Casting a marketer's eye on Pershing INSITE, April Rudin pleads with promoters to tone down the digital doublespeak

How refreshing. April has happened upon an universal truth. It is never as complex as it seems. To the uninitiated, trying to explain something they do not understand results in confusion. Until all this innovation is synthesized into an easy to use prudent process that is quantifiable in the values added in a readily deliverable form it can be terribly confusing. Like describing a car by citing the hundred components of its engine. The solution to the articulation problem is simplifying the considerations in the context of an expert authenticate prudent (fiduciary) investment process each component of which adds very specific value in terms the consumer understands. It is like explaining a surgery starting with diagnosis.

The problem here is the industry has been very slow to directly support and simplify advisory services, when that occurs expert authenticated prudent process will be essential to achieving scale and supporting professional standing. As Jamie Dimon (CEO of the largest Financial Services Firm in the US) observes the industry must find a way to make it politically expedient to raise and resolve advisory services questions in the consumer’s best interest. The wheels of progress turn slowly. Though it does seem awfully slow.

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Stephen Winks

The marketing of financial services in today’s advisory world is more confusing than ever! The marketing process is killing the message. The growing confusion can be traced to increasing reliance on outside consultants, many whose employees are not receiving the incentive or the respect necessary to truly understand the business of their client. These overworked and underpaid people are left with the task of creating marketing materials that are presented and 'sold’ to their client. In other words, a product rather than a process. Simple, effective ideas, like good deeds, get punished. Parroting of industry buzz words gets rewarded and becomes the distinguishing element of the message. Everyone uses the same, low common denominator, buzz words, too. Plus, the execution utilized to 'stand out from the crowd’ results in unimaginative ideas, such as sponsored content, which publishers accommodate to offset their dwindling print revenues. Maybe it’s time that financial services’ companies to take the reins of their own marketing destiny — a future-minded endeavor that is more advancing than plugging in algorithms at every turn. Understand that advisors are so much smarter than you think they are. Keep it simple, stupid.