Formulate a Comprehensive and Consistent Brand Portfolio Strategy
Brand Portfolio Strategy
What We Do
We support clients in arriving at a balanced brand portfolio strategy that provides the opportunity for growth while optimizing synergies.
Identify the fundamentals that affect your Brand Portfolio
While supporting our clients in developing a sustainable brand portfolio strategy, we consider a number of essential aspects that have a direct impact on the success of the portfolio strategy.
An example list of aspects open for consideration:
Develop an in-depth understanding of the commonalities/differences of the various target market segments.
Assess the (future) price sensitivity of target customers, both within the distribution funnel as well as final customer segments.
Identification of potential synergies and/or threats of brand extensions.
Potential synergies to be created at a brand -and production level.
The risk of product-line extensions.
Potential cannibalization of sister brands.
Potential risks of competitors entering and occupying open spaces in the brand portfolio.
Define the PMC role of each Brand
Each brand of the portfolio needs a well-defined role or set of roles in each product-market combination.
A brand portfolio strategy is closely related to the business strategy, which specifies the product-market growth directions and the associated customer experience journeys and value propositions. One or more brands need to be in place to support the PMC growth ambitions. In particular, brands are needed to provide visibility and credibility to new offerings in priority PMCs.
We help you to ensure that each brand adds value to the portfolio. Overlapping and cannibalization of brands need to be identified and require a cost/benefit analysis.
Distinct Strategic from Tactical Brands
Identification of strategic brands within the portfolio is a fundamental step in the brand portfolio development process.
Strategic brands are playing a leading role in actual and future core businesses and/or product platforms. Tactical brands don't.
Strategic or leading brands have the ability to differentiate themselves in purchase decisions and play a significant role in user experiences. On the other hand, tactical brands are necessary to support the position of strategic brands and can be sacrificed when necessary.
Hence, it is of paramount importance that strategic choices are made and resources are directed accordingly. We help you in the process of distincting the both which is an essential step in the brand portfolio strategy development.
Determine for each brand of the portfolio the most sustainable long term brand strategy.
For each of the brands of the existing brand portfolio, the most suitable strategy needs to be determined based on an assessment of the relevant business context.
We guide you through the process of considerations, dependencies, and decisions that need to be taken carefully to arrive at a long-term and sustainable portfolio strategy.
Determining the Corporate Brand Strategy:
A corporate brand can be a powerful master -or endorsement brand because it is best suited to express your organization’s heritage, culture, value added and thus brand identity. We help you to identify the Pros/Cons of each strategy based on your current/future business context and long term strategic ambitions.
Leverage strong brands through brand extensions:
it’s strategically important to develop brand platforms with a vision for the ultimate future of the brand. We help you to assess the opportunities that potentially will add value to a brand.
Vertical extensions bear a substantial risk, but are sometimes necessary when creating a new brand is not feasible. However, when moving into a price sensitive market, a sub-brand or endorsed brand strategy will reduce the risks of extending a brand. The same is true when it is necessary to enter a super-premium market.
We help you in considering aspects such as extra visibility, positive associations, access to growth arenas, and communication synergies.
Sub-brands versus endorsed brands versus new brands:
Depending on the business context we need to determine whether to go with a sub-brand versus an endorsed brand or a new brand strategy, especially when deciding how to brand a new offering. Whereas a sub-brand allow little distance from a master brand, the endorsed brand offers more, and a new brand the most. How much distance is required? Multiple questions related to target segments, competition, distribution channels, possible synergies, and cannibalisation need to be answered firstly.