It all started with the website. The usual content had been wiped, leaving a black background, a new logo and an email sign-up link.
People speculated on social media about what this meant, then the envelopes containing plain black postcards arrived by post. The tiny, embossed words on these cards were barely noticeable. People took to social media to show off their envelopes or flogged them on eBay.
When a framed poster appeared in the window of a Sussex pub, mainstream media picked it up and it was clear something was going on.
I had no idea what guerilla marketing was until I got sucked into the unusual marketing’ campaign for The Cure’s first studio album in 16 years. This caught me by surprise, which is precisely the point. Guerilla marketing is supposed to involve unconventional marketing methods that rely on word of mouth or going viral on social media.
So, instead of official announcements through mainstream media via press releases, fans have been the first to hear about developments through a series of clues, hints and teasers. It’s been fun.
Like financial advice, music is a business where you ideally want your existing audience or clients to grow with you while picking up a decent number of new ones. My eldest son, Liam, is studying the business side of music as part of his Level 3 diploma in music and performance, so we’re having more discussions about this sort of thing.
When Liam told me he was learning about the pros and cons of signing to an indie or major record label, it reminded me of the debate about whether to join a small or big advice firm, or an independent or restricted proposition. If I was an adviser or a musician, I know exactly which way I’d go and why.
But trying to maintain a loyal customer base that appreciates what you do while futureproofing your business by appealing to a new younger audience is more difficult when you’re well established.
Like financial advice, music is a business where you ideally want your existing audience or clients to grow with you
I would want to stay true to myself and my brand, doing what I’d always done to some degree because I wouldn’t want to alienate existing customers. You build a loyal customer base by putting yourself out there in terms of values, services and marketing messages that are distinct from your competitors. Those things obviously ‘click’ with long-term supporters.
I wouldn’t want to chase new markets if it meant becoming something I wasn’t. But at the same time, I wouldn’t want the confines of doing what I’d always done and how I’d always done it because ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. I’d want to try new things, move with the times and secure the future of my business with a healthy pipeline of new customers. But I have no idea how I’d try to achieve the required balance.
The Cure have done this with varying degrees of success in the last 46 years. It has ridden out periods of being eclipsed by the latest trends such as Britpop. It has been slated for changes in musical direction rather than delivering more of what went before. If it didn’t sound like the classic ‘Pornography’ or ‘Disintegration’ albums, some people didn’t want to know.
But this hasn’t prevented the band from maintaining a loyal fan base while attracting a steady stream of younger fans over the world. Even without any new music releases, strong live performances and social-media interest has kept it all going.
At Money Marketing I’ve been working on features that tell me the challenge for financial services is to cater for older and existing clients while engaging with a younger new audience in a way that appeals to them.
Research from FTRC around how advice firms are delivering information to clients and from pension administrator Trafalgar House show there is a balance to be had between digital and face-to-face communications. Firms need to communicate with clients in the way they want. But if preferences vary within a client base, how easy is it to be all things to everyone?
I’m convinced this would be simpler to navigate if we had a wider mix of age groups giving advice. I thought the recruitment of younger advisers was improving, but after speaking to recent graduates who want to become advisers, I’m not so sure.
Firms are reluctant to take on young people as trainees because it’s harder for someone with minimal life experience to build meaningful relationships with clients
It took one graduate from the prestigious St Andrews University in Scotland nearly four months and around 200 applications to get a job in the advice sector as an administrator. Many graduates really want to be trainee advisers, but the roles just aren’t there, so they have no choice but to go down the admin and paraplanning route.
One young adviser who is doing this told me it doesn’t teach people the skills needed to be an adviser and that moving from a senior paraplanner to a junior adviser is tricky as it involves a pay cut. “Employers don’t tend to see the progression in the same way as I do,” he said.
A different source has told me firms are reluctant to take on young people as trainee advisers because it’s harder for someone with minimal life experience to build meaningful relationships with clients.
I sort of get that – I’m married with kids and could easily relate to someone going through a divorce. Not because I’m experiencing it but because I understand what marriage means and conversely what no longer being married would mean.
In my early 20s, I could sympathise to the extent that I’d experienced a relationship break-up, but I wouldn’t have understood divorce as I would now.
But I don’t think it lets the advice profession off the hook in not having enough employed roles for people who want to advise. If you’re old enough to know what you want to do with your life, you’re old enough to be taught how to do it properly.
Making self-employment or associated roles the default strikes me as not the right way to do it. Let’s try something new.
