We’ve heard it for years: financial firms sell the same stuff. Everyone puts a different bow on their products and services. But at the closing bell, it’s an industry driven by similar commodities.
Well, no and yes. Because year in and out, the one commodity every financial firm does sell is client service.
Beyond alpha, 30-year treasuries, term life, compound interest, retirement strategies, stop-limit orders, Keogh plans, and free toasters, sitting on top of every financial brand’s menu of stuff is how well they keep clients happy. Those firms that don’t are often marketing inward. Still trapped in the bullhorn, where time waits for no one. Another dinosaur idea that also keeps the lights on? “Take care of your clients and they will take care of you.” Priceless.
Generational Wealth
For the same reason Coke and Pepsi have marketing budgets, even gigantor financial brands continue to invest real dollars in, say, their web channels. Because they’re not just marketing to those over 60. Younger generations of investors have profoundly different needs. Which is why ESG, DEI, and impact investing have taken global commerce, and finance, by storm.
Those with significant wealth in their 30s and 40s have their own value system. They want to trust a firm’s intention. A firm’s story. They want to know their money is helping, not harming, the world. They care about things like climate and diversity and healthy communities and financial inclusion and affordable housing. When they find their priorities in your priorities, they feel taken care of. They feel served. Those firms who respond authentically to these expectations, while marketing products that protect wealth in hard times, will lead the financial industry long into the future.
The youth of today are smarter, better educated, and more aware than ever before. They reject fatalism, head-in-the-sand thinking, and the idea that nothing can be done to fix a flawed world. They drive the need for today’s heartfelt ESG reports because they imagine better, sustainable, more humanitarian ways of living. This has given birth to robust imaginations within brands that more and more act as responsible stewards.
Outwardness 2.0
Companies like Prudential, Blackrock, Deloitte, Charles Schwab, JP Morgan, and Goldman Sachs among many, aren’t sitting on their laurels. They’re responsive. Listening. Current. Modern consumer movements are quickly helping to reshape the industry, adding a critical social lego block to human, conversational, story-driven marketing that have improved financial marketing in the last 10 years.
Best of all, thoughtful companies are investing significant time and money in efforts that are outward-glancing and responsive to shifting social priorities. In a word, they walk the walk. They offer inviting brand missions whose spends will make, and do make, a difference. Visit the sites of countless financial brands of all sizes today and for many, their ESG statements are on their landing page.
The world is talking meaningful change and financial brands are truly listening.
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