Getting to be number one isn’t easy. But staying there is even tougher.

Take Investors Group (IG), by way of example. With more than $37 billion in assets, the Winnipeg-based company ranks as Canada’s leading mutual funds provider. But in a category as competitive as financial services, that’s hardly an unassailable position. Which is why IG recently moved to adopt a new brand positioning.

For nearly five years, the company’s advertising tagline was ‘You’re worth more.’ But that no longer cuts it with today’s worldly investor, says Sandra Metraux, senior vice-president of marketing with Investors Group.

‘Consumers are getting increasingly sophisticated,’ she explains. ‘They’re desiring more expertise.’

The new campaign, which has just launched in television and print, employs the tagline ‘Solutions built around you,’ to emphasize the company’s skill at helping investors overcome financial concerns.

Each of the five television spots takes place in the office of a financial advisor, who is shown working with different types of Investors Group clients to find much-needed solutions to their individual problems. Among the concerns addressed are tax planning, estate planning, investments and retirement planning.

One spot, for example, features a wealthy couple who fear that their beloved family cottage will be handed over to the taxman when they die. The Investors Group representative proposes a solution that will see the cottage handed down to their children – and will ensure that they end up paying fewer taxes as well.

Metraux says it’s the ability to deliver all manner of investment solutions that has put Investors Group on top of the heap.

For all its strengths, however, the company hasn’t succeeded in building brand awareness as fully as it might – and in today’s crowded financial services sector, that’s definitely a disadvantage.

‘One of our faults, being a Winnipeg-based company, is that historically we’ve been a little too quiet in [telling Canadians about] all the expertise we provide,’ says Metraux.

Being more vocal about what the company has to offer is what will keep Investors Group in first place, she says.

‘What we want to do is make sure that those people who haven’t yet tried us get a taste of what we’re about. To us, this is all part of brand-building.’

Although Investors Group leads the mutual funds category, it considers itself more than just a funds provider, since it offers a range of other financial products and services as well. ‘We compare ourselves broadly to brokers and banks,’ Metraux says.

The company’s current branding efforts are being co-ordinated by a team of three agencies: Lanyon Phillips Communications of Vancouver, Bos in Montreal and McKim Communications in Winnipeg. The group – now known as ‘Team Investors’ – was awarded the $10.5-million account earlier this year.

Investors Group didn’t go into the review with the idea of hiring a consortium, Metraux says. But the three agencies presented themselves as one – and after consideration, the company realized that the team approach made sense.

While Lanyon Phillips sets the creative direction, Bos provides expertise on the Quebec market. McKim, meanwhile, looks after media planning and local services in Winnipeg.

‘No agency can be great at everything,’ Metraux says. ‘[Team Investors] couples the different skill sets of different agencies, so that they can be stronger all around.’

The Quebec market is one of particular interest for Investors Group. Mutual fund sales in French Canada have lagged behind other provinces for some time. But IG has an edge there, since its parent company – Power Financial Corporation – is based in Montreal.

Investors Group spends considerably more on marketing in the province than most of its competitors, Metraux notes.

Branding, she says, becomes more and more important in the financial services sector all the time. And branding doesn’t begin and end with advertising.

‘A lot of what we do goes way beyond traditional advertising,’ she says. Investors Group, for example, spends a lot of time working with reps to help build solid client relationships based on trust.

‘We’re giving customers a connection to the people they’re working with,’ she says.

Also in this report:

– Fund marketers ponder branding strategies: How best to build trust in a crowded category? P.B11

– Great creative goes a long way p.B13