E-Trade does a very good job with regards to marketing. I say this because when the average American sees a talking baby, they usually automatically think about E-Trade. No other online broker has such great brand recognition as E-Trade. Its competitors include TD Ameritrade, Scottrade, etc. When you think of online brokers, you automatically think about the E-Trade baby.

If it is legally possible for E-Trade to expand, I would recommend that they move north of the 49th parallel into Canada. There brand recognition is already quite large in Canada, even though we are not able to use their services up here. In that sense, I think they would be able to gain large market share right away. Most of the major banks have their brokers, but their fees are much larger than the online brokers. The other option in Canada is Questtrade, which most people I know have never even heard of. The increased market size would benefit them as well. They could use acquisition to acquire a Canadian firm like Questtrade to be able to operate in Canada. They could also go into a joint venture with one of the Canadian banks. It would be easiest for E-Trade to simply move into Canada, but the Canadian laws most likely would prevent that.

Due to the great marketing work by the team at E-Trade, they have turned themselves into one of the most recognized brokers in North America and have potential to use this recognition to benefit a potential expansion.