Why looks do matter for a Private Office
According to Aristotle, “the aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”
Since time began, artists have been revered for their ability to translate meaning and experiences into a visual form. Yet, while artists are celebrated, in many other walks of life, image, or “looks” can be taken rather less seriously.
We are told that looks shouldn’t matter, that it is what is inside that counts. That is very true. It is the essence of a person, an experience, a product or a service that really matters. After all, appearances can be deceptive… but they can also be extremely helpful aids to communication.
You see, we are wired to be visual beings.
Source: David McCandless, Information is Beautiful
In this representation of the relative power of the five key human senses, sight dominates all other senses. Data visualization expert David McCandless likens it to comparing the bandwidth power of a computer network with that of a calculator.
But if appearances are so important, why are the visual identities of many financial services firms uninspiring?
A year or so ago, a Bloomberg article asked, “what should a bank smell like?”, before going on to explain the concept of scent marketing.
Global wealth manager UBS recently unveiled a sonic logo designed to encapsulate what a global bank might sound like, after research by the University of Leicester found that companies that match their brand to music are 96 per cent more likely to be remembered.
Yet little has changed when it comes to the visual imagery associated with private wealth management.
Recently, I performed a quick search using Google images and the term “wealth management”. The results looked like this:
Do they inspire you to seek out financial advice?
I did another search, this time using the term ‘wealth’.
Is this an accurate representation of what wealth means? Is wealth really confined to physical piles of money or financial assets or does it extend to cover multiple aspects of a wealthy individual’s life and passions?
Of course, these are simply two quick Internet searches. They are not intended to be a scientific assessment of the imagery deployed by Private Offices and wealth managers, but I do think they convey something about why it is important for our industry to think long and hard about its visual identity.
When I created V3, a Private Office for UHNW individuals and families looking to streamline the complexity of their financial affairs, I wanted to offer clients a better way to engage with their wealth portfolio.
Recently, we have invested a lot of time and effort into creating a new visual identity for V3. The solution we’ve built is different from the approach taken by most wealth managers and we challenged ourselves to recreate the experience online.
The first job was to convey our fresh, modern approach. Working with V3 feels different to working with the typical wealth manager and we wanted that to come across immediately.
From the start, we wanted to convey our new, innovative way of working.
Our solution takes clients on a journey to simplify their wealth and engage with it in a new and more meaningful way, and this journey became the inspiration for our new look.
When clients first start working with us, many are overwhelmed by the effort involved in monitoring a complex wealth portfolio. Each account is a disparate element of an uncoordinated plan that can feel a little bit like juggling to keep multiple balls in the air.
Our Life Audit is about getting to know these various elements of a wealth portfolio in intimate detail and then streamlining them so that everything can be placed into perfect alignment with a client’s goals and objectives.
We used animation on our website to bring alive this process of creating clarity out of complexity.
Once the portfolio is realigned, our team constantly monitor performance and react to market movements. Our tools and technology give clients’ enhanced control and visibility.
The Vantage Point is about giving clients 24/7 access to a consolidated view of their total wealth position, where they can easily monitor performance and exposure. We therefore chose imagery to convey this idea of looking out across a wealth horizon.
Finally, we wanted to visualise the scope and breadth of our services. We know that wealth is about far more than financial assets and we extend our passion to cut complexity and inconvenience to all aspects of our clients’ lives.
We hope our Wider Wealth constellation helps to bring this alive.
As it says on the new V3 website, “the firm grew out of a vision to put client needs at the heart of our business. Our independent service is built on integrity and an ability to listen. Our willingness to disrupt the status quo means we are constantly negotiating better conditions for our clients and finding better ways to do business.
Above all, we deliver the personal service that is difficult to find elsewhere.”
Packing all of that into one website design was a tall order but we hope we have managed to convey something of the difference that working with V3 can make. Above all, I hope I have convinced you that looks do matter, but what is underneath is of crucial importance.
If you would like to know more about how V3 could help you, please see 'Our Approach'.