Laura’s Winning Ideas

“Do your investments fit your investment strategy like a glove? Or a mitten?”

From an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal for State Street Global Advisors, “Precise in a world that isn’t.”(registered service mark)

When applying themes in your proposal, and all marketing materials, double entendre can be engaging and provide a connection to the client. However, it can also backfire. For instance, when you run an ad in the Midwest edition of the WSJ, references to mittens should be vetted by someone who knows something about winter.

Midwesterners know something about gloves and mittens. Gloves are fine for times when you need the tactile control of individual fingers. However, if you want your body to stay warm, mittens share the warmth among the digits and are best for serious safeguarding of your body parts.

In an investment portfolio, I want the individual parts to each contribute to the stability and profit of the whole body of investments. If I have some portion invested conservatively, and offset that with some riskier investments, I evaluate performance of the whole to see whether it will keep me warm in retirement. In other words, a portfolio needs mittens, not gloves to work properly.

The ad continues:

“SPDRs are a family of ETFs that cover virtually every market segment. Which means you can get the precise investment you want. To wrap your hands around them, visit spdretfs.com”

Reads to me as: “Trust me. We know better than you’ll ever understand.”

In today’s environment, most investors are moving to investments they understand. The meltdown of weird new financial instruments reminds me of Warren Buffett’s response when asked why he wasn’t participating in the dot com investment frenzy, “I don’t invest in things I don’t understand, and I don’t understand many of these (ed. new investments).” In other words, this is a poor time to try to dance around with new acronym laden investment packages.

Another pet peeve of mine are proposals that try to sell the “Black Box.” Every complex offering has elements you hope are unique and give your team an advantage. That’s great. However, explain the benefits, rather than try to sell a magical “black box.”

Believe it or not, every proposal will contain unique elements each team hopes brings them a competitive advantage. However, most will try to mystify the procurement with vague obtuse descriptions and off hand acronym references. If you can’t describe the benefits to your mother, you aren’t communicating value, you are just showing off.

However, don’t default to boring.

Contrast my reaction to this ad with the reaction of a client who is a senior official with a U.S. federal agency. I’d described our Wisconsin team of collaborators and the federal funds sought as: “putting yeast to warm milk” and they LOVED the reference to our agricultural heritage, home grown sense of responsibility and independence, and need of their help to grow an important program.

• Be real.
• Write what you know.
• Double check your writing for unintended consequences.

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