Saturday, September 22, 2012

Asset management's leading marketers share: thought leadership best practices

Thought leadership can be one of the most powerful tools a brand has in its marketing arsenal. In asset management it may be THE tool. 

So what is thought leadership? It is the ability to offer innovative and relevant ideas to clients. But crucially,  thought leadership is more than marketing – it is, after performance and service, perhaps where institutional clients gain most value from engaging you as an asset manager. After all, beyond your own product, your thought leadership efforts are a way to demonstrate you're thinking about your clients' issues, not just your own.

At the recent PAICR conference in New York (that’s Professional Association for Investment Communications Resources) I was fortunate enough to hear from some of the best in the business - Vanguard, PIMCO, MFS Investments (the asset manager not the people who hit the headlines) and T Rowe Price.


Rather than synthesise what they said here's the top line version (less than 30 seconds each) of PAICR's packed session from three of the four panellists themselves.

Thought leadership: more than you think



Darrell M Riley, Global Head of Institutional Strategic Resources, T Rowe Price


Thought leadership and brand


Eugene Colter, Director of Messaging and Content Marketing Communications, PIMCO

The things that matter most


Sean Spaulding, Director of Investment Marketing, MFS Investments 



So, why thought leadership?



Because it creates brand loyalty via stakeholder engagement to increase sales and maintain retention. 

Because it keeps your clients coming back to have further conversations. 

And because you can't have portfolio managers constantly talking to clients - they have money to manage.

1 comment:

Thanks for reading. Constructive and relevant comments welcome!