The Importance of Strong Asset Management & Wealth Management Branding
Why Brand Building is Critical For Investment Firms
Exceptional branding is one of the most effective ways to boost business visibility for asset and wealth management firms. While it ultimately comes down to product or service quality at the closing stage, effective branding is what creates those opportunities in the first place. Core branding is your storefront, it is how both investors and advisors generate that extremely important first impression.
Both asset management and wealth management are areas of finance and investment industries that rely heavily on strong branding. Built on strong relationships, relatable messaging, and aspirational visualization, the most important considerations within the space inherently require a compelling brand presence to stand out.
This article will focus on two sections:
- Showcase strong brand proof points & key client insights
- Provide the base ingredients for a strong brand
With the strategy and statistics in-tow, the goal is to help place you on a confident path to an important business exercise that will likely lead to increased visibility, stronger engagement, and an even more valuable employee & client base.
Why Should I Invest in Investment Branding?
New company branding, or rebranding an existing wealth or asset management firm, is a large undertaking. Yet when viewing the potential benefits of doing so, it is clear that quality branding can have a powerfully positive impact on your bottom line and business—when done right.
The next question is: How do you do it right? The answer: Consistency & Authenticity.
Simply put, when you bring the two elements of established brand stability and a sense of transparent trust together, the market rewards you for it.
Strong investment and wealth management branding certainly makes a difference whether you work manage money for institutions, intermediaries or investor clientele. The next step covers the keys necessary to create a brand you can rely on and take pride in for the long-term.
Branding Key #1: It Starts with a Story
Purpose. Process. Culture. Passion.
These are all elements of a successful brand story. When we say story, we mean the narrative thread that ties your brand together, from business objective to emotional underpinning. People want to see brands that they can relate to—ones they truly understand and can derive excitement and value from.
When it comes to wealth or asset management, we consider the concept of a Value Partnership to be the lynchpin of a strong narrative. If you can create a brand that conveys the idea that your services can provide a value-added, trusted partnership, you start in a position of power. To deconstruct this a bit further, a value partnership can be defined as:
A techno-functional experience (i.e., resourceful relationship) built on strong emotional connection and clear understanding of client needs and wants.
For an asset manager, your story might cover how & why you do what you do on a daily basis, along with how you manage money differently than others in your asset class—and If you can tie these value drivers with a strong client experience, you have the ingredients for a compelling investment brand story.
Branding Key #2: Make Your Mark
The Swoosh. The Arches. The Apple.
Enduring logos and consistent colors create excitement and foster familiarity. They transcend bad times and solidify memories of the good. Brand logos (or “marks”) and color palettes may seem like a secondary consideration, but they have the potential to completely change perceptions.
The creation of such visual systems is not easy. They need to derive from an educated place, understanding elements like color theory to pinpoint what you want your brand to feel like aesthetically and psychologically. Logos have to encapsulate your culture, but also avoid boxing you in. Colors must showcase your personality, without giving potential clients the wrong impression.
We are a highly visual species, and while performance metrics tend to win the day in finance, the emotional perception of a brand can have huge ramifications for sustainable growth.
Branding Key #3: Be A Visionary
Innovation. Clarity. Experience.
In this digital age, showing that you can stay ahead of the technological curve conveys many things at once. It shows sophistication, it represents the ability to evolve, and it creates a user journey that keeps people engaged all the way to the call to action. This is vital as attention spans get shorter and SEO results get longer.
Even with financial services, you need to immediately grab the attention of those who see your site or marketing materials, while also providing a digital experience that gives them an in-depth picture of your skills and services. This requires snappy website responsiveness, action-oriented marketing collateral, and easy-to-digest information in the form of data visualizations, scrollable content, and clean UX design.
The Value of Investing In Your Brand
We hope through these numbers and insights you have gained a more comprehensive perspective on the importance of investment branding in 2023 and beyond. And since you’ve stayed with us for this long, we have one more statistic that might be the most compelling of all:
While we would never take full credit for such strong client performance—that is reliant on the great teams we had the pleasure to work with—this statistic is a powerful testament to the value of investing in your brand. If you would like to see what we can do to help your wealth management firm, we have over 25 years of specialist experience in the investment & financial space, and just like you, we are in this for the long-term.
MBC Strategic has helped asset management firms of all sizes position their branding, marketing and communications in a way that better connects with their target audiences. Contact us to learn more about how we can help.