Yegs Ramiah, chief executive officer of Sanlam Brand.
Listed diversified financial services group Sanlam this week announced it would reorganise its external brand ‘architecture’ to help create one strong Sanlam identity and to simplify the group’s offering for advisors, clients and prospective clients. Sanlam will now go to market under five core expertise sets: insurance, financial planning, investments, retirement and wealth.
According to Yegs Ramiah, chief executive officer of Sanlam Brand, “This will make it easier for intermediaries and consumers to navigate the business and allow us to demonstrate the breadth of the group’s offering. The descriptors are not linked to a specific business unit, rather they represent the financial expertise residing within the various business units organised from a customer needs perspective.”
The reorganised brand architecture is a key aspect of a groupwide Sanlam rebranding exercise which involved deep research into what is right for the brand moving into the future. “In line with the Treating Customers Fairly regulation and with the findings of our research, we identified a definite need to simplify how we packaged our offering so that advisors and clients could easily find and select the right products or services.”
She said that Sanlam’s previous brand strategy – which had centred on the building of an entrepreneurial culture at Sanlam and a number of sub-brands – had worked extremely well. “But the time is now ripe to revert to a single, strong brand and simplified brand architecture – to communicate our offering in a simpler and more unified way,” says Ramiah. A new corporate positioning and refreshed logo also form part of the branding exercise.
Among the key changes to the group’s architecture is the renaming of Sanlam Private Investments - one of the group’s success stories and current South African wealth manager of the year (Business Day Investors Monthly) - to Sanlam Private Wealth.
According to Sanlam Private Wealth CEO Daniël Kriel the new name is an accurate reflection of the business as it is today. “Our new name represents the business we have evolved into and is a proper reflection of our comprehensive range of services. While we have our roots as a stockbroker and private client investment business, we have undergone a steady, deliberate metamorphosis into a fully-fledged wealth management firm. With 21 offices spread over 6 countries, we can truly call ourselves an international wealth manager and our new name symbolises our evolution.”
Sanlam Private Wealth will continue to operate with the same dedication to clients and passion for investments, delivering the full spectrum of wealth management services, including portfolio management, stockbroking, estate planning, tax and fiduciary and offshore investment to its high net worth clients in South Africa and abroad. In line with the new expertise areas, Sanlam Private Wealth and Glacier by Sanlam will form the core of Sanlam’s wealth offering.
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