"Brand is important, and we recognize that," BlackRock executive Raj Seshadri, head of U.S. Wealth Advisory iShares and former global chief marketing officer, said in an interview.
To succeed better with retail investors, iShares will have to win over advisers such as Carl Amos Johnson, a fee-only adviser and owner of Grove Street Fiduciary in Peterborough, N.H. He estimates that roughly 90 percent of the ETFs in his clients' portfolios are Vanguard funds.
"They (Vanguard) have captured the low-cost retail index mind, and even the most naive investor knows that," Johnson said. "To me the brand is not the key, but in the mind of a client, it is a big difference."