Wise & Young: The nuances of Gen-Y marketing, branding, advertising, trends, & more

I honestly don’t know what to say about Thrasher Funds, a “mutual fund that offers young investors, a group of more than 60 million Gen X and Y’ers largely overlooked by the financial market place until now, the opportunity to leverage their youth along with a disciplined investment and savings strategy to help use what they already know to engage the stock market.”

One part of me says, “Awesome, way to go after an untapped market and cater to a group that needs to learn about investing!” However, I honestly said, “What the hell are you doing? I don’t want Urban Outfitters (sarcasm) investing my money for me, I want to be part of that bad-ass New York Mutual Fund that made my friend’s dad rich.”

The branding is ‘cool’, they casted the right people, they designed it well (a flair of Urban Outfitters mixed with a snooty bank). BUT, does it make me want to invest with them? No. The reason why is I don’t trust them and they seem like a gimmick; if I knew they were a branch of a larger mutual fund, I might consider, but they’re an up-and-coming firm that “says” they cater to me and my fellow gen-y’rs.

Until they create value, get rave reviews in the communication I participate in (blogs, forums, word of mouth) and achieve the endorsement from other influencers in my group of friends, I’ll ignore them as just a gimmick. Branding and design isn’t everything with Gen-Y, even though it seems to work, we need our truth — we’re a generation that needs reinsurance from our peers — which means you better have a superb product or service before you even bother with the design/branding.