Case Study
The Challenge of Multi-affiliate Branding
Cerulli helps a multi-affiliate asset manager build brand equity across individual companies and at the aggregate level.
Key Questions
Clarifying Opportunity
How does a multi-affiliate asset manager go about growing its business, developing brand equity, and cultivating the relationship between parent company brand and boutique brands? Do the multi-affiliates retain their unique brands or do they assume the corporate identity of the parent brand?
How do we do it?
The Cerulli Approach
Cerulli built an outside-in and inside-out approach to measuring brand perception—externally and internally—across multi-affiliates and the parent company.
Approach One
Outside-in
Through qualitative and quantitative assessments with pension insurers, wealth managers, and private banks, Cerulli provided the company with an outside view of the most important criteria investors consider when evaluating brands held within a multi-affiliate model. These include:
- Best-of-breed product
- Centralized distribution and middle/back-office resources
- Access to specialized investment capabilities
- Quality of client service
- Access to diverse approaches/products
- Strength of brand/parent balance sheet
Approach Two
Inside-out
We also met with business leaders to understand the brand challenges they encounter with the multi-affiliate model, including:
- Product competition
- Competition for distribution resources
- Lack of centralization for client management/disparate resources/processes
- Lack of centralized risk management
- Conflicting investment philosophies
- Conflicting ESG approaches
- No clear, consistent product or corporate story
- Regulatory, compliance, risk
Spotlight
Which has a stronger perception? The individual boutiques or the parent company?
Cerulli tested and evaluated the perception of individual boutiques among key allocator audiences—wealth managers, pension funds, consultants, private banks, and insurance companies—across several categories and countries. We found three main brand challenges with the multi-affiliate model:
The Outcome
Cerulli's Strategic Recommendations
Our Subject Matter Experts:
Leena Dagade
Associate Director
Bio →
Leena Dagade
Associate Director
Based in Cerulli's Singapore office, Leena is responsible for retail research in the Asian asset management industry. She is the lead analyst for the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) research practice in Asia and contributes to Asian institutional reports, Cerulli Edge publications, and consulting projects.
Prior to joining Cerulli, she was a deputy editor for an online financial publishing firm, covering the asset and wealth management industry in Asia. Previously, she worked with a real-time financial news and market data firm and an asset management company.
Full biography here.
Donnie Ethier
Senior Director
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Donnie Ethier
Senior Director
Donnie Ethier is the head of Cerulli Associates’ Wealth Management practice. The Wealth Management practice is dedicated to helping clients proactively adapt to retail financial advice and planning trends, including the high-net-worth markets. Donnie oversees the practice’s annual research agenda and is a core contributor to consulting engagements, syndicated research, and the The Cerulli Edge—U.S. Advisor Edition.
Since joining Cerulli in 2012, Donnie has led several practices and research initiatives including the Wealth Management, High-Net-Worth, and Annuity practices. Prior to joining Cerulli, Donnie held roles at Sun Life Financial and Sun Life Financial Distributors for eight years focusing on market and distribution strategy, product development, competitive intelligence, and professional development.
Full biography here.
Brendan Powers, CFA
Director
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Brendan Powers, CFA
Director
Brendan is a member of Cerulli’s Product Development practice, which focuses on trends related to asset managers’ product development and management functions. This broadly includes assessing the opportunity for product development, evaluating emerging product trends, and understanding distribution and product positioning for investment products across retail and institutional channels.
Prior to joining Cerulli, Brendan worked as a Senior Client Associate at Eaton Vance Management, focusing primarily on the firm’s exchange funds.
Full biography here.
André Schnurrenberger, CFA
Managing Director, Europe
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André Schnurrenberger, CFA
Managing Director, Europe
André Schnurrenberger is the managing director of EMEA for Cerulli Associates and leads all research, consulting, and business activities in the region. Since joining Cerulli Associates, André has focused on wider distribution and product trends across European asset managers and has worked with some of the largest global investment firms, reviewing their product shelves, enhancing their business models, and helping them define strategies for future growth.
Prior to joining Cerulli, André spent 7 years at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, most recently as head of Business Management and Market Intelligence & Research for EMEA Distribution, and before that as Head of Performance. He held previous roles at UBS Wealth Management in Zurich and London, including Head of Investment Analytics and Performance.
Full biography here.
Ken Yap, CFA
Managing Director, Asia
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Ken Yap, CFA
Managing Director, Asia
Ken Yap is managing director of Cerulli’s Asia Pacific office. He oversees Cerulli’s business development strategy and research initiatives in the region. For more than 20 years, Ken has worked with asset managers, distributors, and financial institutions, identifying expansion opportunities with his deep knowledge of the market. He specializes in product development and market entry strategies into Asia’s established and emerging markets.
Prior to leading the Singapore office, Ken covered local and global asset management and distribution trends in Cerulli’s London and Boston offices. Before joining Cerulli, Ken was a consultant at Analysys’ Cambridge office in the U.K.
Full biography here.
Fabrizio Zumbo
Director
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Fabrizio Zumbo
Director
Fabrizio leads the European Retail/Wholesale Asset Management research practice, which focuses on analyzing asset management product development trends, investment, operational and marketing strategies, market and distribution dynamics, regulatory changes, and performing market and competitive intelligence in the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, and the Nordics.
Prior to joining Cerulli, Fabrizio served as a Lead Industry Analyst at State Street in London and as a Senior Analyst & Research Editor for the PwC’s Global Market Research Centre in Luxembourg. Previously, he carried out several field-based research projects in emerging and frontier markets for international market research and economic consulting firms, spending almost five years performing economic and industry analyses in several countries in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.
Full biography here.
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