Within the context of the managed futures industry in Europe, there are, looselydivided, six marketing objectives depending on the product being offered and the type of company or group which is offering it. These are:

sales of funds or management programmes to investment institutions;

• CTAs attempting to manage money within (usually) multi-manager funds or equivalent investment products;
• sales by fund management groups, to expatriate retail investors or, increasingly (with domestically registered funds) to retail investors within their own countries;
• fund management groups seeking joint venture partners for the creation and distribution of funds (usually retail) within an individual country or economic block;
• fund management groups seeking sales agents to distribute products on a commission basis in a defined area;
• consultancy groups attempting to act for investment management groups — particularly those considering multi-manager derivatives funds, to structure the fund, select CTAs and control asset allocation.

Each of the above objectives implies a tailored marketing programme but before discussing the details and perceived results of the various techniques, one further generalisation is possible. That is, with the exception of cold calling and product advertising (except in so far as advertising may be used to promote country registered funds within that country, and to certain groups of expatriates, and non-specific corporate advertising), all familiar methods of investment marketing may be employed.

Shot-gun Marketing Techniques

These methods include shotgun marketing techniques such as:

• press relations;
• mailings to institutions;
• corporate, but not specific product, advertising;
• conferences/seminars.
• Rifle-shot Marketing Techniques

These methods include the more specific rifle-shot techniques such as:

• presentations (to invited groups);
• promo’ lunches;
• one on one meetings.
• Competitive Fee Structure Techniques

In addition certain fund groups build sales promotion facets within the structure of their funds or within the offer documents. These elements can include:

1. Sales fees declining in inverse proportion to the capital invested—the more the investor puts into a fund, the less it will cost.
2. Discounted share prices during the offer period (for open-ended funds).

Fund management groups which have employed these techniques report that they are equally as likely to appeal to institutional as well as to retail investors—a discounted entry price (particularly if accompanied by a competitive overall fee structure) tends to overcome one of the principal sticking points to European institution investment — high costs.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Marketing Objectives & Marketing Techniques

• Regulation of Managed Futures Funds in Europe Part 13
• Financial Consideration: Fees
• RETAIL SALES
• CTAS
• Relating Familiar Marketing Techniques to Managed Derivatives Targets
• Relating Familiar Marketing Techniques to Managed Derivatives Targets
• Regulation of Managed Futures Funds in Europe Part 11
• Regulation of Managed Futures Funds in Europe Part 1
• Regulation of Managed Futures Funds in Europe Part 12
• Regulation of Managed Futures Funds in Europe Part 3