Over the past decade, asset management has become increasingly commoditized. Strong performance, lower fees and a stable, strong investment platform are not hard to find. The result is that firms seeking to drive flows into their products are finding it increasingly hard to break through within financial institutions.
Asset management branding is what separates firms that blend in from those that stand out. Below, we’ve created a playbook that asset managers can use to create true differentiation and uptake of their products in the face of these myriad challenges.
Why Asset Managers All Sound the Same
Before you start the path toward differentiation, you need to understand the challenges asset managers are facing from the get-go:
- Performance is Table Stakes: Don’t get us wrong, performance is critical. We hear frequently from financial advisors that objective performance matters when evaluating products. However, because of this, asset managers too often make it the whole story as opposed to a component of the story.
- The Investment Promise Lacks Differentiation: We hear frequently from asset managers that they “think long term,” “believe in diversification,” and don’t “chase short-term performance.” While these are all good things, they are not differentiating things – any investment firm with any degree of thoughtfulness is thinking similarly about investing.
- Compliance is a Headache: Compliance keeps the brand safe and free from risk. However, it often limits the ability to make bold claims or statements. If compliance directs us all to say that we’re “striving” or “seeking” or “helping” or “pursuing” something, how do we actually put a stake in the ground?
What Genuine Differentiation Actually Looks Like
So, if all asset managers are centered on the same thing and the language you want to use is limited, how do you actually differentiate? Well, there are a few rules and frameworks that can help you stand out:
What You Believe Matters as Much as What You Do
Belief – in other words your core investment philosophy – matters more than you may believe. We hear frequently from financial advisors that firms who share a similar philosophy and set of values resonate with them and even help them advance their own differentiation they espouse to clients.
Importantly, a belief system needs to be powerful and draw a line in the sand. Think about how passionate and courageous John Bogle of Vanguard was about expense management and its importance to investors. Early on, he was laughed at for eschewing high-fee active management, but over time, his belief system reshaped much of the investment industry. And what else did it do? It created a passionate set of followers who shared that very same belief (they’re known as “Bogleheads”).
Your approach to investing needs to align around that belief for true asset management branding success.
Your Approach to Investing Needs to Align Around That Belief
Capital Group believes in long-term, diversified investing. But do they just say that? No, they show it through “The Capital System.” If you’re unfamiliar with The Capital System, it’s a style of investing that doesn’t revolve around a single star portfolio manager. Instead, a group of portfolio managers oversee individual sleeves of a single fund – and voila, that’s structural diversification.
Capital Group also compensates their portfolio managers for long-term performance as opposed to short-term performance. Again, instead of just saying “we believe in long term results,” they’re delivering structural long-term investment performance.
You don’t just say you believe in something. You need to show it. This is where brand consistency and brand integrity come into play.
Consider a Niche
You may say to yourself, “But Capital Group and Vanguard are titans! What if I need to break through now, when all these big players already exist?” Well, in asset management branding, it’s not just about what you’re saying, it’s also about who you’re talking to.
Consider Dimensional Funds, also known as DFA. DFA is a firm with a highly scientific, academic-style approach to investing. But they didn’t just put that approach out to everyone. Early on, they exclusively focused on the RIA market. What’s more, they even created artificial demand by forcing RIAs to travel to their offices in Austin, TX to learn about the firm and become registered to offer DFA products to their clients.
By exclusively focusing on RIAs, they created a following. And by creating a barrier to entry to their products, they created something everyone wanted, but only a few could have. It was this approach that catapulted them to become one of the leaders in the industry, even among the titans.
The Positioning Process Substance Uses
When it comes to asset management branding, our process at Substance revolves around defining the elements above. However, the path to defining those elements takes a careful and deliberate research and strategic process. Here’s the path you can employ to get there:
Input 1: Internal Audit Helps to Define Your Structural Advantage.
Our process starts with spending many hours with asset management teams to understand the structural makeup of their investment platform and product set. This process includes anything from internal interviews to performing a broad sweep of product materials. The goal is to understand the structure you’ve already built and uncover the unique, underlying differences that your asset management positioning can center around.
We also use this time to align asset management teams around a common, passionate belief system that can excite and align the entire organization around a single, scalable philosophy that can encompass the entirety of the firm’s offering.
Input 2: External Interviews Identify Points of Alignment
We couple the internal interview process with in-depth conversations with non-producing and producing financial advisors from a myriad of channels. The goal is to expose them to the asset management brand and product set and hear specifically what resonates with them.
Perhaps even more importantly, we use this time to understand how the asset management firm’s belief system can align with a core financial advisor belief system of investing. Through this process, we’re able to find common, shared ground in the belief systems between the asset management brand and financial advisors – so that the two can operate side-by-side in partnership, each helping to advance each other’s philosophy in the marketplace.
Input 3: Competitive and Cultural Sweep
You also need to ensure that the structure and belief system stands out and will have relevance in the world of investing. We take the time to review the core competitive set, ensuring the asset management firm’s brand doesn’t overlap with other asset managers.
We also use this step to review trends and predictions across the investment landscape to help ensure that what we create isn’t only true to who the asset management firm is, but also taps into a cultural vein that will get people talking and supporting the brand. This is where thought leadership and brand positioning intersect.
The Output
Using each of these inputs, we pull together the essential elements of a differentiated asset management brand:
- The Belief System: A core, written belief system that the asset management firm can espouse to the marketplace and use as a guiding light for future product development
- Messaging Using Structural Advantages: Core messages and tangible proof points that support a differentiated investment structure and strategy
- Manifesto: An inspirational written narrative that synthesizes the belief system and key messages. Used as an internal rallying cry to drive alignment and excitement across the firm.
- Target Audience: A written profile of the target audience most aligned with the offering of the firm. Inclusive of psychographic profile, demographics and the advisory channel(s) in which they operate
- Go-To-Market Plan: How to bring the platform to the marketplace in order to most effectively engage both internal stakeholders and the external marketplace with the message
- Testing: Through our unique Advisor Roundtables offering, we’re able to expose financial advisors to the message, source feedback, and optimize the message to ensure it’s deeply aligned with the financial advisor mindset.
Common Positioning Mistakes Asset Managers Make
As your asset management brand is being developed, it’s important to have a filter for some of the pitfalls that can emerge during the process. Below are some of the most common positioning mistakes we see and how to avoid them:
Mistake: Performance As the Only Proof Points: As mentioned previously, performance is critical. However, its importance means that near-every asset manager will be messaging on it – it is not inherently differentiating.
How to Fix It: Look at performance as the output of your asset management brand’s story, not the centerpiece. You want to be able to clearly say the following: “How are we able to deliver better long-term performance? By consistently believing in [insert your belief system] and bringing it to life via [insert your structural differentiators].”
Mistake: Using Generic Language: Advisors receive around 60 marketing messages a week trying to sell them something. Basically, they’ve heard a lot of sales pitches, and are very quick to say “Heard that one before.”
How to Fix It: Build a list of overused words in the field of asset management branding and commit to not using them anywhere in your own narrative. Check this list against your own work to ensure you’re avoiding the generic.
(Don’t have your own list? Reach out to info@havesubstance.com and we’ll shoot you our standard one!)
Mistake: Misaligned with the Advisor Mindset: Too often, asset management brands are crafted with an insular view. In other words, they’re talking about things that matter to them, but not necessarily to advisors.
How to Fix It: Integrate the voice of the advisor into your work via regular testing and conversations. Sourcing their feedback throughout the process can help you ensure that what you’re putting into the marketplace moves the needle.
Mistake: Just Updating Visual Identity: If you’re just talking logo and visual identity in your ultimate deliverable, you haven’t gone far enough. Asset management is a highly considered purchase, and so you need to think hard about the message that will drive that consideration.
How to Fix It: Follow a process that yields a message and not just visual elements.
Mistake: Lacking Structural Differentiation: It’s easy to craft an asset management message, but it’s not easy to build a business that has the kind of tangible, structural differentiation that resonates with advisors and investors in today’s over-marketed world.
How to Fix It: Since it’s challenging to fundamentally change your business structure to deliver differentiation, you need to start with looking deep into your existing structure to find what’s driven your investment success thus far. We like to say: Everyone has a differentiated asset management brand, they just haven’t found it yet.
How to Know When Your Brand Is Working
If there’s anything that characterizes asset managers, it’s that performance – and the numbers – matter. Any successful asset management branding project needs to therefore have a sound measurement plan attached to it. Below are some of the key markers we recommend considering:
Use a Syndicated Study: Third-party reports like Escalent’s Cogent Brandscape and MarketMetrics are able to source strong, solid advisor feedback at scale. Depending on your media spend, you want to assess anything from growth in familiarity and favorability to deeper brand attribution that aligns with your asset management brand.
Source Feedback from Wholesalers: Wholesalers should not only be able to easily recite your brand message, but they should also be reporting back to you that it’s resonating in the marketplace and helping them to win business. A regular survey of your wholesalers can help put some quantitative data behind this dimension.
Channel-Specific Growth: If you’ve followed this playbook, you’ll be going to market with a very specific advisor set as your primary target. Measuring your growth in market share over time with a firm, set of firms, or entire channel is a critical business metric to stay focused on over time.
Asset Management Branding of Substance
The principles above are ones we truly believe in. And we bring them to bear in every project at Substance. Below are a few sample projects we’ve engaged in, and how we’ve brought the principles to life:
- Hartford Funds Brand Refresh: Hartford Funds has a unique subadvisory model. Rather than oversee 10+ subadvisors, the firm has deep, strategic partnerships with two institutional subadvisors. We leaned into this core value proposition as part of an overall brand refresh, and tilted messaging, visual identity and execution towards elevating the sophistication of the brand in order to create advisor and client confidence. The firm also very intelligently partnered closely sales training in order to align all wholesalers around the new narrative. The result: A unified firm, with a business-grounded value proposition, going to market in a concentrated, focused way.
- Clark Capital Website: While at its core a web project, we used Clark Capital’s website redesign to fully re-envision the firm’s brand message and presentation. This included developing a compelling value proposition surrounding the firm’s ownership structure (which has since evolved), belief system, and dedication to the independent advisory channel. The result was a brand presence that speaks to compelling proof points, a belief system advisors can align around, and clear audience relevance that speaks directly to a specific advisory channel.
Ready to Build a Brand That Actually Breaks Through?
At Substance, we help asset managers build differentiated brands that resonate, stand out, and drive sustainable flows. Whether you’re launching a new strategy, repositioning an existing one, or undergoing a full rebrand, our process is built to deliver a message that performs — not just a logo.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is asset management branding?
Asset management branding is more than crafting a visual identity. It’s crafting a differentiating message that highlights the structural advantages of your firm, stands out in the marketplace, and resonates with financial advisors.
How do you differentiate an asset management firm?
Start by assessing the belief system and structural aspects of your firm that have contributed to investment success. Then, align those structural differentiators and belief system with an advisor mindset. The point of connection between these two things is the foundation of a powerful asset management brand.
What makes a strong brand position for an asset manager?
A strong brand position for an asset manager requires a structural, differentiated business model that contributes to investment success. Pair this with a powerful belief system that resonates with a particular set of financial advisors, and you’ve got something truly special.
How long does asset management rebranding take?
The process itself can take anywhere from 6 – 12 months. However, companies should be prepared to consistently promote the brand for 3 – 5 years to really gain traction and see results in the marketplace.
Why work with experts in asset management branding?
Working with experts in asset management branding means shortcutting years of trial and error. At Substance, we bring deep industry knowledge, a proven process, and direct access to financial advisor insights. We’ve helped asset managers across Europe and the U.S. build brands that don’t just look good but also drive flows.
