This week / What’s new? | Why does it matter? | What’s next? | What else? | Quotable | One more thing
This week
Read on to learn why:
① Having an enemy gives your brand purpose.
② Your enemy doesn’t have to be a competitor; it can be the status-quo.
③ The crusty old payments sector remains one of the most contested in finance.
④ WealthTech providers are mimicking their clients and consolidating.
⑤ Brand is more than a name and logo. But it helps to have a decent name and logo.
⑥ The CEO of JPMorgan couldn’t care less that you don’t like commuting.
⑦ Ambitious, boutique London wealth managers have created a Savile Row for wealth.
This week / What’s new? / Why does it matter? | What’s next? | What else? | Quotable | One more thing
What’s new?
Signal, the WhatsApp competitor that sells itself on privacy, wrote a blog post this week claiming their ads were blocked by Facebook1 and exposing how social media companies operate.
In short:
“Companies like Facebook are building technology for your data to sell visibility into people and their lives. The way most of the internet works today endures because it is invisible.”
“We created a multi-variant targeted ad designed to show you the personal data that Facebook collects about you and sells access to. The ad would simply display some of the information collected about the viewer which the advertising platform uses.”
“Being transparent about how ads use people’s data is apparently enough to get banned; in Facebook’s world, the only acceptable usage is to hide what you’re doing from your audience.”
This week | What’s new? / Why does it matter? / What’s next? | What else? | Quotable | One more thing
Why does it matter?
What was it Picasso said about great artists?2 Well, with Pablo to defend me, a lot of what I’m about to tell you is stolen from a marketer I admire called Louis Grenier. Louis publishes the only podcast and newsletter dedicated to differentiation; it’s called Everyone Hates Marketers. Signal’s blog post matters because it is a perfect example of one of the tenets of differentiation as taught by Louis: pick a fight, choose an enemy.
① Having an enemy gives you a story to tell, a purpose, it means you have a reason to exist that people can easily understand and it serves as a way to start conversations about what makes you special. In doing so, it also pushes your audience into getting off the metaphorical fence, they have to take a side. And, as any newspaper editor will tell you, conflict creates interest. It will get you noticed.
② To be clear, your enemy doesn’t need to be a competitor. Indeed, I’d argue it’s better to avoid that if you can - you don’t necessarily want to give them free publicity. Your enemy can be the status-quo, it can be an inefficient incumbent system, an outdated technology model. What matters is, by defining your enemy, you’re also defining what you stand for. And people readily relate to that.
This week | What’s new? | Why does it matter? / What’s next? / What else? | Quotable | One more thing
What’s next?
Take action
Your head of Marketing should lead your positioning effort and, in doing so, it’s her or his responsibility to differentiate you. That’s one of the hardest challenges in marketing - not least in the financial sector which is increasingly commoditised. But differentiate you must.
When thinking about your purpose, I encourage you to define it in terms of what you’re fighting against. What problem, broken system, inefficient incumbents are you delivering salvation from?
The next challenge is how to articulate that in a way that is positive and aspirational for your clients. But that’s a huge topic in itself and one for another newsletter.
Get help
I’m currently looking for a full-time, in-house role but in the post-Covid age of depleted marketing budgets and remote teams with skills gaps, many organisations need marketing and communications support that’s agile, flexible, and risk free. That’s why I founded WhatsNext Partners.
Whether it be as a permanent member of your team or with 'on demand' support, let me know if you need my help.
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This week | What’s new? | Why does it matter? | What’s next? / What else? / Quotable | One more thing
What else?
Three other articles that are worthy of your time.
FINANCE
Europe’s largest banks plan joint attack on US payments giants
③ The crusty old payments sector remains one of the most contested in finance.
“More than 30 of Europe’s largest banks and credit card processors are trying to create a payments giant capable of shattering a US-dominated ‘oligopoly’. The idea is to build a European payment champion that can take on PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, Google and Apple.”
“The banks and acquirers behind the initiative include Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, ING, UniCredit and Santander and currently process more than half of all payments in Europe. The project has the backing of the European Commission as well as the euro area’s financial regulators.”
“Card payments in Europe are predominantly processed by US-based companies. Four in five transactions in Europe are handled by Mastercard and Visa, according to EuroCommerce, a lobby group of European retailers. The barriers to entry are high because payments schemes are only attractive for merchants if many customers use them — and vice versa.”
TECHNOLOGY
InvestCloud acquires software firm to ‘bridge adviser-client gap’
④ WealthTech providers are mimicking their clients and consolidating.
“Digital finance firm InvestCloud has acquired American-based cash flow, trust and tax financial planning provider Advicent.”
“Advicent creates financial planning software solutions for financial advice firms through its NaviPlan platform.”
“The deal aims to combine Advicent's software with InvestCloud's digital client and adviser platform in a bid to bridge the adviser-client communication gap.”
MEDIA & MARKETING
Standard Life Aberdeen & Wolff Olins defend mocked Abrdn rebrand
⑤ Brand is more than a name and logo. But it helps to have a decent name and logo.
“Social channels were in a frenzy when Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) bode farewell to a few vowels to rebrand as ‘Abrdn’. Love it or hate it, the brand film clocked up over 300,000 views, which was a milestone for the financial services brand.”
“SLA wanted a name that would define it as a modern, digitally-enabled brand, mimicking the modern edge of savvy fintechs.”
“The brand is not just the name or the visual identity, it’s everything we say and everything that we do,” says Stephen Whitehead, chief brand, marketing and corporate affairs officer.
This week | What’s new? | Why does it matter? | What’s next? | What else? / Quotable / One more thing
Quotable
⑥ Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan, at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit this week, on when working life will get back to ‘normal’:
“We want people back at work and my view is some time in September, October, it will look just like it did before. Yes, people don’t like commuting, but so what? I’m about to cancel all my Zoom meetings, I’m done with it.”
This week | What’s new? | Why does it matter? | What’s next? | What else? | Quotable / One more thing
One more thing…
⑦ Spear’s Magazine (which….*cough* *cough*….I have written for in the past) published a special report this week on London’s new generation of boutique wealth managers.
The boutiques featured are:
Off cuts
The stories that almost made this week’s newsletter:
👨🏻💻 Tuesday: Meet Europe’s fastest growing fintech (it’s not who you think)
📈 Wednesday: CME to permanently close most open outcry trading pits
☎️ Wednesday: HSBC's Voice ID prevents £249 million of attempted fraud
🗞 Wednesday: The New York Times tops 7.8 million subscribers as growth slows
🤑 Wednesday: BNY Mellon leads back-office race to secure US crypto ETF business
🏦 Wednesday: UK neobank Pennyworth unveils iOS app
💳 Wednesday: Chime has agreed to stop using the word ‘bank’ after a California regulator pushed back
💰 Thursday: Canadian fintech Wealthsimple raises record $610m at $4bn valuation
📲 Thursday: Twitter launches larger image previews on mobile, ruins the surprise
🌒 Thursday: Born in the pandemic, Moonfire’s first $60M seed fund will combine remote investing with Big Data
🤑 Thursday: Revolut launches public beta for bitcoin withdrawals
🤑 Friday: Citi weighs launching crypto services after surge in client interest
🕵🏻♂️ Saturday: Just 4% of US iPhone users let apps track them after iOS update
Facebook rejects the claim and, if Signal misled people in the name of some press coverage, they’ve got a major trust problem on their hands - but not one I propose to cover this week.
“Good artists borrow; great artists steal.” - Pablo Picasso
Love thy enemy