The search for new ways to boost earnings is now under way. For many CEOs, weathering the economic downturn demanded a focus on improving operations and supply chains and on reining in costs. But now that markets are starting to improve, companies are again looking to grow. For many, growth means breathing new life into existing brands.

Yet the environment for strengthening brand equity and growth has never been more demanding. Global brands in emerging markets confront low-cost local products and the rapid evolution of channels. In developed markets, the needs of aging baby boomers are changing, ethnic populations are growing, and products are increasingly aimed at ever-smaller customer segments.

Meanwhile, the consumer’s brand loyalties and relationships with brands are eroding because of an explosion in the number of product brands and in the number of touchpoints where consumers come into contact with them. More than three-quarters of all Fortune 1000 consumer goods companies carry 100 brands or more; on average, each of these US companies manages 240 of them. People in the United States see an average of twice as many advertising messages each day as they did in 1985. Marketing organizations find their workloads rising and their...