Client Attraction Action

Financial Advisor Marketing: To Brand Or Not To Brand

August 29th, 2009

Tom Peters supports branding with this striking do-or-die quote: “distinct…or extinct.”

I agree: a successful survival strategy is to be “distinct,” to put yourself in a Category of One. I part company with Peters in how to do it. Let me explain:

Branding According To Tom Peters

Way back in 1997 in Fast Company magazine, Peters introduced “The Brand Called You” concept. He described it like this:

— “figuring out how to deliver value to the customer” and
— creating “a distinctive role for yourself.”

So far, so good. Then, he adds:

— generating “a message and a strategy to promote the Brand Called You.”

Here’s where “The Brand Called You” gets off track.

Too often, the “strategy” is constructed around design, a logo, and a glossy brochure. Branding, then, becomes more about broadcasting your name and less about resonating with your desired audience. Simply, it becomes an end in itself rather than a way to fortify your uniqueness.

Exactly what do you stand for that would cause your desired prospects to choose you over every other possibility? Design, a logo, and your glossy brochure too often become a self-centered exercise that fails to provide a compelling answer.

“A Brand Called You” Brochure

I have a real-life “Brand Called You” brochure in front of me. It sounds off about “we,” the financial advisor. The text talks at the audience with phrases such as “we can offer,” “we believe,” “we aim to,” “we continue to,” “our focus is,” etc.

The tagline in the logo in tiny, easy-to-ignore print states, “The Financial Planning Specialist for Owners of Family Business.” That’s the last time we hear about owners of family businesses. The brochure never touches on the specific problems and needs of these business owners. It could be for anyone and everyone . . . and no one.

A Brochure For Results

In contrast, we think of a brochure as a conveyor belt from beginning to end smoothly carrying your reader to a result: to say “yes” to your desired action. And along the way you position yourself as a unique and inevitable choice for them and only them.

So, be wary of “The Brand Called You” if it mostly promotes you and your name. Stay away if it produces a logo, a brochure, a business card, and consistent design and doesn’t reach the core of your target audience’s deep concerns and their dreams and desires.

What are your experiences with branding?

For more marketing ideas for financial advisors you can sign up for my free report “7 Client-Attraction Secrets of Highly Successful Financial Advisors” at this web site.

Entry Filed under: Financial Lead Generation, Marketing Maestros, Direct Marketing