French Banking Heavyweight Goes For Emotion With Wealth Brand Makeover

Vanessa Doctor

21 May 2014

BNP Paribas Wealth Management, a subsidiary of French banking group BNP Paribas, has repositioned its branding strategy to appeal to the more emotional side of the wealth management market.

The new worldwide brand positioning effort focuses on meeting the needs of wealth management clients by committing to support them in their personal ambitions, beyond just the financial goals, said the firm in a statement. These include interests that are entrepreneurial, family related, or philanthropic.

The strategy goes with the tagline "Your wealth has a voice. Let it be heard." The plan is now in place in Asia and is being adopted in some 30 countries with local brand entities and in 11 different languages.

The rollout is happening through various platforms and officially starts this month with a new advertising campaign to be featured in international and national media. The Asia round will come from Hong Kong and China.

BNP Paribas Wealth Management is one of the largest private banks in the world with €295 billion worth of assets under management as at 31 March 2014. Its Asia offices are located in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Mumbai and Shanghai.

At the start of May, the bank reported that assets under management at its investment solutions arm - a business including wealth management - fell only slightly – 0.2 per cent at the end of March this from a year earlier, at €874 billion . AuM rose, however, by 2.4 per cent, from the end of last year, boosted by a €8.9 billion gain driven by favourable equity and interest rate developments.