Hope everyone had a quality three-day weekend. We’re still in the midst of reviewing 2014 and predicting 2015 (I predict this will finish next week) via the industry’s blog posts. In that vein, only one post to share this week; the post has five quality predictions from AllianceBernstein.
We thought to bring the first two weeks of January together in a single post. You’ll find four posts, two relatively technical. Each can materially help financial advisors (and increasingly institutional investors) understand critical investment topics more thoroughly and/or clearly.
Ignites ran an article last week (subscription required) about the emerging efforts of foreign banks – specifically BMO, HSBC, and RBC – to grow their asset management presences in the United States.
I have no doubt these firms can build successful, profitable US businesses. But I do ultimately question the overall brand strategy.
Time and time again, large overseas firms attempt to lever their global brands within the US. I think this is a problematic approach, in part because “large global brand” is mismatched with the typical business strategy. As Damion Hendrickson, senior VP of intermediary sales for HSBC, put it in the article:
In order to be successful, you really have to specialize in something when you’re starting out. You have to have some sort of niche to your brand.
If this is the aim, firms like HSBC face two significant challenges:
Neither challenge is of course insurmountable. But as these and future overseas firms try to gain traction in the US market, I think that seriously reconsidering the standard “let’s leverage our global brand” approach is something very much worth doing.
Two noteworthy posts this week; both for their helpful charts.
I noticed this interstitial on the New York Times Web site when reading about the Sony hacking situation last week. Interesting attempt to promote product (2 mutual funds).
