Going to 11
The music of the marketing message: How to out-market mega firms
“Our marketing goes to 11” – Nigel Tufnel, Spinal Tap
During my time as CMO at Moneta, we were among the biggest fee-only RIAs in history. But people looking for financial counsel have a lot of choices and hadn’t always heard of us. Whom have they heard of?
Well, it’s likely that a family member or friend will recommend “someone who does financial planning”. In St. Louis there’s a good chance they’re talking about Moneta, but there’s a greater chance they have heard of a mega firm which isn’t the perfect fit for them.
Who are these mega firms? Vanguard. Fidelity. Northwestern Mutual. Morgan Stanley. RBC. The list is long and well-known. And while we understand the difference between a fee-only fiduciary and an insurance company… well, according to a 2022 survey by the Financial Planning Association (FPA), only 38% of Americans know what an RIA is. I frankly distrust this statistic… 3.8% sounds closer. Most folks know that Raymond James advertises retirement planning, and that’s appealing enough.
Big names with a big reach
If these mega firms were musical acts, they’d be the Cardi Bs, the Drakes, the Ed Sheerans of the airways. Absolutely everywhere, and while their music might not be exactly what you want, well… it’s there, and it’ll do.
And like Sheeran, they do a lot of marketing. Here’s an estimate I found of mega firm marketing and advertising spend in 2022.
JPMorgan Chase: $2.94 billion
Wells Fargo: $2.59 billion
Bank of America: $2.52 billion
American Express: $2.03 billion
Charles Schwab: $1.95 billion
I can’t open a social media app without Ken Fisher asking if I’m ready to retire on a half-million. It’s widely assumed that Fisher spends around 6% of its annual revenue on marketing and advertising, which would mean around $68 million in 2022.
(I consider Fisher to be the investment world’s Kenny G. Change my mind.)
Forgettable top 40 or a rabid fan base?
If you can’t beat ‘em on sheer ubiquity, what do you do? Go where they’re not going. To start with, the biggest firms tend to have a great deal invested in their status quo, an aversion to risk, and complex decision-making structures.
If we stay with the analogy of music for marketing, mega firms usually make safe music that sounds like whatever people have been buying. Pop. The reggae fans, the Vivaldi afficionados, the bluegrass lovers? They’re left out. The music of the megas will be heard and accepted as all that’s available… unless people wanting something else know about the alternatives.
This is why I won’t shut up about specialization and targeting. Let Fisher push an ad to anyone with $500k and wait for sheer mass to deliver leads. What’s a smart firm do instead? The smart firm targets business owners over 50 and asks them how much cash they’re prepared to leave on the table when they sell their stake. They target dentists who get two unsolicited offers a month but don’t know how to even read those offers. Executives aged 30-45 in tech companies, exhausted from 70-hour weeks and with no idea if they are overweight in company stock. Women 40+ in the ZIP codes of the top 5% of wealthy neighborhoods who should be told the five things every woman needs to know about family finance.
If you’re scanning radio stations in your car, listening to variations of the same sound, and suddenly hear something unique, that connects with you, you stop. You listen. You remember. And you want more. We can’t be Ed Sheeran. But we can be Vivaldi, or Bob Marley, or the Avett Brothers, or Gojira. We can find lifelong fans who want something special. We can out-market the giants without out-spending them, by avoiding the financial clichés, not trying to be all things to everyone, and instead daring to present ourselves as extraordinary… for clients who deserve nothing less.
Send your thoughts on music and marketing my way. \m/