A Study on Investors' Perception Towards Mutual Fund Marketing Strategies in Madurai

Mutual funds are the pooling of resources from larger small investors and then making it a big corpus to invest in stock market by professionals. In spite of umpteen efforts by regulators (SEBI, AMFI) and by investment advisory firms, mutual funds have reached merely 5% of Indian population. Since there exist enormous untapped market, this paper brings forth how rural investors perceive the various marketing strategies devised and implemented by investment advisory firms. This paper determines the rural investors in Madurai city towards the three broader marketing strategies by Mutual funds viz. direct selling, selling through intermediaries and joint calls. It was recommended that a new team of trained sales personnel need to be deployed to the rural areas and the code of conduct for them are to be tightened to prevent those misguiding illiterate rural investors for commission motive.