Our industry has a habit of instinctively being conservative. This is understandable. If one is flippant or impulsive with a $50m dollar commitment, bad things happen. Because of this, those looking to solicit allocations from institutions naturally want to come across as serious, conservative, and refined.
This can be a trap.
Yes, institutions want to ensure any given manager is credible with appropriate contingencies pertaining to risk and loss prevention; yet, this doesn't mean, as people, they aren't emotional beings looking for inspiration and emotion.
In marketing to institutions, asset managers should not mimic their behavior as operators. The former doesn't need to mirror the latter.
You can have an extremely low tolerance for investment risk and exemplary back office, compliance and reporting capabilities, and still be exciting and interesting.
Remember, just because your business is sterile, your marketing doesn't need to be. Institutions are run by people. People are drawn to dynamic, progressive, and creative things. Be those things. You want any given CIO to hit your website and walk away impressed, emotionally charged, convinced you are a team to trust and work with. If they encounter industry rhetoric, dull creative, and limited imagination the exact opposite will occur. The CIO will then drift into the abyss.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
