What’s a discussion on markets without marketing?
A two-day conference for women leaders of business and finance focused on the business of alternative investments – private equity, venture capital, hedge funds real estate real assets and emerging markets. The Summit also included a panel on branding your financial services firm. The repeated message was that you must make sure clients and consumers know who you are. Branding is more than your name — it’s what your company stands for, especially in tough times.
The 7th annual Women’s Alternative Investment Summit in New York City, hosted by the Falks Marques Group, featured dozens of speakers and panels over two days. The Group also hosts the Women’s Private Equity Summit in March.
The subject of branding came up most pointedly when discussion ran to crisis management. Branding supports your positioning as well as the messaging that reinforces the trust your markets have in you. It’s important to have your brand in place before a crisis. When you are managing your reputation, a business recovers faster if its brand is already known and trusted. It takes longer to bounce back if people don’t know who you are – and in that case you may become known far into the future only for the crisis.
Branding should constantly be the focus of management, and although the majority of participants at the conference were in the financial sector, the message is the same for any service business: You should push your brand every chance you get.