Marketing the Evolution of a Product
Challenge
To shape and market a fund-of-fund asset allocation product from infancy to scale. The mutual fund firm originally launched a wrap program that evolved into a series of fund-of-funds portfolios and requirements in product development and marketing support concurrently grew over a period of over five years.
Strategy
Members of the team at MBC were involved in the original product design and marketing of this mutual fund wrap program. As the product gained sales momentum and evolved from the asset allocation wrap into a series of five actively managed asset allocation fund-of-funds portfolios, the marketing demands also changed. MBC was charged with the development of innovative tools and materials to effectively convey the benefits of asset allocation to both the brokerage community and individual investors. Countless marketing pieces, brochures, presentations, and detailed investment and market analyses helped to shape the product's brand and positioning over the course of its evolution. The support of this investment product progression included:
- Product development, analysis, identity, and positioning
- Detailed sales training programs and presentations
- Brochures, sales tools, white papers, and allocation and market reviews
- Investment process definition and communication to both advisors and consumers
- Innovative point-of-sales profiling and presentation solutions
- Portfolio management voice, newsletters, and commentary
- Annual report positioning, development, and copywriting
Results
The product and its marketing support garnered critical acclaim and a powerful and continuous asset raise. Asset levels and sales into the asset allocation product grew considerably higher than industry averages. During the final five years of the relationship, assets in the portfolios increased nearly 500% while the industry averaged growth of about 3.5% per year. Through the course of the product evolution, the asset allocation portfolios buoyed the mutual fund company's overall assets from below $2 billion into a powerful scale hurdle point of more than $20 billion, with nearly all the growth attributed to the portfolios. The firm gained considerably niche brand recognition for its expertise in the management and communication of asset allocation. After years of extremely successful growth, the fund company was sold to Principal Financial Group to help them solidify their asset allocation practice.
