Oppenheimer 60th Anniversary - 23

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Building the Brand
While the core values that define the OppenheimerFunds brand have remained constant, the Company
has shown a willingness throughout the years to try
innovative advertising and marketing efforts. When
the Oppenheimer Fund was unveiled, it faced skepticism from the press and others in the investment
business because it was so unusual: it could invest
anywhere in the free world, devote more than 15%
of assets to a single stock, and - unique among
funds - sell stocks short.
To explain the Fund, the Firm made a film, The
Time of Your Life, in the 1960s. "Salesmen could take
our film to a group," recalled Don Spiro, then vice
president of sales. "It would sell the whole concept of
mutual fund investing." The film won awards at festivals featuring other industry-made movies.

A BROADER AUDIENCE

Spiro was also responsible for a memorable TV commercial in the 1970s. Considering the Oppenheimer
Money Market Fund a good intermediate step for
investors before investing in equities, Spiro termed it a
"monetary bridge," an idea inspired by his view of the
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Eventually, a commercial
for the Fund was filmed on that bridge, a feat that
required convincing the Port Authority to close the
upper level for an entire morning.
The effort to present the OppenheimerFunds
brand to a broader public began to take shape in the
early 1990s. As the last decade of the 20th century
unfolded, it became clear that employer-sponsored

"We have a 50-year commitment to a set of values
about how we invest on
behalf of our customers."
BRUCE DUNBAR
retirement plans, like the 401(k) and the 403(b), were
going to be a major force in the industry. The opportunity in that expanded market came with an obvious
challenge for OppenheimerFunds: how to convince
employees to choose an OppenheimerFunds offering from the employer-provided menu of investment
products. "If you are an employee, you presume that
all the mutual fund options your employer presents
perform well," said Rob Densen, who was a senior
vice president and director of corporate affairs at
OppenheimerFunds. "Your decision was then, and is

now, increasingly, about what you know, or think you
know, about that provider."
In order to stand out to employees making their
mutual fund choices, as well as to the universe of
financial advisors, OppenheimerFunds made a
multiyear, multimillion-dollar investment in programs
to build the Company's name recognition and brand
identification with its bedrock values. The immediate
result was the brand campaign launched in 1997 and
known largely by its tagline: The Right Way to Invest
(see page 47).

A CONSISTENT BRAND MESSAGE

When that campaign was launched, it was unusual for
a company that sold its products through advisors to
commit so many resources to building its brand. But
OppenheimerFunds believed that advertising could
creatively emphasize the principles that have guided
the Company from its inception. "We have a 50-year
commitment to a set of values about how we invest on
behalf of our customers," said Bruce Dunbar, senior vice
president and director of corporate communications.
Also in the 1990s, OppenheimerFunds became a
pioneer in addressing the needs of the long-ignored
female market with its Women & InvestingSM program. Loretta McCarthy, chief marketing officer at
the time, said that the Company conducted extensive
research and found that many women were not paying attention to their portfolios and were allowing
others to make investment decisions for them. Those
findings led the Company to develop a marketing
program urging financial advisors to include women
in their client meetings. The program also reached out
to journalists, broker-dealers, and individual investors.
"It was designed to do a good thing, but also draw
attention to OppenheimerFunds beyond investment
performance," said McCarthy. "It's about all the ways
to build the brand."
One indication of just how successful the Company's brand-building efforts were came shortly after
September 11, 2001, when, despite the dislocation
caused by the terrorist attacks, OppenheimerFunds
quickly saw assets coming in surpassing those being
withdrawn. Puzzled, Densen conducted focus group
research to find out why people felt comfortable
investing with OppenheimerFunds during such
a turbulent time. "They repeated back our brand
equities: 'You're about long-term investing, and you're
about integrity and trying to do the right things,'" he
said. "Those are the qualities investors have always
wanted to buy, but particularly after such a dislocating event."
More recently, in 2008, OppenheimerFunds
launched an advertising campaign called Numbers. The

Then and Now: (top) The New York Times, 1969:
advertisements for the Oppenheimer Fund in this era
often emphasized the role mutual funds could play in
helping investors reach their long-term goals. The 2008
advertisement (bottom) from the Numbers campaign
assures investors that the Firm's insightful analysis of
market data is a sound, time-tested approach.

program set out to demonstrate that OppenheimerFunds can help make sense of the blizzard of numbers
churned out by the investment industry. For instance,
in the initial television advertisements, a character
emerged from an animated world made up entirely
of numbers and began a journey toward a personal
dream. When the character reached his or her destination, the background transformed into live-action. The
accompanying narration said, "You're in the markets,
but what do you want your numbers to add up to?"
The presentation was new and innovative, but the message was consistent with the Company's brand message
over 50 years: Investors can rely on OppenheimerFunds' help to answer that question. n

1959-1974 Growth

and Transition * 23

Oppenheimer 60th Anniversary

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