More is less.

Byline: Marion Arathoon

SSHHH... it's about the best-kept secret this side of the Pacific. To India's legions of couch potatoes, the enigmatic commercials featuring Home Trade, with ivory piano keys and a 'life means more' brand line, are about as scrutable as the Sphinx.

Onscreen endorsers like Shah Rukh Khan have overshadowed the story line and parlour rooms have been agog with speculation and confusion. What does this company do? Where does it get those wads of money from? Has some NRI lost his beans?

What may lend some spice to all this is the revelation that Andy Law, legendary creative man and founder of the UK agency St Luke's, has been a creative and strategic consultant with them for the past year - though he doesn't do their ads. With brand idea and proposition done, Law is now in the brand development and expansion stage. Sanjay Agarwal, chief of Home Trade, says there was a method to this Morse code. HT, he says, encompasses "financial solutions (information and services) in a box."

They say he's spent Rs 15 crore this past year on marketing and advertising to actually build the Bollywood star brand. Agarwal explains that the last nine months have been devoted to building the mother brand called Home Trade. "Are we a manufacturer or a brand?" he queries. Now they will embark on phase two with sub-brands and various products and specific, product-related advertising.

Andy Law's global overview perspective will soon be evidenced in communications displaying 'what's cool' in a universal way, which could be wisdom or humanity or the supernatural, a la Harry Porter et al.

What's their USP?: "Home Trade is the world's first fast moving financial goods (FMFG) company. The HSBCs of the world talk about intangible financial services; we offer tangible financial products at retail outlets. We've become a financial retailer offering choice - which can be upgraded - much as a retailer does," says Agarwal.