With the sector consolidating and client demographics changing, what should brands do to remain relevant and survive? Do they need greater appeal across generations? Do they need to tell a broader more coherent story? Do they need to be better at reflecting themselves? Or does the answer lie elsewhere?
The wealth and asset manager market is looking different as global events, the need to embrace technology, and demographic changes drive market consolidation. PwC’s 2023 Global Asset & Wealth Management survey suggests that one in six firms in the sector “will be swallowed up or fall by the wayside in the next five years.” And there have been some high profile mergers across the sector over the past year. Change is happening. PwC’s conclusion is stark – “adapt to the new context or fail”!
Brands need to adapt by telling a different story. But what is different?
Many wealth managers built their story around propositions of either being personal and offering an individual service; expressing the longevity of their solutions; or by being a partner. All three messages feel like table stakes for wealth clients, and because many say the same thing, brands lack distinction.
Coutts and Ruffer are different.
Coutts reflects its clients. They say they are for exceptional people – trailblazers and pioneers, the disrupters and challengers who help shape the fabric of UK society. It’s a different message that helps prospective clients identify with the brand and want to become a part of the Coutts exclusive family.
Aside from looking different, Ruffer’s core message of All-weather investing adds real character. Combined with a whimsical tone of voice that is embedded throughout everything they say, their story and brand stand out.
Asset managers have invested in their brands recently with many defining a new core proposition that has potential. However, these propositions tend not to inform the complete story. Beyond the headline message, firms fall into typical tropes of expressing their size, scale and AUM; their ability to invest for the long term; their capabilities; and how innovative they are.
Blackstone is different, less so due to their proposition of Build with Blackstone, but more how it is consistently told throughout much of their communication for both institutional and retail clients, creating one coherent story.
Many wealth and asset managers have similar visual identities, so how do you ensure your brand looks distinctive and stands out from the crowd?
With colour, brands are generally dark and moody, use traditional blues, neutral hues or have a predominance of white. Imagery is often traditional and clichéd, focusing on location (buildings and cityscapes), sustainability (landscapes and wind farms), people (employees or working with clients), or abstract graphic imagery. Typographically, brands tend use traditional serif fonts or more modern but simple sans serifs.
Two Sigma is different and builds off its distinctive positioning and core message of “This is Financial Sciences”. Their visual identity has a scientific look and feel, based on an angular grid. Typography uses a mix of abstract imagery inside the letterforms, so the words themselves become a key visual part of their brand. They describe themselves as scientists, and their people photography reflects this different approach.
Ninety One is positioned around “Sustainable investing, for a better tomorrow”. This is brought to life visually in a unique way. Their imagery draws on their South African heritage using unexpected landscapes. Their colour palette is contemporary and uses interesting combinations. Large bold graphic blocks derived from their logo add stand out.
Ruffer is also visually distinctive. As a quintessentially English brand, everything feels like a modern take on tradition. From their calligraphic logo, their colour combination of traditional and modern green, to their quirky and witty copywriting. At the heart of brand is the cartoon Ruffer dog, who symbolises their unique, slightly whimsical brand. They claim “a deliberately different approach”. This is supported by their deliberately different visual identity, that feels truly authentic to their brand.
The brands that stand out visually do so by representing who they are as a business with authenticity.
The ‘great wealth transfer’ is a big challenge for wealth and asset managers.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimates that $70 trillion of private wealth will transfer from the post-world war 2 generation to the next younger generation over the next 20 years.
Brands that have appealed to older generations won’t necessarily appeal to the next generation.
Brands can remain relevant by offering the next generation access to their investments on their terms – digitally and simply.
On-line investing platforms, like Nutmeg, position themselves as the antidote to complexity, offering a clear and straightforward experience. Robinhood takes a more challenger approach, with a mission to ‘democratise finance for all’. And in doing so, it looks and sounds different, and with values like ‘Participation is power – the rich don’t get a better deal’ – their communication and brand offer an experience catering for a new generation of investors.
Thematic funds are increasing in popularity, as they offer choice based on personal values. Consequently they are popular with a newer generation of investors. How firms let investors find, navigate and understand these funds is key. A simple user experience and a tone of voice that supports the core brand, helps build the overall impression to maintain appeal and relevance.
As demographics change, brands also need to change how they present themselves. Capgemini’s 2024 Wealth Management Top Trends highlights examples of how some firms, like UBS, is diversifying its advisor workforce to mirror a more diverse client base. From a brand perspective, this may mean thinking about how you represent your workforce so your communications don’t appear stuck in the past.
With changing demographics and client bases, brands today need to reflect their audiences more than ever.
Seven Investment Management originally operated through intermediaries. The brand we created for them was built around the idea of “Radical common sense”, reflecting that common sense isn’t common in financial services. Visually, the brand was no-nonsense, black and white, simple and bold. Seven secondary highlight colours added a hint of personality. As they moved directly to private clients, we adapted the brand to reflect this different audience. The core message changed to “Simple, clear and refreshing” and their visual identity was reversed to lead with the bright secondary colours, creating more immediate appeal for the private client audience.
Franklin Templeton is a 75-year-old asset management company. They wanted to refresh their brand to appeal to the next generation of investors without losing the link to their past. Their positioning of “Hello Progress” builds on their heritage, but clearly looks to the future. Everything in their visual identity reflects this idea – their brand site has a constantly evolving colour gradient in the background, and even their very traditional logotype is now combined with a modern gradient.
The Coutts rebrand also reflects their clients of today. Famously the Royal Family’s private bank with a proud 325 year history, they wanted to appeal to the next generation of investors, without losing their prestige. They were founded with the belief of truly understanding their clients, and they still wanted to reflect that today. At the heart of the visual identity refresh was the idea of “Welcome to the family” – symbolising how you will become part of their extended family of colleagues and clients. The new visual identity is more contemporary in style, but still feels very high-end and sophisticated. Their people photography represents how they are focusing on the younger entrepreneur market, successfully feeling both sophisticated but authentically reflecting their target audience.
Brands today need to resonate with different audiences who want to hear different messages. From institutional to retail clients, current employees to future ones. Views on ESG, responsibility, and DE&I. The ideal is to have one core idea that helps join everything together. The reality is often compartmentalised messages, or at worst, messages that feel bolted-on as an afterthought.
Employer brand messages often bear little to no resemblance to the corporate brand. Views on diversity are often reports which feel more like requirements. And responsibility can sometimes feel like a shoehorned value.
Whilst many struggle to join everything together and offer piecemeal communication, Nordea get it right.
They have a clear purpose to enable dreams and aspirations for a greater good which works on different levels for different audiences. Their brand of constantly improving connects to this and is supported by 4 clear values. Supporting actions demonstrate how they are constantly improving their approach to equal opportunities, their role as a corporate citizen, how they engage communities and their view on DE&I.
As potential talent, they are for people who move forward.
Brands that appeal work hard at finding the one unifying thought which other core messages can reinforce and support.
If you can’t make fundamental changes, brands can evolve through campaigns.
Wellington Management wanted to promote their approach to Emerging Markets. They wanted something different without changing their core brand. We used their existing logo, colour palette and fonts, but created something unique for this campaign – the aperture graphic device. It represents how their clients can “Access the perfect combination”, giving them a dynamic and flexible visual element that is built on their core brand without breaking it.
Man Group wanted to promote their TargetRisk fund. They wanted something bold and different to stand out in the market, but without breaking their brand guidelines. We didn’t change their core identity elements, but we worked with illustrator Noma Bar to develop a series of distinctive illustrations. They all visually represent hidden risks, that only Man Group can see by looking at things differently. This brought a unique look to the campaign, without changing the brand guidelines.
Coutts evolved their brand in 2020, but they have kept it fresh with a campaign targeting “pioneers, disruptors, champions and change-makers”. They have a history of supporting successful people, and the campaign builds on that heritage, but brings it right up to date. This is another demonstration of how it’s possible to evolve your brand through the medium of campaigns.
The market is changing rapidly and wealth and asset managers need to adapt to survive. Management teams will be considering many aspects. Brand and communication must be one of them. It’s the doorway that determines whether your new and current audiences want to find out more. Ultimately, it’s the experience you create that will inform whether you remain relevant for the future.
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We created a distinct campaign to stand out in a competitive and crowded marketplace.
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