Formerly Picton Mahoney, the asset manager is rolling out a new brand package "built from the bear up"
In its 20-year history, Picton Mahoney hasn’t been afraid to introduce nuance into the conversation. The asset management firm has established itself on the street as a source of thoughtful strategy and well-articulated insight. A longstanding advocate for alternative strategies in portfolios, the firm has grown louder in its calls to abandon the traditional 60/40 equity and fixed income split in favour of a 40/30/30 model of equity, fixed income, and alternative strategies. The firm has just rebranded as Picton and embraced a bear as its logo, in part to reinforce its belief in that asset mix.
David Picton, President & CEO of the firm, and Chief Marketing Officer Leisha Roche gave WP a preview of the rebrand which launches today. They explained why they chose a bear, with all its connotations, as their new symbol and put it in the context of a strategy and macro outlook that, as they say, “builds from the bear up.”
“We're now approaching an environment longer-term where you can't necessarily rely on [stocks and bonds] driving the same kind of performance that they've given… We want the industry to think more 40/30/30, with a 30 per cent allocation to a portfolio of alternatives,” Picton says. “We then started to think about the way we change the firm to reflect that. To update our brand but to also signal to the industry that there is a new era here, and one where one should pay more attention to bear forces that might exist.
“We're not bearish per se. But there are some things you can take away from a bear, especially around preparation, being resourceful, adapting. Those are the things that we want people to understand when they're building a portfolio.”
Picton and Roche both emphasized that the new logo and brand stem from a view of the business and its role in the industry. Framed as a renewal of purpose around that alternatives-oriented asset mix they argued that choosing a bear — with all its emotional connotations for the industry — can help capture attention and give them the space to explain the value they see in their approach. While a departure from many of the images and slogans that financial services tend to spend time in, they see their message of preparedness fitting well into the industry’s consistent reinforcement that investors ‘stay invested.’
“There is a sea of sameness from a marketing standpoint. When you look at everybody, and you look at the ads you could hide the logos and you would not be able to tell what company it was from,” Roche says. “I think what we're really after is just that dose of realism. You can paint a rosy picture, and then that's great. But preparation is really what helps people.”
The call for preparation and rollout of the new branding, Roche explains, will be accompanied by thought leadership pieces, media events, and the unveiling of a bear statue at The Well in Downtown Toronto to contrast Wall St.’s Charging Bull. All those pieces are meant to paint a nuanced picture of what a new form of asset allocation can offer.
Picton explained that the push for a 40/30/30 mix doesn’t just stop with the topline allocations to broad asset classes. He advocates for strong strategic asset mixes, including an equities sleeve diversified by geography and style, a fixed income sleeve of multiple bond and credit categories, and a form of inflation protection in the portfolio, through exposure to categories like energy, materials, and other commodities.
Alternatives, he notes, contain multitudes. He sees certain alternatives functioning as that inflation protection, while others can offer broader diversification for portfolios without relationships to the equity or bond markets. Private equity, private debt, and real estate allocations can offer many of those benefits with the appearance of steady returns, in part due to the mechanics of their pricing, and have historically functioned as meaningful alpha generators for portfolios. In addition to the management of alternatives strategies, he notes that a division of the business is creating indices for alternatives to offer more information about the specific alternative assets and exposures that investors might seek.
Picton and Roche hope that the messaging and tone of their rebrand help reinforce the value that they believe a more prepared mindset and an allocation to alternatives can provide for advisors and clients.
“We want to inspire them, whether they're an advisor, or an institution or an end investor, to be disciplined in their approach to portfolios,” Picton says. “We can use this inspiration to get people to focus on the core roots of a really soundly built portfolio that's meant to be there to weather all storms, whether they are positive tailwinds, or significant headwinds. That's the message we want people to take away. This bear becomes kind of a symbol for that, if you will, of a mindset around being prepared all the time.”
