The fact that advisors have lukewarm feelings about the importance of advertising, yet rank their firm’s public image on average as 8.8 out of 10 in importance suggests one thing: a strong image is valuable, but advertising alone isn’t the best way to achieve it.

“Advertising is meaningless,” says a CIBC Wood Gundy advisor on the East Coast. “Clients aren’t dealing with me because of an ad.”

That’s not to say advisors don’t wish their firms would spend more money to ensure potential clients know they exist. As an RBC Dominion Securities Inc. advisor in Ontario says, “We need some brand recognition.”

The link between advertising and public image presents a challenge for investment executives. Some advisors say any expenditure on advertising is a waste of money; some insist their businesses depend on it. Others say their existing advertising is everything from “vague” to “hokey” to “pretty good.” In short, advisors can’t agree.

The comments get more specific, depending on the type of firm for which an advisor works. Those at the bank-owned firms, for instance, feel their dealer’s identity is absorbed by the parent bank’s dominant brand. It’s the old catch-22: the bank’s well-known name brings with it a certain degree of prestige, but it often overshadows the brokerages entirely.

“The firm’s image is pretty good, but it is hidden under the BMO blanket,” says a BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. advisor in Ontario.

Some executives, however, are happy to ride on the coattails of their firm’s parent bank. “We do receive a big benefit from RBC’s advertising programs,” says DS managing director David Agnew. “The bank spends a lot of money on advertising, and many of our clients think of us as RBC, while many others think of us as DS.”

But other executives say there are more affordable ways to create brand recognition.

“We’re going after a different segment than the bank, so mass marketing works for the bank, but it doesn’t work for us,” says Hamish Angus, head of Toronto-based ScotiaMcLeod Inc. “A TV ad campaign is extremely expensive, it’s very mass market and I would have our advisors phoning us, asking why we’re spending that amount of money on it. A lot of people say, ‘We need more advertising’; but I would say we need to get our advisors out in the community — that’s the best approach.”

The national independents have eschewed national campaigns in favour of methods that put their firms’ marketing in the hands of their advisors. Toronto-based Raymond James Ltd. supports its branches with corporate dollars to fund children’s sports programs, charities or other events, says George Karkoulas, senior vice president, independent financial services: “It’s whatever makes sense at the local level to help those people identify and work with ideas that make sense to financial advisors and their clients.”

But limiting marketing campaigns to the local sphere doesn’t necessarily translate into a more robust public image. For Edward Jones, a mix of national and local advertising has resulted in a top score of 8.6 in advertising.

“We’ve increased the amount of television advertising and magazine advertising we do nationally,” says Gary Reamey, principal and head of Edward Jones’s Canadian division in Mississauga, Ont. “Locally, our branches do a tremendous amount of advertising.”

Regional investment dealers have been focusing on community-based marketing for years, often using less conventional methods.

For example, Vancouver-based Odlum Brown Ltd. has been the title sponsor of the Odlum Brown Vancouver Open, an annual professional tennis tournament, for the past five years, says Ross Sherwood, president and CEO.

Geographical location also has a big impact on a firm’s image. For instance, advisors at Montreal-based National Bank Financial Ltd.who work outside of Quebec decry what some see as an imbalance of attention outside of the home province. In several cities outside Quebec, the firm’s branches aren’t situated alongside their brokerage counterparts, resulting in considerably less traffic.

“We don’t have an image. There’s no public image because there’s no national effort,” says an advisor in British Columbia.

That probably won’t change anytime soon, says Gordon Gibson, NBF’s senior vice president and managing director. “We have to accept we’re not going to be a household name in the rest of Canada anytime soon.”

The problem is that the parent bank is more of a regional player than other big banks, Gibson says. In the meantime, the firm is setting aside 2% of gross earnings for advisors to spend on bolstering their image locally rather than on a national advertising campaign. IE

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