Brand is one of the most important selling tools an asset manager can have, said Cerulli analysts in the latest asset management edition of the Cerulli Edge. Nearly three-quarters of asset management firms they surveyed said brand plays an important role in the third party marketplace.

Cerulli analysts' first piece of advice is that brand has more to do with how your company is perceived among potential customers, rather than what image the marketing department may have crafted. In other words, let your customers decide what your brand should be.

Also recommended is that fund companies take a single brand approach and not dilute their main brand with sub-brands. An example used here is Russell Investments, a multi-manager shop, which uses a branding tagline that focuses on its strengths, rather than those of the managers it employs.

American Funds is held up in the report as a shining example of what a strong brand is. Cerulli analysts said that the company has drawn upon its "performance consistency, reliability, teamwork and marketing simplicity" to create strong brand loyalty among brokers.

Cerulli's people also believe that American Funds' calculated avoidance of the media helps let the company better control how the brand is outwardly perceived.

What asset management firms can hope to gain from a strong brand, according to analysts, is better acceptance of their ventures into different areas of asset management, allowing for more options to gather assets.  

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