Case Blog

In one of my earliest postings in September of ‘07, Global Brands, I wrote: “As we transition to a digital world, managing our brands becomes ever more demanding. Microsoft, which has done wonders with the Windows and Office brands, stumbled as they tried to rebrand Hotmail, IM and Search under the Windows Live brand. I am certain that with their unlimited resources they employed several of the best branding agencies in the business, but they still struggled through this transition. Those of us who come to this with much less in the way of outside assistance must clearly understand that we need brands that can travel globally…All of us in the B2B or B2C space tasked with transitioning to the digital world are looking for the Holy Grail, an umbrella brand that inspires confidence and trust and at the same time can support many vertical channels. Strategy sessions and market tests play an important role in this process. Marketing dollars invested in branding will yield significant returns, although without strong digital brands there is not much chance of survival for print brands, even those with storied histories.”

In the fall of ‘07, my partners at Austin Ventures and I were still in the search mode to find a platform that we could acquire and grow.  It was almost a year later when we zeroed in on the institutional financial sector, with a focus on asset management. In fairly short order, we acquired Asset International, The Trade, and Strategic Insight.

We decided that we would operate under the Asset International name, as it provided a very clear brand and would allow us to add significant brands under the Asset International umbrella. Today we have established a new London office for Strategic Insight to support the Simfund Global database and analytics platform. In the next several months we will open a comparable office in Hong Kong for our expanding client base to support these well-known business intelligence products and services. This client base historically has been composed of mutual fund companies, but recently we have seen it expand in the U.S. to include other business sectors, including private equity firms that have a strong interest in the financial sector.

In addition, this past spring we launched Plan Sponsor Europe out of London. With this very strong retirement-focused brand and its print, online, research reports, and conference components, Plan Sponsor Europe is offering longtime clients like State Street (STT) a known brand to support their defined contribution efforts in the United Kingdom and on the continent. They have reserved our prime real estate, our back cover, to deliver their message for the balance of the year. In ‘11 we will launch Plan Sponsor Asia/Pacific edition. Recently, Global Custodian released its 2010 Prime Brokerage Survey, which received wide coverage in the business press and was quickly established as the standard for this segment of the industry. This brand, along with Strategic Insight, has had a global impact for more than 20 years.

The TRADE expanded its business several years ago by launching The TRADE Asia and this year launched The TRADE Growth Markets. They also expanded their global web presence with www.thetradenews.com. Finally, ai5000, which focuses on the professional information needs of the Chief Investment Officers of the largest global assets owners, launched their Chief Investment Officer Summit (CIOS) in New York and will hold the second summit in London on October 7th and 8th.

We will continue to expand our business by investing in our core brands on a global basis and serving the needs of our client base in the major markets they operate in.

You can learn more about our global brands and how they can assist you build your global market share by going to www.assetinternational.com.

This is a guest blog post by Jason Cassidy, Asset International’s Senior Vice President of Strategy and Development.

By Jason Cassidy

Our Strategic Insight Global team recently published a detailed report on the rapidly growing middle class investor in emerging markets.  The report describes the rapid growth in markets such as China and India and the need for asset managers looking to grow to find ways to enter these markets and to be sure to not underestimate the differences and potential obstacles these markets pose versus their home markets.

The report reminds me of the classic story of Kellogg trying to enter India with breakfast cereal.  The story was described to me by a good friend and business partner in Mumbai, Prakash Iyer.  There were so many potential eaters of breakfast cereal and the market was virtually un-penetrated, so Kellogg entered.  However, there was a big cultural obstacle that was missed.  There was a general preference in India for hot breakfast.  Cold cereal was a foreign concept and not very appealing.

However, with Prakash, I also saw firsthand an ultimately more successful, more culturally centered rollout with my experience at a McDonalds on the highway between the Taj Mahal and New Delhi.  (As a side note, I make it a point to try McDonalds in every country I travel to – my favorite for its irony is the outdoor McDonalds in Red Square in Moscow.  Some of my colleagues tend to dread this tradition of mine.)  The McDonalds menu in India, as some of you may have experienced, is very different from the menu you find in the U.S. or anywhere else in the world I have seen, for that matter.  For one there is no beef.  And there is a big focus on vegetarian options as well as chicken.  I tried the McAloo Tikki (potato and pea patty) and did get to have the signature fries.  They also have the same golden arches and style in the restaurants.  This struck me as a great combination of taking what you do well and integrating it with elements that make it uniquely appropriate for the country’s tastes and culture.

I generally defer to my Strategic Insight colleagues on the details and nuances of asset management around the world.  However, there is an example from China that I find particularly relevant.  From some conversations I had in China, I found that there is a general desire from investors in China to control their own investment decisions.  This is partially due to distrust of asset managers (especially for a large group of people who have had investable wealth only in the past few years of financial turmoil around the world),  There is also the desire to have the thrill and excitement of placing “bets” on specific stocks.  People enjoy going to their broker’s office, making trades, watching the stock ticker, and feeling part of the excitement.  Thus, a traditional asset manager has some cultural hurdles to overcome to build assets under management.  Trust and excitement are two key values they need to get across to the retail investors.

Overall, these cultural nuances can make or break a company’s expansion into new countries (just ask Kellogg).  Beyond the regulatory hurdles, the cultural hurdles need to be a primary driver in determining the product and service offering in a country.  Assume nothing that is a given in your home country applies to your global footprint.  Keep in mind the McAloo Tikki as you begin your global journey.<

About Jason Cassidy, Asset International’s Senior Vice President of Strategy and Development.

Prior to joining Asset International, Mr. Cassidy was Vice President of website solutions for Register.com, where he oversaw sales, operations, customer service, marketing and product management with the primary focus on small business customers. Previously, as Vice President of Reed Business Information, he was actively involved in global strategy and development, including M&A initiatives and international development, and managed a portfolio of websites. Mr. Cassidy earned an M.B.A. from Duke Fuqua School of Business (2007) and an A.B. from Harvard University (1998). Originally from Boston, he and his family reside in Staten Island, New York.