaris Linux and UNIXThe corporate website of the company ldquowwwkarvycomrdquo gives access to in -depth information

on financial matters including Mutual Funds IPOs Fixed Income Schemes Insurance Stock

Market and much more

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Page 10

Stock Broking Services | Distribution of Financial Products | Depository Participants | Advisory Services | Research | Private Client Group

Member - National Stock Exchange (NSE) the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and The

Hyderabad Stock Exchange (HSE)

Karvy Stock Broking Limited one of the cornerstones of the Karvy edifice flows freely

towards attaining diverse goals of the customer through varied services Creating a plethora of opportunities for the customer by opening up investment vistas backed by research-based

advisory services Here growth knows no limits and success recognizes no boundaries Helping

the customer create waves in his portfolio and empowering the investor completely is the

ultimate goal

Stock Broking Services

It is an undisputed fact that the stock market is unpredictable and yet enjoys a high

success rate as a wealth management and wealth accumulation option The difference between

unpredictability and a safety anchor in the market is provided by in-depth knowledge of market

functioning and changing trends planning with foresight and choosing one amp rescue‟s options

with care This is what we provide in our Stock Broking service

KARVY offer services that are beyond just a medium for buying and selling stocks and

shares Instead we provide services that are multi dimensional and multi-focused in their scope

It offer trading on a vast platform National Stock Exchange Bombay Stock Exchange and

Hyderabad Stock Exchange It make trading safe to the maximum possible extent by accounting

for several risk factors and planning accordingly It is assisted in this task by our in-depth

research constant feedback and sound advisory facilities

It have skilled research team comprising of technical analysts as well as fundamental specialists

secure result-oriented information on market trends market analysis and reviewed

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Page 11

KARVY publish a monthly magazine amp ldquo Karvy The Finapolisamprdquo which analyzes

the latest stock market trends and takes a close look at the various investment options and

products available in the market while a weekly report called amp ldquo

It also offer special portfolio analysis packages that provide daily technical advice on scrips for

successful portfolio management and provide customized advisory services to help you make the

right financial moves that are specifically suited to your portfolio Our Stock Broking services

are widely networked across India with the number of our trading terminals providing retail

stock broking facilities Our services have increasingly offered customer oriented convenience

which we provide to a spectrum of investors high-net worth or otherwise with equal dedication

and competence

To empower the investor further we have made serious efforts to ensure that our researchcalls are disseminated systematically to all our stock broking clients through various delivery

channels like email chat SMS phone calls etc

In the future our focus will be on the emerging businesses and to meet this objective we

have enhanced our manpower and revitalized our knowledge base with enhances focus on

Futures and Options as well as the commodities business

DEPOSITORY PARTICIPANTS

The onset of the technology revolution in financial services Industry saw the emergence of

Karvy as an electronic custodian registered with National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL)

and Central Securities Depository Ltd (CSDL) in 1998 Karvy set standards enabling further

comfort to the investor by promoting paperless trading across the country and emerged as the top

3 Depository Participants in the country in terms of customer serviced Offering a wide trading platform with a dual membership at both NSDL and CDSL we are a powerful medium for

trading and settlement of dematerialized shares

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Page 12

DISTRIBUTION OF FINANCIAL PRODUCTS

The paradigm shift from pure selling to knowledge based selling drives the business

today With our wide portfolio offerings we occupy all segments in the retail financial services

industry

A 1600 team of highly qualified and dedicated professionals drawn from the best of

academic and professional backgrounds are committed to maintaining high levels of client

service delivery This has propelled us to a position among the top distributors for equity and

debt issues with an estimated market share of 15 in terms of applications mobilized besides

being established as the leading procurer in all public issues

To further tap the immense growth potential in the capital markets we enhanced the scopeof our retail brand Karvy ndash the Finapolis thereby providing planning and advisory services to

the mass affluent Here we understand the customer needs and lifestyle in the context of present

earnings and provide adequate advisory services that will necessarily help in creating wealth

Judicious planning that is customized to meet the future needs of the customer deliver a service

that is exemplary The market-savvy and the ignorant investors both find this service very

satisfactory The edge that we have over competition is our portfolio of offerings and our

professional expertise The investment planning for each customer is done with an unbiased

attitude so that the service is truly customized

Our monthly magazine Finapolis provides up-dated market information on market

trends investment options opinions etc Thus empowering the investor to base every financial

move on rational thought and prudent analysis and embark on the path to wealth creation

ADVISORY SERVICES

Under our retail brand bdquoKarvy ndash the Finapolis we deliver advisory services to a cross-

section of customers The service is backed by a team of dedicated and expert professionals with

varied experience and background in handling investment portfolios They are continually

engaged in designing the right investment portfolio for each customer according to individual

needs and budget considerations with a comprehensive support system that focuses on trading

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Page 13

customers portfolios and providing valuable inputs monitoring and managing the portfolio

through varied technological initiatives This is made possible by the expertise we have gained in

the business over the years Another venture towards being investor-friendly is the circulation of

a monthly magazine called bdquoKarvy - the Finapolis Covering the latest of market news trends

investment schemes and research-based opinions from experts in various financial fields

PRIVATE CLIENT GROUP

This specialized division was set up to cater to the high net worth individuals and

institutional clients keeping in mind that they require a different kind of financial planning and

management that will augment not just existing finances but their life-style as well Here we

follow a hard-nosed business approach with the soft touch of dedicated customer care and

personalized attention

For this purpose we offer a comprehensive and personalized service that encompasses

planning and protection of finances planning of business needs and retirement needs and a host

of other services all provided on a one-to-one basis

Our research reports have been widely appreciated by this segment The delivery and

support modules have been fine tuned by giving our clients access to online portfolio

information constant updates on their portfolios as well as value-added advise on portfolio

churning sector switches etc The investment recommendations given by our research team in

the cash market have enjoyed a high success rate

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Page 14

MERCHANT BANKINGRecognized as a leading merchant banker in the country we are registered with SEBI as a

Category I merchant banker This reputation was built by capitalizing on opportunities in

corporate consolidations mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring which have

earned us the reputation of a merchant banker Raising resources for corporate or Government

Undertaking successfully over the past two decades have given us the confidence to renew our

focus in this sector

Our quality professional team and our work-oriented dedication have propelled us to

offer value-added corporate financial services and act as a professional navigator for long term

growth of our clients who include leading corporate State Governments foreign institutional

investors public and private sector companies and banks in Indian and global markets

We have also emerged as a trailblazer in the arena of relationships both at the customer

and trade levels because of our unshakable integrity seamless service and innovative solutions

that are tuned to meet varied needs Our team of committed industry specialists having extensive

experience in capital markets further nurtures this relationship

Our financial advice and assistance in restructuring divestitures acquisitions de-

mergers spin-offs joint ventures privatization and takeover defense mechanisms have elevated

our relationship with the client to one based on unshakable trust and confidence

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Page 15

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES I ISSUE REGISTRY I CORPORATE SHAREHOLDERSSERVICES

We have traversed wide spaces to tie up with the world‟s largest transfer agent the leading

Australian company Computer share Limited The company that services more than 75 million

shareholders across 7000 corporate clients and makes its presence felt in over 12 countries across 5

continents has entered into a 50-50 joint venture with us

With our management team completely transferred to this new entity we will aim toenrich the financial services industry than before The future holds new arenas of client servicing

and contemporary and relevant technologies as we are geared to deliver better value and foster

bigger investments in the business The worldwide network of Computershare will hold us in

good stead as we expect to adopt international standards in addition to leveraging the best of

technologies from around the world

Excellence has to be the order of the day when two companies with such similar

ideologies of growth vision and competence get together wwwkarismakarvycom

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES

We have attained a position of immense strength as a provider of across-the-board

transfer agency services to AMCs Distributors and Investors

Nearly 40 of the top-notch AMCs including prestigious clients like Deutsche AMC and

UTI swear by the quality and range of services that we offer Besides providing the entire back

office processing we provide the link between various Mutual Funds and the investor including

services to the distributor the prime channel in this operation We have been with the AMCs

every step of the way helping them serve their investors better by offering them a diverse and

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Page 16

customized range of services The bdquofirst to market approach that is our anthem has earned us the

reputation of an innovative service provider with a visionary bent of mind

Our service enhancements such as bdquoKarvy Converz a full-fledged call center a top-line website

(wwwkarvymfscom) the bdquom-investor and many more creating a galaxy of customer

advantages

ISSUE REGISTRY

In our voyage towards becoming the largest transaction-processing house in the Indian

Corporate segment we have mobilized funds for numerous corporate Karvy has emerged as the

largest transaction-processing house for the Indian Corporate sector With an experience of

handling over 700 issues Karvy today has the ability to execute voluminous transactions andhard-core expertise in technology applications have gained us the No1 slot in the business

Karvy is the first Registry Company to receive ISO 9002 certification in India that stands

testimony to its stature

Karvy has the benefit of a good synergy between depositories and registry that enables faster

resolution to related customer queries Apart from its unique investor servicing presence in all

the phases of a public Issue it is actively coordinating with both the main depositories to develop

special models to enable the customer to access depository (NSDL CDSL) services during an

IPO Our trust-worthy reputation competent manpower and high-end technology and

infrastructure are the solid foundations on which our success is built

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Page 17

CORPORATE SHAREHOLDER SERVICES

Karvy has been a customer centric company since its inception Karvy offers a single

platform servicing multiple financial instruments in its bid to offer complete financial solutions

to the varying needs of both corporate and retail investors where an extensive range of servicesare provided with great volume-management capability

Today Karvy is recognized as a company that can exceed customer expectations which is

the reason for the loyalty of customers towards Karvy for all his financial needs An opinion poll

commissioned by ldquoThe Merchant Banker Updaterdquo and conducted by the reputed market research

agency MARG revealed that Karvy was considered the ldquoMost Admiredrdquo in the registrar

category among financial services companies

We have grown from being a pure transaction processing business to one of complete

shareholder solutions

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Page 18

The specialist Business Process Outsourcing unit of the Karvy Group The legacy of

expertise and experience in financial services of the Karvy Group serves us well as we enter the

global arena with the confidence of being able to deliver and deliver well

Here we offer several delivery models on the understanding that business needs are

unique and therefore only a customized service could possibly fit the bill Our service matrix has

permutations and combinations that create several options to choose from

Be it in re-engineering and managing processes or delivering new efficiencies our

service meets up to the most stringent of international standards Our outsourcing models are

designed for the global customer and are backed by sound corporate and operations philosophies

and domain expertise Providing productivity improvements operational cost control cost

savings improved accountability and a whole gamut of other advantages

We operate in the core market segments that have emerging requirements for specialized

services Our wide vertical market coverage includes Banking Financial and Insurance Services

(BFIS) Retail and Merchandising Leisure and Entertainment Energy and Utility and

Healthcare

Our horizontal offerings do justice to our stance as a comprehensive BPO unit and

include a variety of services in Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Operations Human

Resource Outsourcing Operations Research and Analytics Outsourcing Operations and

Insurance Back Office Outsourcing Operations

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Page 19

At Karvy Commodities we are focused on taking commodities trading to new

dimensions of reliability and profitability We have made commodities trading an essentially

age-old practice into a sophisticated and scientific investment option

Here we enable trade in all goods and products of agricultural and mineral origin that

include lucrative commodities like gold and silver and popular items like oil pulses and cotton

through a well-systematized trading platform

Our technological and infrastructural strengths and especially our street-smart skills

make us an ideal broker Our service matrix is holistic with a gamut of advantages the first and

foremost being our legacy of human resources technology and infrastructure that comes from

being part of the Karvy Group

Our wide national network spanning the length and breadth of India further supports

these advantages Regular trading workshops and seminars are conducted to hone trading

strategies to perfection Every move made is a calculated one based on reliable research that is

converted into valuable information through daily weekly and monthly newsletters calls and

intraday alerts Further personalized service is provided here by a dedicated team committed to

giving hassle-free service while the brokerage rates offered are extremely

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Page 21

ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

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Page 22

QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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Page 35

WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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Page 38

FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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Page 42

generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 9: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 9

As the flagship company of the Karvy Group Karvy Consultants Limited has always remained

at the helm of organizational affairs pioneering business policies work ethic and channels of

progress

We have now transferred this business into a joint venture with Computer share Limited

of Australia the world‟s largest registrar With the advent of depositories in the Indian capital

market and the relationships that we have created in the registry business we believe that we

were best positioned to venture into this activity as a Depository Participant today we service

over 6 lakhs customer accounts in this business spread across over 250 citiestowns in India and

are ranked amongst the largest Depository Participants in the country With a growing secondary

market presence we have transferred this business to Karvy Stock Broking Limited (KSBL) our

associate and a member of NSE BSE and HSE

IT enabled services

Our Technology Services division forms the ideal platform to unleash our technology

initiatives and make our presence felt on the Internet Our past achievements include many

quality websites designed developed and deployed by us We also possess our own web hosting

facilities with dedicated bandwidth and a state-of-the-art server farm (data center) with services

functioning on a variety of operating platforms such as Windows Solaris Linux and UNIXThe corporate website of the company ldquowwwkarvycomrdquo gives access to in -depth information

on financial matters including Mutual Funds IPOs Fixed Income Schemes Insurance Stock

Market and much more

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Page 10

Stock Broking Services | Distribution of Financial Products | Depository Participants | Advisory Services | Research | Private Client Group

Member - National Stock Exchange (NSE) the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and The

Hyderabad Stock Exchange (HSE)

Karvy Stock Broking Limited one of the cornerstones of the Karvy edifice flows freely

towards attaining diverse goals of the customer through varied services Creating a plethora of opportunities for the customer by opening up investment vistas backed by research-based

advisory services Here growth knows no limits and success recognizes no boundaries Helping

the customer create waves in his portfolio and empowering the investor completely is the

ultimate goal

Stock Broking Services

It is an undisputed fact that the stock market is unpredictable and yet enjoys a high

success rate as a wealth management and wealth accumulation option The difference between

unpredictability and a safety anchor in the market is provided by in-depth knowledge of market

functioning and changing trends planning with foresight and choosing one amp rescue‟s options

with care This is what we provide in our Stock Broking service

KARVY offer services that are beyond just a medium for buying and selling stocks and

shares Instead we provide services that are multi dimensional and multi-focused in their scope

It offer trading on a vast platform National Stock Exchange Bombay Stock Exchange and

Hyderabad Stock Exchange It make trading safe to the maximum possible extent by accounting

for several risk factors and planning accordingly It is assisted in this task by our in-depth

research constant feedback and sound advisory facilities

It have skilled research team comprising of technical analysts as well as fundamental specialists

secure result-oriented information on market trends market analysis and reviewed

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Page 11

KARVY publish a monthly magazine amp ldquo Karvy The Finapolisamprdquo which analyzes

the latest stock market trends and takes a close look at the various investment options and

products available in the market while a weekly report called amp ldquo

It also offer special portfolio analysis packages that provide daily technical advice on scrips for

successful portfolio management and provide customized advisory services to help you make the

right financial moves that are specifically suited to your portfolio Our Stock Broking services

are widely networked across India with the number of our trading terminals providing retail

stock broking facilities Our services have increasingly offered customer oriented convenience

which we provide to a spectrum of investors high-net worth or otherwise with equal dedication

and competence

To empower the investor further we have made serious efforts to ensure that our researchcalls are disseminated systematically to all our stock broking clients through various delivery

channels like email chat SMS phone calls etc

In the future our focus will be on the emerging businesses and to meet this objective we

have enhanced our manpower and revitalized our knowledge base with enhances focus on

Futures and Options as well as the commodities business

DEPOSITORY PARTICIPANTS

The onset of the technology revolution in financial services Industry saw the emergence of

Karvy as an electronic custodian registered with National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL)

and Central Securities Depository Ltd (CSDL) in 1998 Karvy set standards enabling further

comfort to the investor by promoting paperless trading across the country and emerged as the top

3 Depository Participants in the country in terms of customer serviced Offering a wide trading platform with a dual membership at both NSDL and CDSL we are a powerful medium for

trading and settlement of dematerialized shares

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Page 12

DISTRIBUTION OF FINANCIAL PRODUCTS

The paradigm shift from pure selling to knowledge based selling drives the business

today With our wide portfolio offerings we occupy all segments in the retail financial services

industry

A 1600 team of highly qualified and dedicated professionals drawn from the best of

academic and professional backgrounds are committed to maintaining high levels of client

service delivery This has propelled us to a position among the top distributors for equity and

debt issues with an estimated market share of 15 in terms of applications mobilized besides

being established as the leading procurer in all public issues

To further tap the immense growth potential in the capital markets we enhanced the scopeof our retail brand Karvy ndash the Finapolis thereby providing planning and advisory services to

the mass affluent Here we understand the customer needs and lifestyle in the context of present

earnings and provide adequate advisory services that will necessarily help in creating wealth

Judicious planning that is customized to meet the future needs of the customer deliver a service

that is exemplary The market-savvy and the ignorant investors both find this service very

satisfactory The edge that we have over competition is our portfolio of offerings and our

professional expertise The investment planning for each customer is done with an unbiased

attitude so that the service is truly customized

Our monthly magazine Finapolis provides up-dated market information on market

trends investment options opinions etc Thus empowering the investor to base every financial

move on rational thought and prudent analysis and embark on the path to wealth creation

ADVISORY SERVICES

Under our retail brand bdquoKarvy ndash the Finapolis we deliver advisory services to a cross-

section of customers The service is backed by a team of dedicated and expert professionals with

varied experience and background in handling investment portfolios They are continually

engaged in designing the right investment portfolio for each customer according to individual

needs and budget considerations with a comprehensive support system that focuses on trading

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Page 13

customers portfolios and providing valuable inputs monitoring and managing the portfolio

through varied technological initiatives This is made possible by the expertise we have gained in

the business over the years Another venture towards being investor-friendly is the circulation of

a monthly magazine called bdquoKarvy - the Finapolis Covering the latest of market news trends

investment schemes and research-based opinions from experts in various financial fields

PRIVATE CLIENT GROUP

This specialized division was set up to cater to the high net worth individuals and

institutional clients keeping in mind that they require a different kind of financial planning and

management that will augment not just existing finances but their life-style as well Here we

follow a hard-nosed business approach with the soft touch of dedicated customer care and

personalized attention

For this purpose we offer a comprehensive and personalized service that encompasses

planning and protection of finances planning of business needs and retirement needs and a host

of other services all provided on a one-to-one basis

Our research reports have been widely appreciated by this segment The delivery and

support modules have been fine tuned by giving our clients access to online portfolio

information constant updates on their portfolios as well as value-added advise on portfolio

churning sector switches etc The investment recommendations given by our research team in

the cash market have enjoyed a high success rate

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Page 14

MERCHANT BANKINGRecognized as a leading merchant banker in the country we are registered with SEBI as a

Category I merchant banker This reputation was built by capitalizing on opportunities in

corporate consolidations mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring which have

earned us the reputation of a merchant banker Raising resources for corporate or Government

Undertaking successfully over the past two decades have given us the confidence to renew our

focus in this sector

Our quality professional team and our work-oriented dedication have propelled us to

offer value-added corporate financial services and act as a professional navigator for long term

growth of our clients who include leading corporate State Governments foreign institutional

investors public and private sector companies and banks in Indian and global markets

We have also emerged as a trailblazer in the arena of relationships both at the customer

and trade levels because of our unshakable integrity seamless service and innovative solutions

that are tuned to meet varied needs Our team of committed industry specialists having extensive

experience in capital markets further nurtures this relationship

Our financial advice and assistance in restructuring divestitures acquisitions de-

mergers spin-offs joint ventures privatization and takeover defense mechanisms have elevated

our relationship with the client to one based on unshakable trust and confidence

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Page 15

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES I ISSUE REGISTRY I CORPORATE SHAREHOLDERSSERVICES

We have traversed wide spaces to tie up with the world‟s largest transfer agent the leading

Australian company Computer share Limited The company that services more than 75 million

shareholders across 7000 corporate clients and makes its presence felt in over 12 countries across 5

continents has entered into a 50-50 joint venture with us

With our management team completely transferred to this new entity we will aim toenrich the financial services industry than before The future holds new arenas of client servicing

and contemporary and relevant technologies as we are geared to deliver better value and foster

bigger investments in the business The worldwide network of Computershare will hold us in

good stead as we expect to adopt international standards in addition to leveraging the best of

technologies from around the world

Excellence has to be the order of the day when two companies with such similar

ideologies of growth vision and competence get together wwwkarismakarvycom

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES

We have attained a position of immense strength as a provider of across-the-board

transfer agency services to AMCs Distributors and Investors

Nearly 40 of the top-notch AMCs including prestigious clients like Deutsche AMC and

UTI swear by the quality and range of services that we offer Besides providing the entire back

office processing we provide the link between various Mutual Funds and the investor including

services to the distributor the prime channel in this operation We have been with the AMCs

every step of the way helping them serve their investors better by offering them a diverse and

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Page 16

customized range of services The bdquofirst to market approach that is our anthem has earned us the

reputation of an innovative service provider with a visionary bent of mind

Our service enhancements such as bdquoKarvy Converz a full-fledged call center a top-line website

(wwwkarvymfscom) the bdquom-investor and many more creating a galaxy of customer

advantages

ISSUE REGISTRY

In our voyage towards becoming the largest transaction-processing house in the Indian

Corporate segment we have mobilized funds for numerous corporate Karvy has emerged as the

largest transaction-processing house for the Indian Corporate sector With an experience of

handling over 700 issues Karvy today has the ability to execute voluminous transactions andhard-core expertise in technology applications have gained us the No1 slot in the business

Karvy is the first Registry Company to receive ISO 9002 certification in India that stands

testimony to its stature

Karvy has the benefit of a good synergy between depositories and registry that enables faster

resolution to related customer queries Apart from its unique investor servicing presence in all

the phases of a public Issue it is actively coordinating with both the main depositories to develop

special models to enable the customer to access depository (NSDL CDSL) services during an

IPO Our trust-worthy reputation competent manpower and high-end technology and

infrastructure are the solid foundations on which our success is built

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Page 17

CORPORATE SHAREHOLDER SERVICES

Karvy has been a customer centric company since its inception Karvy offers a single

platform servicing multiple financial instruments in its bid to offer complete financial solutions

to the varying needs of both corporate and retail investors where an extensive range of servicesare provided with great volume-management capability

Today Karvy is recognized as a company that can exceed customer expectations which is

the reason for the loyalty of customers towards Karvy for all his financial needs An opinion poll

commissioned by ldquoThe Merchant Banker Updaterdquo and conducted by the reputed market research

agency MARG revealed that Karvy was considered the ldquoMost Admiredrdquo in the registrar

category among financial services companies

We have grown from being a pure transaction processing business to one of complete

shareholder solutions

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Page 18

The specialist Business Process Outsourcing unit of the Karvy Group The legacy of

expertise and experience in financial services of the Karvy Group serves us well as we enter the

global arena with the confidence of being able to deliver and deliver well

Here we offer several delivery models on the understanding that business needs are

unique and therefore only a customized service could possibly fit the bill Our service matrix has

permutations and combinations that create several options to choose from

Be it in re-engineering and managing processes or delivering new efficiencies our

service meets up to the most stringent of international standards Our outsourcing models are

designed for the global customer and are backed by sound corporate and operations philosophies

and domain expertise Providing productivity improvements operational cost control cost

savings improved accountability and a whole gamut of other advantages

We operate in the core market segments that have emerging requirements for specialized

services Our wide vertical market coverage includes Banking Financial and Insurance Services

(BFIS) Retail and Merchandising Leisure and Entertainment Energy and Utility and

Healthcare

Our horizontal offerings do justice to our stance as a comprehensive BPO unit and

include a variety of services in Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Operations Human

Resource Outsourcing Operations Research and Analytics Outsourcing Operations and

Insurance Back Office Outsourcing Operations

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Page 19

At Karvy Commodities we are focused on taking commodities trading to new

dimensions of reliability and profitability We have made commodities trading an essentially

age-old practice into a sophisticated and scientific investment option

Here we enable trade in all goods and products of agricultural and mineral origin that

include lucrative commodities like gold and silver and popular items like oil pulses and cotton

through a well-systematized trading platform

Our technological and infrastructural strengths and especially our street-smart skills

make us an ideal broker Our service matrix is holistic with a gamut of advantages the first and

foremost being our legacy of human resources technology and infrastructure that comes from

being part of the Karvy Group

Our wide national network spanning the length and breadth of India further supports

these advantages Regular trading workshops and seminars are conducted to hone trading

strategies to perfection Every move made is a calculated one based on reliable research that is

converted into valuable information through daily weekly and monthly newsletters calls and

intraday alerts Further personalized service is provided here by a dedicated team committed to

giving hassle-free service while the brokerage rates offered are extremely

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Page 21

ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

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Page 22

QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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Page 23

INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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Page 24

MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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Page 25

THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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Page 26

ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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Page 28

SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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Page 46

successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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Page 47

clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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Page 48

pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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Page 51

design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

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Page 10

Stock Broking Services | Distribution of Financial Products | Depository Participants | Advisory Services | Research | Private Client Group

Member - National Stock Exchange (NSE) the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and The

Hyderabad Stock Exchange (HSE)

Karvy Stock Broking Limited one of the cornerstones of the Karvy edifice flows freely

towards attaining diverse goals of the customer through varied services Creating a plethora of opportunities for the customer by opening up investment vistas backed by research-based

advisory services Here growth knows no limits and success recognizes no boundaries Helping

the customer create waves in his portfolio and empowering the investor completely is the

ultimate goal

Stock Broking Services

It is an undisputed fact that the stock market is unpredictable and yet enjoys a high

success rate as a wealth management and wealth accumulation option The difference between

unpredictability and a safety anchor in the market is provided by in-depth knowledge of market

functioning and changing trends planning with foresight and choosing one amp rescue‟s options

with care This is what we provide in our Stock Broking service

KARVY offer services that are beyond just a medium for buying and selling stocks and

shares Instead we provide services that are multi dimensional and multi-focused in their scope

It offer trading on a vast platform National Stock Exchange Bombay Stock Exchange and

Hyderabad Stock Exchange It make trading safe to the maximum possible extent by accounting

for several risk factors and planning accordingly It is assisted in this task by our in-depth

research constant feedback and sound advisory facilities

It have skilled research team comprising of technical analysts as well as fundamental specialists

secure result-oriented information on market trends market analysis and reviewed

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Page 11

KARVY publish a monthly magazine amp ldquo Karvy The Finapolisamprdquo which analyzes

the latest stock market trends and takes a close look at the various investment options and

products available in the market while a weekly report called amp ldquo

It also offer special portfolio analysis packages that provide daily technical advice on scrips for

successful portfolio management and provide customized advisory services to help you make the

right financial moves that are specifically suited to your portfolio Our Stock Broking services

are widely networked across India with the number of our trading terminals providing retail

stock broking facilities Our services have increasingly offered customer oriented convenience

which we provide to a spectrum of investors high-net worth or otherwise with equal dedication

and competence

To empower the investor further we have made serious efforts to ensure that our researchcalls are disseminated systematically to all our stock broking clients through various delivery

channels like email chat SMS phone calls etc

In the future our focus will be on the emerging businesses and to meet this objective we

have enhanced our manpower and revitalized our knowledge base with enhances focus on

Futures and Options as well as the commodities business

DEPOSITORY PARTICIPANTS

The onset of the technology revolution in financial services Industry saw the emergence of

Karvy as an electronic custodian registered with National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL)

and Central Securities Depository Ltd (CSDL) in 1998 Karvy set standards enabling further

comfort to the investor by promoting paperless trading across the country and emerged as the top

3 Depository Participants in the country in terms of customer serviced Offering a wide trading platform with a dual membership at both NSDL and CDSL we are a powerful medium for

trading and settlement of dematerialized shares

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Page 12

DISTRIBUTION OF FINANCIAL PRODUCTS

The paradigm shift from pure selling to knowledge based selling drives the business

today With our wide portfolio offerings we occupy all segments in the retail financial services

industry

A 1600 team of highly qualified and dedicated professionals drawn from the best of

academic and professional backgrounds are committed to maintaining high levels of client

service delivery This has propelled us to a position among the top distributors for equity and

debt issues with an estimated market share of 15 in terms of applications mobilized besides

being established as the leading procurer in all public issues

To further tap the immense growth potential in the capital markets we enhanced the scopeof our retail brand Karvy ndash the Finapolis thereby providing planning and advisory services to

the mass affluent Here we understand the customer needs and lifestyle in the context of present

earnings and provide adequate advisory services that will necessarily help in creating wealth

Judicious planning that is customized to meet the future needs of the customer deliver a service

that is exemplary The market-savvy and the ignorant investors both find this service very

satisfactory The edge that we have over competition is our portfolio of offerings and our

professional expertise The investment planning for each customer is done with an unbiased

attitude so that the service is truly customized

Our monthly magazine Finapolis provides up-dated market information on market

trends investment options opinions etc Thus empowering the investor to base every financial

move on rational thought and prudent analysis and embark on the path to wealth creation

ADVISORY SERVICES

Under our retail brand bdquoKarvy ndash the Finapolis we deliver advisory services to a cross-

section of customers The service is backed by a team of dedicated and expert professionals with

varied experience and background in handling investment portfolios They are continually

engaged in designing the right investment portfolio for each customer according to individual

needs and budget considerations with a comprehensive support system that focuses on trading

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Page 13

customers portfolios and providing valuable inputs monitoring and managing the portfolio

through varied technological initiatives This is made possible by the expertise we have gained in

the business over the years Another venture towards being investor-friendly is the circulation of

a monthly magazine called bdquoKarvy - the Finapolis Covering the latest of market news trends

investment schemes and research-based opinions from experts in various financial fields

PRIVATE CLIENT GROUP

This specialized division was set up to cater to the high net worth individuals and

institutional clients keeping in mind that they require a different kind of financial planning and

management that will augment not just existing finances but their life-style as well Here we

follow a hard-nosed business approach with the soft touch of dedicated customer care and

personalized attention

For this purpose we offer a comprehensive and personalized service that encompasses

planning and protection of finances planning of business needs and retirement needs and a host

of other services all provided on a one-to-one basis

Our research reports have been widely appreciated by this segment The delivery and

support modules have been fine tuned by giving our clients access to online portfolio

information constant updates on their portfolios as well as value-added advise on portfolio

churning sector switches etc The investment recommendations given by our research team in

the cash market have enjoyed a high success rate

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Page 14

MERCHANT BANKINGRecognized as a leading merchant banker in the country we are registered with SEBI as a

Category I merchant banker This reputation was built by capitalizing on opportunities in

corporate consolidations mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring which have

earned us the reputation of a merchant banker Raising resources for corporate or Government

Undertaking successfully over the past two decades have given us the confidence to renew our

focus in this sector

Our quality professional team and our work-oriented dedication have propelled us to

offer value-added corporate financial services and act as a professional navigator for long term

growth of our clients who include leading corporate State Governments foreign institutional

investors public and private sector companies and banks in Indian and global markets

We have also emerged as a trailblazer in the arena of relationships both at the customer

and trade levels because of our unshakable integrity seamless service and innovative solutions

that are tuned to meet varied needs Our team of committed industry specialists having extensive

experience in capital markets further nurtures this relationship

Our financial advice and assistance in restructuring divestitures acquisitions de-

mergers spin-offs joint ventures privatization and takeover defense mechanisms have elevated

our relationship with the client to one based on unshakable trust and confidence

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Page 15

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES I ISSUE REGISTRY I CORPORATE SHAREHOLDERSSERVICES

We have traversed wide spaces to tie up with the world‟s largest transfer agent the leading

Australian company Computer share Limited The company that services more than 75 million

shareholders across 7000 corporate clients and makes its presence felt in over 12 countries across 5

continents has entered into a 50-50 joint venture with us

With our management team completely transferred to this new entity we will aim toenrich the financial services industry than before The future holds new arenas of client servicing

and contemporary and relevant technologies as we are geared to deliver better value and foster

bigger investments in the business The worldwide network of Computershare will hold us in

good stead as we expect to adopt international standards in addition to leveraging the best of

technologies from around the world

Excellence has to be the order of the day when two companies with such similar

ideologies of growth vision and competence get together wwwkarismakarvycom

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES

We have attained a position of immense strength as a provider of across-the-board

transfer agency services to AMCs Distributors and Investors

Nearly 40 of the top-notch AMCs including prestigious clients like Deutsche AMC and

UTI swear by the quality and range of services that we offer Besides providing the entire back

office processing we provide the link between various Mutual Funds and the investor including

services to the distributor the prime channel in this operation We have been with the AMCs

every step of the way helping them serve their investors better by offering them a diverse and

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Page 16

customized range of services The bdquofirst to market approach that is our anthem has earned us the

reputation of an innovative service provider with a visionary bent of mind

Our service enhancements such as bdquoKarvy Converz a full-fledged call center a top-line website

(wwwkarvymfscom) the bdquom-investor and many more creating a galaxy of customer

advantages

ISSUE REGISTRY

In our voyage towards becoming the largest transaction-processing house in the Indian

Corporate segment we have mobilized funds for numerous corporate Karvy has emerged as the

largest transaction-processing house for the Indian Corporate sector With an experience of

handling over 700 issues Karvy today has the ability to execute voluminous transactions andhard-core expertise in technology applications have gained us the No1 slot in the business

Karvy is the first Registry Company to receive ISO 9002 certification in India that stands

testimony to its stature

Karvy has the benefit of a good synergy between depositories and registry that enables faster

resolution to related customer queries Apart from its unique investor servicing presence in all

the phases of a public Issue it is actively coordinating with both the main depositories to develop

special models to enable the customer to access depository (NSDL CDSL) services during an

IPO Our trust-worthy reputation competent manpower and high-end technology and

infrastructure are the solid foundations on which our success is built

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CORPORATE SHAREHOLDER SERVICES

Karvy has been a customer centric company since its inception Karvy offers a single

platform servicing multiple financial instruments in its bid to offer complete financial solutions

to the varying needs of both corporate and retail investors where an extensive range of servicesare provided with great volume-management capability

Today Karvy is recognized as a company that can exceed customer expectations which is

the reason for the loyalty of customers towards Karvy for all his financial needs An opinion poll

commissioned by ldquoThe Merchant Banker Updaterdquo and conducted by the reputed market research

agency MARG revealed that Karvy was considered the ldquoMost Admiredrdquo in the registrar

category among financial services companies

We have grown from being a pure transaction processing business to one of complete

shareholder solutions

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Page 18

The specialist Business Process Outsourcing unit of the Karvy Group The legacy of

expertise and experience in financial services of the Karvy Group serves us well as we enter the

global arena with the confidence of being able to deliver and deliver well

Here we offer several delivery models on the understanding that business needs are

unique and therefore only a customized service could possibly fit the bill Our service matrix has

permutations and combinations that create several options to choose from

Be it in re-engineering and managing processes or delivering new efficiencies our

service meets up to the most stringent of international standards Our outsourcing models are

designed for the global customer and are backed by sound corporate and operations philosophies

and domain expertise Providing productivity improvements operational cost control cost

savings improved accountability and a whole gamut of other advantages

We operate in the core market segments that have emerging requirements for specialized

services Our wide vertical market coverage includes Banking Financial and Insurance Services

(BFIS) Retail and Merchandising Leisure and Entertainment Energy and Utility and

Healthcare

Our horizontal offerings do justice to our stance as a comprehensive BPO unit and

include a variety of services in Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Operations Human

Resource Outsourcing Operations Research and Analytics Outsourcing Operations and

Insurance Back Office Outsourcing Operations

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Page 19

At Karvy Commodities we are focused on taking commodities trading to new

dimensions of reliability and profitability We have made commodities trading an essentially

age-old practice into a sophisticated and scientific investment option

Here we enable trade in all goods and products of agricultural and mineral origin that

include lucrative commodities like gold and silver and popular items like oil pulses and cotton

through a well-systematized trading platform

Our technological and infrastructural strengths and especially our street-smart skills

make us an ideal broker Our service matrix is holistic with a gamut of advantages the first and

foremost being our legacy of human resources technology and infrastructure that comes from

being part of the Karvy Group

Our wide national network spanning the length and breadth of India further supports

these advantages Regular trading workshops and seminars are conducted to hone trading

strategies to perfection Every move made is a calculated one based on reliable research that is

converted into valuable information through daily weekly and monthly newsletters calls and

intraday alerts Further personalized service is provided here by a dedicated team committed to

giving hassle-free service while the brokerage rates offered are extremely

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Page 21

ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

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Page 22

QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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Page 28

SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Page 29

Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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Page 30

CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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Page 31

have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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Page 32

1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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Page 51

design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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Page 52

leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 11: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 11

KARVY publish a monthly magazine amp ldquo Karvy The Finapolisamprdquo which analyzes

the latest stock market trends and takes a close look at the various investment options and

products available in the market while a weekly report called amp ldquo

It also offer special portfolio analysis packages that provide daily technical advice on scrips for

successful portfolio management and provide customized advisory services to help you make the

right financial moves that are specifically suited to your portfolio Our Stock Broking services

are widely networked across India with the number of our trading terminals providing retail

stock broking facilities Our services have increasingly offered customer oriented convenience

which we provide to a spectrum of investors high-net worth or otherwise with equal dedication

and competence

To empower the investor further we have made serious efforts to ensure that our researchcalls are disseminated systematically to all our stock broking clients through various delivery

channels like email chat SMS phone calls etc

In the future our focus will be on the emerging businesses and to meet this objective we

have enhanced our manpower and revitalized our knowledge base with enhances focus on

Futures and Options as well as the commodities business

DEPOSITORY PARTICIPANTS

The onset of the technology revolution in financial services Industry saw the emergence of

Karvy as an electronic custodian registered with National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL)

and Central Securities Depository Ltd (CSDL) in 1998 Karvy set standards enabling further

comfort to the investor by promoting paperless trading across the country and emerged as the top

3 Depository Participants in the country in terms of customer serviced Offering a wide trading platform with a dual membership at both NSDL and CDSL we are a powerful medium for

trading and settlement of dematerialized shares

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 12

DISTRIBUTION OF FINANCIAL PRODUCTS

The paradigm shift from pure selling to knowledge based selling drives the business

today With our wide portfolio offerings we occupy all segments in the retail financial services

industry

A 1600 team of highly qualified and dedicated professionals drawn from the best of

academic and professional backgrounds are committed to maintaining high levels of client

service delivery This has propelled us to a position among the top distributors for equity and

debt issues with an estimated market share of 15 in terms of applications mobilized besides

being established as the leading procurer in all public issues

To further tap the immense growth potential in the capital markets we enhanced the scopeof our retail brand Karvy ndash the Finapolis thereby providing planning and advisory services to

the mass affluent Here we understand the customer needs and lifestyle in the context of present

earnings and provide adequate advisory services that will necessarily help in creating wealth

Judicious planning that is customized to meet the future needs of the customer deliver a service

that is exemplary The market-savvy and the ignorant investors both find this service very

satisfactory The edge that we have over competition is our portfolio of offerings and our

professional expertise The investment planning for each customer is done with an unbiased

attitude so that the service is truly customized

Our monthly magazine Finapolis provides up-dated market information on market

trends investment options opinions etc Thus empowering the investor to base every financial

move on rational thought and prudent analysis and embark on the path to wealth creation

ADVISORY SERVICES

Under our retail brand bdquoKarvy ndash the Finapolis we deliver advisory services to a cross-

section of customers The service is backed by a team of dedicated and expert professionals with

varied experience and background in handling investment portfolios They are continually

engaged in designing the right investment portfolio for each customer according to individual

needs and budget considerations with a comprehensive support system that focuses on trading

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Page 13

customers portfolios and providing valuable inputs monitoring and managing the portfolio

through varied technological initiatives This is made possible by the expertise we have gained in

the business over the years Another venture towards being investor-friendly is the circulation of

a monthly magazine called bdquoKarvy - the Finapolis Covering the latest of market news trends

investment schemes and research-based opinions from experts in various financial fields

PRIVATE CLIENT GROUP

This specialized division was set up to cater to the high net worth individuals and

institutional clients keeping in mind that they require a different kind of financial planning and

management that will augment not just existing finances but their life-style as well Here we

follow a hard-nosed business approach with the soft touch of dedicated customer care and

personalized attention

For this purpose we offer a comprehensive and personalized service that encompasses

planning and protection of finances planning of business needs and retirement needs and a host

of other services all provided on a one-to-one basis

Our research reports have been widely appreciated by this segment The delivery and

support modules have been fine tuned by giving our clients access to online portfolio

information constant updates on their portfolios as well as value-added advise on portfolio

churning sector switches etc The investment recommendations given by our research team in

the cash market have enjoyed a high success rate

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Page 14

MERCHANT BANKINGRecognized as a leading merchant banker in the country we are registered with SEBI as a

Category I merchant banker This reputation was built by capitalizing on opportunities in

corporate consolidations mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring which have

earned us the reputation of a merchant banker Raising resources for corporate or Government

Undertaking successfully over the past two decades have given us the confidence to renew our

focus in this sector

Our quality professional team and our work-oriented dedication have propelled us to

offer value-added corporate financial services and act as a professional navigator for long term

growth of our clients who include leading corporate State Governments foreign institutional

investors public and private sector companies and banks in Indian and global markets

We have also emerged as a trailblazer in the arena of relationships both at the customer

and trade levels because of our unshakable integrity seamless service and innovative solutions

that are tuned to meet varied needs Our team of committed industry specialists having extensive

experience in capital markets further nurtures this relationship

Our financial advice and assistance in restructuring divestitures acquisitions de-

mergers spin-offs joint ventures privatization and takeover defense mechanisms have elevated

our relationship with the client to one based on unshakable trust and confidence

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Page 15

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES I ISSUE REGISTRY I CORPORATE SHAREHOLDERSSERVICES

We have traversed wide spaces to tie up with the world‟s largest transfer agent the leading

Australian company Computer share Limited The company that services more than 75 million

shareholders across 7000 corporate clients and makes its presence felt in over 12 countries across 5

continents has entered into a 50-50 joint venture with us

With our management team completely transferred to this new entity we will aim toenrich the financial services industry than before The future holds new arenas of client servicing

and contemporary and relevant technologies as we are geared to deliver better value and foster

bigger investments in the business The worldwide network of Computershare will hold us in

good stead as we expect to adopt international standards in addition to leveraging the best of

technologies from around the world

Excellence has to be the order of the day when two companies with such similar

ideologies of growth vision and competence get together wwwkarismakarvycom

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES

We have attained a position of immense strength as a provider of across-the-board

transfer agency services to AMCs Distributors and Investors

Nearly 40 of the top-notch AMCs including prestigious clients like Deutsche AMC and

UTI swear by the quality and range of services that we offer Besides providing the entire back

office processing we provide the link between various Mutual Funds and the investor including

services to the distributor the prime channel in this operation We have been with the AMCs

every step of the way helping them serve their investors better by offering them a diverse and

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Page 16

customized range of services The bdquofirst to market approach that is our anthem has earned us the

reputation of an innovative service provider with a visionary bent of mind

Our service enhancements such as bdquoKarvy Converz a full-fledged call center a top-line website

(wwwkarvymfscom) the bdquom-investor and many more creating a galaxy of customer

advantages

ISSUE REGISTRY

In our voyage towards becoming the largest transaction-processing house in the Indian

Corporate segment we have mobilized funds for numerous corporate Karvy has emerged as the

largest transaction-processing house for the Indian Corporate sector With an experience of

handling over 700 issues Karvy today has the ability to execute voluminous transactions andhard-core expertise in technology applications have gained us the No1 slot in the business

Karvy is the first Registry Company to receive ISO 9002 certification in India that stands

testimony to its stature

Karvy has the benefit of a good synergy between depositories and registry that enables faster

resolution to related customer queries Apart from its unique investor servicing presence in all

the phases of a public Issue it is actively coordinating with both the main depositories to develop

special models to enable the customer to access depository (NSDL CDSL) services during an

IPO Our trust-worthy reputation competent manpower and high-end technology and

infrastructure are the solid foundations on which our success is built

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CORPORATE SHAREHOLDER SERVICES

Karvy has been a customer centric company since its inception Karvy offers a single

platform servicing multiple financial instruments in its bid to offer complete financial solutions

to the varying needs of both corporate and retail investors where an extensive range of servicesare provided with great volume-management capability

Today Karvy is recognized as a company that can exceed customer expectations which is

the reason for the loyalty of customers towards Karvy for all his financial needs An opinion poll

commissioned by ldquoThe Merchant Banker Updaterdquo and conducted by the reputed market research

agency MARG revealed that Karvy was considered the ldquoMost Admiredrdquo in the registrar

category among financial services companies

We have grown from being a pure transaction processing business to one of complete

shareholder solutions

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The specialist Business Process Outsourcing unit of the Karvy Group The legacy of

expertise and experience in financial services of the Karvy Group serves us well as we enter the

global arena with the confidence of being able to deliver and deliver well

Here we offer several delivery models on the understanding that business needs are

unique and therefore only a customized service could possibly fit the bill Our service matrix has

permutations and combinations that create several options to choose from

Be it in re-engineering and managing processes or delivering new efficiencies our

service meets up to the most stringent of international standards Our outsourcing models are

designed for the global customer and are backed by sound corporate and operations philosophies

and domain expertise Providing productivity improvements operational cost control cost

savings improved accountability and a whole gamut of other advantages

We operate in the core market segments that have emerging requirements for specialized

services Our wide vertical market coverage includes Banking Financial and Insurance Services

(BFIS) Retail and Merchandising Leisure and Entertainment Energy and Utility and

Healthcare

Our horizontal offerings do justice to our stance as a comprehensive BPO unit and

include a variety of services in Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Operations Human

Resource Outsourcing Operations Research and Analytics Outsourcing Operations and

Insurance Back Office Outsourcing Operations

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At Karvy Commodities we are focused on taking commodities trading to new

dimensions of reliability and profitability We have made commodities trading an essentially

age-old practice into a sophisticated and scientific investment option

Here we enable trade in all goods and products of agricultural and mineral origin that

include lucrative commodities like gold and silver and popular items like oil pulses and cotton

through a well-systematized trading platform

Our technological and infrastructural strengths and especially our street-smart skills

make us an ideal broker Our service matrix is holistic with a gamut of advantages the first and

foremost being our legacy of human resources technology and infrastructure that comes from

being part of the Karvy Group

Our wide national network spanning the length and breadth of India further supports

these advantages Regular trading workshops and seminars are conducted to hone trading

strategies to perfection Every move made is a calculated one based on reliable research that is

converted into valuable information through daily weekly and monthly newsletters calls and

intraday alerts Further personalized service is provided here by a dedicated team committed to

giving hassle-free service while the brokerage rates offered are extremely

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ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

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QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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Page 38

FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 12: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 12

DISTRIBUTION OF FINANCIAL PRODUCTS

The paradigm shift from pure selling to knowledge based selling drives the business

today With our wide portfolio offerings we occupy all segments in the retail financial services

industry

A 1600 team of highly qualified and dedicated professionals drawn from the best of

academic and professional backgrounds are committed to maintaining high levels of client

service delivery This has propelled us to a position among the top distributors for equity and

debt issues with an estimated market share of 15 in terms of applications mobilized besides

being established as the leading procurer in all public issues

To further tap the immense growth potential in the capital markets we enhanced the scopeof our retail brand Karvy ndash the Finapolis thereby providing planning and advisory services to

the mass affluent Here we understand the customer needs and lifestyle in the context of present

earnings and provide adequate advisory services that will necessarily help in creating wealth

Judicious planning that is customized to meet the future needs of the customer deliver a service

that is exemplary The market-savvy and the ignorant investors both find this service very

satisfactory The edge that we have over competition is our portfolio of offerings and our

professional expertise The investment planning for each customer is done with an unbiased

attitude so that the service is truly customized

Our monthly magazine Finapolis provides up-dated market information on market

trends investment options opinions etc Thus empowering the investor to base every financial

move on rational thought and prudent analysis and embark on the path to wealth creation

ADVISORY SERVICES

Under our retail brand bdquoKarvy ndash the Finapolis we deliver advisory services to a cross-

section of customers The service is backed by a team of dedicated and expert professionals with

varied experience and background in handling investment portfolios They are continually

engaged in designing the right investment portfolio for each customer according to individual

needs and budget considerations with a comprehensive support system that focuses on trading

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Page 13

customers portfolios and providing valuable inputs monitoring and managing the portfolio

through varied technological initiatives This is made possible by the expertise we have gained in

the business over the years Another venture towards being investor-friendly is the circulation of

a monthly magazine called bdquoKarvy - the Finapolis Covering the latest of market news trends

investment schemes and research-based opinions from experts in various financial fields

PRIVATE CLIENT GROUP

This specialized division was set up to cater to the high net worth individuals and

institutional clients keeping in mind that they require a different kind of financial planning and

management that will augment not just existing finances but their life-style as well Here we

follow a hard-nosed business approach with the soft touch of dedicated customer care and

personalized attention

For this purpose we offer a comprehensive and personalized service that encompasses

planning and protection of finances planning of business needs and retirement needs and a host

of other services all provided on a one-to-one basis

Our research reports have been widely appreciated by this segment The delivery and

support modules have been fine tuned by giving our clients access to online portfolio

information constant updates on their portfolios as well as value-added advise on portfolio

churning sector switches etc The investment recommendations given by our research team in

the cash market have enjoyed a high success rate

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Page 14

MERCHANT BANKINGRecognized as a leading merchant banker in the country we are registered with SEBI as a

Category I merchant banker This reputation was built by capitalizing on opportunities in

corporate consolidations mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring which have

earned us the reputation of a merchant banker Raising resources for corporate or Government

Undertaking successfully over the past two decades have given us the confidence to renew our

focus in this sector

Our quality professional team and our work-oriented dedication have propelled us to

offer value-added corporate financial services and act as a professional navigator for long term

growth of our clients who include leading corporate State Governments foreign institutional

investors public and private sector companies and banks in Indian and global markets

We have also emerged as a trailblazer in the arena of relationships both at the customer

and trade levels because of our unshakable integrity seamless service and innovative solutions

that are tuned to meet varied needs Our team of committed industry specialists having extensive

experience in capital markets further nurtures this relationship

Our financial advice and assistance in restructuring divestitures acquisitions de-

mergers spin-offs joint ventures privatization and takeover defense mechanisms have elevated

our relationship with the client to one based on unshakable trust and confidence

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Page 15

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES I ISSUE REGISTRY I CORPORATE SHAREHOLDERSSERVICES

We have traversed wide spaces to tie up with the world‟s largest transfer agent the leading

Australian company Computer share Limited The company that services more than 75 million

shareholders across 7000 corporate clients and makes its presence felt in over 12 countries across 5

continents has entered into a 50-50 joint venture with us

With our management team completely transferred to this new entity we will aim toenrich the financial services industry than before The future holds new arenas of client servicing

and contemporary and relevant technologies as we are geared to deliver better value and foster

bigger investments in the business The worldwide network of Computershare will hold us in

good stead as we expect to adopt international standards in addition to leveraging the best of

technologies from around the world

Excellence has to be the order of the day when two companies with such similar

ideologies of growth vision and competence get together wwwkarismakarvycom

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES

We have attained a position of immense strength as a provider of across-the-board

transfer agency services to AMCs Distributors and Investors

Nearly 40 of the top-notch AMCs including prestigious clients like Deutsche AMC and

UTI swear by the quality and range of services that we offer Besides providing the entire back

office processing we provide the link between various Mutual Funds and the investor including

services to the distributor the prime channel in this operation We have been with the AMCs

every step of the way helping them serve their investors better by offering them a diverse and

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Page 16

customized range of services The bdquofirst to market approach that is our anthem has earned us the

reputation of an innovative service provider with a visionary bent of mind

Our service enhancements such as bdquoKarvy Converz a full-fledged call center a top-line website

(wwwkarvymfscom) the bdquom-investor and many more creating a galaxy of customer

advantages

ISSUE REGISTRY

In our voyage towards becoming the largest transaction-processing house in the Indian

Corporate segment we have mobilized funds for numerous corporate Karvy has emerged as the

largest transaction-processing house for the Indian Corporate sector With an experience of

handling over 700 issues Karvy today has the ability to execute voluminous transactions andhard-core expertise in technology applications have gained us the No1 slot in the business

Karvy is the first Registry Company to receive ISO 9002 certification in India that stands

testimony to its stature

Karvy has the benefit of a good synergy between depositories and registry that enables faster

resolution to related customer queries Apart from its unique investor servicing presence in all

the phases of a public Issue it is actively coordinating with both the main depositories to develop

special models to enable the customer to access depository (NSDL CDSL) services during an

IPO Our trust-worthy reputation competent manpower and high-end technology and

infrastructure are the solid foundations on which our success is built

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Page 17

CORPORATE SHAREHOLDER SERVICES

Karvy has been a customer centric company since its inception Karvy offers a single

platform servicing multiple financial instruments in its bid to offer complete financial solutions

to the varying needs of both corporate and retail investors where an extensive range of servicesare provided with great volume-management capability

Today Karvy is recognized as a company that can exceed customer expectations which is

the reason for the loyalty of customers towards Karvy for all his financial needs An opinion poll

commissioned by ldquoThe Merchant Banker Updaterdquo and conducted by the reputed market research

agency MARG revealed that Karvy was considered the ldquoMost Admiredrdquo in the registrar

category among financial services companies

We have grown from being a pure transaction processing business to one of complete

shareholder solutions

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Page 18

The specialist Business Process Outsourcing unit of the Karvy Group The legacy of

expertise and experience in financial services of the Karvy Group serves us well as we enter the

global arena with the confidence of being able to deliver and deliver well

Here we offer several delivery models on the understanding that business needs are

unique and therefore only a customized service could possibly fit the bill Our service matrix has

permutations and combinations that create several options to choose from

Be it in re-engineering and managing processes or delivering new efficiencies our

service meets up to the most stringent of international standards Our outsourcing models are

designed for the global customer and are backed by sound corporate and operations philosophies

and domain expertise Providing productivity improvements operational cost control cost

savings improved accountability and a whole gamut of other advantages

We operate in the core market segments that have emerging requirements for specialized

services Our wide vertical market coverage includes Banking Financial and Insurance Services

(BFIS) Retail and Merchandising Leisure and Entertainment Energy and Utility and

Healthcare

Our horizontal offerings do justice to our stance as a comprehensive BPO unit and

include a variety of services in Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Operations Human

Resource Outsourcing Operations Research and Analytics Outsourcing Operations and

Insurance Back Office Outsourcing Operations

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Page 19

At Karvy Commodities we are focused on taking commodities trading to new

dimensions of reliability and profitability We have made commodities trading an essentially

age-old practice into a sophisticated and scientific investment option

Here we enable trade in all goods and products of agricultural and mineral origin that

include lucrative commodities like gold and silver and popular items like oil pulses and cotton

through a well-systematized trading platform

Our technological and infrastructural strengths and especially our street-smart skills

make us an ideal broker Our service matrix is holistic with a gamut of advantages the first and

foremost being our legacy of human resources technology and infrastructure that comes from

being part of the Karvy Group

Our wide national network spanning the length and breadth of India further supports

these advantages Regular trading workshops and seminars are conducted to hone trading

strategies to perfection Every move made is a calculated one based on reliable research that is

converted into valuable information through daily weekly and monthly newsletters calls and

intraday alerts Further personalized service is provided here by a dedicated team committed to

giving hassle-free service while the brokerage rates offered are extremely

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Page 21

ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

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Page 22

QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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Page 23

INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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Page 24

MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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Page 25

THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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Page 26

ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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Page 27

BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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Page 46

successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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Page 47

clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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Page 48

pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

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Page 13

customers portfolios and providing valuable inputs monitoring and managing the portfolio

through varied technological initiatives This is made possible by the expertise we have gained in

the business over the years Another venture towards being investor-friendly is the circulation of

a monthly magazine called bdquoKarvy - the Finapolis Covering the latest of market news trends

investment schemes and research-based opinions from experts in various financial fields

PRIVATE CLIENT GROUP

This specialized division was set up to cater to the high net worth individuals and

institutional clients keeping in mind that they require a different kind of financial planning and

management that will augment not just existing finances but their life-style as well Here we

follow a hard-nosed business approach with the soft touch of dedicated customer care and

personalized attention

For this purpose we offer a comprehensive and personalized service that encompasses

planning and protection of finances planning of business needs and retirement needs and a host

of other services all provided on a one-to-one basis

Our research reports have been widely appreciated by this segment The delivery and

support modules have been fine tuned by giving our clients access to online portfolio

information constant updates on their portfolios as well as value-added advise on portfolio

churning sector switches etc The investment recommendations given by our research team in

the cash market have enjoyed a high success rate

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Page 14

MERCHANT BANKINGRecognized as a leading merchant banker in the country we are registered with SEBI as a

Category I merchant banker This reputation was built by capitalizing on opportunities in

corporate consolidations mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring which have

earned us the reputation of a merchant banker Raising resources for corporate or Government

Undertaking successfully over the past two decades have given us the confidence to renew our

focus in this sector

Our quality professional team and our work-oriented dedication have propelled us to

offer value-added corporate financial services and act as a professional navigator for long term

growth of our clients who include leading corporate State Governments foreign institutional

investors public and private sector companies and banks in Indian and global markets

We have also emerged as a trailblazer in the arena of relationships both at the customer

and trade levels because of our unshakable integrity seamless service and innovative solutions

that are tuned to meet varied needs Our team of committed industry specialists having extensive

experience in capital markets further nurtures this relationship

Our financial advice and assistance in restructuring divestitures acquisitions de-

mergers spin-offs joint ventures privatization and takeover defense mechanisms have elevated

our relationship with the client to one based on unshakable trust and confidence

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Page 15

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES I ISSUE REGISTRY I CORPORATE SHAREHOLDERSSERVICES

We have traversed wide spaces to tie up with the world‟s largest transfer agent the leading

Australian company Computer share Limited The company that services more than 75 million

shareholders across 7000 corporate clients and makes its presence felt in over 12 countries across 5

continents has entered into a 50-50 joint venture with us

With our management team completely transferred to this new entity we will aim toenrich the financial services industry than before The future holds new arenas of client servicing

and contemporary and relevant technologies as we are geared to deliver better value and foster

bigger investments in the business The worldwide network of Computershare will hold us in

good stead as we expect to adopt international standards in addition to leveraging the best of

technologies from around the world

Excellence has to be the order of the day when two companies with such similar

ideologies of growth vision and competence get together wwwkarismakarvycom

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES

We have attained a position of immense strength as a provider of across-the-board

transfer agency services to AMCs Distributors and Investors

Nearly 40 of the top-notch AMCs including prestigious clients like Deutsche AMC and

UTI swear by the quality and range of services that we offer Besides providing the entire back

office processing we provide the link between various Mutual Funds and the investor including

services to the distributor the prime channel in this operation We have been with the AMCs

every step of the way helping them serve their investors better by offering them a diverse and

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Page 16

customized range of services The bdquofirst to market approach that is our anthem has earned us the

reputation of an innovative service provider with a visionary bent of mind

Our service enhancements such as bdquoKarvy Converz a full-fledged call center a top-line website

(wwwkarvymfscom) the bdquom-investor and many more creating a galaxy of customer

advantages

ISSUE REGISTRY

In our voyage towards becoming the largest transaction-processing house in the Indian

Corporate segment we have mobilized funds for numerous corporate Karvy has emerged as the

largest transaction-processing house for the Indian Corporate sector With an experience of

handling over 700 issues Karvy today has the ability to execute voluminous transactions andhard-core expertise in technology applications have gained us the No1 slot in the business

Karvy is the first Registry Company to receive ISO 9002 certification in India that stands

testimony to its stature

Karvy has the benefit of a good synergy between depositories and registry that enables faster

resolution to related customer queries Apart from its unique investor servicing presence in all

the phases of a public Issue it is actively coordinating with both the main depositories to develop

special models to enable the customer to access depository (NSDL CDSL) services during an

IPO Our trust-worthy reputation competent manpower and high-end technology and

infrastructure are the solid foundations on which our success is built

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Page 17

CORPORATE SHAREHOLDER SERVICES

Karvy has been a customer centric company since its inception Karvy offers a single

platform servicing multiple financial instruments in its bid to offer complete financial solutions

to the varying needs of both corporate and retail investors where an extensive range of servicesare provided with great volume-management capability

Today Karvy is recognized as a company that can exceed customer expectations which is

the reason for the loyalty of customers towards Karvy for all his financial needs An opinion poll

commissioned by ldquoThe Merchant Banker Updaterdquo and conducted by the reputed market research

agency MARG revealed that Karvy was considered the ldquoMost Admiredrdquo in the registrar

category among financial services companies

We have grown from being a pure transaction processing business to one of complete

shareholder solutions

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Page 18

The specialist Business Process Outsourcing unit of the Karvy Group The legacy of

expertise and experience in financial services of the Karvy Group serves us well as we enter the

global arena with the confidence of being able to deliver and deliver well

Here we offer several delivery models on the understanding that business needs are

unique and therefore only a customized service could possibly fit the bill Our service matrix has

permutations and combinations that create several options to choose from

Be it in re-engineering and managing processes or delivering new efficiencies our

service meets up to the most stringent of international standards Our outsourcing models are

designed for the global customer and are backed by sound corporate and operations philosophies

and domain expertise Providing productivity improvements operational cost control cost

savings improved accountability and a whole gamut of other advantages

We operate in the core market segments that have emerging requirements for specialized

services Our wide vertical market coverage includes Banking Financial and Insurance Services

(BFIS) Retail and Merchandising Leisure and Entertainment Energy and Utility and

Healthcare

Our horizontal offerings do justice to our stance as a comprehensive BPO unit and

include a variety of services in Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Operations Human

Resource Outsourcing Operations Research and Analytics Outsourcing Operations and

Insurance Back Office Outsourcing Operations

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At Karvy Commodities we are focused on taking commodities trading to new

dimensions of reliability and profitability We have made commodities trading an essentially

age-old practice into a sophisticated and scientific investment option

Here we enable trade in all goods and products of agricultural and mineral origin that

include lucrative commodities like gold and silver and popular items like oil pulses and cotton

through a well-systematized trading platform

Our technological and infrastructural strengths and especially our street-smart skills

make us an ideal broker Our service matrix is holistic with a gamut of advantages the first and

foremost being our legacy of human resources technology and infrastructure that comes from

being part of the Karvy Group

Our wide national network spanning the length and breadth of India further supports

these advantages Regular trading workshops and seminars are conducted to hone trading

strategies to perfection Every move made is a calculated one based on reliable research that is

converted into valuable information through daily weekly and monthly newsletters calls and

intraday alerts Further personalized service is provided here by a dedicated team committed to

giving hassle-free service while the brokerage rates offered are extremely

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Page 21

ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

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Page 22

QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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Page 25

THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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Page 31

have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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Page 33

2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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Page 34

MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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Page 35

WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 14: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 14

MERCHANT BANKINGRecognized as a leading merchant banker in the country we are registered with SEBI as a

Category I merchant banker This reputation was built by capitalizing on opportunities in

corporate consolidations mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring which have

earned us the reputation of a merchant banker Raising resources for corporate or Government

Undertaking successfully over the past two decades have given us the confidence to renew our

focus in this sector

Our quality professional team and our work-oriented dedication have propelled us to

offer value-added corporate financial services and act as a professional navigator for long term

growth of our clients who include leading corporate State Governments foreign institutional

investors public and private sector companies and banks in Indian and global markets

We have also emerged as a trailblazer in the arena of relationships both at the customer

and trade levels because of our unshakable integrity seamless service and innovative solutions

that are tuned to meet varied needs Our team of committed industry specialists having extensive

experience in capital markets further nurtures this relationship

Our financial advice and assistance in restructuring divestitures acquisitions de-

mergers spin-offs joint ventures privatization and takeover defense mechanisms have elevated

our relationship with the client to one based on unshakable trust and confidence

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Page 15

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES I ISSUE REGISTRY I CORPORATE SHAREHOLDERSSERVICES

We have traversed wide spaces to tie up with the world‟s largest transfer agent the leading

Australian company Computer share Limited The company that services more than 75 million

shareholders across 7000 corporate clients and makes its presence felt in over 12 countries across 5

continents has entered into a 50-50 joint venture with us

With our management team completely transferred to this new entity we will aim toenrich the financial services industry than before The future holds new arenas of client servicing

and contemporary and relevant technologies as we are geared to deliver better value and foster

bigger investments in the business The worldwide network of Computershare will hold us in

good stead as we expect to adopt international standards in addition to leveraging the best of

technologies from around the world

Excellence has to be the order of the day when two companies with such similar

ideologies of growth vision and competence get together wwwkarismakarvycom

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES

We have attained a position of immense strength as a provider of across-the-board

transfer agency services to AMCs Distributors and Investors

Nearly 40 of the top-notch AMCs including prestigious clients like Deutsche AMC and

UTI swear by the quality and range of services that we offer Besides providing the entire back

office processing we provide the link between various Mutual Funds and the investor including

services to the distributor the prime channel in this operation We have been with the AMCs

every step of the way helping them serve their investors better by offering them a diverse and

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Page 16

customized range of services The bdquofirst to market approach that is our anthem has earned us the

reputation of an innovative service provider with a visionary bent of mind

Our service enhancements such as bdquoKarvy Converz a full-fledged call center a top-line website

(wwwkarvymfscom) the bdquom-investor and many more creating a galaxy of customer

advantages

ISSUE REGISTRY

In our voyage towards becoming the largest transaction-processing house in the Indian

Corporate segment we have mobilized funds for numerous corporate Karvy has emerged as the

largest transaction-processing house for the Indian Corporate sector With an experience of

handling over 700 issues Karvy today has the ability to execute voluminous transactions andhard-core expertise in technology applications have gained us the No1 slot in the business

Karvy is the first Registry Company to receive ISO 9002 certification in India that stands

testimony to its stature

Karvy has the benefit of a good synergy between depositories and registry that enables faster

resolution to related customer queries Apart from its unique investor servicing presence in all

the phases of a public Issue it is actively coordinating with both the main depositories to develop

special models to enable the customer to access depository (NSDL CDSL) services during an

IPO Our trust-worthy reputation competent manpower and high-end technology and

infrastructure are the solid foundations on which our success is built

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Page 17

CORPORATE SHAREHOLDER SERVICES

Karvy has been a customer centric company since its inception Karvy offers a single

platform servicing multiple financial instruments in its bid to offer complete financial solutions

to the varying needs of both corporate and retail investors where an extensive range of servicesare provided with great volume-management capability

Today Karvy is recognized as a company that can exceed customer expectations which is

the reason for the loyalty of customers towards Karvy for all his financial needs An opinion poll

commissioned by ldquoThe Merchant Banker Updaterdquo and conducted by the reputed market research

agency MARG revealed that Karvy was considered the ldquoMost Admiredrdquo in the registrar

category among financial services companies

We have grown from being a pure transaction processing business to one of complete

shareholder solutions

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Page 18

The specialist Business Process Outsourcing unit of the Karvy Group The legacy of

expertise and experience in financial services of the Karvy Group serves us well as we enter the

global arena with the confidence of being able to deliver and deliver well

Here we offer several delivery models on the understanding that business needs are

unique and therefore only a customized service could possibly fit the bill Our service matrix has

permutations and combinations that create several options to choose from

Be it in re-engineering and managing processes or delivering new efficiencies our

service meets up to the most stringent of international standards Our outsourcing models are

designed for the global customer and are backed by sound corporate and operations philosophies

and domain expertise Providing productivity improvements operational cost control cost

savings improved accountability and a whole gamut of other advantages

We operate in the core market segments that have emerging requirements for specialized

services Our wide vertical market coverage includes Banking Financial and Insurance Services

(BFIS) Retail and Merchandising Leisure and Entertainment Energy and Utility and

Healthcare

Our horizontal offerings do justice to our stance as a comprehensive BPO unit and

include a variety of services in Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Operations Human

Resource Outsourcing Operations Research and Analytics Outsourcing Operations and

Insurance Back Office Outsourcing Operations

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Page 19

At Karvy Commodities we are focused on taking commodities trading to new

dimensions of reliability and profitability We have made commodities trading an essentially

age-old practice into a sophisticated and scientific investment option

Here we enable trade in all goods and products of agricultural and mineral origin that

include lucrative commodities like gold and silver and popular items like oil pulses and cotton

through a well-systematized trading platform

Our technological and infrastructural strengths and especially our street-smart skills

make us an ideal broker Our service matrix is holistic with a gamut of advantages the first and

foremost being our legacy of human resources technology and infrastructure that comes from

being part of the Karvy Group

Our wide national network spanning the length and breadth of India further supports

these advantages Regular trading workshops and seminars are conducted to hone trading

strategies to perfection Every move made is a calculated one based on reliable research that is

converted into valuable information through daily weekly and monthly newsletters calls and

intraday alerts Further personalized service is provided here by a dedicated team committed to

giving hassle-free service while the brokerage rates offered are extremely

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Page 21

ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

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Page 22

QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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Page 23

INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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Page 24

MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

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Page 15

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES I ISSUE REGISTRY I CORPORATE SHAREHOLDERSSERVICES

We have traversed wide spaces to tie up with the world‟s largest transfer agent the leading

Australian company Computer share Limited The company that services more than 75 million

shareholders across 7000 corporate clients and makes its presence felt in over 12 countries across 5

continents has entered into a 50-50 joint venture with us

With our management team completely transferred to this new entity we will aim toenrich the financial services industry than before The future holds new arenas of client servicing

and contemporary and relevant technologies as we are geared to deliver better value and foster

bigger investments in the business The worldwide network of Computershare will hold us in

good stead as we expect to adopt international standards in addition to leveraging the best of

technologies from around the world

Excellence has to be the order of the day when two companies with such similar

ideologies of growth vision and competence get together wwwkarismakarvycom

MUTUAL FUND SERVICES

We have attained a position of immense strength as a provider of across-the-board

transfer agency services to AMCs Distributors and Investors

Nearly 40 of the top-notch AMCs including prestigious clients like Deutsche AMC and

UTI swear by the quality and range of services that we offer Besides providing the entire back

office processing we provide the link between various Mutual Funds and the investor including

services to the distributor the prime channel in this operation We have been with the AMCs

every step of the way helping them serve their investors better by offering them a diverse and

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Page 16

customized range of services The bdquofirst to market approach that is our anthem has earned us the

reputation of an innovative service provider with a visionary bent of mind

Our service enhancements such as bdquoKarvy Converz a full-fledged call center a top-line website

(wwwkarvymfscom) the bdquom-investor and many more creating a galaxy of customer

advantages

ISSUE REGISTRY

In our voyage towards becoming the largest transaction-processing house in the Indian

Corporate segment we have mobilized funds for numerous corporate Karvy has emerged as the

largest transaction-processing house for the Indian Corporate sector With an experience of

handling over 700 issues Karvy today has the ability to execute voluminous transactions andhard-core expertise in technology applications have gained us the No1 slot in the business

Karvy is the first Registry Company to receive ISO 9002 certification in India that stands

testimony to its stature

Karvy has the benefit of a good synergy between depositories and registry that enables faster

resolution to related customer queries Apart from its unique investor servicing presence in all

the phases of a public Issue it is actively coordinating with both the main depositories to develop

special models to enable the customer to access depository (NSDL CDSL) services during an

IPO Our trust-worthy reputation competent manpower and high-end technology and

infrastructure are the solid foundations on which our success is built

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Page 17

CORPORATE SHAREHOLDER SERVICES

Karvy has been a customer centric company since its inception Karvy offers a single

platform servicing multiple financial instruments in its bid to offer complete financial solutions

to the varying needs of both corporate and retail investors where an extensive range of servicesare provided with great volume-management capability

Today Karvy is recognized as a company that can exceed customer expectations which is

the reason for the loyalty of customers towards Karvy for all his financial needs An opinion poll

commissioned by ldquoThe Merchant Banker Updaterdquo and conducted by the reputed market research

agency MARG revealed that Karvy was considered the ldquoMost Admiredrdquo in the registrar

category among financial services companies

We have grown from being a pure transaction processing business to one of complete

shareholder solutions

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Page 18

The specialist Business Process Outsourcing unit of the Karvy Group The legacy of

expertise and experience in financial services of the Karvy Group serves us well as we enter the

global arena with the confidence of being able to deliver and deliver well

Here we offer several delivery models on the understanding that business needs are

unique and therefore only a customized service could possibly fit the bill Our service matrix has

permutations and combinations that create several options to choose from

Be it in re-engineering and managing processes or delivering new efficiencies our

service meets up to the most stringent of international standards Our outsourcing models are

designed for the global customer and are backed by sound corporate and operations philosophies

and domain expertise Providing productivity improvements operational cost control cost

savings improved accountability and a whole gamut of other advantages

We operate in the core market segments that have emerging requirements for specialized

services Our wide vertical market coverage includes Banking Financial and Insurance Services

(BFIS) Retail and Merchandising Leisure and Entertainment Energy and Utility and

Healthcare

Our horizontal offerings do justice to our stance as a comprehensive BPO unit and

include a variety of services in Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Operations Human

Resource Outsourcing Operations Research and Analytics Outsourcing Operations and

Insurance Back Office Outsourcing Operations

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Page 19

At Karvy Commodities we are focused on taking commodities trading to new

dimensions of reliability and profitability We have made commodities trading an essentially

age-old practice into a sophisticated and scientific investment option

Here we enable trade in all goods and products of agricultural and mineral origin that

include lucrative commodities like gold and silver and popular items like oil pulses and cotton

through a well-systematized trading platform

Our technological and infrastructural strengths and especially our street-smart skills

make us an ideal broker Our service matrix is holistic with a gamut of advantages the first and

foremost being our legacy of human resources technology and infrastructure that comes from

being part of the Karvy Group

Our wide national network spanning the length and breadth of India further supports

these advantages Regular trading workshops and seminars are conducted to hone trading

strategies to perfection Every move made is a calculated one based on reliable research that is

converted into valuable information through daily weekly and monthly newsletters calls and

intraday alerts Further personalized service is provided here by a dedicated team committed to

giving hassle-free service while the brokerage rates offered are extremely

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Page 21

ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

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Page 22

QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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Page 23

INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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Page 25

THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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Page 33

2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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Page 34

MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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Page 35

WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 16: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 16

customized range of services The bdquofirst to market approach that is our anthem has earned us the

reputation of an innovative service provider with a visionary bent of mind

Our service enhancements such as bdquoKarvy Converz a full-fledged call center a top-line website

(wwwkarvymfscom) the bdquom-investor and many more creating a galaxy of customer

advantages

ISSUE REGISTRY

In our voyage towards becoming the largest transaction-processing house in the Indian

Corporate segment we have mobilized funds for numerous corporate Karvy has emerged as the

largest transaction-processing house for the Indian Corporate sector With an experience of

handling over 700 issues Karvy today has the ability to execute voluminous transactions andhard-core expertise in technology applications have gained us the No1 slot in the business

Karvy is the first Registry Company to receive ISO 9002 certification in India that stands

testimony to its stature

Karvy has the benefit of a good synergy between depositories and registry that enables faster

resolution to related customer queries Apart from its unique investor servicing presence in all

the phases of a public Issue it is actively coordinating with both the main depositories to develop

special models to enable the customer to access depository (NSDL CDSL) services during an

IPO Our trust-worthy reputation competent manpower and high-end technology and

infrastructure are the solid foundations on which our success is built

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Page 17

CORPORATE SHAREHOLDER SERVICES

Karvy has been a customer centric company since its inception Karvy offers a single

platform servicing multiple financial instruments in its bid to offer complete financial solutions

to the varying needs of both corporate and retail investors where an extensive range of servicesare provided with great volume-management capability

Today Karvy is recognized as a company that can exceed customer expectations which is

the reason for the loyalty of customers towards Karvy for all his financial needs An opinion poll

commissioned by ldquoThe Merchant Banker Updaterdquo and conducted by the reputed market research

agency MARG revealed that Karvy was considered the ldquoMost Admiredrdquo in the registrar

category among financial services companies

We have grown from being a pure transaction processing business to one of complete

shareholder solutions

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Page 18

The specialist Business Process Outsourcing unit of the Karvy Group The legacy of

expertise and experience in financial services of the Karvy Group serves us well as we enter the

global arena with the confidence of being able to deliver and deliver well

Here we offer several delivery models on the understanding that business needs are

unique and therefore only a customized service could possibly fit the bill Our service matrix has

permutations and combinations that create several options to choose from

Be it in re-engineering and managing processes or delivering new efficiencies our

service meets up to the most stringent of international standards Our outsourcing models are

designed for the global customer and are backed by sound corporate and operations philosophies

and domain expertise Providing productivity improvements operational cost control cost

savings improved accountability and a whole gamut of other advantages

We operate in the core market segments that have emerging requirements for specialized

services Our wide vertical market coverage includes Banking Financial and Insurance Services

(BFIS) Retail and Merchandising Leisure and Entertainment Energy and Utility and

Healthcare

Our horizontal offerings do justice to our stance as a comprehensive BPO unit and

include a variety of services in Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Operations Human

Resource Outsourcing Operations Research and Analytics Outsourcing Operations and

Insurance Back Office Outsourcing Operations

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Page 19

At Karvy Commodities we are focused on taking commodities trading to new

dimensions of reliability and profitability We have made commodities trading an essentially

age-old practice into a sophisticated and scientific investment option

Here we enable trade in all goods and products of agricultural and mineral origin that

include lucrative commodities like gold and silver and popular items like oil pulses and cotton

through a well-systematized trading platform

Our technological and infrastructural strengths and especially our street-smart skills

make us an ideal broker Our service matrix is holistic with a gamut of advantages the first and

foremost being our legacy of human resources technology and infrastructure that comes from

being part of the Karvy Group

Our wide national network spanning the length and breadth of India further supports

these advantages Regular trading workshops and seminars are conducted to hone trading

strategies to perfection Every move made is a calculated one based on reliable research that is

converted into valuable information through daily weekly and monthly newsletters calls and

intraday alerts Further personalized service is provided here by a dedicated team committed to

giving hassle-free service while the brokerage rates offered are extremely

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Page 21

ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

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Page 22

QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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Page 23

INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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Page 24

MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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Page 25

THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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Page 26

ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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Page 27

BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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Page 47

clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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Page 48

pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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Page 51

design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

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Page 17

CORPORATE SHAREHOLDER SERVICES

Karvy has been a customer centric company since its inception Karvy offers a single

platform servicing multiple financial instruments in its bid to offer complete financial solutions

to the varying needs of both corporate and retail investors where an extensive range of servicesare provided with great volume-management capability

Today Karvy is recognized as a company that can exceed customer expectations which is

the reason for the loyalty of customers towards Karvy for all his financial needs An opinion poll

commissioned by ldquoThe Merchant Banker Updaterdquo and conducted by the reputed market research

agency MARG revealed that Karvy was considered the ldquoMost Admiredrdquo in the registrar

category among financial services companies

We have grown from being a pure transaction processing business to one of complete

shareholder solutions

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Page 18

The specialist Business Process Outsourcing unit of the Karvy Group The legacy of

expertise and experience in financial services of the Karvy Group serves us well as we enter the

global arena with the confidence of being able to deliver and deliver well

Here we offer several delivery models on the understanding that business needs are

unique and therefore only a customized service could possibly fit the bill Our service matrix has

permutations and combinations that create several options to choose from

Be it in re-engineering and managing processes or delivering new efficiencies our

service meets up to the most stringent of international standards Our outsourcing models are

designed for the global customer and are backed by sound corporate and operations philosophies

and domain expertise Providing productivity improvements operational cost control cost

savings improved accountability and a whole gamut of other advantages

We operate in the core market segments that have emerging requirements for specialized

services Our wide vertical market coverage includes Banking Financial and Insurance Services

(BFIS) Retail and Merchandising Leisure and Entertainment Energy and Utility and

Healthcare

Our horizontal offerings do justice to our stance as a comprehensive BPO unit and

include a variety of services in Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Operations Human

Resource Outsourcing Operations Research and Analytics Outsourcing Operations and

Insurance Back Office Outsourcing Operations

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Page 19

At Karvy Commodities we are focused on taking commodities trading to new

dimensions of reliability and profitability We have made commodities trading an essentially

age-old practice into a sophisticated and scientific investment option

Here we enable trade in all goods and products of agricultural and mineral origin that

include lucrative commodities like gold and silver and popular items like oil pulses and cotton

through a well-systematized trading platform

Our technological and infrastructural strengths and especially our street-smart skills

make us an ideal broker Our service matrix is holistic with a gamut of advantages the first and

foremost being our legacy of human resources technology and infrastructure that comes from

being part of the Karvy Group

Our wide national network spanning the length and breadth of India further supports

these advantages Regular trading workshops and seminars are conducted to hone trading

strategies to perfection Every move made is a calculated one based on reliable research that is

converted into valuable information through daily weekly and monthly newsletters calls and

intraday alerts Further personalized service is provided here by a dedicated team committed to

giving hassle-free service while the brokerage rates offered are extremely

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Page 21

ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

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Page 22

QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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Page 23

INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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Page 25

THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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Page 28

SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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Page 35

WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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Page 38

FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Page 41

Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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Page 42

generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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Page 48

pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 18: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 18

The specialist Business Process Outsourcing unit of the Karvy Group The legacy of

expertise and experience in financial services of the Karvy Group serves us well as we enter the

global arena with the confidence of being able to deliver and deliver well

Here we offer several delivery models on the understanding that business needs are

unique and therefore only a customized service could possibly fit the bill Our service matrix has

permutations and combinations that create several options to choose from

Be it in re-engineering and managing processes or delivering new efficiencies our

service meets up to the most stringent of international standards Our outsourcing models are

designed for the global customer and are backed by sound corporate and operations philosophies

and domain expertise Providing productivity improvements operational cost control cost

savings improved accountability and a whole gamut of other advantages

We operate in the core market segments that have emerging requirements for specialized

services Our wide vertical market coverage includes Banking Financial and Insurance Services

(BFIS) Retail and Merchandising Leisure and Entertainment Energy and Utility and

Healthcare

Our horizontal offerings do justice to our stance as a comprehensive BPO unit and

include a variety of services in Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Operations Human

Resource Outsourcing Operations Research and Analytics Outsourcing Operations and

Insurance Back Office Outsourcing Operations

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Page 19

At Karvy Commodities we are focused on taking commodities trading to new

dimensions of reliability and profitability We have made commodities trading an essentially

age-old practice into a sophisticated and scientific investment option

Here we enable trade in all goods and products of agricultural and mineral origin that

include lucrative commodities like gold and silver and popular items like oil pulses and cotton

through a well-systematized trading platform

Our technological and infrastructural strengths and especially our street-smart skills

make us an ideal broker Our service matrix is holistic with a gamut of advantages the first and

foremost being our legacy of human resources technology and infrastructure that comes from

being part of the Karvy Group

Our wide national network spanning the length and breadth of India further supports

these advantages Regular trading workshops and seminars are conducted to hone trading

strategies to perfection Every move made is a calculated one based on reliable research that is

converted into valuable information through daily weekly and monthly newsletters calls and

intraday alerts Further personalized service is provided here by a dedicated team committed to

giving hassle-free service while the brokerage rates offered are extremely

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Page 21

ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

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Page 22

QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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Page 23

INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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Page 24

MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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Page 25

THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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Page 26

ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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Page 27

BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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Page 28

SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Page 29

Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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Page 30

CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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Page 31

have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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Page 33

2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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Page 52

leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 19: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 19

At Karvy Commodities we are focused on taking commodities trading to new

dimensions of reliability and profitability We have made commodities trading an essentially

age-old practice into a sophisticated and scientific investment option

Here we enable trade in all goods and products of agricultural and mineral origin that

include lucrative commodities like gold and silver and popular items like oil pulses and cotton

through a well-systematized trading platform

Our technological and infrastructural strengths and especially our street-smart skills

make us an ideal broker Our service matrix is holistic with a gamut of advantages the first and

foremost being our legacy of human resources technology and infrastructure that comes from

being part of the Karvy Group

Our wide national network spanning the length and breadth of India further supports

these advantages Regular trading workshops and seminars are conducted to hone trading

strategies to perfection Every move made is a calculated one based on reliable research that is

converted into valuable information through daily weekly and monthly newsletters calls and

intraday alerts Further personalized service is provided here by a dedicated team committed to

giving hassle-free service while the brokerage rates offered are extremely

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 21

ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 22

QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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Page 23

INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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Page 24

MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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Page 25

THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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Page 26

ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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Page 27

BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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Page 46

successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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Page 47

clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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Page 48

pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

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Page 21

ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

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Page 22

QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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Page 25

THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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Page 42

generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 21: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 21

ACHIEVEMENTS

Among the top 5 stock brokers in India (4 of NSE volumes)

Indias No 1 Registrar amp Securities Transfer Agents

Among the to top 3 Depository Participants

Largest Network of Branches amp Business Associates

ISO 9002 certified operations by DNV

Among top 10 Investment bankers

Largest Distributor of Financial Products

Adjudged as one of the top 50 IT uses in India by MIS Asia

Full Fledged IT driven operations

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Page 22

QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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Page 23

INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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Page 24

MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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Page 25

THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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Page 26

ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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Page 27

BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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Page 28

SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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Page 30

CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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Page 31

have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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Page 32

1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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Page 33

2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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Page 34

MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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Page 35

WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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Page 36

B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Page 37

Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Page 41

Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 22: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 22

QUALITY POLICY

To achieve and retain leadership Karvy shall aim for complete customer satisfaction by

combining its human and technological resources to provide superior quality financial services

In the process Karvy will strive to exceed Customers expectations

QUALITY OBJECTIVES

As per the Quality Policy Karvy will

Build in-house processes that will ensure transparent and harmonious relationships with its clients

and investors to provide high quality of services

Establish a partner relationship with its investor service agents and vendors that will help in

keeping up its commitments to the customers

Provide high quality of work life for all its employees and equip them with adequate knowledge

amp skills so as to respond to customers needs

Continue to uphold the values of honesty amp integrity and strive to establish unparalleled standards

in business ethics

Use state-of-the art information technology in developing new and innovative financial products

and services to meet the changing needs of investors and clients

Strive to be a reliable source of value-added financial products and services and constantly guide

the individuals and institutions in making a judicious choice of same

Strive to keep all stake-holders (shareholders clients investors employees suppliers and

regulatory authorities) proud and satisfied

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INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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Page 51

design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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Page 52

leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 23: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 23

INTRODUCTION

Mutual funds are financial intermediaries which collect the savings of investors and invest them

in a large and well-diversified portfolio of securities such as money market instruments

corporate and government bonds and equity shares of joint stock companies A mutual fund is a

pool of common funds invested by different investors who have no contact with each other

Mutual funds are conceived as institutions for providing small investors with avenues of

investments in the capital market Since small investors generally do not have adequate time

knowledge experience and resources for directly accessing the capital market they have to rely

on an intermediary which undertakes informed investment decisions and provides consequential

benefits of professional expertise The raison d‟ecirctre of mutual funds is their ability to bring down

the transaction costs The advantages for the investors are reduction in risk expert professionalmanagement diversified portfolios and liquidity of investment and tax benefits By pooling their

assets through mutual funds investors achieve economies of scale The interests of the investors

are protected by the SEBI which acts as a watchdog Mutual funds are governed by the SEBI

(Mutual Funds) Regulations 1993

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Page 24

MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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Page 25

THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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Page 26

ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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Page 27

BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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Page 28

SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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Page 47

clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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Page 48

pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

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Page 24

MUTUAL FUND OPERATIONS FLOW CHART

The flow chart below describes broadly the working of a Mutual Fund

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THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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Page 27

BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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Page 28

SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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Page 35

WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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Page 44

such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

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Page 25

THE GOAL OF MUTUAL FUND

The goal of a mutual fund is to provide an individual to make money There are several thousandmutual funds with different investments strategies and goals to chosen from Choosing one can

be over whelming even though it need not be different mutual funds have different risks which

differ because of the fund‟s goals fund manager and investment style

The fund itself will still increase in value and in that way you may also make money therefore

the value of shares you hold in mutual fund will increase in value when the holdings increases in

value capital gains and income or dividend payments are best reinvested for younger investors

Retires often seek the income from dividend distribution to augment their income with

reinvestment of dividends and capital distribution your money increase at an even greater rate

When you redeem your shares what you receive is the value of the share

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ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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Page 28

SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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Page 42

generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 26: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 26

ORGANISATION OF A MUTUAL FUND

There are many entities involved and the diagram below illustrates the organizational set

up of a mutual fund

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Page 27

BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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Page 28

SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Page 29

Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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Page 33

2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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Page 34

MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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Page 35

WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Page 37

Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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Page 38

FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 27: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 27

BACKGROUND

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF INDIAN MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India at the

initiative of the Government of India and Reserve Bank The history of mutual funds in India can

be broadly divided into four distinct phases

First Phase ndash 1964-87

Unit Trust of India (UTI) was established on 1963 by an Act of Parliament It was set up by the

Reserve Bank of India and functioned under the Regulatory and administrative control of the

Reserve Bank of India In 1978 UTI was de-linked from the RBI and the Industrial Development

Bank of India (IDBI) took over the regulatory and administrative control in place of RBI The

first scheme launched by UTI was Unit Scheme 1964 At the end of 1988 UTI had Rs6700

crores of assets under management

Second Phase ndash 1987-1993 (Entry of Public Sector Funds)

1987 marked the entry of non- UTI public sector mutual funds set up by public sector banks and

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC)

SBI Mutual Fund was the first non- UTI Mutual Fund established in June 1987 followed byCanbank Mutual Fund (Dec 87) Punjab National Bank Mutual Fund (Aug 89) Indian Bank

Mutual Fund (Nov 89) Bank of India (Jun 90) Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund (Oct 92) LIC

established its mutual fund in June 1989 while GIC had set up its mutual fund in December

1990 At the end of 1993 the mutual fund industry had assets under management of Rs47 004

crores

Third Phase ndash 1993-2003 (Entry of Private Sector Funds)

With the entry of private sector funds in 1993 a new era started in the Indian mutual fund

industry giving the Indian investors a wider choice of fund families Also 1993 was the year in

which the first Mutual Fund Regulations came into being under which all mutual funds except

UTI were to be registered and governed The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with

Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993 The 1993

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Page 28

SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Page 29

Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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Page 30

CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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Page 33

2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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Page 34

MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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Page 35

WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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Page 36

B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Page 37

Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Page 41

Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 28: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 28

SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual

Fund Regulations in 1996 The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund)

Regulations 1996 The number of mutual fund houses went on increasing with many foreign

mutual funds setting up funds in India and also the industry has witnessed several mergers and

acquisitions As at the end of January 2003 there were 33 mutual funds with total assets of Rs

1 21805 crores The Unit Trust of India with Rs44 541 crores of assets under management was

way ahead of other mutual funds

Fourth Phase ndash since February 2003

In February 2003 following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963 UTI was bifurcated

into two separate entities One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India with assets

under management of Rs29 835 crores as at the end of January 2003 representing broadly the

assets of US 64 scheme assured return and certain other schemes The Specified Undertaking of

Unit Trust of India functioning under an administrator and under the rules framed by

Government of India and does not come under the purview of the Mutual Fund Regulations The

second is the UTI Mutual Fund Ltd sponsored by SBI PNB BOB and LIC It is registered with

SEBI and functions under the Mutual Fund Regulations With the bifurcation of the erstwhile

UTI which had in March 2000 more than Rs76 000 crores of assets under management and with

the setting up of a UTI Mutual Fund conforming to the SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations and

with recent mergers taking place among different private sector funds the mutual fund industry

has entered its current phase of consolidation and growth As at the end of September 2004

there were 29 funds which manage assets of Rs153108 crores under 421 schemes

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Page 29

Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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Page 30

CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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Page 33

2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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Page 34

MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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Page 35

WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 29: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 29

Objectives of Study

1 Evaluate Perception towards risk involved in mutual funds in comparison to other

financial avenues

2 To enhance our knowledge about the subject

3 To have a vivid picture of major players in Mutual Fund Industry in India

4 How effectively they are reaching their customers

5 To study the marketing of Mutual Fund products in India

6 To study the consumer awareness regarding Mutual Funds

7 To study the preferences of the distributors for Mutual Funds

8 To study the pattern of consumer behavior within the available investment options and to

test awareness among the consumer about the various mutual fund houses

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CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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Page 31

have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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Page 34

MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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Page 35

WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 30: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 30

CLASSIFICATION OF MUTUAL FUND SCHEMES

Any mutual fund has an objective of earning income for the investors and or getting increased

value of their investments To achieve these objectives mutual funds adopt different strategies

and accordingly offer different schemes of investments On this basis the simplest way to

categorize schemes would be to group these into two broad classifications

OPERATIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO CLASSIFICATION

Operational classification highlights the two main types of schemes ie open-ended and close-

ended which are offered by the mutual funds

Portfolio classification projects the combination of investment instruments and investment

avenues available to mutual funds to manage their funds Any portfolio scheme can be either

open ended or close ended

Operational Classification

(A) Open Ended Schemes As the name implies the size of the scheme (Fund) is open ndash ie

not specified or pre-determined Entry to the fund is always open to the investor who can

subscribe at any time Such fund stands ready to buy or sell its securities at any time It implies

that the capitalization of the fund is constantly changing as investors sell or buy their sharesFurther the shares or units are normally not traded on the stock exchange but are repurchased by

the fund at announced rates Open-ended schemes have comparatively better liquidity despite the

fact that these are not listed The reason is that investors can any time approach mutual fund for

sale of such units No intermediaries are required Moreover the realizable amount is certain

since repurchase is at a price based on declared net asset value (NAV) No minute to minute

fluctuations in rates haunt the investors The portfolio mix of such schemes has to be

investments which are actively traded in the market Otherwise it will not be possible to

calculate NAV This is the reason that generally open-ended schemes are equity based

Moreover desiring frequently traded securities open-ended schemes hardly have in their

portfolio shares of comparatively new and smaller companies since these are not generally

traded In such funds option to reinvest its dividend is also available Since there is always a

possibility of withdrawals the management of such funds becomes more tedious as managers

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Page 31

have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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Page 33

2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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Page 34

MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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Page 35

WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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Page 36

B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Page 37

Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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Page 38

FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Page 41

Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

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Page 31

have to work from crisis to crisis Crisis may be on two fronts one is that unexpected

withdrawals require funds to maintain a high level of cash available every time implying thereby

idle cash Fund managers have to face questions like bdquowhat to sell‟ He could very well have to

sell his most liquid assets Second by virtue of this situation such funds may fail to grab

favourable opportunities Further to match quick cash payments funds cannot have matching

realization from their portfolio due to intricacies of the stock market Thus success of the open-

ended schemes to a great extent depends on the efficiency of the capital market and the selection

and quality of the portfolio

(B) Close Ended Schemes Such schemes have a definite period after which their shares units

are redeemed Unlike open-ended funds these funds have fixed capitalization ie their corpus

normally does not change throughout its life period Close ended fund units trade among the

investors in the secondary market since these are to be quoted on the stock exchanges Their

price is determined on the basis of demand and supply in the market Their liquidity depends on

the efficiency and understanding of the engaged broker Their price is free to deviate from NAV

ie there is every possibility that the market price may be above or below its NAV If one takes

into account the issue expenses conceptually close ended fund units cannot be traded at a

premium or over NAV because the price of a package of investments ie cannot exceed the sum

of the prices of the investments constituting the package Whatever premium exists that may

exist only on account of speculative activities In India as per SEBI (MF) Regulations every

mutual fund is free to launch any or both types of schemes

Portfolio Classification of Funds

Following are the portfolio classification of funds which may be offered This classification may

be on the basis of (A) Return (B) Investment Pattern (C) Specialised sector of investment (D)

Leverage and (E) Others

(A) Return based classification

To meet the diversified needs of the investors the mutual fund schemes are made to enjoy a

good return Returns expected are in form of regular dividends or capital appreciation or a

combination of these two

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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Page 34

MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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Page 35

WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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Page 36

B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Page 37

Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

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1 Income Funds For investors who are more curious for returns Income funds are floated

Their objective is to maximize current income Such funds distribute periodically the income

earned by them These funds can further be splitted up into categories those that stress constant

income at relatively low risk and those that attempt to achieve maximum income possible even

with the use of leverage Obviously the higher the expected returns the higher the potential risk

of the investment

2 Growth Funds Such funds aim to achieve increase in the value of the underlying investments

through capital appreciation Such funds invest in growth oriented securities which can

appreciate through the expansion production facilities in long run An investor who selects such

funds should be able to assume a higher than normal degree of risk

3 Conservative Funds The fund with a philosophy of ldquoall things to allrdquo issue offer document

announcing objectives as (i) To provide a reasonable rate of return (ii) To protect the value of

investment and (iii) To achieve capital appreciation consistent with the fulfillment of the first

two objectives Such funds which offer a blend of immediate average return and reasonable

capital appreciation are known as ldquomiddle of the roadrdquo funds Such funds divide their portfolio in

common stocks and bonds in a way to achieve the desired objectives Such funds have been most

popular and appeal to the investors who want both growth and income

(B) Investment Based Classification

Mutual funds may also be classified on the basis of securities in which they invest Basically it

is renaming the subcategories of return based classification

1 Equity Fund Such funds as the name implies invest most of their investible shares in equity

shares of companies and undertake the risk associated with the investment in equity shares Such

funds are clearly expected to outdo other funds in rising market because these have almost all

their capital in equity Equity funds again can be of different categories varying from those thatinvest exclusively in high quality bdquoblue chip companies to those that invest solely in the new

unestablished companies The strength of these funds is the expected capital appreciation

Naturally they have a higher degree of risk

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2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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Page 34

MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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Page 35

WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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Page 36

B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Page 37

Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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Page 38

FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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Page 39

class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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Page 40

MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Page 41

Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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Page 42

generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

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Page 33

2 Bond Funds such funds have their portfolio consisted of bonds debentures etc this type of

fund is expected to be very secure with a steady income and little or no chance of capital

appreciation Obviously risk is low in such funds In this category we may come across the funds

called bdquoLiquid Funds‟ which specialize in investing short-term money market instruments The

emphasis is on liquidity and is associated with lower risks and low returns

3 Balanced Fund The funds which have in their portfolio a reasonable mix of equity and

bonds are known as balanced funds Such funds will put more emphasis on equity share

investments when the outlook is bright and will tend to switch to debentures when the future is

expected to be poor for shares

(C) Sector Based Funds

There are number of funds that invest in a specified sector of economy While such funds do

have the disadvantage of low diversification by putting all their all eggs in one basket the policy

of specializing has the advantage of developing in the fund managers an intensive knowledge of

the specific sector in which they are investing Sector based funds are aggressive growth funds

which make investments on the basis of assessed bright future for a particular sector These

funds are characterized by high viability hence more risky

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Page 34

MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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Page 35

WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Page 37

Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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Page 46

successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

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Page 34

MUTUAL FUNDS FOR WHOM

These funds can survive and thrive only if they can live up to the hopes and trusts of their

individual members These hopes and trusts echo the peculiarities which support the emergence

and growth of such insecurity of such investors who come to the rescue of such investors who

face following constraints while making direct investments

(a) Limited resources in the hands of investors quite often take them away from stock market

transactions

(b) Lack of funds forbids investors to have a balanced and diversified portfolio

(c) Lack of professional knowledge associated with investment business unable investors to

operate gainfully in the market Small investors can hardly afford to have ex-pensive investment

consultations

(d) To buy shares investors have to engage share brokers who are the members of stock

exchange and have to pay their brokerage

(e) They hardly have access to price sensitive information in time

(f) It is difficult for them to know the development taking place in share market and

corporate sector

(g) Firm allotments are not possible for small investors on when there is a trend of over

subscription to public issues

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WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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Page 50

4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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Page 51

design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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Page 52

leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 35: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 35

WHY MUTUAL FUNDS

Mutual Funds are becoming a very popular form of investment characterized by many

advantages that they share with other forms of investments and what they possess uniquely

themselves The primary objectives of an investment proposal would fit into one or combination

of the two broad categories ie Income and Capital gains How mutual fund is expected to be

over and above an individual in achieving the two said objectives is what attracts investors to

opt for mutual funds Mutual fund route offers several important advantages

Diversification A proven principle of sound investment is that of diversification which is the

idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket By investing in many companies the mutual funds

can protect themselves from unexpected drop in values of some shares The small investors can

achieve wide diversification on his own because of many reasons mainly funds at his disposal

Mutual funds on the other hand pool funds of lakhs of investors and thus can participate in a

large basket of shares of many different companies Majority of people consider diversification

as the major strength of mutual funds

Expertise Supervision Making investments is not a full time assignment of investors So they

hardly have a professional attitude towards their investment When investors buy mutual fund

scheme an essential benefit one acquires is expert management of the money he puts in the fund

The professional fund managers who supervise fund‟s portfolio take desirable decisions viz

what scrip‟s are to be bought what investments are to be sold and more appropriate decision as

to timings of such buy and sell They have extensive research facilities at their disposal can

spend full time to investigate and can give the fund a constant supervision The performance of

mutual fund schemes of course depends on the quality of fund managers employed

A Liquidity of Investment A distinct advantage of a mutual fund over other investments is

that there is always a market for its unit shares Moreover Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) requires the mutual funds in India have to ensure liquidity Mutual funds units can

either be sold in the share market as SEBI has made it obligatory for closed-ended schemes to

list themselves on stock exchanges For open-ended schemes investors can always approach the

fund for repurchase at net asset value (NAV) of the scheme Such repurchase price and NAV is

advertised in newspaper for the convenience of investors

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Page 36

B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 36: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 36

B Reduced risks Risk in investment is as to recovery of the principal amount and as to

return on it Mutual fund investments on both fronts provide a comfortable situation for

investors The expert supervision diversification and liquidity of units ensured in mutual funds

reduces the risks Investors are no longer expected to come to grief by falling prey to misleading

and motivating bdquoheadline‟ leads and tips if they invest in mutual funds

C Safety of Investment Besides depending on the expert supervision of fund managers the

legislation in a country (like SEBI in India) also provides for the safety of investments Mutual

funds have to broadly follow the laid down provisions for their regulations SEBI acts as a

watchdog and attempts whole heatedly to safeguard investor‟s interests

D Tax Shelter Depending on the scheme of mutual funds tax shelter is also available As

per the Union Budget-2003 income earned through dividends from mutual funds is 100 tax-

free at the hands of the investors

E Minimize Operating Costs Mutual funds having large invisible funds at their disposal

avail economies of scale The brokerage fee or trading commission may be reduced substantially

The reduced operating costs obviously increase the income available for investors

Investing in securities through mutual funds has many advantages like ndash option to reinvest

dividends strong possibility of capital appreciation regular returns etc Mutual funds are also

relevant in national interest The test of their economic efficiency as financial intermediary liesin the extent to which they are able to mobilize additional savings and channeling to more

productive sectors of the economy

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Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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Page 43

The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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Page 44

such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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Page 46

successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

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Page 37

Types of Retail Investors

The ET survey on retail equity investors in the secondary market has identified different

categories of investors based on their characteristics Many questions are raised about the

behaviour of the small investor under different circumstances The answer to many of these

questions and similar others is not difficult to interpret once we identify the different types of

retail investors in the stock markets

The survey shows that there are five different kinds of retail investors bdquointellectuals‟ bdquocavaliers‟

bdquoreactivists‟ bdquoopportunists‟ and bdquogamblers‟ This classification is based on the attitudes of

investors towards secondary market investments Let‟s explain each type of investor and

understand their investment psyche and behavioral patterns

INTELLECTUALS

This retail investor group forms around 17 of the total retail investment class They are the

intelligent investors who follow an intelligent individualist approach to investment planning and

a well-defined and deliberate strategy for stock investment These investors are self reliant good

stock pickers and try to monetize market knowledge

Giving proof of their intelligence they consider low-risk low ndash gain guaranteed return avenues as

passeacute Also they believe in and work towards a well-planned Asset allocation and seek the right

mix of stability and reliability of returns

The bdquointellectuals‟ are unaffected by shortndash term fluctuations and prefer long ndash term investments

Moreover they are disciplined enough to observe profit targets which they have set for

themselves And as they invest for the long term they are not concerned with short term losses

They manager their money themselves and understand the industrysector before investing

CAVALIERS

As high as 49 of the small retail equity investors are bdquocavaliers‟ They are those who have lost

money in bdquofly-by ndashnight bdquoschemes Therefore much of their investments are driven by the desire

to recover past losses and make profits in the future As such they invest aggressively into

equities mostly in volatile sectors in order to make big gains However they will also invest in

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FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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Page 51

design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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Page 52

leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 38: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 38

FDs and insurance as a precautionary measure They get tempted to speculate in the secondary

market and once in a while they actually speculate but with smaller amounts The cavaliers try

to gather all available information and compare it with opinions from experts in the media but

will trust their own judgment before making decisions

REACTIVISTS

About 5 of the retail equity investors fall under this category These investors basically short-

term investors are impulsive info addicts who are vulnerable to external influences and as such

they have no specific investment patterns They believe that dynamic and ad hoc investments

will result in better profits and are prompted to act on popular opinion rather than systematic

planning As they lack in confidence experience and expertise they constantly rely on advice

from in the know people such as brokers and analysts They are extremely anxious about price

fluctuations or short-term declines They are very sceptical and believe that small declines can

lead to larger losses if not reacted upon immediately Therefore the reactivists constantly seek

new information about stocks in which they are currently invested in to ensure a feeling of

security Moreover their investments apart from equities are solely for tax-saving purposes

OPPORTUNISTS

This class of investors account for 10 of the retail equity investor universe This category is

defensively pessimistic and prefers to take only familiar risks As they have a low risk tolerance

they are wary of volatility in the equity market They invest into equities by imitating larger

trends rather than with their individual analysis and consider equity investment as a gamble

They want to be in the black all the time and as such prefer popular stocks with immediate profit

potential Opportunists need positive price movements to encourage their investments into

equities and they will not hunt for bargains of invest on price declines But before investing intoequities They prefer to build a critical mass of fixed income instruments as they find fixed

income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunistsbdquochoice of investments as they

find fixed income options a reassuring way of safe bets The opportunist‟s choice of investment

is biased towards well known and previously owned securities including equities This investor

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Page 39

class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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Page 40

MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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Page 42

generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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Page 43

The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 39: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 39

class is wary of investing into equities when the market has moved up too high too soon So if

you have not invested in the current market you are probably an bdquoopportunist‟

GAMBLERS

19 the retail investor population is made up of not actual investors But gamblers‟ They are the

typical thrill seeking traders who link profitability to personal achievement They experiment a

lot mostly driven by instinct and self confidence as such their stock selection is more a random

exercise that lacks rationale This class perceives all securities as tradable commodities to be

bought and sold in the short term However they know completely about the risk factors and

therefore have a tendency to invest only as much as they are willing to lose As a part of the

game and this does not act as a hindrance for future investments They do not trust brokers but

will secretly verify their suggestions for fear of missing an opportunity They ascertain fair value

of stocks on gut feeling rather than any financial analysis and use sudden downward fluctuations

as buying opportunities

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MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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Page 51

design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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Page 52

leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 40: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 40

MARKETING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THE MUTUAL FUNDS

The present marketing strategies of mutual funds can be divided into two main headings

Oslash Direct marketing

Oslash Selling through intermediaries

Oslash Joint Calls

Direct Marketing

This constitutes 20 percent of the total sales of mutual funds Some of the important tools used in

this type of selling are

Personal Selling In this case the customer support officer or Relationship Manager of the fund

at a particular branch takes appointment from the potential prospect Once the appointment is

fixed the branch officer also called Business Development Associate (BDA) in some funds then

meets the prospect and gives him all details about the various schemes being offered by his fund

The conversion rate in this mode of selling is in between 30 - 40

Telemarketing In this case the emphasis is to inform the people about the fund The names and

phone numbers of the people are picked at random from telephone directory Some fund houses

have their database of investors and they cross sell their other products Sometimes people

belonging to a particular profession are also contacted through phone and are then informed

about the fund Generally the conversion rate in this form of marketing is 15 - 20

Direct mail This one of the most common method followed by all mutual funds Addresses of

people are picked at random from telephone directory business directory professional directory

etc The customer support officer (CSO) then mails the literature of the schemes offered by the

fund The follow up starts after 3 ndash 4 days of mailing the literature The CSO calls on the people

to whom the literature was mailed Answers their queries and is generally successful in taking

appointments with those people It is then the job of BDA to try his best to convert that prospect

into a customer

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Page 41

Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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Page 42

generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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Page 44

such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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Page 46

successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

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Page 41

Advertisements in newspapers and magazines The funds regularly advertise in business

newspapers and magazines besides in leading national dailies The purpose to keep investors

aware about the schemes offered by the fund and their performance in recent past Advertisement

in TVFM Channel The funds are aggressively giving their advertisements in TV and FM

Channels to promote their funds

Hoardings and Banners In this case the hoardings and banners of the fund are put at important

locations of the city where the movement of the people is very high The hoarding and banner

generally contains information either about one particular scheme or brief information about all

schemes of fund

Selling through intermediaries

Intermediaries contribute towards 80 of the total sales of mutual funds These are the people

distributors who are in direct touch with the investors They perform an important role in

attracting new customers Most of these intermediaries are also involved in selling shares and

other investment instruments They do a commendable job in convincing investors to invest in

mutual funds A lot depends on the after sale services offered by the intermediary to the

customer Customers prefer to work with those intermediaries who give them right information

about the fund and keep them abreast with the latest changes taking place in the market

especially if they have any bearing on the fund in which they have invested

Regular Meetings with distributors Most of the funds conduct monthlybi-monthly meetings

with their distributors The objective is to hear their complaints regarding service aspects from

funds side and other queries related to the market situation Sometimes special training

programmes are also conducted for the new agents distributors Training involves giving details

about the products of the fund their present performance in the market what the competitors are

doing and what they can do to increase the sales of the fund

Joint Calls

This is generally done when the prospect seems to be a high net worth investor The BDA and

the agent (who is located close to the HNI‟s residence or area of operation) together visit the

prospect and brief him about the fund The conversion rate is very high in this situation

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Page 42

generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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Page 44

such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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Page 46

successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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Page 51

design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

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Page 42

generally around 60 Both the fund and the agent provide even after sale services in this

particular case

Meetings with HNIrsquos This is a special feature of all the funds Whenever a top official visits a

particular branch office he devotes at least one to two hours in meeting with the HNI‟s of that

particular area This generally develops a faith among the HNI‟s towards the fund

MARKETING OF FUNDS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

When we consider marketing we have to see the issues in totality because we cannot judge an

elephant by its trunk or by its tail but we have to see it in its totality When we say marketing of

mutual funds it means includes and encompasses the following aspects

Assessing of investors needs and market research

Responding to investors needs

Product designing

Studying the macro environment

Timing of the launch of the product

Choosing the distribution network

Finalizing strategies for publicity and advertisement

Preparing offer documents and other literature

Getting feedback about sales

Studying performance indicators about fund performance like NAV

Sending certificates in time and other after sales activities

Honoring the commitments made for redemptions and repurchase

Paying dividends and other entitlements

Creating positive image about the fund and changing the nature of the market itself

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The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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Page 50

4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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Page 51

design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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Page 52

leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 43: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 43

The above are the aspects of marketing of mutual funds in totality Even if there is a single

weak-link among the factors which are mentioned above no mutual fund can successfully

market its funds

Widening Broadening and Deepening the Markets

There are certain issues that are directly linked with the marketing of mutual funds the first of

which is widening broadening and deepening of the market for the mutual fund products

Consider the geographical spread of the investors in the mutual fund industry Almost 80 of the

funds are mobilized from less than 10 centers in the country In fact there are only around 35

centers in the country which account for almost 95 of the funds mobilized Considering the

vast nature of this country the first priority is that the geographic spread has to be widened and

the market has to be deepened Secondly the mutual funds must try to spread their wings not

only within the country but also outside the country

A Markets in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas

There exists a large investor base in rural and semi-urban areas having a population of about one

lakhs which normally has access to only post office savings and bank deposits This is the single

largest untapped market for mutual funds in India Rural marketing unlike the marketing of

mutual funds in the metros and urban areas would require a completely different strategy and

different means of communication to the target customer Typically investors in the rural and

semi-urban areas are not well educated and are inadequately exposed to the capital market

mechanisms Therefore more emphasis has to be given to the electronic media and other forms

of publicity such as wall paintings hoardings and educational films It is also important to

utilize the services of local intermediaries like Gram Sevaks Postmasters School teachers

Agricultural Co-operative Societies and Rural Banks It would therefore be more expensive to

market mutual funds in such markets than marketing in the cities

The mutual fund industry can collectively undertake this job of creating awareness among the

rural population about the mutual funds as a new form of savings translate that awareness into

increased fund mobilization Collective Advertisements can be released AMFI can coordinate

this task on behalf of the various Mutual Fund houses The retail distribution network

comprising of the district representatives and the collection centers can be best utilized to create

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Page 44

such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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Page 46

successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

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Page 44

such awareness and expand the market Simplification of literature in regional languages group

meetings in these semi-urban and rural areas visits by mobile vans with some audio visual aids

and the like should help develop these markets In other words the untapped markets in the

country should ideally be the first thing that the mutual funds in India should Endeavour to tap

not entirely relying upon the investors in the 35 odd cities of the country By concentrating on

these areas the investor base will get more broad based Once the semi urban population gets

acquainted with the concept of mutual funds it will naturally give the much needed stability to

the market

B Overseas Markets

The second aspect with respect to the widening and deepening the market is expanding the

overseas investor base A target group with large potential which can be tapped is non-resident

Indians If offered after sales services of international standard reasonable return and easy access

to information NRI‟s are willing to invest in Indian mutual funds The expansion of the

distribution network and quick dissemination of information coupled with prompt and timely

service efficient collection and remittance mechanism will play an important role in mobilizing

and retaining these funds NRI‟s will also require a continuous presence in their market because

that generates trust and confidence which translates into sustained mobilization of funds

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND VARIETY

A Investor Preferences

The challenge for the mutual funds is in the tailoring the right products that will help mobilizing

savings by targeting investors‟ needs It is necessary that the common investor understands very

clearly and loudly the salient features of funds and distinguishes one fund from another The

funds that are being launched today are more or less look-alikes or plain vanilla funds and not

necessarily designed to take into account the investors‟ varying needs The Indian investor isessentially risk averse and is more passive than active He is not interested in frequently

changing his portfolio but is satisfied with safety and reasonable returns Importantly he

understands more by emotions and sentiments rather than a quantitative comparison of funds‟

performance with respect to an index Mere growth prospects in an uncertain market are not

attractive to him He prefers one bird in the hand to two in bush and is happy if assured a rate of

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 45: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 45

reasonable return that he will get on his investment The expectations of a typical investor in

order of preference are the safety of funds reasonable return and liquidity

The investor is ready to invest his money over a long period provided there is a purpose attached

to it which is linked to his social needs and therefore appeals to his sentiments and emotions

That purpose may be his child‟s education and career development medical expenses health

care after retirement or the need for steady and sure income after retirement In a country where

social security and social insurance are conspicuous more by their absence mutual funds can

pool their resources together and try to mobilize funds to meet some of the social needs of the

society

B Product Innovations

With the debt market now getting developed mutual funds are tapping the investors who require

steady income with safety by floating funds that are designed to primarily have debt instruments

in their portfolio The other area where mutual funds are concentrating is the money market

mutual funds sectoral funds index funds gilt funds besides equity funds

The industry can also design separate funds to attract semi-urban and rural investors keeping

their seasonal requirements in mind for harvest seasons festival seasons sowing seasons etc

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Among the competitors to the mutual fund industry Life Insurance Corporation with its

dedicated sales force is offering insurance products banks with their friendly neighbourhood

presence offer the advantage of extensive network finance companies with their hefty upfront

incentives offer higher returns shares ndash provided the market is moving favourably ndash also attract

direct investments from retail investors It is against this background that the merits and demerits

of the alternative methods of distribution have to be studied

Retail through agents

The alternative distribution channels that are available are selling or using lead managers and

brokers along with sub-brokers for selling units The experience of UTI has been that if

necessary motivation and incentive is provided to the retailer agents they are likely to be more

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Page 46

successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

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Page 46

successful than the lead managers This is because there is a sense of loyalty amongst agents in

anticipation of getting continuous business throughout the year and the trust and credibility that

has been generated or will be generated by being loyal to one institution Statistics reveal that the

wastage ratio of application forms in the lead manager concept is much higher than in the retail

agency system Savings in advertisement and publicity expenses is also affected as the target of

communication is restricted to a few group of individuals since the agent will function as a

facilitator informer and educator The reduced cost benefit will ultimately accrue to the investor

in the form of higher returns

In such a system one achieves brand loyalty through continuous interaction between agents and

investors Building a team of agents and other distribution network such as distribution and

collecting agents and franchise offices will provide the investor the opportunity of having

continuous interaction and contact with the mutual fund Therefore retail distribution through

the agents is a preferred alternative for distributing mutual fund products

ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION

By their very nature mutual funds require higher advertisement and sales promotion expenses

than any consumer product offering measurable performance Different kinds of advertising and

sales promotion exercises are required to serve the needs of different classes of investors For

instance an aggressive bdquopush‟ marketing strategy is required for retail markets where investors

are not adequately aware of the product and do not have specialized skill in financial market in

contrast with bdquopull‟ marketing strategies for the wholesale market

There are certain issues with reference to advertisement publicity literature and offer documents

which deserve attention Most of the mutual fund advertisements look similar focusing on

scheme features returns and incentives An investor exposed to the increasing number of mutual

fund products finds that all the available brands are rather identical and cannot appreciate any

distinction

The present form of application brochures and other literature is generally lengthy cumbersome

and at times complicated leading to higher emphasis on advertisement One of the limiting

factors is the regulatory framework governing advertisements of mutual fund products For

instance in the offer documents mutual funds are required to mention the fund objectives in

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Page 47

clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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Page 48

pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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Page 49

ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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Page 50

4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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Page 51

design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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Page 52

leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 47: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 47

clear terms Immediately thereafter the first risk factor that has to be mentioned is that there is

no certainty whether the objectives of the fund will be achieved or not Some more relaxation‟s

in these may facilitate bringing more novelty in advertisements within a broad framework

without luring investors through false promises and will certainly improve the situation Another

hurdle is the statutory disclaimer required to be carried along with every advertisement Mutual

funds have to provide risk factors Under the present mutual fund regulations a prior approval by

SEBI is a must before a mutual fund can launch its fund In the regulation itself a period of one

month has been provided But in a month‟s time perhaps the situation may so change that the

timing of launch gets affected The requirement for getting approval which normally takes about

2 months‟ time defeats the purpose for which the fund was designed also

QUALITY OF SERVICE This industry primarily sells quality of services given that the

performance cannot be promised It is with this attribute along with procedural simplicity that

the fund gradually builds its brand and its class of loyal investors The quality of services is

broadly categorized as

Oslash Timely services after the sale of the units and

Oslash Continuous reporting of investment performance

Mutual fund managers must give due attention and evaluate their performance on each front

They may also consider an option of conducting a service audit for controlling and improving the

quality of service

MARKET RESEARCH

Investment in mutual fund is not a one-time activity It is a continuous activity The same

investor if satisfied will come to the fund again and again When the investor sends his

application it is not only an application but it also contains vital information Most of this

information if tabulated and analyzed would provide important insights into investor needs

preferences and behavior and enables us to target customers need more accurately to achieve

better penetration deeper loyalty and reduced costs It is in this context that direct marketing will

assume increased importance Knowing the customer thoroughly is of utmost importance Unlike

the consumer goods industry it is not possible for mutual fund industry to test market and have

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Page 48

pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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Page 50

4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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Page 51

design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

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Page 52

leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

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Page 48

pilot projects before launch At the same time focusing and concentrating on a particular

geographic area where the fund has a strong presence and proven marketing network can help

reduce network can help reduce issue expenses and ultimately translate into higher returns for

the investor Very little research on investor preference is available but the industry can

collectively have a data bank and share the information for appropriate use

Market Segmentation Different segments of the market have different risk-return criteria on the

basis of which they take investment decisions Not only that in a particular segment also there

could be different sub-segments asking for yet different risk-return attributes and differential

preference for various investments attributes of financial product Different investment attributes

an investor expects in a financial product are

Liquidity

Capital appreciation

Safety of principal

Tax treatment

Dividend or interest income

Regulatory restrictions

Time period for investment etc

On the basis of these attributes the mutual fund market may be broadly segmented into five main

segments as under

1) Retail Segment

This segment characterizes large number of participants but low individual volumes It consists

of individuals Hindu Undivided Families and firms It may be further sub-divided into

i Salaried class people

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ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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Page 50

4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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Page 51

design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 52

leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 49: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 49

ii Retired people

iii Businessmen and firms having occasional surpluses

iv HUF‟s for long term investment purpose

These may be further classified on the basis of their income levels It has been observed that

prospects in different classes of income levels have different patterns of preferences of

investment Similarly the investment preferences for urban and rural prospects would differ and

therefore the strategies for tapping this segment would differ on the basis of differential life style

value and ethics social environment media habits and nature of work Broadly this class

requires security of the principal liquidity and regular income more than capital appreciation It

lacks specialized investment skills in financial markets and highly susceptible to mob behavior

The marketing strategy involving indirect selling through agency network and creating

awareness through appropriate media would be more effective in this segment

2) Institutional Segment

This segment characterizes less number of participants and large individual volumes It consists

of banks public sector units financial institutions foreign institutional investors insurance

corporations provident and pension funds This class normally looks for more specialized

professional investment skills of the fund managers and expects a structured product than a

ready-made product The tax features and regulatory restrictions are the vital considerations in

their investment decisions Each class of participants such as banks provides a niche to the fund

managers in this segment It requires more of a personalized and direct marketing to sustain and

increase volumes

3) Trusts

This is a highly regulated high volumes segment It consists of various types of trusts namely

charitable trusts religious trust educational trust family trust social trust etc each with

different objectives Its basic investment need would be safety of the principal regular income

and hedge against inflation rather than liquidity and capital appreciation This class offers vast

potential to the fund managers if the regulators relax guidelines and allow the trusts to invest

freely in mutual funds

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Page 50

4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

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Page 51

design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 52

leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

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9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 50: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 50

4) Non-Resident Indians

This segment consists of very risk sensitive participants at times referred as bdquofair weather

friends‟ They need the highest cover against political and exchange risk They normally prefer

easy exit with repatriation of income and principal They also hold a strategic importance as they

bring in crucial foreign exchange ndash a crucial input for developing country like ours Marketing to

this segment requires special kind of products for groups of foreign countries depending upon the

provisions of tax treaties The range of suitable products is required to design to divert the funds

flowing into bank accounts The latest flavour in the mutual fund industry is exclusive schemes

for non-resident Indians (NRI‟s)SBI MF has already launched an exclusive scheme for NRI‟s

ICICI Prudential and JM Mutual are in process of finalizing details and some more funds have

also confirmed that they are planning such schemes The MF industry is also looking to tap the

vast NRI funds of about $5 billion that were transferred to the local banks as FCNR and NRE

deposits on the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds in October 2003 HDFC was one of the

first to launch a fixed maturity plan to NRI‟s after the RIB redemption The scheme had

collected Rs16-17 crores Sundaram and HDFC MF are currently in the process of strengthening

distribution net-works overseas especially in the Middle East Sanjay Santhanam Vice President

Marketing ampSales of Sundaram MF says ldquoWe are intensifying our efforts at tapping NRI

money To begin with we are looking at a representative office and a distribution network in

Dubai Then we will work out specialized products and asset allocation modelsNRI are used to

seeing low interest rates so their return expectations are different from domestic investors The

large South Indian population in the Middle East will surely connect with the Sundaram brandrdquo

5) Corporates

Generally the investment need of this segment is to park their occasional surplus funds that earn

returns more than what they have to pay on account of holding them Alternatively they also get

surplus fund due to the seasonality of the business which typically become due for the paymentwithin a year or quarter or even a month They need short term parking place for their fund This

segment offers a vast potential to specialized money market managers Given the relaxation in

the regulatory guidelines fund managers are expected design products to this segment Thus

each segment and sub-segment has their own risk return preferences forming niches in the

market Mutual funds managers have to analyze in detail the intrinsic needs of the prospects and

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 51

design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 52

leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 51: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 51

design a variety of suitable products for them Not only those the products are also required to

be marketed through appropriately different marketing strategies

AD‟S THE WAY Increasing sales have given mutual fund promoters the budget to spend

more on advertising which has further boosted sales

The Atheists are turning believers Mutual funds private sector ones in particular who had

written off advertising as the ldquoultimate waste of moneyrdquo have nearly tripled their press media

spend What‟s interesting is that in this period the share of the private sector mutual funds in the

category‟s total media spending has surged from 20 percent to 52 percent This can be attributed

to private sector funds (given the data available with the Association of Mutual Funds of India)

seeing an increase share of net inflows relative to the bank-sponsored counterparts in the public

sector

Clearly advertising types have something to cheer about But what‟s caused this sudden

attitudinal shift towards advertising According to experts funds are being pushed into

advertising more by intermediaries like banks who are reluctant to sell a product whose name is

unfamiliar to investor Besides since more open-ended schemes are now available some form of

ongoing support to keep sales booming has been deemed necessary by the funds ldquo The industry

has discovered that advertising in the changed climate today when investors are most receptive

to mutual funds can perk up sales by anywhere between 20-40 percent MF‟s has rationale for

stepping up marketing spends because the brand is an important part of the consumer‟s decision

to invest in a category that is not yet clearly understood by people According to the mutual fund

marketers advertising helps bring recall when consumers are looking at investment

opportunities

Advertising backed by an integrated marketing and communication campaign designed to attract

investors with long term prospective has helped the fund post a redemption-to-sales ratio of just

about five percent as compared to 20-30 percent for the industry on an average

But what mode of advertising do these funds choose ldquoTo sell the categoryrdquo answer is ldquomass

media is more effective because one needs to target a large segment of the populationrdquo Mutual

Fund marketers feel that since the category is bdquoinformation ndash centric‟ press is the best medium to

get across one‟s message Within the print media most marketers feel that a combination of

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 52

leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 52: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5280

Page 52

leading mainline and financial newspapers complemented by finance business magazines with

relevant thematic appeal and editorial content are the perfect mix

Direct mail is another medium which some funds have successfully used But rather than

sending out mailers to all and sundry there is a need for appropriate targeting

Educational seminars are the final leg in the marketing and communication process In these

investors conditioned by advertising and hooked by an interesting mailer can have lingering

doubts clarified

Attractive point of purchase (POP) material can also help

Another very successful media niche which has been exploited to the hilt by funds is

intermediary magazines and newsletters Besides the low costs of advertising in these

newsletters these publications circulate to those who are looking for investment opportunities

and thus represent an extremely lucrative target segment

Advertising content by most of the funds too has undergone a marked change from concept-

selling ads dispelling myths to selling specific schemes that meet defined objectives goals

But why is advertising suddenly working for mutual funds when it doesn‟t seem to have made a

difference earlier A sustained marketing strategy instead of a few scrappy ads is now seen to be

the key to investor demand Advertising serves as a reminder complementing a sales push by the

distributor ldquoSince the distributor wasn‟t ready in earlier years advertising then didn‟t workrdquo

Brand building is a long-term exercise Just like mutual funds advocate that investors take a

long-term approach to investing similarly funds need to take a long-term approach to brand

building

Fund marketers and industry observers however caution against the danger of selling the product

for the wrong reasons Funds need to focus on sustainable communication They need to build

brands that strike a chord with investors by relating to their concerns rather than selling flavour-

of-the-month style The winning formula as industry watchers put it is the troika of

performance service and trust for meeting long term needs or goals

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5380

Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5480

Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5580

Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5680

Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5780

Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5880

Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5980

Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6080

Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6380

Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6480

Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 53: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5380

Page 53

Inspired Marketing will help Mutual Funds walk away with the bank Deposits

Bankers better watch out The Indian mutual fund industry will soon start relieving the banking

system of its prized deposits

Innovative distribution marketing and aggressive concept selling will drive savings into the lap

of the Indian Mutual Fund industry in the next millennium Fund chiefs predicted that ease of

transactions thanks to technology and increased awareness would lead to more investors putting

their money into mutual funds The day was not far they said when small savings account s too

began moving into mutual funds

Significantly fund chiefs were unanimous that the credibility gap which the industry suffered for

the past few years did not exist anymore All the fund chiefs were unanimous that performance

service and support were all imperative for growth ldquoPerformance transparency and after sales

service and genuine retail investor interest as opposed to hot corporate money an important

contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry growth ldquoPerformance

transparency after sales customer service and genuine retail investor interest are opposed to hot

corporate money an important contributor to many mutual fund schemes will drive the industry

growth On the state of market in general fund chiefs attempted to allay fears that an overvalued

market may pose hurdles to stock picking

According to them while investors may feel that information technology pharmaceuticals and

consumer goods stocks - or the BSE Sensex for that matter ndash might have peaked new

opportunities are opening up in areas like retail healthcare and even in internet business

Fund chiefs also made a case for the code to prevent mutual funds from projecting short-term

gains in an attempt to attract investors into their schemes They were of the view that ldquoMutual

Funds have to agree to present performances in an annualized fashion over a longer period The

industry as a whole should standardize its performancerdquo

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5480

Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5580

Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5680

Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5780

Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5880

Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5980

Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 54: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 54

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design Descriptive Research

Research Instrument Structured un-disguised

Sample Method Non-Probability Sampling

Sample Size 50

Sampling Design Convenience Sampling

Sources of Data

Primary Data Structured Non-Disguised Questionnaire

Secondary Data Reference from distributors amp banks

The whole study is based upon primary and secondary data Therefore information has beencollected from interacting with different investors and from various magazines journals

websites and bulletins

LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

Primary Data Primary data are generated when a particular problem and hand is investigated

by the researcher employing mail questionnaire telephone survey personal interviews

observations and experiments

METHOD USED IN COLLECTION OF DATA

1 Personal Interview In personal interview the investigator questions the respondents in

a face-to-face meeting Personal interviews may be conducted on a door-to-door basis or

in public places such as shopping centers The usual approach for the interviewer is to

identify himself to a potential respondent and attempt to secure the respondents co-

operation in answering a list of predetermined questions These answers may be tape-

recorded or written down by the interviewer

Advantages

a It requires relatively shorter period of time to complete

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

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Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

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Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

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Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 55: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 55

b Researcher can procure many different types of information

c The amount of information procured on each aspects is larger

d The results can be projected to the relevant universe with a greater degree of accuracy

Disadvantages

a The cost per completed interview is relatively higher as compared to other methods

b The investigator may have to face relatively more difficulties in administering the

interview schedule

c The investigators themselves may involve in cheating which is very difficult to detect

2 Telephone Survey In telephone survey prospective respondents are telephoned usually

at homes and asked to answer a series of questions over the telephone

This form of the survey technique has become more popular in recent years in advanced

countries more people are having telephones at their houses

Advantages

a It can be conducted at a lower cost as compared with personal interviews

b The interviews can be completed very quickly Thus speed is the most significant

advantage

Disadvantages

a The information on each aspect can be obtained to a limited extent

b Visual aids cannot be used

c It is difficult to keep respondents on the phone for any length of time if the survey is not

of keen interest to them

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5680

Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5780

Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5880

Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5980

Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6080

Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6380

Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6480

Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6580

Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6780

Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7080

Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7180

Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7380

Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

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Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 56: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5680

Page 56

TYPE OF SAMPLING USED

We used non-probability type of sampling

In non-probability sampling the chance of any particular unit in the population being selected is

unknown Since randomness is not involved in the selection process an estimate of the sampling

error cannot be made But this does not mean that the findings obtained from non-probability

sampling are of questionable value If properly conducted their findings can be as accurate as

those obtained from probability sampling

Convenience Sampling

As the name implies a convenience sample is one chosen purely for expedience (eg items are

selected because they are easy or cheap to find and measure

While few analysts would find credibility in conclusions from such extreme cases the

inappropriateness of using convenience sampling to estimate universe values is not widely

recognized The major problem with this (and other non-probability method) is that one is

unable to draw objective inference about a rigorously defined universe In practice it is often

found that the response given by convenient items in a universe differ significantly from the

responses given by universe items that are less accessible As a result unless one is dealing with

a known highly homogeneous universe (virtually all items responding alike) convenience

sampling should not be used to estimate universe values

Sample Size

The sample size taken in the project work is 50 The area selected is Dehradun and its

surrounding area

Convenience sampling method was used in this study because of the constraints like cost and

time

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5780

Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5880

Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5980

Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6080

Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6180

Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6280

Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6380

Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6480

Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6580

Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6680

Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6780

Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6880

Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6980

Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7080

Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7180

Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7280

Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7380

Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 57: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5780

Page 57

50

20

24

6

OCCUPATION OF PERSONS

Governmentemployee

Private employee

Businessmen

Retired

46

48

6

AGE GROUP

20-40 year 40-60 year Above 60 years

FINDINGS

FINDINGS - There are 76 people who are investing amp in this 76 there are 50 people in

government service 20 in private job amp 24 people are businessmen amp 6 are retired

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5880

Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5980

Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6080

Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6180

Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6280

Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6380

Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6480

Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6580

Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6680

Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6780

Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6880

Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6980

Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7080

Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7180

Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7280

Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7380

Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 58: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5880

Page 58

FINDINGS - There are 48 people in age group 40-60 years and 46 of people in 20-40 years

and rest 6 are Above 60 years

FINDINGS - When I have analyze the project then I found that in out of total people 24

people are not investing amp 76 people are investing

76

24

INTEREST IN INVESTMENT

Interested Not Interested

32

31

7

23

7

AREA OF INVESTMENT

Fixed deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Share

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5980

Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6080

Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6180

Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6280

Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6380

Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6480

Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6580

Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6680

Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6780

Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6880

Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6980

Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7080

Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7180

Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7280

Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7380

Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 59: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 5980

Page 59

FINDINGS - In area of investment 32 people interest in fixed deposit and 31 people

interested in property amp 7 in share and same in Mutual funds amp 23 investing in insurance in

this finding some people interested in two area of investment

FINDINGS - In survey 92 of people are satisfied with investment and 8 are not satisfied

with our investment

92

8

SATISFIED WITH INVESTMENT

Satisfied with investment Not satisfied with investment

719

46

16

12

MUTUAL FUND INVESTMENT

UTI Reliance mutual fund

SBI mutual fund ICICI prudential mutual fund

Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6080

Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6180

Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6280

Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6380

Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6480

Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6580

Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6680

Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6780

Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6880

Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6980

Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7080

Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7180

Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7280

Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7380

Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 60: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6080

Page 60

FINDINGS - In this survey 46 people are interest to buy SBI mutual fund and 19 people to

invest in reliance 16 in ICICI mutual fund and 7 in UTI and 12 interested in investing in

different mutual funds

FINDINGS - In investment 72 people expected return between 10 to 30 and 18 people

expect less than 10 return and remain 10 people expected above 30 return

18

72

10

EXPECTED RETURN

less than 10 Between 10 to 30 Above 30

76

16

8

RISK FACTOR

Minimum risk Moderate risk High risk

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6180

Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6280

Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6380

Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6480

Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6580

Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6680

Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6780

Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6880

Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6980

Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7080

Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7180

Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7280

Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7380

Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 61: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6180

Page 61

FINDINGS - In risk factor 76 people take minimum risk in investment and 16 people take

moderate risk only 8 people take high risk for more return on investment

FINDINGS - In Survey 64 of people invested between Rs 5000 to 25000 and 26 people

invested above Rs 25000 only 10 people invested only Rs 5000

10

64

26

MONEY INVESTED

5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

8

50

42

HOW LONG INVESTED

Less than 1 year Between 1 to 3 year More than 3 year

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6280

Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6380

Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6480

Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6580

Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6680

Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6780

Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6880

Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6980

Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7080

Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7180

Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7280

Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7380

Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 62: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6280

Page 62

FINDINGS - In Survey 50 investors are interest in 1 to 3 years of investment and 42 are

interested in more than 3 years of investment only 8 investors are interested in short term

investment

FINDINGS- In Survey 75 investors think that investment is safe and 25 think that it is not

safe

75

25

Is investment in mutual fund safe

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6380

Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6480

Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6580

Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6680

Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6780

Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6880

Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6980

Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7080

Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7180

Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7280

Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7380

Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 63: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6380

Page 63

FINDINGS- In Survey 89 investors think that mutual fund can give higher return and 11

think that mutual fund cannot give higher return it can give only normally 15- 20 return

89

11

Mutual fund can give higher

return

Yes

No

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6480

Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6580

Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6680

Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6780

Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6880

Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6980

Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7080

Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7180

Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7280

Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7380

Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 64: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6480

Page 64

FINDINGS- In Survey 81 investor think that future of mutual fund will be good and 19

think that future of mutual fund will not be as such good as it is

81

19

Future of mutual fund

Good

Not good

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6580

Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6680

Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6780

Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6880

Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6980

Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7080

Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7180

Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7280

Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7380

Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 65: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6580

Page 65

Analysis

amp

Interpretation

PEOPLE CONSIDERS VARIOUS FACTORS WHILE INVESTING IN MUTUAL FUND Options Responses Percentages ()

Returns 49 49

Tax saving 26 26

Liquidity 16 16

Risk free 9 9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5

o

f

r e s p o n s e

options

People consider various factor while investing inmutual fund

Series1

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6680

Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6780

Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6880

Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6980

Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7080

Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7180

Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7280

Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7380

Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 66: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6680

Page 66

PEOPLE CONSIDER VARIOUS BASES FOR INVESTING IN ANY PARTICULAR FUND

OPTIONS RESPONSES RESPONSES IN

Past performance of fund 64 64

Portfolio of fund 36 36

Series11

2

64

36

responses in

options

people consider various bases while investing inany particular fund

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6780

Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6880

Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6980

Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7080

Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7180

Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7280

Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7380

Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 67: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6780

Page 67

PREFERENCE OF VARIOUS MUTUAL FUNDS OF DIFFERENT PEOPLES

17

18

1118

28

8

preference of various funds of different peoples

1

2

3

4

5

6

Options Responses Responses in

Franklin Templeton 17 17

HDFC 19 19

Reliance 11 11

ICICI 18 18

SBI 29 29

Any other 8 8

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6880

Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6980

Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7080

Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7180

Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7280

Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7380

Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 68: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6880

Page 68

PEOPLE INVEST THE DIFFERENT OF SAVING IN MUTUAL FUNDS

46

33

15

6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e s p o n s e s i n

options

peoples invest the different of savings inmutual funds

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 46 46

2 20-30 33 33

3 50 15 15

4 More than 50 6 6

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6980

Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7080

Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7180

Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7280

Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7380

Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 69: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 6980

Page 69

PEOPLE EXPECTATIONS OF RETURN FROM DIFFERENT FUNDS

Srno Options Responses Responses in

1 10-20 32 32

2 20-30 45 45

3 50 9 9

4 More than 50 4 4

32

45

9

4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1 2 3 4

r e t u r n s i n

options

people expectations of returns from different funds

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7080

Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7180

Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7280

Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7380

Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 70: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7080

Page 70

PREFERED MODE OF INVESTMENT

0

20

40

60

80

mutualfund

Directequity

market

others

mutual fund

Bank FDs

Direct equitymarket

insurance

others

Srno Options Responses ()

1 Mutual Funds 48

2 Bank FDrsquos 45

3 Direct Equity Market 38

4 Insurance 35

5 Others 72

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7180

Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7280

Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7380

Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 71: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7180

Page 71

PREFERED SCHEMES OF MUTUAL FUNDS

Balanced Fund20

ELSS Funds18

EquityFund50

Debt Fund12

Srno Options Responses

1 Debt Fund 12

2 Balanced Fund 20

3 Equity Fund 50

4 ELSS Fund 18

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7280

Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7380

Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 72: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7280

Page 72

SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS

40

22

38 Print Media

Internet

TV

Srno Options Responses

1 Print Media 40

2 Internet 22

3 Television 38

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7380

Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 73: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7380

Page 73

PREFERED OPTION WHILE MAKING INVESTMENT

50

20

30

SIP

STP

Consolidatedamount

Srno Options Responses

1 SIP 50

2 STP 20

3 Consolidated amount 30

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 74: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7480

Page 74

CONCLUSION

The end of millennium marks 44 years of existence of mutual funds in this country The ride

through these 44 years is not been smooth Investors opinion is still divided while some are for

the mutual funds others are against it

Mutual Funds (MF) have become one of the most attractive ways for the average person to invest

his money It is said that Bank investment is the first priority of people to invest their savings and

the second place is for investment in Mutual Funds and other avenues A Mutual Fund pools

resources from thousands of investors and then diversifies its investment into many different

holdings such as stocks bonds or Government securities in order to provide high relative safety

and returns Also generate leads of the prospective investors in Mutual Funds for the Asset

Management Company (AMC)

There are many improvements pending in the field and it has to happen as soon as possible so as

to call the MF industry as an Organized and well-developed sector

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 75: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7580

Page 75

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Tapping the upcoming market - Semi Urban Market as there is a lot of opportunity

Most of the Mutual Funds are operating in the metros and big cities as per their present

branch office locations If they have to increase their market size they have to open more

distribution centers at the various urban and semi-urban markets

2 To create the awareness about the different products of Mutual Fund and not about the

generic product Various respondents were not aware of the mutual fund products and the

type of mutual fund schemes and the risk associated with mutual fund products

3 To provide some kind of curriculum at the schoolcollege level to create awareness

regarding Mutual Fund

BIBLIOGRAPHY

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 76: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7680

Page 76

Books

Research Methodology C R Kothari

Website

wwwkarvydpcom

wwwmfportfoliokarvycom

wwwthe-finapoliscom

wwwkarvymfscom

wwwkarismakarvycom

wwwkarvycomtradecom

wwweconomictimescom

wwwsebigovin

wwwmutualfundsindiacom

QUESTIONNAIRE

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 77: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7780

Page 77

Name of customer

Address

City

Telephone no

Mobile no

E-mail address

1) Occupation Government Employee

Private Employee

Businessmen

Retired

2) Age Group 20-40 years

40-60 years

Above 60 years

3) Annual house hold income Less than 15 lakh

Between 15 to 3 lakh

Between 3 to 5 lakh

Above 5 lakh

4) You are interested in investment Yes

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 78: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7880

Page 78

No

5) Do you have any existing investment Yes

No

If Yes in which area

6) Where do you make investment Fixed Deposit

Property

Mutual Funds

Insurance

Shares

7) You are satisfied with our investment Yes

No

If No why Reason

8) You want to invest for Children Education

Retirement

House

Vacation Abroad

Any Other

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 79: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 7980

Page 79

9) For which company‟s mutual fund or Banks mutual fund you are interested

UTI

Reliance Mutual Fund

SBI Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential

Mutual Fund

Other mention here

10) What is your expected return Less than 10

Between 10 to 30

Above 30

11) How much risk you can take Minimum Risk

Moderate Risk

High Risk

12) How much money you can invest 5000

5000-25000

Above 25000

13) How long you can invest Less than 1 year

Between 1 to 3 year

More than 3 year

14) Why investment in mutual fund is good Give reason

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund

Page 80: Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

7302019 Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Mutual Funds Investment

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullconsumer-buying-behaviour-towards-mutual-funds-investment 8080

15) Are investment in mutual fund units safe Yes

No

16) What do you think mutual fund can give a higher return Yes

No

17) What is the future of mutual fund it will perform good or not

Yes

No

18) Which is more profitable FD or mutual fund FD

Mutual fund