James said Texas Tech is conducting behavioral studies on how and why clients switch advisors during stock market volatility. The researchers are also interested in how financial happiness differs neurologically from other forms of happiness and how estate planning differs from other types of planning.
At his firm, Duncan said, his goal is to help clients develop a future-oriented perspective and to constantly reinforce it. As part of his financial planning work, he aims to focus clients on goals they can envision--such as what retirement will look like--to keep them on track. "It helps overcome the emotional side of the question, and to engage in the practical side," he said.
-- Bruce W. Fraser
Taking It To The Streets
"CFP" and "RIA" aren't initials that immediately register with the general public. A couple of advisor industry groups aim to change that.
In April, the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards launched a four-year, $36 million public awareness marketing campaign to increase both brand visibility and provide its CFP professionals with potential customer leads.
The CFP Board has long realized the importance of market surveys to monitor consumer awareness of its CFP brand, but this year's campaign takes it a step further by using the board's market research to develop a composite portrait of its ideal customer and shape an advertising campaign directly around it.
The research identified the CFP designation's core audience as being mass affluent households with 35- to 64-year-old adults who have investable assets of between $100,000 and $1 million. The CFP Board says this group represents about 14 million adults, or 6% of the U.S. adult population.
The CFP Board's promotional campaign consists of TV, print, radio and Internet-based ads targeting the likes of CNN, Fox News and the History Channel, as well as the Wall Street Journal and Barron's, among others. The campaign expanded its reach this summer with the sponsorship of select National Public Radio programming.
The ad directs consumers to a dedicated Web site (www.letsmakeaplan.org) that, among other things, contains a list of ten questions to ask when choosing a financial planner and a search box to help consumers find a CFP-certified professional in their vicinity. The ad campaign's pitch: A CFP Board certified professional can help you stay on course with your financial goals.
The CFP Board drew on market research from Symonds Media that tracks consumers' purchase habits, media habits and attitudes to help craft its campaign. The goal is to generate a positive consumer impression about certified financial planners. Based on market research, consumer awareness of certified financial planners is just 28%.
"There's usually a waterfall effect with products and services," says Thomas Crowder, the CFP Board's managing director of marketing and a former ad agency and Verizon advertising executive. "You advertise them to increase awareness, and then at the lower level you are increasing preference and intent to use. So certainly we would expect to drive searches and leads as part of this effort.''
The CFP Board said it will review the campaign in 2013 to determine whether it's effective.
Meanwhile, Schwab Advisor Services in September launched "RIA Stands for You," a multimedia campaign that defines the independent RIA category. Schwab Advisor Services designed the campaign to be used by and shared among its advisor clients. The campaign launched with digital banner ads on WSJ.com, Bloomberg.com, Forbes.com, Economist.com and TheAtlantic.com.