Morgan Stanley

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Country Flag of United States United States
Sector Banks
Offices -
Employees -

Brand value $6,347m
Brand rating AA
Market cap $27,292m
Value / market cap 23.3%
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Value for money

Reliability

Performance

Corporate responsibility

Emotional attachment


Market cap

Market cap for Morgan Stanley over a period of time

* For banks, enterprise value is substituted with market cap. Source: Bloomberg Finance L.P.

Performance of the brand

                Morgan Stanley is a multi-national financial services company which specialises in wealth and asset management. The company also offers financial advisory and capital raising services to corporate and institutional clients. Morgan Stanley operates in over 30 markets around the world employing over 60,000 individuals.
                The brand originated out of the House of Morgan, by far the most prestigious historical name in investment banking; however, its recent history has been one of volatility and turmoil. During the 2008 global financial crisis the company required more bail funds to survive than any other Wall Street corporation (reportedly over $100 billion). The crisis effectively put an end to the dominance Morgan Stanley had enjoyed in the investment banking industry over the past century with the bank recording its first annual loss in 74 years in 2009.

Morgan Stanley’s Identity

Whilst the company has had obvious financial difficulties in recent years the ideology behind its brand currently appears more robust than it has been for a long time. The company’s austere logo and professional appearance are reflective of the more conservative outlook favoured by financial services firms in the post-crisis era.  Other large institutions now favouring a more refined appearance include JPMorgan, Barclays and Citigroup. The excessive risks taken by bank holding companies in the build up to the global financial crisis have proven extremely unpopular and they are now doing all they can to appear astute and shrewd in business. Wall Street’s historic companies’ more sombre brands do not necessarily reflect an unwillingness to engage in risk taking, they are rather an attempt to highlight the fact that they have a distinguished past and are the brands that can be trusted in the future.

Rebranding its Wealth Management Segment

In 2009 Morgan Stanley acquired Smith Barney from Citigroup merging it with its Global Wealth Management group, forming the new brand, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Recently the Morgan Stanley management has suggested that it will rebrand the wealth management segment by dropping the Smith Barney name entirely. Mergers amongst large Wall Street houses have often resulted with the loss of the name and culture of the brand which the stakeholders deem to be weakest. High profile examples include JPMorgan dropping the Bear Sterns brand and Bank of America retaining Merrill Lynch’s; whilst Morgan Stanley’s recent business performance does not reflect its storied history, its brand still provides it with a reputable past to fall back upon. In the current economic climate financial services companies are doing all they can to differentiate themselves from one another and retaining a name which is an amalgamation of two different brands and cultures is not the way to do that. The company hopes that by relying on the historic reputation and pedigree that accompanies the Morgan name, it will be more able to entice clients to hand over their cash.

League tables

Morgan Stanley appears in the following brand league tables:

Rank 29 in the Banking 500 2012.
Rank 151 in the Global 500 2012.
Rank 134 in the Global 500 2011.
Rank 29 in the Banking 500 2011.
Rank 134 in the Global 500 2011.
Rank 23 in the Banking 500 2010.
Rank 100 in the Global 500 2010.
Rank 25 in the Banking 500 2009.
Rank 139 in the Global 500 2009.
Rank 115 in the Global 500 2008.
Rank 22 in the Banking 500 2008.
Rank 15 in the Banking 500 2007.
Rank 15 in the Banking 100 2007.
Rank 78 in the Global 250 2007.
Rank 4 in the Banking 100 2006.

2012 brand performance*

Brand value $6,347m
Brand rating AA
Market cap $27,292m
Value / market cap 23.3%

* Figures taken on 31st December 2011.

2011 brand performance*

Brand value $6,857m
Brand rating AA-
Market cap $35,022m
Value / market cap 19.6%

* Figures taken on 31st December 2010.

2010 brand performance*

Brand value $7,907m
Brand rating A+
Market cap $45,930m
Value / market cap 17.2%

* Figures taken on 31st December 2009.

2009 brand performance*

Brand value $4,775m
Brand rating AA-
Market cap $15,398m
Value / market cap 31.0%

* Figures taken on 31st December 2008.

 

Advertising

Key people

John J. Mack

Mr. Mack has been executive Chairman of the Board of Morgan Stanley since June 2005. He was Chief Executive Officer of Morgan Stanley from June 2005 to December 2009. He previously had spent nearly 30 years at the Firm in various positions, including as President, Chief Operating Officer and a Director. Before rejoining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Mack served as co-Chief Executive Officer of Credit Suisse Group and Chief Executive Officer of Credit Suisse First Boston. Mr. Mack is a graduate of Duke University, where he is a member of the Board of Trustees. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of New York-Presbyterian Hospital and the University Hospital of both Columbia and Cornell, a board member of the Bloomberg Family Foundation, a Director of IMG, and a member of the Business Council and the Business Roundtable. Mr. Mack is also on the advisory board for China Investment Corporation, the International Business Leaders Advisory Council for the Mayor of Beijing, the International Advisory Panel of The Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Executive Committee of the Partnership for New York City. Additionally, he is a member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum, the NYC Financial Services Advisory Committee and the Shanghai International Financial Advisory Council.

James P. Gorman

Mr. Gorman is President and Chief Executive Officer of Morgan Stanley. He also serves as Chairman of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, a leader in global wealth management. Prior to assuming his current position in January 2010, Mr. Gorman served from 2007 to 2009 as Co-President, with responsibility for the Firm's Global Wealth Management Group (GWMG), Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) and operations and technology functions. Mr. Gorman also served as co-head of corporate strategy from 2007 to 2009. Mr. Gorman joined Morgan Stanley in 2006 as President and Chief Operating officer of GWMG. Before that, Mr. Gorman held a succession of executive positions at Merrill Lynch.  From 2001 to 2005 he led the company's U.S. and, subsequently, global private client businesses. He joined Merrill Lynch in 1999 as Chief Marketing Officer, and also served as head of Strategy and Research. Previously, Mr. Gorman was a senior partner of McKinsey & Co., and an attorney in Melbourne, Australia. He serves as a member of the Board of Overseers of the Columbia Business School and co-chairs the Business Committee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He is a member of the Business Roundtable, Business Council, and the Board of Directors of the Partnership for New York City. He is a former board member of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association in Washington, D.C., and served as Chairman in 2006. Born in Australia, Mr. Gorman earned a B.A. and law degree from the University of Melbourne and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.

Roy J. Bostock

Mr. Bostock has been a director since September 2005. He was formerly Chairman of The Partnership for a Drug-Free America. Until 2001, Mr. Bostock was Chairman of B|Com3 Group, Inc., an advertising and marketing services firm that is now part of the Publicis Groupe S.A. Mr. Bostock played a major role in building some of the most prominent advertising firms in the U.S., beginning with Benton & Bowles in 1964. Following the creation, through a merger, of D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles in 1985, Mr. Bostock became President of the combined firm. By 1990, he had also served as Chief Operating Officer and was named Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. In 2000, the agency was renamed the B|Com3 Group and Mr. Bostock became Chairman. Mr. Bostock is a member of the boards of directors of Delta Air Lines, Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. and a Trustee Emeritus of Duke University. A graduate of Duke, he has an MBA from Harvard.