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elevator papers What makes investment brands different? A QUICK READ FROM WECHSLER B • A hybrid audience • Faith-based products • Complex distribution • Nuanced marketing B INVESTMENT BRANDS ARE DIFFERENT The world of investment marketing lives by its own rules. Whether you’re selling mutual funds or institutional strategies, retirement advice or asset allocation, the tried-and-true techniques of other marketing categories don’t necessarily apply. Investment brands don’t behave like consumer brands—or like business-to-business brands. Here’s why. 2 knows investment brands. A hybrid audience of professionals and consumers Investment brands don’t behave like typical consumer brands. By and large, they’re not marketed directly to consumers. But they don’t behave like business-to-business brands, either. intellectual argument and information. But consumer brands are built by creating an emotional connection between the brand and the consumer. The investment business has a unique brand model. Its audience is a hybrid of professional buyers and end-consumers. Professional buyers are generally intermediaries of one sort or another, such as financial advisors or plan sponsors. End-consumers range from retail investors to plan participants to high net worth clients. Investment brands must appeal to one and all. They must deliver the facts and figures demanded by professionals, who are the primary decision-makers. (They must also deliver this information to consumers, in a lighter form.) But equally important is giving the end-consumer a feeling of confidence and trust. Investors must believe in the people with whom they are entrusting their money. The needs and desires of each segment vary wildly. Professional buyers are swayed primarily by That’s the blend of intellect and emotion that drives successful investment brands. A hybrid audience Consumer brands Business-to-business brands B B Investment brands B B B Faith-based products and services By now it’s a truism to say a brand is a promise. But investment brands take this one step farther: they require a leap of faith. You must build a sense of trust, confidence and reliability by providing them with a positive experience at every step of the investment process. Whether you’re providing advice or selling a product, your clients are buying a promise of future performance. Tomorrow is unknown; they must make decisions today based on yesterday’s information. As an investment marketer, your challenge is to convince audiences you will successfully fulfill their hopes and dreams. This could mean different things for different firms: Delivering deep intellectual insight. Providing honest and clear communications. Supporting advisors with great service and wholesaling. Developing a rich online experience. Or making that experience available everywhere through mobile computing. Designing the right solution for your firm depends on your business goals and the brand you’re trying to establish. So what does it take to persuade clients and prospects that you’ll deliver in the future? Faith-based products Yesterday Today Tomorrow So many channels, so little time In the investment business, distribution drives marketing. But with its myriad of channels, intermediaries, audiences and market segments, it has one of the most complex distribution systems of any industry. Each distribution channel has its own distinctive culture, business model, organizational structure, sales process and preferred methods of communication. Marketing to an RIA, for example, is very different from marketing to a wirehouse advisor or institutional plan sponsor. Some lines of business—such as retirement— are almost absurdly complicated. The key players in a DC plan can include a recordkeeper, a consultant, a plan sponsor, third-party DCIO providers, financial education and advice providers, and several categories of plan participants, such as executives and workers. Without a clear understanding of what drives the players in each channel and market segment, no investment marketer can hope to succeed. Complex distribution Wirehouses Do-it-yourself investors Retail IBDs High net worth RIAs Platforms DCIO Subadvisory DC plans DB Family offices Institutional Consultants Vive la différence (if you can find one) Investment products and services are becoming commoditized. One manager’s large cap growth fund is not that different from another’s. Nor is one advisor’s asset allocation process that different from another advisor’s—at least, not in ways that are easy to explain to a non-expert. While the differences may be nuanced, you can still create meaningful differentiation. Big ideas can grow from small points of difference. But to do so, you must translate these subtle nuances into a meaningful value proposition that is aligned with the needs, hopes and desires of your audiences. So how do you differentiate your brand in a lookalike world? Why was this product or service created? Who benefits from it? What makes it better? Is its advantage genuine or trivial? Only by answering these questions can you identify a meaningful value proposition and use it as the foundation of an effective marketing platform. “Big ideas can grow from small points of difference.” In the world of investment brands, these questions are highly nuanced and cannot be answered without thoroughly understanding the hybrid audience, faith-based products, and complex distribution channels that drive the marketing process and make investment brands different. Wechsler Ross & Partners 11 Madison Avenue, 14th floor New York, NY 10010 2 knows investment brands. 212 924 3337 www.wechsler.com [email protected]