Summary
A leading player in the asset & wealth management industry wanted to visualize the positioning of its digital tools & resources versus that of key peers in the industry. Client was also interested in knowing convenience of competitors’ digital offerings in terms of fee and accessibility requirements.
Evalueserve's Asset & Wealth Management Competitive Intelligence team helped the client in assessing its positioning by conducting a comprehensive product assessment exercise. The client was provided with a schematic comparison of digital offerings along with quantifiable positioning of all the firms, highlighting gaps and parities. The client was also able to identify the opportunities to bridge the gaps in its self-directed or free offerings by leveraging its existing capabilities in digital advisory or paid segments.
The Challenge
First, the asset & wealth management firm wanted to understand all the various digital tools & resources firms provide to their clients and/or prospects, including both advised and non-advised clients. Second, the firm wanted us to create a bucket/ grouping system to organize the types of digital tools & resources firms provide to clients. Third, the client was envisioning to see a comparison of its digital offerings vs. that of various competitors, and what services they’re proving everyone as free, self-service guidance, and what is reserved for paid advice.
The client wanted to see a physical line between various offerings of each of the firms to be able to easily gauge how far each company goes in comparison to one another and the key challenge was to use discretion to display the information in the clearest possible way.
Our Solution
Our team conducted a comprehensive assessment around digital tools & resources, making up of four-step approach:
1. Information Collection to create the universe of digital tools & resources
2. Sorting Tools & Resources across broader categories, as per their functionality, fee structure and access requirements
3. Comprehensive Assessment highlighting offerings in sub-categories across the spectrum ranging from basic to advanced
4. Rating each of the firms' offerings, on a scale of 1-3, basis their offerings in each of the sub-category
Step 1: Information Collection involved studying and collecting details around all digital tools & resources offered by the client and its major competitor firms. The process involved scanning through company websites and product brochures to list down and categorize their offerings as per widespread classification across self-directed investing and digital advisory capabilities.
The process helped in understanding the universe of digital tools & resources provided to clients and/or prospects, including both non-advised and digitally advised clients.
Step 2: Sorting process involved grouping the digital tools & resources to broadly organize them across various common categories as per their functionalities, fee structure and accessibility requirements.
Step 3: Comprehensive Assessment process involved assessing features and sophistication of each of the digital tools & resources to further break them up into various sub-categories, across the spectrum of their complexity ranging from basic to advance.
The sorting assessment process clearly provided a detailed benchmarking across digital tools & resources to assist the client in gauging how far each company goes in comparison to one another. The client got the important intel about its competitors’ offerings – what tools & resources they are proving everyone as free, self-service guidance, and what is reserved for paid advice.
Step 4: Rating process involved evaluating offerings of different firms in each of the sub-categories to rate them on a scale of 1-3, basis on comprehensiveness of their offerings in the respective sub-category.
The competitive assessment helped the client to visualize positioning of its digital tools & resources in terms of quantifiable metrics set against that of key competitors in the industry.
The client was provided with a schematic visualization and quantifiable competitive assessment of its digital tools & resources highlighting gaps & parities in comparison to other players, across various dimensions –
- category breakdown, basis on functionality or kind of needs served by the tools/ resources
- level of sophistication, marked as simple/ interactive/ moderate/ advanced
- cost structure of the offerings, such as free/ paid/ complementary with any other paid service
- accessibility requirements like accessible to all/ accessible to all with registration required/ accessible to clients only
- comprehensiveness of offerings in each of the sub-category, rated on a scale of 1 (least comprehensive) to 3 (most comprehensive)
Business Impact
The exercise provided deep understanding of the universe of digital tools & resources firms provide to clients and/or prospects. The client was effortlessly able to visualize positioning of its digital tools & resources in terms of quantifiable metrics set against that of key competitors in the industry.
The client was able to find the gaps/ whitespace opportunities clearly. Thus, the client gained the important intel around bridging gaps in its self-directed offerings by using its existing capabilities in digital advisory or paid segments.
Pins:
- Deep understanding of the universe of digital tools & resources
- Highlighted positioning of its digital offerings in quantifiable metrics
- Important intel around bridging gaps in its self-directed or free offerings by leveraging its existing capabilities in digital advisory or paid segments