MutualFundWire.com
The insiders' edge for 40 Act industry executives!
an InvestmentWires' Publication
an InvestmentWires' Publication
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MutualFundWire.com
The insiders' edge for 40 Act industry executives!
an InvestmentWires' Publication |
|
Wednesday, June 30, 2004 TIAA-CREF Launches Branding Offensive Stodgy TIAA-CREF is making moves to reclaim its traditional markets and venture into new ones, the WSJ reported on Monday. Fighting a reputation for lagging competitors, being slow to launch new products, and a lackluster brand (when anyone recognizes the pension company, at all), TIAA-CREF is back on the offensive. Its plan of action? The pension company is rolling out a slew of new initiatives. Within its traditional market, TIAA-CREF is thinking outside the box, targeting workers new to academia, younger academic professionals and those exiting the workforce. Along those lines, TIAA-CREF will open offices near college campuses and other areas with "concentrations of participants," said Glen Weiner, a TIAA-CREF spokesman. "[A]s people retire and transition out of the workplace, we want them staying with us," the WSJ reported Herb Allison, head of TIAA-CREF, as saying. Allison, in an effort to clamp down on costs, laid off 500 people in the last 18 months. On the service side, the pension company will introduce next month an improved record-keeping system called TIAA-CREF Open Plan Solutions. TIAA-CREF will roll out the new product at Purdue University later this summer, said Weiner. It will also offer independent investment advice to clients through a third-party, and roll out ever-popular lifecycle funds by the end of this year. While TIAA-CREF officials are still working out the details on the lifecycle funds, Weiner did say that the lifecycle funds will be made up of TIAA-CREF's proprietary funds. TIAA-CREF is not only adding new products within the fund arena, it is also adding other services, including checking and debit-card services. The rollout for the cash management services, which the company envisions as part of a larger brokerage platform, is at least six months away, said Weiner. And what good are these moves without a branding campaign to accompany them? TIAA-CREF fired Ogilvy & Mather last November for a new advertising firm, Modernista. The Boston-based agency boasts that it only took a 90-minute lunch with "five guys dressed in black...East Coast hip" to convince TIAA-CREF to hand over the $25 million account. The ad agency, which has worked on ads for Hummer and the Gap, is described in AdWeek as creating work incorporating "hip music and distinctive TV concepts." TIAA-CREF's ad campaign will launch this summer, with a high-profile commercial airing on the opening night of the summer Olympics. It is also saying goodbye to its slogan, "Managing money for people with other things to think about." Printed from: MFWire.com/story.asp?s=7518 Copyright 2004, InvestmentWires, Inc. All Rights Reserved |