ING dealer groups to be renamed

New brandnames for almost all of ING Financial Planning’s dealership groups could be launched as early as next quarter, following revealing research conducted by ING on brand awareness and recognition.

Prompted by the success of its brand recognition program away from Mercantile Mutual, ING is now considering changing the names of its dealership groups — including Lynx Financial Services, Partnership Planning and Aust Advisors — to better reflect the lifestyle goals of consumers.

“We are currently looking to change and enhance their names to take advantage of the research,” ING Financial Planning head of equity distribution Michael Goodall says.

“While everyone else in the market is promoting their capability such as funds management, we have decided to undergo a strategy to promote advice.”

Research conducted by consultants Millward Brown Australia, in conjunction with marketing company Idea Works, concluded that while there are groups in the market that specialise in product manufacturing and others who specialise in advice, the brand of a financial planner was eroded as soon as a manufacturing name was put in front of it.

However, consumers were happy enough to have a manufacturing name as a sub-brand under the dealership name, and in fact gained further confidence from this arrangement.

“Some providers have high competency on product and others have high competency on advice. The secret to the consumer is combining the two,” Goodall says.

He says in research on the drivers for consumers in selecting a financial planner, consumers have shown a preference for brand names that reflect their lifestyle goals.

He says in the case of RetireInvest, while it is not an extremely well-known brand name in the consumer market, the focus groups knew exactly what the group did because its name reflected its core business.

Goodall says in the case of RetireInvest, ING will be looking to “enhance, promote and refresh the brand”.