How do you find an image or spokesperson that really works to sell financial products? Do you try for toughness? Intelligence? Trustworthiness? Do you talk to the people we are, or the ones we want to be? And where do guys like Sam Waterston (TD Waterhouse), Paul McCartney (Fidelity) and now Lance Armstrong (American Century) fit?
Armstrong is the new in-your-face spokesperson of mutual fund company American Century. Anthropologist and culture-decoder Grant McCracken thinks he looks a bit too scary, and represents a level of discipline and achievement that dwarfs the abilities of most of humanity:
Fear and Aspiration
The flash vignette on the web site certainly plays to the traditional themes of this type of advertising, heavy on the fear factor, with a dash of aspiration thrown in. We see three different characters, a youngish woman at an outdoor cafe, a uniformed older cop, and a professional looking black guy with a briefcase. His thought bubble says:
"If that's what pre-school costs, how much will college be in 15 years?"
After Lance is done with him, he's feeling secure and aspirational, and here's his thought bubble:
"With smart investment strategies, my kids could go from pre-school to med-school"
Just Gimme Some Help Over Here
The "Lance" style of approach is markedly different than the alternative that has also gained traction recently: "overwhelmed everyperson who just wants some help". If you can remember the opening sequence of the Mary-Tyler Moore show, you're close to this feeling. [If you can't, try to imagine the kind of investment advice that would make sense to Alison DuBois, Patricia Arquette's character on Medium ].
The friendly down-to-earth approach is favored by smaller banks and credit unions, and speaks to the desire for simplicity that is popping up everywhere.
Bite the Establishment Appeals
Then there's the anti-establishment position taken by ING. I really love their current offering, "Don't get RSP'd off" [which doesn't totally translate to 401k'd off, unfortunately]. They remind us that we've been fed a lot of lines about getting rich and secure as investors, and that hasn't happened for most of us. So get safe and get back your self-respect by getting a guaranteed return.
How to Choose?
Companies with deep pockets can now test their advertising in highly predictive ways, according to my quantitative research pals. An exec. from research goliath Milward Brown told me their advertising testing model can predict market performance with 80% accuracy. Let's be clear here: this is market performance for a specific segment or segments, since no advertising speaks to all of us. Somehow I suspect that American Century did not do this type of testing, as the inspiration to use Lance appears to have come directly from the execs, according to Reuters:
Asked how Armstrong and the fund company got together, American Century Senior Vice President Mark Killen said the idea came about after publication of a magazine article about cancer that mentioned both Armstrong and James Stowers Jr., founder of American Century.
Stowers, 82, and his wife Virginia, are both cancer survivors. The couple founded the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in the 1990s.
They may have made the kind of marketing mistake I referenced yesterday: thinking your customers are just like you. This advertising should work if it makes people feel that American Century will use focus, discipline and determination in managing their investments. But if it operates at the level of exhortation -- that you and I need to get more focused, disciplined and determined -- it may not.
Stay Tuned
You can download the scary-Lance face as desktop wallpaper. It's just the sort of image I need to get through the year-end accounting coming up next week. Reuters reports that the deal with Lance is for 3 years, so you can bet there'll be a message make-over if the first campaign isn't successful.
And a tip of the hat to Grant, who is always thought-provoking.
Does Lance humanize a capitalist institution? Not for me. It's more about saying how tough and determined they are, and scaring us into making a retirement plan. I don't know about you, but I was already scared about that.
References:
Here's the American Century site: Put Your Lance Face On If you click the little teeny weenie arrow at the bottom of the Lance window, you'll get these stong words going by in ultra-large type: FOCUS. DISCIPLINE. DETERMINATION.
Read the Reuters story about Lance Armstrong's 3 year deal with American Century Funds
