Author: Anu Heda

Re-purposing Market Research

Posted by Anu Heda on May 24, 2011, in Thoughts , tagged with , ,

In the last three months, we’ve been involved in a handful of engagements where our clients provided previously executed market research as an input to our work.  I thought of four important characteristics of great research.

Point 1 – Honor Vintage – Asking clients and prospects questions about their livelihood is tied to many other factors: namely the marketing condition at that time period (e.g., Q4 2009).  Use research in context to the market conditions when the research was fielded and don’t try too hard to extrapolate the results over a long time horizon.

Point 2 – One Cook at a Time – The best research executions seem to have one internal owner that decides on the goal, finalizes the questions, and manages the process.  The research that seems to become “watered down” becomes so because numerous groups get involved and want a few of “their own” questions.  That can lead to long and unwieldy research with difficult to understand results.

Point 3 – One Goal at a Time – Similar to point (2), the research we’ve seen that’s been extremely effective has one (maybe two) goal at a time.   In our opinion, most firms are better off doing numerous smaller research initiatives, where feasible.  Having a single goal, such as, “Will our thought leadership be credible to breakaway advisors?” is usually more effective than broad “state of the industry” research.

Point 4 – Analyze in Two-Dimensions at a Time – Analyze the data in easy-to-digest sets. “Independent Advisors with 100MM+ AUM” is easy to understand and consider.  “Independent Advisors, with $100MM+ AUM, 50+ clients, CFA charter, and previous work at Merrill Lynch or US Trust” is difficult for anyone to get his/her head around.  Just because you can slice/dice data in nifty ways does not mean it’s helpful.

As you consider market research, we hope these learnings from reviewing many good research initiatives will help.

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on May 23, 2011, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , , ,

More high-quality education that’s relevant for both direct investors and FAs advising clients on tenets of good long-term investing.

  1. Vanguard – Straightforward (re-)education on the impact of consistent periodic investing.
  2. BlackRock – Answering the question many clients ask – why not just buy silver instead of gold; it’s cheaper? – about the differences between gold and silver investing and previously.
  3. American Century – We appreciate the Q&A format and this post explains debt ceiling and other timely topics clearly.

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on May 16, 2011, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , ,

A newcomer, Wells Fargo, breaks into the best blogs, with two posts.

  1. Wells Fargo – A quick refresh on the difference between broad-based inflation and CPI-based inflation, along with ideas related to inflation.
  2. American Century – Scott Whitman summarizes his investment philosophy (towards the end).
  3. Wells Fargo – Peter Nulty often provides a weekly update,this week’s starts with a great subject – Your house wants to know what’s for dinner – and a quick-format.

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on May 09, 2011, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , ,

Last week presented a few interesting topics we thought to share.

  1. Vanguard – In celebrating the index investing’s 35 birthday (and their own success therein), Craig Stock posts a compact history for indexing.
  2. Virtus – Joe Terranova provides an easily digestible summary of major currencies in one post.  He uses a few charts, but doesn’t become bogged down in statistics or data points.
  3. Russell – The post describes the difficulty in selecting high-performing assets.  Additionally, there’s a 1-question poll that captures readers’ opinions

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on May 02, 2011, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , ,

Three worthwhile reads from last week.

  1. American Century makes a strong case about long-term growth.
  2. BlackRock’s weekly roundup links to a word cloud from Bernanke’s speech.  The diagram makes it clear what’s on his mind – inflation.
  3. Russell discusses the AMT and just how much the US Treasury depends on it.  While most everyone agrees about the AMT’s inequity, the post shares the AMT’s role in the overall tax revenue base.