Chief among frustrations expressed by advi-sors surveyed in Investment Executive’s 2007 Account Managers’ Report Card is their firms’ advertising strategy — or, more aptly, what advisors perceive as a lack of strategy.
Their biggest complaint is their financial institutions’ failure to promote the investment arm of the business, resulting in a mediocre 6.8 average performance score.
“We need more ads. My bank needs to revamp its marketing strategies,” says an advisor with Bank of Montreal on the Prairies. “We have no TV ads. Bank of Nova Scotia is much better.”
Yet, a Scotiabank advisor on the West Coast complains: “It lacks in some areas, such as the investment side of things.”
And while there was no shortage of similar complaints, executives point out that their advertising campaigns represent a broader scheme to create brand awareness for their bank or credit union.
“You have to look at where you get the biggest return on advertising — and it’s brand recognition,” says Sue Miller, sales manager of investment services at Vancouver-based Coast Capital Savings Credit Union. In fact, she adds, Coast Capital has a 91% recognition rate in lower mainland British Columbia, proof positive that its ad campaign is paying off despite a relatively low consumer advertising score of 6.2 from advisors.
Miller explains that in-house advertising initiatives aimed at existing clients save millions of dollars that would otherwise be spent on less effective broad-based marketing campaigns.
“Unfortunately, there’s a tendency to think that if we did more outside advertising we’d get more clients. But that’s not really what happens,” she says.
Wealth management is a referral business, executives say. As such, most banks and credit unions are directing advertising to their traditional banking clients to encourage them to keep their business with that financial institution in hopes of increasing business in other arms of the company, including wealth management.
Such is the case at BMO. “Our focus has been on communicating directly to our existing clients, which means we have shifted our focus to other media, beyond just television and newspaper ads,” says JoAnne Hayes, communications officer with BMO. “We have been communicating to them via direct mail, online, in-branch and through public relations.”
Despite the efforts, BMO’s advertising score dropped to 5.9 this year, down from 7.3 in 2006.
Despite executives’ assurances that advertising aimed at existing clients is the way to go, account managers have mixed feelings about the effectiveness of that strategy. “We do a lot of in-house ads, but that isn’t going to help if you only show yourself off to existing customers,” says a Coast Capital account manager in B.C.
Other advisors, however, have begun to see the payoff of advertising directed to existing customers.
“The ads aren’t perfect, but I notice them and they seem effective,” says a TD Canada Trust advisor in Ontario. “They provide a source of confidence for clients because they can ask us about products they see in an advertisement.”
Clearly, TD Canada Trust is doing something right: the bank’s advertising scores crept up to 8.4 this year, although its public image score tumbled slightly to 8.9; still, both scores were enough to put them in first place in those categories.
“The iPod campaign has just begun again, and that has been very successful in the past,” explains a TD Canada Trust account manager in Ontario.
“I don’t watch as much TV, but the print ads that I see are great and get the idea across,” says an Ontario colleague. “We have a really strong brand that people recognize.”
Meanwhile, advisors at Scotia-bank gave their bank’s advertising strategy an 8.0, down considerably from 8.6 in 2006. Many Scotiabank advisors were dismissive of their firm’s marketing efforts, saying they were either ineffective or they failed to focus on the investment side of the bank.
“We have commercials, but I haven’t gotten any business from them,” says a Scotiabank account manager in Manitoba.
Vancouver-based Vancity Credit Union scored a 9.1 in public image, the highest score in that category. Steve Eccles, Vancity’s vice president of investments, credits the high score to the firm’s reputation as a company dedicated to social responsibility.
Still, Vancity advisors say the firm could do more to play up that image. Several advisors pointed out that Vancity does little to highlight that aspect of the business, favouring modest ads centred around banking and lending.
@page_break@”[Vancity] has this reputation as a socially conscious company, but they are underutilizing that portion of their reputation,” a Vancity advisor claims. IE