Investment Marketing Newsletter – 1Q08
The Investment Marketing Business
With a difficult market environment, now is the time to focus on your communications strategies with clients and partners — to help ensure long-lasting relationships. Promote your expertise and differentiate your process to allay investor fears and help partners understand how you address short-term periods of adversity. Regular communications will help you achieve this goal. Try newsletters, publications, and web-based content to help increase touch points at difficult and emotional times for many investors or advisors who are feeling pressure from their clients. Now is the time to solidify valuable relationships through effective communication strategies.
Watch List
The firm is currently in the midst of a capital raise for an international company seeking funding for a major global expansion. MBC became involved through a strategic relationship with the firms’ lawyers and is helping to position the client through their marketing materials, messaging, and story development for an investment banking circuit. The fund-raising efforts are moving along very favorably despite a difficult capital market environment. With effective efforts and poignant materials driving a successful due diligence process, the company expects to sign a deal very shortly.
Marketing Consultant’s Corner
The investment world is constantly evolving and financial branding is a dynamic process that is often overlooked. Periodic self analysis is important in determining the right time and approaching a re-brand — the decision has to be tied to your overall growth strategy of the company. Ask the following three vital questions:
- Has the firm accomplished business and marketing goals?
- How have the company’s long-term vision and goals changed?
- Is the business poised for marketing success?
Before embarking on re-brand, it is also important to pinpoint goals and analyze past successes and failures. Focus on:
- A strategic plan with creative and functional needs and goals for the brand.
- Analysis of external factors, such as any changes in your target audience’s needs or patterns.
- Full competitive market overview to ensure that you identify your competitive advantages and differentiate the brand from other offerings.
Strong financial brands aim to build lasting relationships with customers and partners for future success. With strategic thinking and creative insight, brands can build web, media, print, and press material to better communicate their edge.
The Ticker
The team at MBC is currently developing a series of research papers for a major provider of index-based ETF products. This leading next-generation product developer was looking for strategic assistance in the research, copywriting, and positioning of their rules-based, alpha-seeking lines of products. The reports are a follow-up to last year’s hedge fund replication research, and include an overall firm positioning paper, as well as a deeper look at fundamental indexation. The papers will be used to create awareness, credibility, and support the expertise of the firm and help them expand into new markets and product channels.