blog

Channelize or Dechannelize?

By Sean

Organizational shifts are taking place within several marketing functions across the industry. In an attempt to realize operational efficiencies in the development of marketing collateral, a number of firms have undertaken initiatives to consolidate resources across their retail, intermediary, and institutional channels. In fact, recent conversations with senior marketing executives at five different firms have revealed that at least four of them intend to move towards a dechannelized structure within the next twelve to eighteen months.

Firms' decisions to shift from channelized to dechannelized marketing functions have also been fueled by the blurring of the lines between intermediary and institutional businesses. As it becomes clear to firms that intermediary marketing messages must also resonate with influential gatekeepers, a number of opportunities to leverage institutional content development resources have emerged. For example, institutionally-focused materials describing firms' investment philosophies and processes can be leveraged with distributors' research analysts.

Over the course of the next four to six weeks, kasina will be investigating this trend further as part of its research for "Trends in Marketing Compensation." The report should provide firms with greater insight into the evolving structure of marketing functions across the industry as well as how the various roles within these organizations are compensated. If you would like to participate or have further questions, please don't hesitate to contact us directly.