Sandra Pierce, senior vice president and investment advisor with Toronto-based Macquarie Private Wealth Inc., is well known as the “Bag Lady of Bay Street.” But building that distinctive brand was no easy task. It took years for the idea to gain traction, and it was only after working with a marketing expert at Macquarie that Pierce’s dream became a reality.
“For years, I had tried to get some marketing support, and it just didn’t happen,” says Pierce, who had worked at a large bank-owned brokerage for 15 years prior to joining Macquarie (then known as Blackmont Capital Inc.) in 2007. “I just knew that when I saw what I needed that it would be the answer.”
Pierce got the answer she needed when she joined Macquarie and began working with Laura Curtis Ferrera, the firm’s senior vice president of marketing.
The essence of the Bag Lady of Bay Street brand was Pierce’s goal to eradicate what she calls “bag lady syndrome” — a fear among successful women that they will end up homeless, living their retirement years on the streets.
Pierce — who is part of Mac-quarie’s three-person Fox Pierce Segal Group, which has $120 million in assets under management — says much of her clientele consists of affluent women who suffer from financial insecurities. Although “bag lady syndrome” is not a real medical condition, it is a problem Pierce sees often, not only in her female clients but also in the wives of her male clients.
The idea behind Pierce’s brand began in 1995 after Pierce heard Sherry Lansing, former CEO of Paramount Pictures and the first woman to head a major film studio, being interviewed about her relationship with money. Lansing spoke of a recurring nightmare in which her ex-husband pulls up in a convertible Rolls-Royce with a young, blonde trophy wife by his side. They notice Lansing, a tattered homeless woman walking down the sidewalk on Sunset Boulevard, pushing a shopping cart. The young wife asks, “Honey, do you know that woman?” The ex responds: “Oh, it’s just someone I knew a long time ago.”
Lansing said in the interview that she suffered from “bag lady syndrome,” and that her nightmare was one that many women shared. “Lansing went on to talk about Katie Couric, Lily Tomlin and Gloria Steinem, all women who were successful, had wealth but were worried about ending up penniless,” Pierce says. “From that moment, the light went on for me.”
But building Pierce’s brand into what it is today didn’t happen overnight. In fact, she faced several hurdles, starting with the challenge of convincing others of her vision — including her team, which consisted of her husband and another male co-worker. It was when she began working with Curtis Ferrera that Pierce knew she would be able to launch her brand.
• Top Advisor Summit: A peak behind ‘The Bag Lady of Bay St.’ brand
Sandra Pierce, a senior vice president and advisor with Macquarie Private Wealth Inc. in Toronto, describes her brand, The Bag Lady of Bay Street, some of her marketing techniques for developing new business, and entertaining clients. WATCH
• Top Advisor Summit: Tips on niche branding from marketing executive
Laura Curtis-Ferrera, senior vice president of marketing at Macquarie Private Wealth Inc., discusses how advisors can begin to develop a niche brand and apply it across various marketing platforms. WATCH
@page_break@“Sandra came to me with this great idea and wanted to grow her business,” says Curtis Ferrera. “She already had a list of high-asset acquisition targets, so the first thing I said was, ‘Let’s go to a bar and grab a cocktail napkin’.”
On one side of the napkin, Pierce listed, in point form, everything she knew about the type of person she wanted to target. On the other side, Pierce then wrote down who her perfect client would be. As a result of this exercise, Pierce began to develop a micro-niche — the single biggest factor to building a successful brand, says Curtis Ferrera.
“You have to be very specific,” she says. “The only way you are going to find out what conferences you should be attending is if you get really narrow. Sandra doesn’t target women. She targets affluent women with certain insecurities.”
Pierce took the napkin and ran it by her team members. “Show your team or someone you trust who will give you honest feedback,” says Curtis Ferrera.
The napkin was then handed to a professional writer, who created a boilerplate paragraph, 50 to 75 words usually placed at the bottom of a press release, that says who Pierce is and what she does.
Pierce’s boilerplate reads: “Many women have financial phobias or feel insecure about their futures because they have so little understanding or comfort about the world of investing. I have made it my mission to help my female clients understand and become inspired by their financial potential. Once I have opened their eyes about their money, under the care of the Fox Pierce Segal Group, I can liberate and add meaning to their lives. The women feel financially secure that they will always carry the right kind of bag.”
In addition, Pierce had a writer create a tag line, a one-line statement that is used on all her business cards, customized stationary and holiday cards. It reads: “Financial empowerment is in the bag.”
Once Pierce’s brand was in place, she was ready to move on to the “10-point touch” program, which involves contacting potential clients 10 times a year. For Pierce, that involves eight hours a week of researching the people she wants to target and sending out 200 direct-mail packages a year, the first point of contact she makes with prospective clients.
Pierce’s direct-mail package reinforces her unique brand and consists of a high-end silk clutch-type bag that is hand-delivered. The bag is filled with brochures and marketing materials for Pierce’s business.
Since she began delivering the bags, Pierce has had a 20% response rate. She is currently opening 10 new accounts a year.
Her 10-touch program also includes a personalized email follow-up; a lifestyle newsletter; greeting cards sent out for International Women’s day; theatre tickets to Body and Soul; and a number of seminars under the Bag Lady brand. In addition, Pierce has participated in the global “I am a girl” campaign, which is aimed at creating a safer future for girls.
“This is authentic personal branding,” says Pierce. “It is an evolutionary process, and I believe that it emerged because it was my search for my identity and my meaning in life. ” IE