2008 Survey Results: 10%-20% Budget Cuts Expected…But Will Cutbacks Be Deeper?
In late October 2008, SwanDog Strategic Marketing and FRC refielded elements of last year’s ground-breaking marketing research “Beyond the Collateral.”
Losses in revenue to the investment industry alone will run well into the billions of dollars. One of our goals with the survey was to learn how much of those losses Marketing is planning to absorb. Via the survey, two-thirds of marketing executives told us that they expect 10%-20% 2009 budget cuts while one-third expect cuts to exceed 20%.
As deep as even 10%-20% cuts can feel, we suspect that many chief marketing officers (CMOs) are underestimating the crisis’ impact.
The survey also asked marketers how priorities were being reset in the current environment and how they were aligning with business goals.
Please complete the form below to access Dave Swanson’s 10-minute video presentation with more about the survey findings.
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| posted November 20, 2008 @ 10:00 by PAllen
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Asset Management Marketing Budgets Are Insufficient
We continue our release of exhibits from the 2007 Beyond The Collateral research with data on marketing budgets (exclusive of compensation). Last year’s study showed that nearly half of firms (46%) with assets under management (AUM) between $15B-$50B spend less than $2 million, and 50% of firms with AUM over $50B spend less than $10 million. These represent marketing budgets that are 1 basis point or less of AUM.
Further, a large percentage of marketing budgets are spent on literature development and fulfillment. The majority (57%) of firms with AUM of less than $50B spend more than 40% of their overall marketing budget on literature development and fulfillment. Even 38% of firms with AUM over $50B spend over 40% of their marketing budgets in this manner.
Check back next Friday for the next release of another exhibit from Beyond The Collateral. The research is being re-fielded now, with results due before the end of the year.
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| posted November 7, 2008 @ 10:43 by PAllen
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Customer Data, Client Advocacy Functions Generally Reside Outside Marketing
Functions designed to best understand the customer, namely customer data and client advocacy, are typically located outside Marketing, according to the 2007 Beyond The Collateral research. The study found this to be the case in all firms, regardless of firm size.
If not Marketing, who is responsible? The majority of respondents from the largest ($50B+ AUM) firms reported that CRM and client advocacy functions reside in the sales department. Feel free to comment below–and watch for next Friday’s release of more exhibits from the 2007 study.
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| posted October 31, 2008 @ 10:09 by PAllen
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What Do Financial Marketing Organizations Do?
The second exhibit to be released from the 2007 Beyond The Collateral research answers the question: What Do Financial Marketing Organizations Do?
As shown above, financial marketing today embraces the right and largely ignores the left side of the marketing brain. Respondents overwhelmingly report that their current marketing organizations are responsible for promotions, sales support, value-added programs and advertising—right-brain marketing. On the other hand, many of the business functions including client data management, CRM, client advocacy, product development and product management (left-brain marketing) are typically not part of Marketing.
In fact, as firms become larger and too often de-centralized, less of these functions reside in Marketing.
As announced last week, we’re posting exhibits from the 2007 study to the site every Friday–see you next week.
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| posted October 24, 2008 @ 9:00 by PAllen
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SwanDog Publishes The World Has Changed (Part 1)
SwanDog Strategic Marketing today published “The World Has Changed (Part 1),” a 12-page whitepaper available to be downloaded from www.swandog.com. It includes recommendations on how mutual fund companies, other investment managers and broker-dealers can reposition themselves.
In the whitepaper, Dave Swanson, SwanDog’s founder and managing principal, is critical of investment management Web site updates and encourages marketers to commit to more timely communicating by adopting a “newsroom mentality.” Investment companies that have deferred investor communications to financial advisors need to use frequency, education and transparency to re-open the dialogue, we believe. Marketing communications, including imagery, need to be reworked to represent the empathy that today’s markets call for. Other recommendations relate to redefining the brand of the financial advisor and the prospects for large and small asset management brands.
The investment management industry is the business we come from and we now serve. Some of what we’re recommending is counterintuitive to legacy marketing, but we believe in marketing organizations’ ability to step it up and lead their firms’ efforts in bolstering investor confidence. There is unprecedented opportunity for those who do.
To download a copy of “The World Has Changed (Part 1),” go to www.swandog.com. The whitepaper is the first in a series of reports.
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| posted October 20, 2008 @ 15:24 by PAllen
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We’re Baaack…Study to be Refielded; 2007 Exhibits Selectively Released
Little more than one year after the publishing of the SwanDog/FRC Beyond The Collateral research, we’re refielding the study. We’re repeating questions from the 2007 study and asking a handful of new questions. Watch for the results on this site in November.
In the meantime, we’re happy to announce that we will be releasing selective exhibits from the 2007 research. Watch for a new exhibit to be posted to this site every Friday.
What are the most critical business challenges of marketers? Approximately one-quarter of marketers and non-marketers (including respondents in positions such as CEO, Head of Distribution and Head of Product Management), agreed that differentiation and brand awareness would represent their highest hurdles going forward. What a difference a year makes!
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| posted October 16, 2008 @ 15:07 by PAllen
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Send Lawyers, Guns and Money
Retooling Compliance to Give Your Marketing a Leg Up
The solution?
Position the compliance team physically along side the marketers, not upstairs with legal, and let marketing heads establish priority as news value dictates. Second, work to solve the challenges inherent in new media. Why can’t product managers blog?
Many today’s legal departments won’t allow this to happen for fear that the compliance team will fall under the spell of those fun marketing guys—a financial Stockholm Syndrome to be sure. But I don’t share that same concern.
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| posted April 17, 2008 @ 15:40 by dswanson
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Does Active Management Matter Anymore?
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| posted January 23, 2008 @ 9:54 by BBarsanti
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Can Financial Marketers Really Learn From Nike?
At first glace, the article on page one of today’s The Wall Street Journal entitled “Nike Hires Influencers” seems to hold little for financial marketers. But there are three important object lessons that translate to investment product development. First is the notion of building products for the end user. I don’t think we spend enough time researching and understanding investor needs. Instead, we defer that responsibility to the financial intermediary. Investment management marketing needs to return to a time when the “manufacturer” knew the investor better. Second, with differentiation rated the number one business problem in our most recent study with FRC, I think the idea of injecting more creativity and consumer focus into our product offerings has merit. Whether American Century’s LiveStrong Portfolios ever turn out to be a critical sales success, they do represent a fresh twist on a commodity product. Finally, the idea of identifying “influencers” really resonated with me. When we are segmenting and researching the needs of financial intermediaries, maybe gaining a better understanding of the role that these FAs play in their offices can provide some fresh insights to direct new marketing and product initiatives.
What do you think?
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| posted October 24, 2007 @ 11:39 by BBarsanti
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11 Reasons Why Marketing Plans Fail
In this 15-minute podcast, Dave Swanson, Founder & Managing Principal of SwanDog Strategic Marketing discusses the most frequent reasons that written marketing plans fail.
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| posted October 22, 2007 @ 11:11 by BBarsanti
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Use of Social Media Universally Low Among Marketers
In the marketing study, Beyond the Collateral …, we just produced with FRC, we were surprised as to how little marketers in the financial services area had begun to embrace and utilize new media such as RSS feeds, blogs and social media. However, I just came across this comment in a Marketing News blog regarding a recent consumer marketing forum in Chicago. “A lot of marketing folks, most of whom are probably quite smart, still have no idea what the heck social media even is.”
I guess this is an issue prevalent not only with financial service marketers. We agree with the premise of the rest of the comments too – that all marketers should start getting a better understanding what these new media opportunities can provide.
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| posted October 16, 2007 @ 13:56 by BBarsanti
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We Want Your Input
We believe marketing can, and will, make a larger strategic impact in the financial service industry. However, that role will not be automatically handed over to us. We must take the initiative and pickup the reins of leadership. To that end, by sharing ideas and thoughts we can all benefit from each other’s knowledge and experience. So, join the discussion and share your opinions.
In your opinion, what are the key marketing challenges facing the financial service industry today? And, how do you think we can overcome them?
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| posted October 15, 2007 @ 12:35 by BBarsanti
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Leveraging The Masters: What Financial Marketers Can Learn From Consumer Marketers
In this conversation with First American Funds distribution head Frank Wheeler, SwanDog Strategic Marketing Founder & Managing Principal Dave Swanson identifies three important ways that financial marketers can put “consumer-marketing” disciplines to work in the B2B space. The discussion draws from Frank’s many years at Procter & Gamble before entering the financial space. 15 minutes
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| posted September 27, 2007 @ 9:21 by dswanson
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Financial Services Study Envisions a Comprehensive Role for Marketing
Asset management firms focus on the production of marketing collateral and a limited number of other functions to their detriment. That’s the conclusion of the 2007 Beyond The Collateral: Unlocking Marketing’s Potential for Strategic Advantage study co-authored by SwanDog Strategic Marketing and Financial Research Corporation (FRC).
The overwhelming majority of CEOs, senior executives and heads of distribution say they expect Marketing to have a greater impact on their businesses in the next five years. (Not surprisingly, marketing heads concur!)
Yet, the study suggests that firm management is underutilizing the potential of their marketing organizations, often viewing Marketing as just a supplement to the sales effort.
“This is not meant to be a direct indictment of Marketing,” write Dave Swanson, Founder & Managing Principal of SwanDog Strategic Marketing, and Mike Evans, President of FRC. “There is plenty of evidence that suggests, for the most part, Marketing has always done what they have been asked to do, an what they have been structurally designed to do, which is to primarily create and distribute marketing materials. Traditionally, Marketing has not been asked or expected to take a strategic role within their firms. This is evident in Marketing’s typical structure, responsibilities and funding.”
Our goal, with the study and in discussion continuing on the Beyond the Collateral.com Web site, is to engage the industry—senior management, distribution heads, marketing chieftains and their teams in the pursuit of what we’re calling Comprehensive Marketing. This is in contrast to the one-sided marketing that the study documents as the status quo in the industry today.
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| posted September 20, 2007 @ 5:57 by dswanson
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Dave Swanson on Beyond the Collateral Study
Dave Swanson, Founder & Managing Principal of SwanDog Strategic Marketing, provides high-level comments on the SwanDog/FRC study Beyond the Collateral: Unlocking Marketing’s Strategic Potential for Competitive Advantage.
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| posted September 20, 2007 @ 3:38 by PAllen
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What Brand Management Is and Isn’t
It’s not the advertising. It’s not a positioning statement. It’s not a tag line. Too many financial service firms don’t understand this. When we talk to firms regarding their “brand,” too often they immediately refer to their advertising or their firm’s positioning statement. They think that is where their brand resides, and that brand management is in the hands of the keeper/enforcer of the brand standards manual.
What too many fail to recognize is that a brand resides in the collective perceptions of their clients’ minds. It is the firm’s customers’ and prospects’ collective perceptions — of their products, their literature, their value-added programs, the sales reps who call on them, the phone reps who answers their calls–that all leave a lasting impression. This amalgamation of impressions leaves a strong overall perception of the firm. These perceptions are the firm’s real brand in the customers’ eyes, regardless of how close they match the positioning statement. And, once established, these perceptions are hard to change.
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| posted September 15, 2007 @ 14:46 by BBarsanti
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Value-Added Programs Fall Short
Based on a recent Financial Research Corporation/Horsesmouth survey of 2,200 financial advisors, value-added programs are the most important access element with branch managers. Our study found that responsibility for value-added almost always falls within Marketing. But, we consider what’s being done by the industry as a whole “a big brand miss.”
How much longer can financial services distributors be expected put up with the free “value-added” training programs offered up by asset managers? If it were up to me, I wouldn’t defer critical training of my FAs to some of these second rate efforts.
For the record, I’m not against manufacturers delivering programs, I’d just like to see some efficacy. Most of these programs are little more than ‘edutainment’ that live three steps removed from the real subject matter expert. In other words, the people who understand the content aren’t the same people delivering it.
Imagine a pharmaceutical wholesaler standing in front of a room of doctors talking about a new spinal fusion procedure. “So how do you do that?” asks the surgeon. “Er, you glue the big one to the little one above it. You want to use really strong glue.”
For marketers, the call to action is step in and upgrade your content. Or at a minimum, connect your program to your brand! Successful value-added programs effectively extend the brand promise.
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| posted September 13, 2007 @ 7:11 by dswanson
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Free Tools Help Measure Web Site Popularity
How do you know if your company’s Web site is competitive? Many firms announce rankings periodically, and the Mutual Fund Education Alliance bestows a few awards every year. While those assessments are qualitative, a few free Web tools make it possible to measure a site’s relative standing.
We’ve modeled the following table on the approach used by eBizMBA (see 25 Most Popular Business Sites as an example). And, we used the top mutual fund Web sites as identified by Alexa.com excluding the Singapore-based Fundsupermart.com and UK-based TrustNet Limited.
eBizMBA’s model considers three sources in measuring “top sites:”
- Inbound links, which are key to search engines discovering a site. Links from other Web sites serve to validate the expertness of a Web site. The source used in the table is Yahoo’s Site Explorer (Yahoo login required).
- Monthly visitors as counted by Compete.com. Compete “triangulates” multiple data sources, including ISP, Panel & Toolbar to estimate U.S. traffic.
- Monthly visitors as counted by Quantcast.com. Quantcast says it observes “anonymous records of visits to internet destinations. For a portion of the observations, they have certain information, such as the age, gender or income level of the Internet visitor and/or their household. This group is called a panel and forms one aspect of our analysis and reporting methodology.” Internet log records are also analyzed.
- Alexa rank, which is a blend based on a combined measure of page views and users (reach).
