INTERVIEW: T. Rowe Price builds on fixed income strength amidst turbulent environment

Asset manager T. Rowe Price is planning to build on its strength in fixed income in 2023, says its Head of EMEA Marketing.

Michel van Oorschot expects financial markets to remain highly volatile going into 2023 amidst an uncertain economic outlook. Managers are facing fee pressure as well as a general increase in the regulatory burden.

Investors continue to with draw money from funds, with Q3 2022 the worst quarter on record for outflows in Europe.

He expects a continuation of  consolidation amongst asset managers and financial intermediaries ill equipped to cope with the current pressures.

T. Rowe Price plans to maintain its media spend in focus areas going into next year, even in a more challenging environment with marketers across the industry potentially facing squeezed budgets.

“We think it’s important to remain visible,” he says, adding that “those who can still invest will win.”

Research suggests existing T. Rowe Price clients have high satisfaction with the firm; the current goal is to broaden and deepen the client base who work with them and are familiar with their brand.

“There are still a number of market participants who don’t know us well enough,” he says.

T. Rowe Price’s tagline is “Invest with confidence”, which Michel says references the high quality of its funds, its focus on clients’ interests and its historically positive investing outcomes.

Current advertising and promotional work is largely around raising awareness of T. Rowe Price’ fixed income capabilities and growing unaided awareness of and familiarity with their brand.

T. Rowe Price has a very strong fixed income proposition, Michel says, an area of strategic focus for the firm.

“We continue to evolve our investment proposition, but also we think there is a lot of appetite out there for the offering that we have.”

ESG is an integral part of T. Rowe Price’s proposition, both from a product and integration perspective. Michel expects long term demand for ESG products to remain strong, due both to continued demand from underlying clients and regulatory pressures.

He believes that the way firms talk about ESG to clients may become more nuanced, highlighting Vanguard pulling out of the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative as a sign of the current challenges in ESG. The asset manager had faced a backlash from Republican politicians in the United States over its membership of the scheme.

“I think the tone might shift,” says Michel. “Rather than being marketing-based the narrative will become more factual and evidence-based.”

“Global firms have difficult decisions to make given varying levels of demand in different regions and countries.”

He says firms will have to decide whether they offer a one-size-fits-all or different offerings.

As for the firm’s main plans next year, Michel says the firm is making great strides in its lead generation activities, improving its ability to deliver qualified leads for sales teams to follow up on.

T. Rowe Price has two local conferences coming up, one in the UK and the other in Germany, where localised conferences are not as common as in the UK.

There are also plans to pursue sponsorship which align with the company’s culture. In particular, the firm is planning a partnership with a major sporting event, which will be announced early next year.