GMO
GMO
Evolving the brand of a storied investment manager
Independent and privately owned for 45 years, GMO (formerly Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co, LLC) partners with a wide range of sophisticated investors, worldwide, to provide the research, investment expertise, straightforward counsel, and tailored service they need to achieve their investment goals.
From the beginning, GMO’s brand and communications had evolved organically. The founding partners’ thoughtful, differentiated approach to investing attracted top-tier institutional clients—and those successful engagements attracted additional clients. GMO’s focus on personal attention and investment performance made for enduring relationships—and attracted talented staff.
But the institutional investment management landscape had grown increasingly crowded—and harder for prospective clients (and hires) to understand, differentiate, and value GMO. It was time to manage the firm’s brand forward—with intent.
Objectives
- Ensure that GMO is known for what the firm wants to be known for
- Reinforce a differentiated position in today’s crowded market
- Attract new clients who are a good fit
- Create print and digital materials with which to better service existing clients
- Help attract desired new hires
- Encourage both traditional and newer media to look to and cite GMO as a go-to expert source
- Build on the firm’s history—and move the brand forward
Collaboration
- Conducted focus groups across the firm and with clients to gain a firm understanding of GMO—its history, value, and values
- Developed a roster of brand attributes to reinforce, those to promote, and those to manage away
- Created a guiding set of storylines: key concepts that tell the GMO story
- Wrote firm descriptor and overview—and accompanying constituent-specific messages
- Created a new graphic identifier / monogram—and accompanying system or visual expression
- Designed templates for publishing research and thought leadership
- Planned, designed, and wrote a new corporate website
- Documented strategy, messaging, visual system, and website—so that GMO would have an asset of lasting value
Scope
- Qualitative research
- Internal / competitive communication audits
- Brand strategy
- Messaging
- Brand identity
- Visual system
- Print collateral
- Web UX, content / visual design
- System documentation
- Rollout planning
Messaging built on the firm’s core values
While the firm grew over 40+ years, its core values endured:
- an unwavering commitment to its clients;
- a distinctive investment philosophy that doesn’t rely on what’s perceived to be in fashion;
- honesty and candor with clients; and
- an intellectual, academic approach to research—research widely respected by clients, prospects, and peers.
With so much positive brand meaning already in place, our job was to elevate what makes GMO, GMO: helping the firm to be better known for its best attributes—and more closely associated with attributes it aspired to own.
A new firm descriptor
Partners in investing
“GMO” does not, by itself, telegraph what business the firm is in—nor, to the uninitiated, separate sufficiently from the oft-heard and seen “genetically modified organisms.”
The new descriptor helped to build desired meaning and set the firm apart in the competitive landscape:
- It points to a collaborative (as opposed to sales-driven). relationship with clients.
- It underscores the firm’s independence and private ownership—a structure that provides many advantages to clients that a publicly-owned firm, or one that is a subsidiary of a much larger entity, can’t.
- It communicates collaboration within the firm.
- “Partners” in all of its meanings puts a more human face on the firm: the firm is its people.
- “Investing” (as opposed to “investment management” or “asset management”) is active and forward-looking: the firm is focused on investing on behalf of its clients (not just “managing”).
The firm is represented by a distinctive wordmark
GMO’s brand strategy, high-level messaging, and components of their visual system all come together in a user-friendly brand book.
A comprehensive, user-friendly new website
The new site’s architecture brought key differentiators (and what people were looking for) forward:
- firm positioning and enduring value
- signature investing approach
- research and forecasts
- their people
Rounded corners on navigational items added approachability and warmth to the site. Rollovers offered a precis of each section.
Bringing valued thought leadership forward
GMO’s thought leadership has been followed for decades by industry peers, clients, and prospects. New templates make it easy for the firm to publish different forms of research and commentary.
Research and commentary template
The Sametz team was expert at working with a consensus-driven organization to distill our essence and engage everyone in what was an unfamiliar process—to great results. By working through the development of a messaging framework, firm descriptor, wordmark, system of visual expression—and print and digital collateral—we gained insight, organizational buy-in, and ended up with materials that accurately and compellingly presented the firm."
Jen Hunnewell
Head of Marketing, GMO (former)
GMO’s quarterly letter is followed by peers, competitors, and investors, worldwide.
