Ft Brand Audit

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 1. Brand Inventory 1.1. Brand Elements 1.2. Supporting Marketing Program 1.3. Brand Strategies 1.4. Brand Performance 2. Brand Exploratory 2.1. Brand Awareness 2.2. Brand Image 2.3. Brand Positioning 3. Strategic Brand Management Recommendations 3.1. New Product Extensions 3.2. Geographical Expansion 3.3. Strengthening the "global" association Conclusion Appendix A – Discounted Cash Flow Calculations Appendix B – Results of the Survey Bibliography

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Introduction The Financial Times (hereinafter referred to as FT) was established as a company and as a brand in London in 1888. Currently owned by Pearson Plc, the FT Group is one of the world-leading providers of business and financial information across several platforms and channels. With a daily circulation of 362,000 copies (Financial Times, 2011a), the FT print edition is the world second biggest financial newspaper after the Wall Street Journal. The FT is printed in 24 different locations around the world and has a total daily readership of 2.1 million people split between the print and the digital channels. Its website has 3.6 million registered users and 224,000 paying subscribers (Financial Times, 2011a). From a financial point of view, the Group is very healthy. In 2010 it had total revenues of £403 million, with an operating profit of £60 million (margin of 14.8%). Moreover, the company has been growing steadily, with a CAGR of 16% over the last 5 years (Pearson, 2011), which indicates how good the Group is in managing and leveraging its core brand. As this report will show, one of the key assets of the Group is the FT brand, which benefits from a very high and positive brand knowledge (Keller, 1993) and is able to charge a significant price premium to