Investment firms need to identify/refine their edge and stand out.
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Strong branding contributed to 30% of net new assets under management (Siegel & Gale, 2020).
83% of investment firms who invested in their brand see their growth increase (Adrenaline, 2024).
Companies with a stronger brand outperform their competitors by 25% in terms of growth on average (PWC).
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97% of executives believe that a brand and its mission are important differentiators (The Future of Asset Management Accenture, 2021).
77 % of financial company executives believe their branding efforts have helped them better stand out from the competition (“Measuring the ROI on Rebranding Initiatives Survey,” Adrenaline, 2024).
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Performance is volatile and unpredictable.
Investors will always find firms with better performance.
Firms need to give more reasons why investors should care about them.
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Firms with a strong employer brand attract 50% more qualified candidates and reduce hiring costs by 50% (Employer branding statistics, Zipdo 2024).
Companies with a strong employer brand see a 28% reduction on average in employee turnover (LinkedIn Employer Brand Statistics, 2016).
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The lack of strong personal brands at a firm can hinder it’s efforts to be more visible to investors.
Educational content shared through a personal brand performs 8 times better than if it was shared by the company itself.
(Personal Branding Stats, Kurogo, 2024)
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Small to mid-cap firms will struggle to compete if they don’t have a clear and valuable value proposition that outweighs the track record and reputation of established firms.
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Among other things, LPs gravitate toward firms that can :
Turn complexity into clarity
Articulate their unique point of view of their vertical
Explain what value they bring beyond financial returns
Explain their edge clearly
Potential portfolio companies look for firms that showcase the additional value they bring, such as operational expertise, strategic guidance, or industry networks.
Feeling undervalued and misunderstood because your edge is unclear therefore overlooked.
Our solution
For
“Varig’s work is very in-depth and high-quality.
Our investors complimented us on our brand visuals.”
Polaris Financial Management
Feel more valued.
Brand Capital™
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We’ll help you identify and articulate your edge in a clear way by elevating your brand DNA.
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We’ll help you translate your brand DNA into design that highlights your edge and makes you stand out.
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We’ll help you define a strong personal brands to amplify your reach and form deeper connections with your target audience.
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We’ll help you build a distinctive employer brand.
First, we had to understand:
how branding creates business value in your industry
what challenges your industry is currently facing
how branding can help you address them
Orion
We help you do that through our Brand Capital™ solution.
What do our Investors say
“Varig produced high-quality work with minimum time commitment on our side.
We’re entirely satisfied with the results.”
613 brands studied /
Our findings
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Firms visually indistinguishable. Their edge aren’t differentiated and clearly defined.
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Firms lack a premium-looking brand that matches their team’s professionalism.
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They struggle to make themselves more approachable and to humanise their team.
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Managing partners and CIOs have weak personal brands to the detriment of their firms visibility and influence in the market.
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Firms that want to expand their offering and cater to different investor segments find it challenging to strengthen their new position in the market.
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Smaller firms have a hard time competing with more established firms in attracting and retaining top talent.
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The industry is quickly evolving. Firms have to make sure their brand evolves at the same pace.
A lack of confidence in your ability to differentiate yourself and influence how the market perceives you.
26 interviews conducted
Asset management / Private equity
Blackstone / Neuberger Berman / JP Morgan / Rothschild & Co / Crestline / Close Brothers / Addenda Capital / PGIM / Polaris / O15 Capital Partners / Man Group
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Out of the 600+ brands studied :
84% of firms in our study are visually indistinguishable.
89% of them don’t have a unique value proposition that makes them stand out.
93% of firms use generic language which is detrimental to expressing their edge clearly.
Out of the 28 firms interviewed :
97% of them recognised the importance of branding to stand out and to make a good first impression.
72% of them mentioned the need for more humanised brands in the industry that feel more approachable, through authentic and clear messaging.
1 out of 5 firms interviewed had just rebranded and stated that their firm’s appearance and weak narrative were the main reasons behind their brand investment
Venture Capital
Partech / Ring Capital / Contrarian Ventures / Dreamcraft / Scale Capital / Sectoral / Idekapital / Oxx / Extantia / New Fund / Eleven ventures / XRC ventures
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There is an over-reliance on past performance to stand out in an over-crowded market and an under-appreciation for clarity and being instantly recognisable.
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Firms underestimate the power of first impressions and how it affects future investor behaviour.
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Firms don’t realise how damaging generic language is on their ability express their edge clearly and build rapport with their target audience.
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The benefits of personal branding on visibility and the ability to form deeper connections aren’t well understood in the industry.
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Firm’s underestimate the need for their brand language and design to shift when pivoting to new portfolio strategies and catering to new investor segments.
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Firms lack a strong employer brand to strengthen their reputation as an employer and to attract and retain top talent.
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Most small to mid-sized firms have a very small to non-existant marketing/branding team to address these branding challenges.
Boutique asset managers
VC firms
PE firms
REITs
The consequences of insufficient brand investment
On a deeper level this means
Investor and concept work
Asset manager focusing on private debt solutions
Asset manager operating in the private markets
Asset manager specialising in EM equities
Alternative asset manager focusing on private markets
Global-macro hedge fund
ESG-focused asset management firm
Private equity firm
Firm focused on crypto investing
The work philosophy that guides us
Strive for simplicity
Finance is data heavy. Your brand should not detract from what’s important.
When you create something simple, it gets remembered and lasts a long time.
Varig: long lasting / enduring in both Norwegian and Danish
The most precious asset you manage is your brand.
Do what you do best, invest.
We will never sacrifice quality for speed.
Strong branding takes time and requires patience.The scope of our solution is limited on purpose.
We’re not experts in 15 different subjects.
We’d rather do few things but do them well.-
Strong branding isn’t just about design.
It’s about making sure your target investors understand and care about your edge.
This means more credibility and trust which in turn leads to higher AUM growth and an improved bottom line.
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600+ brands analysed in your industry & 19 interviews with investment firms to better understand their challenges and how branding can help address them.
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This focus allow us to better understand what’s limiting your firm’s reach and growth.
We’re definitely not the right fit for everyone
Our edge
More about us ↗