Schroders appoints UK head of marketing
Global investment company Schroders has appointed James Cardew as its UK head of retail marketing.
He replaces Helen Davidson, who is understood to have left to start up her own consultancy. Cardew comes from Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, where he was head of broker marketing. He will report to Robin Stoakley, who is managing director of the UK retail business.
Like many of its rivals, Schroders has temporarily withdrawn from advertising its retail products to consumers, but is considering a campaign for later in the year, which would include consumer advertising.
The company spent &£3.5m on advertising in 2001, but this dropped to &£459,000 in 2002. According to AC Nielsen, it spent only &£77,000 on advertising in the year to March 2003. The company has instead channelled its &£3.5m promotional budget into sponsorships of London taxis and the London Boat Show, together with traditional PR and trade advertising.
Plummeting stockmarkets have seen investments fall drastically in value and sales of individual savings accounts (ISAs), the retail investment industry’s principal product, slow down.
Schroders is a top five player in the UK retail investment market with a market share of about five per cent, and has pursued a strategy of expanding its retail side. It is also a major player in the institutional fund management, looking after the investments of pension funds, charities, insurance companies and local authorities. It has &£85bn under management globally.
