How well do you know the person managing your money? In this exclusive interview with Edward Jones chief marketing officer Tim Rea, Rea explained the critical role location plays for financial advisors, the questions every client has and how financial confidence varies from generation to generation.
FULL VIDEO TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Sara Silverstein: I'm here with Tim Rea, the CMO of Edward Jones. Thank you so much for joining me.
Tim Rea: My pleasure. Thank you, Sara.
Sara Silverstein: So I just saw you speak at a breakfast. And the thing that really stood out is how you talk about your company being so boring. How do you market? How do you be the head of marketing for a boring company?
Tim Rea: Well, I'm not sure the folks in Saint Louis would appreciate that moniker of boring, but it's within the context of, look, we just do the fundamentals, which is a long term perspective, conservative investments, and really get to know the people we're serving. It's actually a pleasure and it's a solid company, so it's a pleasure to really share that with potential investors that there is a better alternative as you bring Wall Street to main street.
Sara Silverstein: And of course, I'm joking. I think, of course, you talk about it as a conservative investing. You know, can you talk a little bit about why that's such an important cornerstone of the business?
Tim Rea: Yeah, it is really founded on. As we grew up as a company, we were penetrating under underrepresented markets, under-served markets, if you will. And so this idea of both financial education along with simple products, really was a great fit. If you read all the literature, time is your best friend. And so this idea of long term investing, we're dealing with folks who really want to understand how we're delivering for them. So conservative investments really make sense for us. And one of the things that sets Edward Jones apart is your physical locations.
Sara Silverstein: Absolutely more than Starbucks. Is that true?
Tim Rea: Yes, in the U.S. In the U.S., not internationally.
Sara Silverstein: Yeah and how why is that important to your business?
Tim Rea: Well, we really see this as you have to be in the communities that you serve to really develop the level of trust where folks will give you their financial future and say, help me out. So we are in 68% of the counties of all us counties. We hear stories all the time of folks who go in out shopping in their community and they're running into their clients and having conversations. And that's what's so special about being there. You see it from your client's eyes and you're able to interact with them as a neighbor.
Sara Silverstein: And what's the relationship with the advisors in these locations and what is the feedback? What support do you give them? And then what information do you get back?
Tim Rea: Yeah, so we provide all the back office services, if you will, and of course the overall branding, which is important to me for folks as they look to build their books in their communities. What's also great about it is and you just touched on it, we are a clearinghouse for all the information about middle America across the country. And so a really important part of our culture is sharing success stories. So we will have folks in different parts of the country share what's working for them, and someone else in other parts of the company can just grab that and really help increase their level of service to clients in their community. So it's just a big win for us.
Sara Silverstein: And what's one of the big questions that you see that are coming through that clients are asking for right now?
Tim Rea: Yeah, it's when is the market going to go down? We don't have any crystal balls. We'd love that. But our philosophy of long term investing and having on the up front tuck them through that. The market's going to go up, market's going to go down. We're here to partner through all of it. And so when they get the panicked calls or when they make the panicked calls to our financial advisors, it's hey, remember, we talked about that. But that's always the number one question, probably closely followed by am I ready to retire yet? And wonderfully, we can say yes in some cases.
Sara Silverstein: How do you reach new generations of investors?
Tim Rea: Yeah so we have a unique business model where we have financial advisors embedded in the communities and they're often interacting with their clients children. So they're seeing them right away from our home office in Saint Louis, we've really branched more into digital marketing, trying to meet younger consumers where they are. And then a program that we're really excited about is really financial fitness education. So we're reaching out into schools or giving our financial advisors the tools to go into schools to educate about basic financial facts as well as partnering with with Everfi to go out and give folks the opportunity to learn on their own through digital platforms. So we've said, hey, we want a million financial learners by 2025 and we're already at 725 at the end of the year. So we're excited about that. But those are all ways in to reach younger folks where they are and so we can bring them into relationship with us.
Sara Silverstein: And is tiktok an important part of your strategy? I'm just asking personally.
Tim Rea: Well, we actually have had our first advertisement in Tiktok within the last two months. Yeah and it's called words of wisdom. It is targeted to younger users and it pulls them right into that financial learning site. So thank goodness I'm not dancing on that. So that's the most important.
Sara Silverstein: Yeah, that is very important. And what is the biggest change that you think needs to happen in financial services to open up access?
Tim Rea: Yeah, inclusivity is such an opportunity for our business. Most people are fearful because they don't know. So I do think education is an incredible. The whole part of that. I do think it's also an opportunity for the industry to look at how do we serve clients whom English may not be their first language. Right now we are set up to serve in English as an industry and we know that just within I think it's within. We just did a study of 18 to 34-year-olds. Over half of them identify as non-white or multicultural. We know with that comes several backgrounds and languages and why we're not serving in all of them as an industry is a challenge. I would I would offer.
Sara Silverstein: Can you talk a little bit more about why we're not serving them as an industry?
Tim Rea: So the industry, I think, has that opportunity from a regulatory standpoint and from the companies that my fellow partners and firms to make a conscious choice to want to serve in those different languages. Right now, I think we set up guardrails that English is is our only means of communication. We from a service standpoint, when someone becomes a client, we can talk to them before they become a client in any language that we choose. But after they become a client, the rules of the road are set, really. And that's a regulatory. At least that's what my compliance folks.
Sara Silverstein: Yeah, no, absolutely. That is really interesting.
Tim Rea: So if you think through the food chain, SEC would need to set up its regulation to allow for multilingual, all the prospectuses that we would have would also need to be printed in additional languages. So it is an industry wide opportunity.
Sara Silverstein: Absolutely yeah. That's fascinating. Yeah and you said you mentioned the survey. What else did you learn in this survey?
Tim Rea: Well, so we went out and surveyed over 2000, 18 to 34 year-olds, what we call Gen next. And we just had some really incredible findings about how positive they are on their future. I know sometimes we think, oh, no, the things are all going negative. Not so. We know that 12% of that group is already with a financial advisor and 40% of them say, you know, at some point in the future I'd like to. But one of the key findings is, yes, right now they're in survival mode. I think back to that age when I was a long time ago and I was trying to pay bills. I was trying to get things set up. But they have such a positive attitude that in five years they think they're going to be thriving, which is wonderful and they're so positive on the future. I know a lot of my friends have said, wow, their kids aren't thinking about having children. Or we found in the survey just the opposite, that eight out of 10 of the 18 to 34-year-olds either have kids already or want to have children, and they're really focused in on having a comfortable life with family and friends. So very positive and bullish on the future.
Sara Silverstein: And I want to talk about your career a little bit. How similar is marketing financial services to candy bars and restaurants where you have a strong background in?
Tim Rea: Well, there are similarities and differences. The similarity is you're still interacting with people. And so the psychology and the behaviors of individual choice are still there. The difference is really I'm regulated now, which I mean, FDA does a little regulation on the candy bar space, but we're regulated in this industry and you're really talking about developing trust to a deeper level over the course of a relationship. Product based even meals are relatively fleeting. But this is about a long term relationship. And really in 30s trying to sell someone that they can trust you. And so that's why we believe our model is so great about folks living in the community. And that's been a little different as well, is we get the opportunity to work through folks embedded in the community who are their own brand. So we get to work with them and building their business.
Sara Silverstein: And any lessons from launching the Take5 candy bar?
Tim Rea: The fun thing about take five was really listening to the folks on the line. So that's a product that's manufactured in a factory in Virginia, and early on we had a breakage problem with the pretzels that are in there. For those who don't, have you had to take five?
Sara Silverstein: No, I have not. But I'm going to immediately following this.
Tim Rea: It's a wonderful, salty, sweet experience because it's a lattice pretzel with caramel chopped peanuts. Oh, it's so good. It's salty and sweet. But we were we were having problems on the line with pretzels breaking. And so we listened to some engineers and some some folks who were on the line and they said, well, why don't you just switch the direction the pretzel goes down the line and it solved the breaking problem. So I took from that this learning of always listen to those closest to the action and that will really serve you well.
Sara Silverstein: That's great. And I want to ask you my favorite question to ask marketers. Yeah what work did one of your peers do in the past year? That you're like, man, I wish I would have thought of that.
Tim Rea: Yeah, I'm really into authentic marketing. And so dove, I don't consider a competitor, but I look at the folks at chase and I like the work that they're doing in terms of. Chase what matters to you? I think most recently you said within the last year their business unit has been telling authentic stories of small business and how the chase relationship has helped them. And I think it's something do more with what you've earned or do more with what you have. So I think that's a great authentic way to communicate their benefit to their clients.
Editor's Note: Starbucks now has more than 16,000 locations in the U.S., while Edward Jones maintains over 15,000 North American offices.
