The “typical” investor is not the individual who owns six to 10 stocks in a portfolio worth somewhere between $200,000 and $500,000. The average individual investor has a median income of $30,000, holds less than $5,000 worth of stock and rarely trades it. Today’s typical investor is the institution.

Institutional investors account for more than 70 per cent of public trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Being full-time, well staffed and well informed about a wide variety of alternative investments, they are ready and able to make prompt and large-scale decisions to buy or sell. Their decisions set share prices.

The most effective—and least costly—strategy for investor relations management is aimed at institutional investors and based on the concepts of industrial marketing. Such a strategy will also meet the realistic objectives for an individual investor program because the extensive information system organized for institutional investors also serves the needs of individuals.