Motilal Oswal rebrands with a fresh look to tap young investors

Motilal Oswal Financial Services (MOFSL) has introduced a new brand identity, marking a shift in its visual representation while retaining its core business focus on research-led investment guidance. Developed in-house, the brand has removed the box around the old logo and changed the company's name from capital letters to lower case.

It has also changed the yellow-orange colour while retaining the Oxford blue aimed to represent professionalism, consistency, expertise, and a global outlook. The company has adopted a new Butler font to give the logo a contemporary look. The ‘arc of essence’ in the logo has been retained to indicate the brand’s focus on providing research-based insights and advice to its serious investor customers.

Motilal Oswal, group managing director and CEO of MOFSL, said, “Our new logo is a design change with a reflection of our journey, where adaptability has always been combined with consistency. While the world around us evolves, our commitment to stay focused on what’s essential for helping clients achieve their financial goals remains unwavering.” 

According to Sandeep Walunj, group chief marketing officer, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, the logo redesign is also aligned with the company’s communication style, which is evolving to become more direct, engaging, and accessible to the new customers. “These changes aim to make the brand more relatable, especially for younger investors. We are ensuring that our messaging resonates with a broader audience by simplifying financial concepts and making investing feel more approachable. For instance, we have changed our tone on social media to be more open and engaging,” he said.

The genesis of company’s decision to change its logo design lies in the changes happening in the securities market since 2017. Around 2017-18, discount brokers started making their presence felt. While traditional full-service brokers like MOFSL provide research and advisory services, the latter focused on lower brokerage fees while providing bare-bone, stripped down services to attract customers.

“This model attracted younger, first-time investors with lower capital who were swayed by social media-driven narratives that the discount brokers set. While it did not impact us financially, being a socially responsible brand, we were concerned about the impact it had on investors in terms of loss of value,” Walunj recalled.

Citing SEBI data, he informed that 93% of such first-time investors tended to lose money. MOFSL, therefore, decided to address this issue by refreshing its brand identity and become more accessible to a wider range of investors so that they do not get trapped into the risky ‘get-rich-quick’ belief system.

Traditionally MOFSL targeted serious investors above 40. However, going forward, it will target the investors in the 30-40 age-group, the young professionals in the 20-30 years age-group but who are serious about investing, and SIP investors and first-jobbers, Walunj informed.

He said that these new investors were looking for genuine, wealth creation advice and simpler investment solutions. As part of this exercise of broadening the customer base, MOFSL has launched a Wealth Line (92345 92345) where anyone can call and seek free investment guidance.

MOFSL’s service offerings include wealth management, capital markets, asset and investment management, private equity, housing finance, and equity-based treasury investments. The company operates with over 13,600 employees, serving 1.15 crore clients across 550 cities, with assets under advice of INR 6 lakh crores, approximately.

The company launched its new brand identity across television, print and digital media platforms, timing it with the Budget presentation speech by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Parliament. “The Budget speech is one event where a large part of India’s population, including the entire investor community, is glued to the television or computer screens. The timing of our launch could not have been more right than that,” Walunj said.

Of its total annual marketing budget, MOFSL spends around 60% on digital with the rest on traditional media including television and print. It works with Ogilvy and a few other specialised agencies for advertising and brand promotions across television, business print, websites, social, and OOH. To support its new logo launch, the company will also kickstart a campaign across television, print, and digital platforms.

“Social media and influencers are now a crucial part of marketing. You will see our message amplified on television, social media, and through influencers. In addition, print advertisements will also appear in major newspapers to ensure broad coverage,” Walunj informed.