Well, we’re hitting the peak of another bull market. On the ride up, many of the big financial services firms have started advertising again. And they seem to all be following the leader like lemmings – variations on the “One Merrill” theme. Parity in naming. Parity in advertising. No differentiation.
It seems as if every firm feels that it has to show its one-on-one advisor in a series of intimate family scenes. The selling idea seems to be this: the financial advisor is so close to the family, you can’t tell if the person on camera is the spouse/parent, or your Morgan Stanley investment advisor – “one client at a time.” Not to be confused with your banker from J.P. Morgan Chase, of course. And who wants the investment advisor so close anyway? That’s way too close for me.
Two firms, on the other hand, may be on right track: AG Edwards and Wachovia Securities. Check them out.
- Edwards uses the arresting key visual of a huge egg that instantly associates the firm with the “nest egg” of retirement. Although it’s kind of goofy, it has a certain logic to it. And it may become a true advertising property over time, like Allstate’s “Good Hands.”
- Wachovia has done the best job of capturing the reality of “moment of truth” customer interactions. It’s not the graduation event itself – which I do not really want to share with my financial advisor, thank you. It is the moment when the client asks, “Can I afford to send my child to college?” That’s when the financial advisor is needed and welcomed into the picture. In the current financial services marketing clutter, that is the moment to own.
