Dimensions Of Brand Portfolio Management (article 2 of 4)
Looking at brand portfolio management, we will find out that this concept includes design, arrangement and management of several brands to meet various customers needs. In this regard, clarity of role and position of each brand in the minds of target audiences is necessary. Now the question is, what are the dimensions of the brand portfolio strategy and what aspects should be considered in its formulation?
Based on David Aaker’s words mentioned in his book “Brand portfolio management: creating relevance, differentiation, energy, leverage and clarity” , brand portfolio strategy development includes six aspects as follows:
1.Determining brand portfolio: Brand portfolio includes all brands that should be considered in brand strategy, so that their roles, positions and relationships with each other should be determined. Some of them are owned by company such as Master Brand, Endorser Brands, Sub-Brands, Differentiator Brands, Co-Brands, Branded Energizers, Corporate brand etc. But another part of the brands of a portfolio may not be managed by the company but somehow related to the company’s brands. Such as brand sponsorships, symbols, famous people associated with brands and countries or geographical regions.
2. Product-Defining Roles: Whatever is offered to customers should be identifiable by a brand or a set of brands. This aspect of brand portfolio strategy defines the role of brands from the customer’s perspective. Therefore, each brand has one of the following roles from the customer’s point of view:
Master Brand: Includes the main brand under which products or services are introduced to the market (such as the Toyota brand).
Endorser Brand: Includes a brand that, from the customer’s point of view, represents a company that provide credibility to other brands based on its strategy, resources, values, and history (such as Marriott’s endorsement of the Courtyard Hotels brand).
Sub-brand: It is a brand that augment or modifies associations of a master brand in a specific product-market context (such as the Carrera sub-brand in the Porsche Carrera brand).
Descriptors: It contains a phrase that represents a description of the product-service area offered by the targeted brand (such as the phrase Trains in the Virgin Trains brand).
Product Brand: It is a combination of brand and sub-brand, or brand and descriptor that together define a particular product (such as the Toyota Corolla brand).
Umbrella Brand: It is a brand that represents a set of products-services and other brands as a branded package (such as Microsoft Office, which offers a set of branded products such as Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel, etc.).
Branded Differentiators: It includes a master brand or a sub-brand that defines a specific feature, capability, component, technology, service or promotional program. The goal of such brands are to differentiate the targeted brand (such as the branded Zoom Air technology in Nike shoes).
Brand Alliances and Co-Branding: A brand alliance includes two or more brands from different companies that participate together in strategic and executive branding or co-branding programs. In this regard, co-branding refers to brands from different companies that combine with each other and offer a specific product or service in such a way that each brand plays a decisive role in choosing a brand (such as Apple Watch Nike).
3. Brand Scope: All brands reflect to their audiences the product category and markets they operate in. Some brands (such as the Steak Sauce brand) have a limited scope in the minds of audiences, while other brands may have evoked a wide scope of the brand (such as Samsung, which has a wide brand scope such as operating in high-tech, electronic products and home appliances markets). In determining the brand scope, both the current situation and the future direction of the brand should be considered.
4. Portfolio Role: This aspect of brand portfolio strategy expresses an internal and managerial view to the brands. Whenever brands are managed as a portfolio, it is not possible to have a independent look at the brands, but each brand should have a clear role in the realization of the company’s goals in terms of management and internal. This internal role defines the amount of resources each brand can access. Therefore, each brand has one of the following roles from an internal and management point of view:
Strategic Brand: Includes a brand that is strategically important for an organization. This is the one that the whole organization must strive for its success. Therefore, the necessary resources should be provided and allocated. A strategic brand may be the brand that is currently generating noticeable amount of revenue for the company and still has a foreseeable future for it to grow. Or it could be a brand that doesn’t currently have significant revenue, but there are attractive future opportunities ahead of it. or be a brand that indirectly has a great influence on revenue of other brands.
Brand Energizer: It includes a brand of a product, promotion, sponsorship, symbol, program or anything else that gives energy to the target brand and promotes it. Unlike the brand differentiators, brand energizers can go beyond the product or its function.
Silver Bullet Brands: Brand Energizers and differentiators can be prioritized according to their impact on the target brand. Brands with the highest importance and priority are called silver bullet brands. In other words, brands with this role have the greatest influence in changing or supporting the image of the target brand.
Flanker Brands: Sometimes companies are attacked by competitors. While it may not be possible to respond directly to the competitor by the master brand, or put the master brand at risk (such as the need to offer a low price product by a company that offers luxury brands). Therefore, a new brand may be introduced to the market with the purpose of challenging the competitor’s brand (such as Tab Clear introduced by Coca-Cola directly to counter the Pepsi Clear brand).
Cash Cow Brands: Strategic, flanker and silver bullet brands require resources to succeed. But in practice, these brands may not be able to provide their financial resources by themselves. Therefore, they may be dependent to other brands. Cash cow brand is a brand that currently has significant financial resources and income, but it is decreasing. So there is no need to invested more in such brands, and as a result, its financial resources can be used for other important brands.
5. Brand Portfolio Structure: Brands in a brand portfolio are connected to each other. But such relationship requires a logical structure in order to bring simplicity and clarity to the brand’s audience and create synergy between them. Four main types can be imagined for brand relationships in a portfolio:
House of Brands: It expresses a way of organizing the brand portfolio in which each brand is branded independently and without representation of relationships with each other, and each one tries to have the maximum impact in its market in a separate way.
Endorsed Brands: In this type, the endorsed brand is an independent brand with a distinct message and position that is endorsed by a corporate brand with the aim of reassuring it.
Sub-brands: In this type, a sub-brand is added to a master brand and in this way, by augmenting or changing a certain brand association, the master brand is modified.
Branded House: In this type, there is a master brand that is placed as the main driver at all levels of the company and branding and is presented to the audience.
6. Portfolio Graphics: It includes visual identity patterns that reveal each brand and their relationships. One of the key roles of brand graphics is to represent the level of brands’ driver roles* and their influence on audience’s decision making. In addition, portfolio graphics display connection or lack of connection and the intensity of the relationship between brands. Finally, portfolio graphics can display the brand portfolio structure to external and internal audiences and create the necessary clarity.
* Driver Role: Expresses the degree of brand power in guiding the purchase decisions and describing the experience of using the brand. For example, in choosing a Toyota Corolla car, Toyota plays a more driver role than the Corolla, and the audiences mainly describe their shopping experience to others in the form of Toyota brand and less by the Corolla brand.
