Article at a glance:
Brands are proliferating at a breakneck pace. Marketers know that steering a number of them individually often leads to overlapping investments, confused customers, and outright cannibalization, but many resist the centralization and tactics that aggressive portfolio management requires. Companies can overcome this reluctance by appointing a portfolio manager to establish clear roles, relationships, and boundaries for their brands and then, within these guidelines, giving individual brand managers a long leash.
The take-away
Rigorous economic analysis and strong insights into consumers can help marketers clarify the competitive positioning of their brands, avoid offending the core consumers of repositioned or discontinued ones, minimize cannibalization, and seize growth opportunities.
This article includes the following exhibits:
- Exhibit 1: More brands, lower revenues
- Exhibit 2: Analyzing the customer's 'need states'
- Exhibit 3: Mapping future profits through 'need state' analysis
- Exhibit 4: Adjusting a brand portfolio through carefully defined moves
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