Savings as a story: the passbook, the coin jar and the first investment

The hardest customer for an investing app is not the expert. It is the person who thinks the whole thing is for someone else.

Written by the Colleviate Strategy desk

The artwork in this series is original and shows fictional brands. We have not redrawn any real campaign, mascot or slogan, and no national symbol appears. Nothing here is investment advice, and a real campaign would need to follow the regulator's rules for investment advertising.

The category today

In our stockbroking deep-dive, Groww holds 40.1 percent of branded search, with Zerodha at 30.2 and Angel One at 21.2. Share of search measures attention, not sales, and a lead of ten points is a reading of a moment, not a verdict. It does tell us that the category is contested and that being remembered by name is already a battle.

The story the old household told

For a generation the first act of saving was physical: a passbook with the bank's stamp, a jar on a shelf, a relative who said to start small. It was slow, visible and unglamorous. It also made beginning feel ordinary, which is the very thing a new investor finds hardest.

The idea we would draw

“Start small. Stay long.” An uncle holds a passbook beside a jar in which a plant grows. A handwritten note on the card has a parent telling a child to save, as parents do. The picture does not promise a return. It makes the first step look like something a family already does.

The test

Would a first-time investor feel less alone after seeing it? That is the question the idea must pass, and it is cheaper to ask people than to guess. Before any spend, we would measure whether the idea makes the brand more likely to be searched by name, against the same rivals, as set out in how to measure share of search.

What it asks of a brand

• Say less about returns and more about beginning.
• Use the language of the household, not the exchange.
• Keep the regulator's disclaimers where they belong, and do not hide them in the art.

If you know someone at Groww, tag them on the post. More concepts are on the Window shopping page.