This week / What’s new? | Why does it matter? | What’s next? | What else? | Quotable
This week
Read on to learn why:
① Client centricity won’t help your brand stand out from the crowd.
② Showing is better than telling when it comes to core values.
③ If you don’t respect your audience they’ll feel insulted rather than valued.
④ Early Nutmeg investors are rejoicing but robo-advisers are no closer to profit.
⑤ The future of financial services is digital. Yet another survey says so.
⑥ Social audio is getting crowded but returning to the office makes ‘live’ a hard sell.
⑦ Wise is about to test an alternative route to public markets for UK tech businesses.
This week / What’s new? / Why does it matter? | What’s next? | What else? | Quotable
What’s new?
Investment Week reports that advice network Beaufort Financial's discretionary fund manager arm Beaufort Investment rebranded to YOU Asset Management this week.
In short:
“The rebrand has been designed to provide the company, which exists within the Beaufort Group, with its own identity, with a focus on client interests and outcomes.”
“While the firm's name and visual style has changed, it has retained its full team and product range.”
“YOU chief executive officer Derrick Dunne said the new name was inspired by the firm's clients: ‘We have always believed that if we operate in the best interests of our clients, and keep them as our focus, we will achieve a mutually beneficial outcome for all involved’.”
This week | What’s new? / Why does it matter? / What’s next? | What else? | Quotable
Why does it matter?
After Aberdeen became abrdn in April, I thought we’d seen the worst rebrand of the year. Dear reader, I was wrong. This clumsy, contrived, contradictory move from Beaufort takes the prize while stampeding over almost every principle of good branding.
① Brands are a manifestation of a company’s values so it’s critical to consider which values you want to convey. And while you might think that client centricity is a noble one, I’d argue it’s trite. Every organisation is client centric - or at least claims to be. A business that isn’t will soon find itself out of business.
② Client centricity is up there with integrity on the list of values that shouldn’t need voicing; your audience rightly takes them for granted. And that leads me to the second reason this feels so wrong. There are certain values that should be demonstrated not claimed. Like a drunk at a party denying they’ve had too much, a brand that shouts about caring for its clients looks like the one that doesn’t.
③ And shouting is exactly what they’re doing. Which is the third thing they’ve got wrong. By painting such a crude, obvious link between the brand and the value they’re trying to communicate, Beaufort insults its audience. There’s no subtlety or cleverness about it. The last straw is how they’ve even capitalised the word. They are literally shouting. You know, JUST IN CASE THOSE OF YOU IN THE CHEAP SEATS COULDN’T HEAR HOW CLIENT CENTRIC THEY ARE!
Finally, there’s a delicious contradiction here that Beaufort apparently failed to notice. True client centricity means always putting yourself in your client’s shoes. YOU Asset Management should actually be MY Asset Management.
This week | What’s new? | Why does it matter? / What’s next? / What else? | Quotable
What’s next?
Take action
Brands take decades to build so rebranding a business is a drastic step and I’d argue it’s very rarely the right answer. So, my first question to anyone thinking of rebranding would be ‘why?’. What problem are you actually trying to solve? There are often better ways to address them.
If rebrand you must, bear these three rules in mind:
Differentiate: Your brand should reflect the values that make you stand out from the crowd. This is why I talk to CEOs about the purpose of their organisation. Why do they exist other than shareholder value? Identify what that is and, more often than not, you’ll have the values that will differentiate your brand.
Respect your audience: Credit your audience with intelligence, celebrate thoughtfulness. Make them feel special for having understood what your brand stands for; make them feel like you’re talking specifically to them.
Show, don’t tell: This is the really important one. Don’t rely on a brand to convey attributes that need to be demonstrated. A strapline is just words unless your entire business lives up to it every day.
Get help
I’m 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
What else?
Three other articles that are worthy of your time.
FINANCE
JPMorgan Chase strikes deal to buy UK robo-adviser Nutmeg
④ Early Nutmeg investors are rejoicing but robo-advisers are no closer to profit.
“JPMorgan Chase said it had agreed to buy Nutmeg, which manages customers’ money online rather than relying on the in-person interactions typically associated with wealth management. The company has expanded rapidly since its launch in 2012 to manage £3.5bn in assets for about 140,000 customers. Two people familiar with the matter said the transaction valued Nutmeg at about £700m.”
“A combination of low interest rates, intense competition and expensive regulations means the UK retail banking market has historically been much less profitable than that of the US, but a goal for Chase is to make adequate returns by keeping costs lower than rivals.”
“The JPMorgan deal will provide a windfall for more than 2,000 retail investors who backed Nutmeg in a crowdfunding round in 2019, when it was valued at about £250m. It is set to be the largest return ever to investors on the Crowdcube equity crowdfunding platform.”
TECHNOLOGY
Over half of millennials ‘happy to opt for digital-only banks’
⑤ The future of financial services is digital. Just in case you were in any doubt, yet another survey says so.
“A new poll from financial advisory organisation deVere Group found that 59 per cent of clients that were born between 1980 and 1996, already only ever use digital banking services or are planning to make the switch this year.”
“The poll’s findings are a big deal for old-school banks. Millennials are the fastest-growing cohort of clients and they are becoming the beneficiaries of the greatest transfer of wealth in history.”
“$68 trillion in wealth is expected to be passed down from the baby boomers to their children and other heirs over the next couple of decades.”
MEDIA & MARKETING
Spotify’s Clubhouse competitor Greenroom launches
⑥ Social audio is getting crowded but returning to the office makes ‘live’ a hard sell.
“Spotify’s live audio app, Greenroom, formally launched, marking the company’s first real attempt at creating a social media platform.”
“Every tech company now seems to be interested in social audio. Twitter has launched Spaces, Facebook hosted its first Live Rooms, and other companies, like Slack, LinkedIn, Reddit, and Discord have started building similar products.”
“Spotify might have the best chance of making social audio a real part of its business but getting people to join an app live and spend time in it is difficult.”
This week | What’s new? | Why does it matter? | What’s next? | What else? / Quotable
Quotable
⑦ Wise co-founder Kristo Kaarmann defending his intention to go public through a landmark direct listing rather than a traditional stock market launch:
“It allows us a cheaper and more transparent way to broaden Wise’s ownership.”
Off cuts
The stories that almost made this week’s newsletter:
🏢 Tuesday: PwC to boost headcount by 100,000 over five years
💳 Tuesday: AmEx to roll out hybrid working model
🎧 Tuesday: Apple Podcasts subscriptions launch globally
🍰 Wednesday: BlackRock joins ranks of investors in ex-Barclays chief’s fintech
👩🏼💻 Wednesday: Nearly all UK IFAs would never recommend cryptocurrency or meme stock investments
🤑 Thursday: FCA warns on UK crypto use increase despite gaps in understanding but most would-be crypto investors unaware of UK regulator’s warnings
🍇 Friday: Raisin touches down in the US with first partner bank
Show, don't tell