In April this year, Research and Ranking rebranded itself to Equentis – Research & Ranking. The company also took on a new visual identity, a bull -showcasing the brand's core belief, 'Equal Existence’. Alok Arya, CMO, Equentis Wealth Advisory says the focus was on establishing a strong brand positioning.
Arya says, “As an equity advisory company, we stand for trusted relationships with our customers. We believe that wealth creation should be a fundamental right, specifically when it comes to the equity markets and participation in the markets has to increase multifold. As we add more business verticals, we want to ensure that there is a holistic brand essence, which is equal existence through the brands that we offer.”
With over a million registered user registrations and over 40,000 customers, the re-branding also creates an umbrella brand which holds all the company’s offerings together. It also elevates the overall experience with a cohesive brand identity and positioning. Arya says, “We did a soft launch campaign across e-mail, WhatsApp, SMS, Digital etc. and saw positive feedback in engagement rates, in terms of click rates.”
Creating Trusted Relationships
As an equity advisory company, creating trusted relationships is important as the equation between the investor and the firm is a long-drawn promise. Gauging the customer’s risk appetite and life goals, a customized portfolio of 20 to 25 high-growth stocks is tailor-made. However, a challenge that remains is that many customers are anxious about investing in stock markets due to a fear of losing money, and this is where Equentis – Research & Ranking comes to the customers’ rescue with an experienced research team and analysts.
The company has made a significant investment in their EdTech platform called Informed Investor which is being ramped up with the intent to educate consumers to take informed decisions about their money and their financial well-being. Says Arya, “Everything we communicate is not just about the consumers’ money in the markets, but also that they are in the best hands. The trust gained has resulted in over 40,000 subscribed customers. We take pride in saying that we've been able to establish trust in the market as a pedigree research company. Our boardroom discussions are about clients' money and clients' top line rather than our top line. All our communication is centred around how can we make the lives of our customers easier, and how can we handhold the customer in his or her journey towards long-term wealth creation. Ultimately, if they don't make money, they will not subscribe with us and we won't be able to survive.”
Looking at the customer, the first step is making the consumer - looking at creating long-term wealth - at ease by starting from the basis. The communication is across channels such as email marketing, WhatsApp, and conversational commerce with all touch-points being streamlined to ensure consistent communication. Arya says, “We try to not sell our service, we let customers speak to our wealth counsellors to understand their goals and objectives of entering the market. Once the customer is comfortable only then we start telling them about our offerings.”
Need for an advisor?
The question to be asked is – do we really need an advisor? Arya says that for many investors, the source of information is friends or even social media channels. He adds, “Making a portfolio is very scientific and requires a particular skill set, domain expertise, and experience in understanding the parameters. We are completely against the philosophy of short-term investments. An expert advisor is required to guide the investor in their long-term journey. You cannot get rich from the stock market in the short-term, the only way to invest is long-term.” Depending on the customers’ requirements and risk appetite a customized portfolio is made. “Investment advisory as a category does not exist today. We want to not only build this category but to own this category as a thought leader.” The brand positioning will be launched soon with a 360-degree campaign.
Currently, it is estimated that in India there are around 19 crore DMAT accounts. Of this, 19 crore, the assumption is 70% are unique and of this
50% to 60% are active accounts i.e. around 5 to 5.5 crore active accounts. This number is equivalent to the number of active mutual fund portfolio holders and includes people who are not investing in direct equities. Arya says, ”This ecosystem of 5 crore mutual fund portfolio holders or active Demat account holders should definitely have an advisor.” Arya adds that the investors in the active mutual fund portfolio are the lowest-hanging fruit for the company. This is because these consumers are active in the mutual funds segment but are scared to invest directly in the equity market. The strategy is to target these consumers and then to initiate a conversation with the wealth counsellors.
Being a digital first company, most of the ad spends are targeted to digital ads. The company is also looking at ramping up its ad spends (and even its physical infrastructure) on a quarter-on-quarter basis. Arya says, “Our media spends are definitely going to increase manyfold in the next couple of years. As I said, to build the category first and then to be the category leader in itself is a Herculean task.” He adds, “From a scale perspective, we are looking at going from a 1 million registered user base to 5 million registered users base in the next one or two years itself. From a customer's perspective, we already have around 40,000 plus subscribed users. We plan to take that number to 2 lakh in the next 18 months. We have very aggressive plans and are also looking at category building, category ownership and building the brand. Building the brand positioning strongly will give us an edge in the unorganized sector that we operate in.”
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