Asset managers globally recognize the importance of building brand awareness and have been increasing resources to support marketing and sales activities in this area, according to the latest issue of The Cerulli Edge – Global Edition.
A recent Cerulli Associates survey of European asset managers revealed that 77% expected to allocate more to marketing in 2014. And significantly, no manager intended to reduce their marketing budget.
“We believe this strong trend will continue into 2015,” noted Barbara Wall, Europe research director at Cerulli. “The recovering market and increased competition between managers merit allocating more to marketing and sales strategies. And overwhelmingly, managers globally share this view.”
In Cerulli’s U.S. proprietary survey of marketers, 78% of small and mid-size managers expected to increase their marketing budgets compared to 38% of large managers. The smaller managers need to spend more on marketing and building brand because they have significantly smaller salesforces and wholesaling operations.
A similar picture emerged in Asia where 63% of marketers anticipated an increase in their marketing budget. In total 29% expected the budget to increase by more than 10%, 11.5% forecast an increase between 6% and 10%, while 23% said the budget would increase by a modest 1% to 6%.
“Opportunity to grow local market presence throughout Asia and Europe is certainly on the cards,” said Angelos Gousios, a Cerulli senior analyst. “With increased competition in all regions, brand awareness is the key to gaining an edge in this game. But cultural and local nuances, especially in Asia, mean a one-size-fits-all marketing strategy is unlikely to succeed no matter how much money is thrown at it.”