• 
• 

Published on July 13, 2007

Asset-management firms usually lure investors with big promotions of their long-term equity funds (LTFs) and retirement mutual funds (RMFs). As investors mostly buy LTFs and RMFs at the end of the year, October to December is the big promotion time.

Apart from the variety and performance of the funds, asset-management firms have to come up with an outstanding gimmick for customers. Kampol Adsavakulchai, executive vice president of SCB Asset Management's Mutual Fund Group, revealed that following an internal survey, he found 60 per cent of customers bought the company's LTF because of the gimmicks. Last year, the company gave away a small refrigerator, but this year its team is facing a tough time.

"It's not just the gimmick. We have to think about what would strike investors all the way to the heart and how to get the gimmick safely into their arms," said Kampol.

He said the company's largest proportion of LTF customers were the reverse of the industry's figure - because they were female.

Even though feminists may not like the idea, that explains why 60 per cent of SCBAM's customers bought the LTF mainly because of the gimmick.