Italian intermediaries have a strong preference for global asset managers

Research by Fundamental Media also reveals a preference for managers which are perceived as tried and tested

Key points:

• Financial intermediaries in Italy are more likely to buy funds from asset management firms they perceive as tried and tested rather than those perceived as curious or imaginative.
• Italian intermediaries’ belief in an asset manager’s ability to generate returns (perceived quality) is the main consideration when buying a fund.
• Intermediaries in Italy have a preference for global brands rather than local players.

Italian financial intermediaries are more likely to buy funds from asset management firms they perceive as tried and tested rather than those perceived as curious or imaginative, according to research by Fundamental Media.

This is one of the key findings from the Italy Global Brand Survey 2024, which is based on the responses from 170 financial intermediaries in Italy. 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 Italian 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, Italian intermediaries are most likely to buy funds from asset managers which they consider to be tried and tested, qualitative, analytical and broad. This suggests that professional investors in Italy are trusting large and well-established companies more than niche or specialised ones.

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

Italian intermediaries have a clear preference for global brands, with no local manager present in the top 20 of the Brand Equity Index. In the brand recall for specific asset classes and management styles, there was at least one local manager mentioned in the top three most recalled brands for Italian equities only.

For access to the full report, contact [email protected]