“A STUDY ON RELATIONSHIP MARKETING IN A

MULTINATIONAL AMC . (CASE STUDY: DEUTSCHE

ASSET MANAGEMENT)”

Shahamat H.H Mufti

Jamia hamdard
MBA 2009-2011
 Relationship marketing
“The process to identify and establish, maintain and enhance, and, when necessary,
terminate relationships with customers and other stakeholders, at a profit so that the
objective of all parties involved are met. This is done by mutual exchange and
fulfilment of promises”.
Why Relationship marketing in mutual funds is important ?
Relationship marketing is important in mutual funds simply because
of the following reasons :
 Intangibility : The product is intangible .
 Heterogeneity : It is very difficult to make each service experience
identical. There is a variation in providing services .
Solidify loyal relationships with your most valuable IFA.
Does your database contain important dates like birthdays, anniversaries,
etc.?  You can win back the once-valuable customers. Some ways by
which will help in maintaining the relations are :
       Create goodwill with existing IFA’S
       Keep your message always in front of your targeted base  
       Offer a gift with purchase
       Employee incentives to increase production and job satisfaction
 Tool of RM
The factors or tools on which relationship marketing rests are :
commitment .
cooperation .
technology .
communication.
credibility
satisfaction of IFA’S
quality level.
Trust.
Power and control.
Motivation
 Objectives
 To know the preference of brokers for choosing mutual funds over other financial
products
 To know the preference and retention of choosing Mutual fund over other financial
products.
 To know the brokers preference for choosing the mutual fund schemes and portfolio .
 To know the satisfaction level of brokers in terms of
1. timely response
2. updated information
3. redressing of complains
4. clarity of concepts
 To know the role and impact of technology
 To know what brokers expect from DWS and what customer expect from brokers .
 To ascertain whether the brokerage given to IFA’S are satisfactory.
 To ascertain the awareness level for DWS and its products.
 To ascertain what composition brokers want in a particular portfolio .
 To find out the importance of some of the key variables in the marketing of mutual
fund products.
1. Communication.
2. Service related attributes
 Questionnaire
 The preferred mode of payment is through SIP’S and most of the people prefer
equity investment.
 80 percent of the people want papers of credible and good quality and moreover they
chose one MF house over another because of returns , brand name , service etc.
 The awareness level of DWS is just ok and moreover the brokerage offered by DWS
is just ok . In order to leave a trail and create an impact the brokerage must be good.
 The satisfaction level for
 Staff efficiency is good
 Redressing complaints – DWS should try to minimise it
 Timely response can be made good
 Most of the clients of IFA’S are old people and therefore the risk taken by them is
moderate and these people are not technology savvy .
 The IFA’S are not very much net savvy.
 Most of the IFA’S come to know about DWS via internet , magazines etc
 The extra service that IFA want is more brokerage ,SIP contests .
 49 out of 60 does not recommend DWS to there clients simply because of ok
brokerage and poor returns.
 SWOT analysis
Strength Weakness
Backed by Deutsche bank  No guaranteed return
Experienced fund managers  Just ok brokerage
Surging GDP in coming years  Awareness is bad
 Should incorporate online facility and
customer oriented

Opportunity Threat
 should look beyond tier I city. Complexed formalities.
 Should come up with more FMP’S. Intense competition creating dissonance.
 Should try to invest in lucrative sectors. Removal of entry load and no common
 MF must go global.
online platform
 Simplification of process
Limited innovation
 Porter’s Five forces
Bargaining power of the Suppliers :
41 AMC’S therefore profit shrinking
Little product differentiation
Less power to command high prices.
Bargaining power of the Buyers:
Less power to command high prices
Less brokerage and removal of entry load
Less switching cost.

Potential entry of new competitor: Potential entry of substitutes

Emergence of foreign player Bank FD’S
Banks are also trying there luck Ulips
Insurance
Bank office schemes

Rivalry amongst the competitive

firms:
High fixed cost
Stiff competition
Poor brand identification of DWS
 Findings from the questionnaire, SWOT analysis and Porters five forces

Relationship marketing is a tool through which one company can built sustainable competitive advantage .
The inferences from the dissertation are :
 Trust :IFA’S and there respective customers don’t like investing with funds which have AA quality papers .
it is because the risk involve with AA papers is huge and also these are less credible then AAA papers
 Communication : The awareness level of DWS is good when it comes to IFA’S but there respective
clients are living in a state of oblivion . Most of their clients are not aware of DWS offerings . Hence DWS
should try to improve marketing activities and should try to advertise and promote themselves .
 Motivation : The brokerage offered by DWS in some funds i.e ELSS is good but in some funds its just
ok . DWS should provide Good incentive to lure customers so that IFA’s can reckon it to their customers
 Consistent innovation : DWS is predominantly a DEBT fund house . Equity side of DWS is not able to
give the anticipated return . The fund manager should incorporate Shares of some sectors viz petroleum ,
real estate , IT which can doing good these days .
 Satisfaction level : The IFA’S are quite satisfied with the staff efficiency . also the satisfaction level for
redressing complaints is high too . it is simply because the RM’S have cordial relationship with their IFA’S .
The satisfaction level for timely response and updated information is ok and good respectively .
 Technology : DWS can take the help of Internet and toll free number which can do wonders for creating
flawless and hassle free interaction between company and the IFA .A common online platform for all fund
houses and should be present and debit and card transaction should be made available . Since these
options are not available customers don’t turn up for Mutual fund.
 The removal of entry load has made many IFA’S to go in dormant state . Many of the IFA’s tells me that
this industry has no money for we people .
 Quality : Also MF are facing competition from various other products like ULIPS , INSURANCE , POST
OFFICE SCHEMES , BANK F.D’S .
 In spite of the bleak and grim out look, the future of capital market is growing at a very high pace. Taking
these things into consideration there are lots of opportunity for DWS AMC.
 Recommendations
 Enhance customer care department
 Regular and updated information
 Target incentive for marketing executive
 Have to offer new safe schemes
 More banners/ pamphalets
 Alternate channel of distribution
 Mutual funds should segment their customers and adopt niche marketing
strategy
 Limitations
 This study has been done in the city of Delhi & Gurgaon only and
hence cannot be representative of the industry across the entire
country.
 The sample size of 60 is too small to be generalized for the entire
population. Hence this study cannot be considered to be
representing the entire population of the investors.
 This study could not take into account of some of High Net Worth
Investors whose inputs could have been really value adding to
the study
 The investor can be biased.
 Some IFA’S were not ready to fill the questionnaire because they
have time constraint .