Harley-Davidson permits 43 year-old, out-of-shape accountants to dress in leather, drive through small towns, and scare people, says the motorcycle maker's head of marketing according to Steve Cone. The famed Citigroup marketer is pressed to find similar success among financial services when comparing this unique consumer experience.

"Financial firms are in a low-interest category," said the executive responsible for playing Peter Lynch off Don Rickles in his days at Fidelity, "By that, I mean you can't eat it, wear it, drive it, or apply it." Citigroup itself has stopped most advertising, partially because a decision between advertisers and shareholders takes dollars from the advertising budget, said Cone, their head of global marketing. "In a number of companies, marketers haven't done a good enough job in telling business heads why we need to market."

So which financial services firms are doing it right? No surprises there.

"Fidelity and Schwab have increased advertising and that's a smart move" said the former Fidelity president of retail and corporate marketing. "Chuck Schwab disregarded his shyness to [stamp their] presence in advertising ... Ads require strong verbal closes given by people saying it."

Cone also ran through the hot-and-not list of agency relationships:

"Agencies offer a high production value," Cone told the MutualFundWire.com, continuing: "it's one of the areas in which agencies succeed." Other advertising agencies strengths, lie in its human resources, turnaround time, media planning, and "unencumbered" thinking. "[The agency] isn't thinking about Sandy Weill's reaction," explained Cone, "that's my job."

"What we need are the big ideas that create emotional connections," said Cone, flipping over to agency deficiencies. "We need to be told to stick with it; we're constantly changing our minds and positions." 

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