Posted by Anu Heda
on Nov 24, 2014,
in
Thoughts
During a recent meeting with a retail marketing executive in a multi-boutique form, we brainstormed a bit on the perceived need for product marketing. Do asset managers need to produce product commentary, investment process documents, and other information at an individual product level? Is a printable fact sheet and high-quality Web product profile enough support?
We started to think through the use cases for these materials. The material is definitely not esoteric. Allianz has quarterly market commentary. Jensen provides a nice quarterly product commentary (related to the SMA). And Schroders offers an evergreen product process.
- Do FAs want these types of documents?
- Do these documents open doors via business-as-usual marketing channels (e.g., e-mail, banner ads, etc.)?
- Do these documents build credibility with FAs, home-office product specialists and others?
- Are they supportive to the wholesaler meeting?
Though basic market research would be a helpful way to quantify the perceived value, the marketing executive’s “gut instinct” was to answer “no” to the first three questions. But that last question gave pause. Perhaps having a “leave behind” is so typical that walking away from a meeting with an FA and not giving him something could seem awkward. In the “leave behind” scenario, the documents could be necessary (Also, perhaps the wholesalers used the documents to build product knowledge that efficiently educated them.). That fourth question left him with the to-do of discussing product marketing materials with the Internal Sales Manager to understand print-on-demand volume (for the wholesalers), mail volumes, or e-mail click-through rates.
As November concludes many asset managers will look at their 2015 plan and wonder where to increase and decrease spending. Perhaps product marketing literature is a place to consider decreasing.
