Come May 17 and Motilal Oswal Securities will go on air on popular channels like Star and CNBC in a burst of 10-second commercials. As part of its brand-building exercise, the company will also be launching its first corporate film on the same day.

Says Motilal Oswal, managing director, Motilal Oswal Securities Limited: ``In our business, every broker says the same thing. But we wanted to be different. We believe that through effective marketing, we can reach out to potential investors across the country.''

The company also plans to bring out a new corporate brochure with a new corporate logo on May17. ``As part of our image-building exercise, we are moving into a new office, which is located at Nariman Point,'' adds Oswal.In an effort to offer value-added services, the stock broking firm hired the services of Samsika Marketing Consultant in January 1998. Deviating from the traditional mold, the company had also appointed an advertising agency Neoteric Communications to take care of its publicity.

``For the first time in India, a stockbroker began to operate like a brand from January 1998. As a marketing consultant, I knew more about market shares than stock markets. But somehow things worked out well,'' says Jagdeep Kapoor, managing director, Samsika Marketing Consultant. He claims that after effective marketing plans, the company registered a growth rate of 240 per cent by March 1999, in terms of turnover.

As a first step, Samsika conducted a consumer satisfaction survey and then evolved a branding strategy that positioned the financial services provider as a world-class research broker. ``Ourprescription for wealth creation in the stock market is simple. Research before you invest. Our USP is our market research. We derive our strength from Inquire, our Indian equity research division,'' explains Oswal.

After positioning the product, Samsika evolved a channel partner strategy for a national roll out. Currently, the company has 54 channel partners spread across six cities. ``We hope to cover 20 cities by the end of the year,'' hopes Oswal.

As for its marketing initiatives, the company had launched a unique investor education campaign in leading newspapers in January 1999. ``Samsika presented us an advertising strategy, placing our company in the role of a mentor guiding investors through our Wealth Creation Thoughts. The objective of the campaign was to educate the readers,'' explains Oswal.

As part of its brand-building exercises, the company regularly conducts seminars to educate investors and its channel partners. On January 22, 1999, the company held a seminar in Mumbai on `Growth andprofit through marketing services.'

In a market where small investors are keeping their distance from brokers, the move to aggressively market stock-broking services might well have come at the right time for the industry -- and of course, for Motilal Oswal.