Some financial companies don't believe in marketing at all

Marketing in the financial industry has many unique aspects to it.

Products and services are highly specialised. They are not always fully understood by the customers or general public - or, indeed, by the creators of the products, as the latest crisis demonstrated.

Some companies which operate in the B2C sector, such as large retail banks or insurance companies, make a lot of effort with their marketing and communications. Others, especially those serving institutional and high-net-worth clients, believe in sales but not necessarily in marketing.

It gets especially tricky for the hedge fund industry, as there are strict regulations on who they are allowed to market and sell their products to. By contrast, their investment process is not really regulated at all (although this may soon start to change), so marketing restrictions protect regular ("non-sophisticated") investors who may fail to fully appreciate risks associated with hedge fund products.

However, I do believe some types of communications and marketing activities could work really well, especially in the online environment.

Product-related sales-oriented stuff wouldn't cut it anyway. To be of value to people at the awareness/consideration stages, content should be more generic and educational in nature. Regulations on this type of materials aren't as strict. And we certainly have enough people who can generate and explain interesting complex ideas.

Apparently, some companies are beginning to catch on - check out this Web Ink post about Putnam Investments.