JPMorgan

Best Blogs of the Week #193

Posted by Anu Heda on Jul 13, 2015, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Invesco, JPMorgan, Loomis Sayles, MandG, Natixis, OppenheimerFunds, PIMCO, Principal, Russell, Wells Fargo, WisdomTree

Greece! Our industry’s bloggers are covering the potential Grexit like nothing ever before. At this (blogging) trajectory, I can only imagine the volume around our US 2016 Presidential election.

By my count, 14 firms dedicated at least 1 post to Greece. Here they are, listed from newest (hence most relevant) to oldest. Only two make an actual prediction on Greece leaving the Europe. Follow us on Twitter to see which two (or read all 14 posts).

The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same –Mesirow
Greece: A resounding “No” to endless austerity –Russell
Greece Frightenin’ –M&G
Greece’s Precarious Position –Franklin Templeton
After the Referendum –Loomis, Sayles (an affiliate of Natixis Global Asset Management)
Definitive vote ushers in further uncertainty (Greek referendum) –Invesco
Greece Likely to Exit –Principal Global Investors
Does Greece Pose a Threat to Global Markets? –BlackRock
Making sense of Greece’s no vote –Wells Fargo
Greece Votes “No.” Is Grexit Next? –Oppenheimer
Greece at Crossroads –JPMorgan
Reflections on Greece –WisdomTree
Greece is the Word –Natixis Global Asset Management
Volatility Futures Suggest Only Near-Term Turmoil From Greece –PIMCO (only post dating from June)

Proprietary Magazines Coming to Asset Management?

Posted by Anu Heda on Jun 01, 2015, in Thoughts , tagged with content management, JPMorgan

Content marketing has come to the real estate industry. Douglas Elliman, the 4th-largest real estate firm in the US, launched a lifestyle magazine (via W all Street Journal) that does not sell, market, or promote their current properties. Two years ago, we noted the online retailer, Net-a-Porter, and their magazine, Porter, in a client engagement with a top-10 asset manager. The magazine concept is an interesting technique for an asset manager looking to organize disparate in-house content sources. Leafing through Porter, you see the easy connection between retailer and magazine. Interspersed within the articles are clothes and accessories sold on the Web site. Looking through Elliman, there are no articles about new residential towers in Manhattan or Miami, rather Q&As with Ted Allen and Katie Lee.

In our industry we have a DC-focused magazine: Journey from JPMorgan. Journey follows thePorter model covering topics like Social Security’s future, diversification in a DC plan, and rising health care costs.

Will we see more magazines? If done well (good articles, quality paper stock, stunning photos and imagery), I see the appeal and I can imagine a magazine has a higher chance of finding its way into an FAs briefcase (or app on her tablet) than a PDF. And that’s a significant step towards building appeal with advisors.

Thought Leadership Arms Race Is On

Posted by Anu Heda on May 27, 2015, in Thoughts , tagged with AB, content management, JPMorgan, PIMCO, Vanguard, WisdomTree

There’s omnipresent discussion (in the news, from asset managers, by wealth managers) of the 5-year long bull market in US equities. Reading this month’s Mixing It Up from Shefali Anand reminded me about the bull market. There’s another bull market. The asset management industry is experiencing a bull market in thought leadership. It’s easy to understand why: with so many investment options available to financial advisors, thought leadership becomes an important method of building brand recognition and becoming that coveted “trusted partner.”

Today, many asset managers are producing thought leadership in quantities never seen before. Let’s just look at 2015 volume to-date from five, well-known asset managers.

What are the obvious takeaways?

Unless Marketing executives believe thought leadership to be a fad, standing on the sidelines is longer an option. Yet some firms continue to do so, publishing 1 or 2 thought leadership pieces per quarter.
Introducing and populating a blog with multiple posts per week from different investment team members is no longer optional.

2014: A Year of Blogs (Part I)

Posted by Anu Heda on Jan 26, 2015, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with AB, BlackRock, JPMorgan, Natixis

In 2014, we reviewed over 1,500 individual blog posts to create the Best Blogs of the Week. In reviewing that volume, we identified five best practices consistent across the best posts. These practices range from the obvious to the counter-intuitive. Before we delve into the best practices, we need to agree on asset managers’ broad goals for an in-house blog. Broadly, marketers reference driving brand loyalty and increasing awareness as the two most frequent blog goals. With that in mind, we highlight best practices supporting these two goals.

Best Practice I – Get the Basics Right

Everyone intends to get the basics right; yet many firms continue to ignore or simply struggle with them. The basics are:

Indicate the author
Use a modern design
Provide limited and pertinent tags
Ensure readability via mobile devices

Author

Each blog post must indicate the author’s name, provide a photo and allow the reader to see his/her other posts. BlackRock gets it right with the left-hand rail available in each post. Alpholio (right-hand side) provides no names.

Modern Design

The blog must use large fonts, multiple high-quality graphics, and an engaging color palette (all easier said than done). Natixis uses bold, contrasting colors with large fonts and easy access to social media, while JPMorgan relies on a more conservative approach with small fonts, limited graphics, and a continuous stream-of-conscious look.

Tagging

Tags are highly subjective. Some firms use no tags while others exceed 30+ (therefore categorizing posts into too many small groups). 10 is probably a good upper bound; AllianceBernstein sets a good example with 10 straightforward tags (We do come across “General” or “Markets” a bit too often.).

Mobile Readability

Many FAs will use their phones and tablets to scroll through posts while idle (e.g., sitting in traffic), so ensuring clear readability and expandable graphics remain critical.

It’s A Lot About the People

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Jan 23, 2015, in Thoughts , tagged with JPMorgan, OppenheimerFunds, portfolio managers

A few weeks back, Ignites ran a poll (subscription) on the desirability of marketing star portfolio managers to retail investors. 60% of respondents indicated that focusing on the star PM is an unfavorable strategy.

It’s an interesting question, and despite the fact that there is no absolute answer you can count me in the minority. I’m not advocating promotion of a singular star necessarily, but more aggressive marketing of the investment team in general. It’s a weird quirk that the presentation of a investment strategy so often places the people driving that strategy in the background. The investment philosophy and process of most active mutual funds, for example, is broad enough where two different PMs can make markedly different decisions, craft different portfolios, and deliver significantly different results. So isn’t the person driving that fund paramount?

There is already evidence of firms raising the profiles of investment staff. Oppenheimer and JPMorgan offer two examples. I’d argue that asset managers will (and should) continue to build more depth around people in marketing their products. Going further, I think a greater focus on people will emerge in the passive space; after all, passive strategies are still ultimately designed by human beings.

Sure, there are always risks associated to marketing individuals. They change jobs. They retire. Some have personal shortcomings. Some are less than photogenic. But the reality is that the individuals are largely what firms need prospective investors to buy, and so they need to be a big part of any product’s story.