Asset Managers Evolving their Financial Content through Brand-Building

“It’s not enough today to craft a brochure, drop a mailer or host a conference call in isolation” … “Marketing is focused on content, specifically content that will suck in investors in a quick and easy way.”

Well said by Sarah Chodera, Nuveen Investments’ managing director of corporate marketing, in a recent FundFire article.

The sun, moon and stars seem to be converging (finally!) for those in financial services who have figured out the importance of branding as the industry continues to rapidly mature.

In fact, a recent Cerulli Associates survey confirmed this:

• Branding is the top marketing concern for asset managers in 2015
• Managers are putting more stock in their brand as a key marketing tool to draw institutional assets 
• Brand building ranked the most important marketing initiative by asset managers
• Marketing now includes insights from portfolio managers on the industry as a whole, with a shift away from listing and explaining of products and performance

In practice this means taking a step back, objectively evaluating your core assets as they exist today including product line extensions, new target segments, new product structures and services..and importantly what your key stakeholders think of when your firm is mentioned. Simply, committing the time and money in a formalized, but pragmatic branding exercise. With the explosion in content and thought leadership, do not be surprised if more specific content leveraged all marketing channels (digital, social media, live and print) take center stage as a result of the rebrand. Other Cerulli findings were:

•  Legal and General Investment Management Americas:
  • Recently hired additional marketing support to expand the brand 
• “Marketing that doesn’t look like marketing” – including research and presentation materials customized for individual institional clients – is being undertaken by BlackRock, Putnam Investments and UBS Global Asset Management

At JCPR, we’re excited that the financial market is catching up to our way of thinking!

We know how to breakthrough, find that white space, and carefully craft our clients’ messages to ensure it resonates across “land, air and sea.”

We believe that Public Relations beats at the heart of any integrated communications plan worth its salt, hence our signature PR Core+, a suite of services including video, content, social, branding, design and crisis management. We leverage all of these and more to create the right integrated communications approach.

Ultimately, a smart and pragmatic integrated communications plan needs to drive significant business results. And that’s what JCPR does for our clients, year after year.