Best Blogs of the Week
Hope everyone enjoyed a good long weekend. Two very different posts to review here.
Author: Anu Heda
Positioning a New Product Family
New ETFs from firms with no ETF history. Prestigious long-only managers launching alternatives. Massive non-US banks entering the domestic asset management landscape. All seem to be occurring at a more frenetic pace than ever.
We’ve been supporting clients in these and similar situations. A client from last year mentioned Killian Branding during an engagement. And their post recently on customer service is very poignant. More broadly than this post, our advice for clients in these situations is to carefully study the providers with significant market share. The burden of the new entrant is to provide a new reason to do business with them. Paradoxically, it’s a burden and a great opportunity.
Presenting Product (Alphabetic and Asset Class)
You’re a mutual fund manufacturer with 50, 60, maybe even 100 mutual funds. On your Web site, the initial idea was to present them alphabetically. Perhaps, a few years later you broke them into asset classes, then alphabetic, but now you’re not sure at all what to present. Where’s a good place for ideas? Maybe look outside the industry for innovation?
I did a quick review of the four largest companies (I started by market cap, removed non-US companies and oil/gas companies).
- Apple – The homepage has no product section. “Store” is a natural proxy. And in the store, the products are grouped, well, similar to asset class. Instead of equities, there’s “Mac.” Instead of tax-exempt bonds, there’s “iPod.” The page has a featured fund, I mean product, and some left-hand navigation for the user who wants precision in her shopping.
- Microsoft – My first visit ever on this computer and Microsoft pops up a survey invitation. Really (right)?
Anyhow, there is a “Products” tab that presents a “mega-menu” organized by asset class (or product class here) first and then by business customer segment. - IBM – Here I have to understand a “Product” versus a “Solution” (typical problem in our industry as well). I assume products are physical items IBM manufactures and solutions to be consulting and professional services. Clicking on “Products” shows me that I am – wrong. There’s software and professional services organized by product class here.
- GE – First I segment myself (let’s say I’m a business customer), then I see a massive list (below) of products organized by industry (again, akin to asset class). It’s the most daunting list and well, if I want to know more about “grid automation,” then I’m simply out of luck. No Web site for me!
Two quick observations:
- Organization is difficult. These large, established firms are full of very smart people trying to bring prospects and customers to the right place quickly. What are products and solutions to financial advisors, investment consultants, and institutions?
- This cursory review does not imply an absence of great ideas outside the industry (I think there are multiple lessons to learn from Hulu, Zappos, & TaylorStich. More on those over a beer, though.) Simply that looking outside is a good input alongside internal groups and design partners.
Best Blogs of the Week
Not a large swath of great posts this week.
- AllianceBernstein – The pendulum has swung to equities and this is a helpful, concise view into equities and where to search.
- American Century – Volatility. Equities. In a chart. Not new but useful nevertheless.
- Putnam – This is a bit of a detour but still a useful post for FAs. Because politics come up so frequently, this post is helpful in clarifying the differences between the Senate and House budget plans.
Best Blogs of the Week
This week’s best posts are plastered with great charts and tables. FAs (like all us) gravitate towards them to decide whether we should read this blog post. Additionally FAs can reference these graphs/charts easily in conversations.
- Columbia – Well Zach Pandl (pdf) had us with his first sentence. The post provides insight on a difficult (and common) decision, when to start slowing investment in fixed income, especially government bonds.
- Russell – This post explains a straightforward answer process to the question: how much 401(k) invest is right for me?
- Russell – Any chart that shows returns by asset class is immediately helpful in making the case for a balanced asset allocation model.
- Vanguard – No surprise that the moral of the story is low-cost and diversified investing. Still the post is effective in supporting that discussion for the thousands of Vanguard-producing FAs.