Distribution over brand appears to have won out during the past decade in financial services.

However it seems the industry could learn a thing or two from the art world – particularly the British artist come-hatchet-man, Damien Hirst – as to the power of branding.

Last week, Hirst, who is most famous for slicing and pickling a range of God’s creatures and putting them on display, defied all existing rules in the art world by holding a very high-end car boot sale at London auctioneer, Sotheby’s.

Sidelining the dealers that had helped make him a splash in the art-world, Hirst went straight to the supermarket to sell 218 items rather than use the multitudes of art gallery ‘trucks’ and ‘vans’ to get him there, as is the norm.

Over two days Hirst pulled in £111million – at a time when financial mayhem and meltdown appeared to be taking hold around him.

The UK Times’ chief art critic quipped: “If you can’t save money in the bank, then preserve it in formaldehyde is the message!” Critics suggested that Hurst’s dealer did in fact get involved in driving up the prices of some lots, as they have a vested interest in maintaining high prices for his work.

However counterparties to this merely stated that the dealers probably had their own list of clients they were purchasing on behalf of.

Nonetheless, two things appeared to defy basic economics in the very publicly engineered event.

Firstly, scarcity is one of the key determinants as to why some artworks fetch a high price, and secondly that they are produced by a talented and respected artist.

The branding power of Hirst and his entourage to drive up value when selling numerous items, many of which were not even created by Hirst himself but rather by people who work for him out of workshops and warehouses, is astounding.

Which brings us back to the over emphasis the financial services industry places on distribution.

Yes, distribution is very important in many if not all markets.

The car, food, medical and music industries are highly dependent on distribution businesses… even God himself requires foot soldiers and churches to spread his array of messages.

Yet it could be argued that the weakness of many financial services brands in the mindset of large proportions of consumers, contributes to them struggling to ascertain high value from engaging with many groups and/or the professionals within them.

Distribution has been king for some time now whereby the channels either fully or partly influence what a client/investor/consumer buys into.

Most efforts by financial services firms have achieved the aim of raising ‘brand profile’ yet failed to significantly elicit to the retail market the benefits of engaging with them – be it a perceived or real benefit.

What Messrs Hirst & others (Apple, Coca-Cola, Nike etc.) have been good at doing is demanding a premium.

In a week when some of the most iconic global brands of the industry have disappeared or been tainted, can financial services groups ever get there?