Case Study Questions Answered

Thank you to all of the students and professors that have been sending in clarification questions on the case study and this year’s client Harbour Trust. We’ve compiled all of them and Mike Hackett from Harbour Trust has graciously gone through and answered all of them for you. Please keep sending us additional questions to winbig [at] digitalmarketingcompetition.com and we’ll release the next round of answers on October 1st.

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How does the client provide services? Is it through local offices or headquarters? Do potential clients have face-to-face contact with a local investment professional or do all interactions occur remotely via phone or website?

A: We are a face-to-face personalized company, where we like to travel to the client. However, we do conference calls when the client lives out of state.

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Does the client have any collaborative relationships with companies that serve a similar target market – for example law firms and banks?

A: We seek to have good relationships with attorneys and accountants in the hope that we can provide mutual business to one another.

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Does the client have any business customers (i.e. organizations (for-profit and non-profit) that provide retirement benefits to their employees? Any other organizations that need asset management?

A: Yes, we manage money for a companies and non-profit organizations, but we primarily focus on individual investors.

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What are the most common questions that prospective clients ask before becoming a client?

A: How do you manage money? What are your fees? How often should we meet? Do you provide other services besides managing money – bill paying, financial planning, tax guidance?

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The case mentions that Harbour Trust has a website and social media accounts. Can students allocate part of the budget to redesign the website and social media accounts?

A: Yes

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Does a potential client have to have $1 million to invest, or is that the preferred client?

A: That is our preferred client, but we do not have a minimum account size.

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Is there a secondary target market that you’ve been looking to target that doesn’t meet your $1 million investment portfolio?

A: Everyone that is looking to invest is potentially our target client. However, how do we engage people that we can’t bring on at this particular moment? For example: Your generation who will inherent money.

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Is Harbour Trust physically (offices or reps) in other states besides Indiana, or do you service clients through the phone and digitally? If you do not have offices or reps in other states, how do you work with those clients?

A: We only have one office in Michigan City, Indiana and due to regulatory issues, we don’t foresee having a physical office outside Indiana anytime in the near future. We make yearly trips to go and see clients that don’t live close to our office.

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