Name Recognition, Absent Positive Investor Sentiment Toward the Brand, Means Little When Marketing to Active Traders

RHINEBECK, N.Y., Dec. 7, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- New research from Phoenix Marketing International shows that the ten most widely known brands among a list of 38 financial services companies include: Bank of America, Charles Schwab, E*Trade, Fidelity, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley/Smith Barney, Scottrade, TD Ameritrade, T.Rowe Price, and Wells Fargo. At least 80% of active traders recall the advertising for and/or are aware of these firms on an aided basis and three brands boast investor awareness in excess of 90%.

While achieving top-tier name recognition based on whatever active traders have seen or heard about the brand is noteworthy, Phoenix data shows that seven of these brands drop in ranking when measured by overall brand impression and consideration (pre-disposition). Only E*Trade, Fidelity, and TD Ameritrade remain among the top-ten for these measures. "This finding has implications for the communication strategy used to reach active traders who, as a group, are quite different from traditional brokerage and fund investors. Our data indicates that active traders not only exhibit unique investment styles, but they also respond differently to multi-media brand advertising; specifically to ads detailing a single trading platform functionality rather than a broad array of capabilities," explains Marc Grozalsky, Product Manager for this study.

In addition to using brand pre-disposition to understand whether positive or negative investor sentiment accounts for a widely recognized firm name, pre-disposition is also an early indicator of whether brand advertising will be recalled and, more importantly, acted upon to generate additional revenue. Advertising recall among active traders with positive pre-disposition to certain brands is at least twice that of traders with less favorable sentiment. Furthermore, investors who already think positively about a brand are more likely to respond to its multi-media advertising targeted to active traders.

Coincidentally, several companies with a lower share of aided brand awareness actually lead the category in terms of positive brand pre-disposition among active traders: AB Watley, BSG Traders (The Wizard), Foliofn, Gain Capital Markets, Market Club, ThinkOrSwim, and Wall Street Electronica. Many of these brands, plus Firstrade, FX Solutions, Global Forex Trading, IG Markets, Interactive Brokers Group, Muriel Siebert & Co., TerraNova, TradeStation, XpressTrade, also receive stellar marks from current account holders for overall satisfaction/loyalty. Over 95% of their current account holders comprise an active trader segment described as "extremely likely" to recommend the brand. Other companies with noteworthy customer satisfaction/loyalty include: A.G. Edwards, AIM Investments, Charles Schwab, Forex Capital Markets, Genesis Securities, INGDirect/Sharebuilder, optionsXpress, Raymond James, Scottrade, and Wells Trade.

Phoenix is one of the fastest-growing research companies in the U.S. Study findings are from an analysis of 5,202 interviews conducted quarterly since 4Q09 among active traders. Phoenix has collected monthly brand metrics and investor evaluations of brand advertising (multi-media) since 2004.

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SOURCE Phoenix Marketing International