As a result of increased competition for clients’ assets, financial advisors at Canada’s deposit-taking institutions are relying more on their firm’s marketing support to promote their individual businesses. However, the marketing services that firms offer their advisors don’t quite meet their expectations.

This is evident in the ratings advisors gave their firms in the “firm’s marketing support for advisor’s practice” category. On the one hand, the overall average importance rating for this category rose to 8.6 from 8.1 last year. And although the overall average performance rating also rose, to 7.7 from 7.3 in 2013, the notable “satisfaction gap” of 0.9 of a point between the two ratings reveals that firms have much work to do.

Montreal-based National Bank of Canada is a prime example of this. National Bank not only received the lowest performance rating in this year’s survey (6.7) but, given the importance rating the bank’s advisors gave the category (8.4), it garnered the highest satisfaction gap in the survey (1.7).

In particular, National Bank advisors said the reason for their dissatisfaction is that their firm is slow in acting.

“Sometimes there is a mismatch in timing,” says a National Bank advisor in Ontario. “For instance, if I’m getting marketing materials for RESPs in May, it’s not effective because clients are only interested [in these products] in August or September. So, there’s a disconnection between when I need support and when I receive it.”

More significantly, National Bank advisors were concerned that their firm is lagging in the market.

“When [I’m] competing with TD offering free iPods to [clients] opening accounts,” asks a National Bank advisor in Ontario, “and all I can offer is a free smile and a handshake, how do I compete?”

National Bank doesn’t have the same brand recognition as the Big Five banks outside of its home province of Quebec; and although National Bank advisors criticize the bank’s marketing support, they also are dismayed that the bank isn’t even promoting its own brand.

“We need to have a bigger footprint in Ontario. It’s time,” says a National Bank advisor in Ontario.

Adds a colleague in the same province: “[The bank’s brand recognition] is terrible and non-existent. Do you know how many employees work here that don’t know what our logo is? They gave us all National Bank pins to ‘increase visibility.’ Are you kidding me?”

But it’s not only National Bank advisors who have complaints relating to their marketing support. Advisors with Toronto-based Bank of Montreal (BMO) said their firm’s head office simply isn’t allocating enough financial support to this area.

“We have to pick up a lot of the costs ourselves,” says a BMO advisor in Ontario. “I would like a greater budget for local stuff instead of big national projects from head office.”

Adds a colleague in Atlantic Canada; “[The bank] does absolutely nothing for rural advisors. I can’t even get the money to buy an ad in the newspaper. You used to be able to get $500 to support a kid’s marathon. Now, you can’t even get a dime. They’re losing the grassroots. All they do is think ‘big picture’.”

In contrast, advisors with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), both based in Toronto, are more than pleased with their firms’ marketing support efforts. In particular, CIBC advisors gave their firm an 8.8 rating in the category, up substantially from 7.2 last year.

That said, many CIBC advisors aren’t concerned with marketing support for their practices; rather, CIBC branches often adopt a team-based approach by sharing a book of business, so these advisors are more focused on marketing support for their branch.

“We don’t send out a lot of personal marketing,” says a CIBC advisor in Ontario. “We reach out and extend ourselves to our clients to build relationships. But we have seen such a great job from the marketing department for its support to the branch as a whole.”

Adds a colleague in Alberta: “It’s all one and the same at the branch level. We are fully integrated.”

RBC advisors, who gave their firm an 8.1 rating in this category, were particularly thankful for the bank’s customizable marketing material, which is available and accessible online.

“It’s almost too good and almost too much,” says an RBC advisor in Ontario. “We have thousands of materials we can put a name and face on for distribution.”

Adds a colleague in the same province: “I have access to all of our full-service side, including the Dominion Securities [brokerage] side. There are all sorts of research and marketing materials I can rebrand and then give to clients.”

This summer, RBC will improve its advisors’ access to the firm’s marketing material.

“We’re just about to launch a brand new marketing website,” says Michael Walker, vice president and head of branch investments with RBC. “We’ve redesigned the site and added Google-like search capabilities. [Advisors will] be able to ‘Google’ exactly what kind of content they’re looking for and have it presented [to them easily and quickly].”

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