Manifestos

Differentiating your brand can be based on issues rather than selling points.

Read on to learn why:

① Taking a stand will get you noticed and build rapport with customers.

② You should identify what you’re fighting against.

③ Sustainable growth demands strategic investment and cost containment.

④ We've reached the tipping point for artificial intelligence.

⑤ You should be producing short, visual content for your employees to share.

⑥ Following is sometimes harder than leading.

⑦ You’ll never do your best work unless you’re interested in it.

What's new

Beleaguered asset manager abrdn launched a manifesto this week, reports Money Marketing.

In short:

“Abrdn has launched a new manifesto in a bid to ‘get Britain investing’.
It comes after research from the company revealed that only 16% of UK adults favour pensions over property as an investment. Abrdn’s research also showed only 19% hold shares outside of their pension and out of that figure, four in ten do not hold them in an Isa.”
“Abrdn’s manifesto, ‘The Savings Ladder: A Manifesto to Get Britain Investing’ was published in response to the growing savings crisis and has been welcomed by the London Stock Exchange. The manifesto recommends the government’s advertising campaign around the NatWest share sale should be broadened to include tax-efficient investing.”
“Abrdn also believes Isa simplification should be implemented – something AJ Bell has been campaigning for too. It added stamp duty on UK shares and investment trusts should be scrapped and there should be a ‘radical reimaging’ of what minimum pension contributions should look like.”

Why it matters

Just last week, Citywire reported that 60% of asset managers share the same brand positioning, writing:

“The vast majority of firms have little or nothing to say that could be regarded as relevant, motivating, and differentiating or they’re simply unwilling to devote sufficient focus, expertise or budget to the development of their brands.”

Simply put, the asset management sector’s products are all very similar. What self-respecting fund house would’t claim to offer strong returns, responsible investing, and a client focus?

So, abrdn’s manifesto matters because it shows us one solution to the perennial problem of differentiation. When your product is broadly similar to your competitors, you need to find a reason for customer to choose you over them.

① Finding an issue to champion gives you a story to tell, a purpose, it means you have a reason to exist that people can easily understand and it serves as a way to start conversations about what makes you special. In doing so, it also pushes your audience into getting off the metaphorical fence, they have to take a side. By taking a stand on an issue your customers are likely to care about, you have an opportunity to be noticed and to build trust and rapport with them.

What to do about it

Take action

Developing a genuinely differentiated brand is never easy. The process starts with a highly immersive examination of your organisation’s most defining attributes, coupled with in-depth, qualitative research to establish which of those attributes matter most to your audiences.

If you can do that by talking about how your particular product uniquely addresses problems your customers are experiencing, so much the better. If you can’t - and if you work in financial services, it’s increasingly hard to do so - then taking a position on issues they care about is an excellent alternative,. As far back as May 2021, we’ve talked about how having an enemy can help you stand out. By defining your enemy, you’re also defining what you stand for. And people readily relate to that.

② When thinking about your purpose, I encourage you to define it in terms of what you’re fighting against. What problem, broken system, inefficient incumbents, outdated technology model are you delivering salvation from? Then, articulate that in a way that is positive and aspirational for your clients.

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Top stories

The other articles that are worthy of your time.

FINANCE

Hargreaves Lansdown: a former upstart targeted by new digital rivals

③ Sustainable growth demands strategic investment and cost containment.

Source: The Financial Times, 21 February 2024

“Hargreaves Lansdown enabled customers to bypass the old guard of financial advisers and dispel the notion that investing was solely the preserve of the ultra-rich. The company offered ordinary British savers a self-service marketplace in which they could buy and sell funds, compare investments from different providers and pour their money into the burgeoning UK stock market without the help of a commission-hungry stockbroker or financial adviser. And for more than a decade on the public markets, the model thrived. Bristol-based Hargreaves Lansdown grew into the UK’s largest DIY investment platform and so-called funds supermarket, with 1.8mn clients who use it for everything from stock trading to pension planning and financial news. It has grown to more than £134bn in assets under administration — almost twice that of its nearest domestic competitor.”
“But that dominant position is now under threat from sweeping changes to the investment landscape, most notably tighter regulation and intensifying competition from a new generation of digital platforms, which aim to make better use of technology and charge much lower fees. For many of its upstart rivals, Hargreaves Lansdown has come to resemble the financial advisers it once derided — clunky and expensive.”
“These shifts in the industry are compounding the company’s own struggles: a difficult tech transformation, the reputational fallout from its entanglement with disgraced star fund manager Neil Woodford, and what some see as a loss of entrepreneurialism since its eponymous co-founder Peter Hargreaves stepped down as chief executive in 2010. “

TECHNOLOGY

Nvidia quarterly revenues jump 265%

④ We've reached the tipping point for artificial intelligence.

Source: The Financial Times, 22 February 2024

“Nvidia shares jumped after the world’s most valuable chip company reported a 265 per cent increase in quarterly revenues and projected even stronger sales thanks to a spending frenzy on artificial intelligence. Revenues were $22.1bn in the fourth quarter, far exceeding Wall Street expectations of $20.4bn, Nvidia said on Wednesday evening, adding that it expected revenues for the current quarter to be $24bn.”
“Its leading chips, such as the H100, have become the industry standard for AI developers to crunch data for large language models. This has heralded a new industry known as generative AI, spawning chatbots and other software that can learn, understand and generate information in the form of text, images and video.”
“The rapid success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT helped turn the H100 chips into the hottest commodity in Silicon Valley last year. Meta plans to bring its total stock of H100 chips to 350,000 in 2024. Supply rather than demand has become the main constraint on Nvidia’s growth in the short term.”

MEDIA & MARKETING

Creating a killer employee advocacy program

⑤ You should be producing short, visual content to share on LinkedIn.

“Linked is still the best network for your employee advocacy programme. Your advocates are almost nine times more likely to post on LinkedIn than they are on X (formally Twitter), its closest ‘competitor’. LinkedIn accounted for more than 95% of all employee advocacy conversions. Wednesdays and Fridays are the most popular days for advocacy posts, closely followed by Thursdays. Both financial services and tech companies see the most advocacy posts on Thursdays.”
“Education and employee advocacy training can help bridge the knowledge gap and make your employees more eager to join your employee advocacy program. Highlight how employee advocacy can enable your team to build their personal brand, showcase their expertise, and even hit their sales targets with social selling. Bottom line–make sure it’s clear why it’ll benefit them.”
“Galleries were the most engaging content type for advocacy, closely followed by video. Surprisingly, links received the least amount of engagement overall. This highlights the trend favoring short, visual content over more traditional mediums like blogs, articles, and whitepapers, which often direct users to a brand’s website and might come across as promotional.”

WILDCARD

How to make peace with a company decision you don’t like

⑥ Following is sometimes harder than leading.

Source: Harvard Business Review, 19 February 2024

“This article showcases a tool that will help you gracefully and mindfully execute a decision you disagree with. By decelerating and reflecting on eight prompts, you can learn how to process difficult emotions, clearly articulate problems, identify potential upsides, broaden your perspective and develop empathy, and visualise what executing an unpopular decision will actually look like.

What specific situation do I disagree with?
How will setting aside my disagreement benefit me?
How will setting aside my disagreement benefit my team?
What information might the decision-maker(s) have that I don’t?
What areas of alignment are there between my initial work goals and the company’s goals for making this decision?
By accepting this decision, what specific actions am I committing to take?
Gut check: Who can help me strength-test my intended course of action?
Review your answers to Questions 1-7. How has this process helped me reconcile my negative emotions with my actions?”

Off cuts

The stories that almost made this week’s newsletter.

The last word

⑦ Fiona Gordon, CEO of Ogilvy UK, on doing your best work :

Fiona Gordon, Source: LinkedIn, 24 February 2024

“The most interesting, compelling work happens when people are willing to combine their interests and expertise.”

Don’t settle for marketing.

Strive for InMarketing: innovate, interact, influence.

Wishing you a productive week,

P.S. Don’t forget to step away from your desk and get outside every day.