Leadership masterminds: How Important Is It in Brand Building for Managers?
In an increasingly competitive business environment, the brand has become the main differentiating tool between asset managers, investment consultants, and financial advisers. According to a recent survey by Cerulli Associates - the results of which are presented in the October issue of The Cerulli Edge - US Monthly Product Trends report - marketing executives identify a brand building as the most important marketing initiative for their firms, with a score of 4.1 out of 5.0, at the same level as the outcome measurement.
As the international analysis firm explains, “investment professionals seek to position themselves as experts capable of providing their clients with valuable knowledge. It is no longer enough to recommend the best product: thought leadership is crucial ”. This desire to be recognized as true opinion leaders in the sector has led management companies to develop marketing programs in recent years away from product documentation and focused on high-value-added information that contributes to the education of customers and strengthens the brand.
“Leadership masterminds - is a form of brand communication,” explains Cerulli. “ Instead of focusing on selling products, managers are positioning themselves as opinion leaders through content designed to educate, guide and build loyalty. That is why it is important that the content is interesting enough to capture the attention of investors and create a group of followers ”.
In this sense, it seems that the managers are seriously rethinking their contents. The survey carried out by Cerulli reveals that more than half of the large houses - defined as those with a managed wealth of more than 100,000 million dollars - have plans to strengthen their presence on social networks and expand the contents of their web and institutional pages.
While 43% plan to expand non-product-focused materials (a percentage that reaches 56% in the case of smaller managers) , almost 30% of these managers plan to reduce their product materials, which is consistent with this tendency to generate educational materials that are not related to the products of the house. Interestingly, 11% of small and medium-sized management companies plan to eliminate their non-product-focused content, something that may be due to the need to concentrate scarcer resources on other types of initiatives.
Leadership masterminds in action
What kind of non-product-focused content do international managers offer? Funds People has compiled a list of the main information programs of a selected group of managers. It should be noted that, in most cases, the contents grouped under the 'thought leadership' label are managed worldwide and are usually presented in English, with notable exceptions such as the Market Insights program by JP Morgan AM, the M&G blogs Investments or the BNY Mellon IM newsletter, which offer their analysis in Spanish.
The periodic publication in a report format is confirmed as the most common type of content, although multimedia content such as videos, webcasts, interactive graphics, simulators or mobile applications are gaining ground. Some managers have also chosen to communicate with investors in a more direct and informal way through blogs, while others reinforce their content offering with white papers and studies developed in collaboration with academic institutions.