French intermediaries can more easily recall local managers for most asset classes

However, some global brands also have a strong reputation in the French market, research by Fundamental Media reveals

Key points:

• French financial intermediaries can more easily recall local managers for most asset classes and management styles.
• Respondents are most likely to buy funds from asset managers which they consider to be like a partner, qualitative and careful thinking.
• The top ten of the Brand Equity Index consists of six local managers and four global managers.

French financial intermediaries can more easily recall local managers for most asset classes and management styles, and in the top ten of strongest brands in the market are slightly more French managers, research by Fundamental Media finds.

This is one of the key findings from the France Global Brand Survey 2024, which is based on the responses from 135 financial intermediaries in France. To understand their perception of asset managers’ brands, we have developed a Brand Equity Index using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods across five pillars: recall, familiarity, perceived quality, propensity to buy and distinctiveness.

The propensity to buy score assesses the likelihood to increase the use of funds provided by that particular asset manager. When correlating this score with those from the other four brand factors, we see that French financial intermediaries’ belief in an asset manager’s ability to generate returns (perceived quality) is the main consideration when buying a fund. This has been a consistent trend since 2017. Perceived quality has the strongest correlation to propensity to buy, followed by brand recall. 

Brand distinctiveness is correlated to familiarity but can be linked to both positive and negative associations with brands, explaining the weak correlation to propensity to buy. However, when looking at single components of the distinctiveness score, some values will be more likely to drive propensity to buy than others.

The score for distinctiveness as a brand factor took into consideration scores for 14 brand values. When looking at how these brand values affect the propensity to buy, French intermediaries are most likely to buy funds from asset managers which they consider to be like a partner, qualitative and careful thinking.

Qualitative analysis of comments on different asset managers revealed that financial intermediaries in France provided more positive comments for those asset management firms that scored high on the brand values ‘targeted’, ‘qualitative’, ‘intuitive’ and ‘partner’ rather than those perceived as ‘broad’, ‘quantitative’, ‘analytical’ and ‘supplier’ with most of the other value sets receiving a similar number of positive and negative comments.

French intermediaries have a clear preference for local brands, with only seven global managers in the top 20 of the Brand Equity Index. However, while in the past their preferences were more towards boutique asset managers, we are now seeing that some large asset managers, both French and international, have gained positioning in propensity to buy and across the Brand Equity Index.  

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