BRAND PORTFOLIO DEFINITION:

 BRAND PORTFOLIO DEFINITION:

A BRAND PORTFOLIO IS A COLLECTION OF ALL THE BRANDS OWNED BY ONE COMPANY.

 The Brand Portfolio refers to an umbrella under which all the brands or brand lines of a particular firm functions to serve the needs of different market segments. In simple words, brand portfolio encompasses all the brands offered by a single firm for sale to cater the needs of different groups of people.

• Most large firms have a portfolio of brands (P&G) • In managing this portfolio there are two dimensions to consider – Breadth of product mix: number and nature of different product categories linked to the brands sold – Depth of branding: number and nature of different brands and lines/models/SKUs (stock-keeping unit) in a product category.

 A brand portfolio is the collection of smaller brands that fall under a larger, overarching 'brand umbrella' set by a firm, company, or conglomerate.

For instance, The Coca Cola Company's brand portfolio encompasses brands like Sprite, Fanta, and Powerade in addition to its flagship beverage.

 

A brand portfolio is known as the leading brand of a company that covers all other brands or companies operated by a company.

A large company uses various brand names to introduce products and services to fulfill the requirements of different market segments.

Each brand of the company has its entity and is operated differently as compared to its parent company.

 The company uses a brand portfolio for marketing purposes and to help in boosting the sales of their other brand’s products.

Using a brand portfolio, a company declares that the child brand of the company also follows the principles of the parent brand.

 Moreover, it also helps in removing the confusion of customers about the origin of a brand. If a customer trusts the products of one brand of the company and has good experience with it, then there are more chances that he will also trust the products of other brands of the company. To take advantage of that, companies introduce all their brands under the name of one umbrella brand.

 A brand portfolio can be defined as an umbrella that encompasses different brands, products, services, and companies of a large company.

Companies use different brands to cater to the needs and requirements of various market segments.

 In this way, the company establishes the relationship between the different brands of the company. Take the example of Samsung. Most of us have used its smart Phone and trust it for its quality and performance. Because we have a pleasant experience with one product of the Samsung company, we are more likely to trust other products of the company.

 example of the ITC company. ITC is an umbrella brand name under which the company runs several other brands. The company provides food products under different brand names for various products such as Sunfeast, Kitchens of India, Bingo, B natural, and yippee brand. Person care products under brand names such as Engage, Fiama Di Wills, Essenza DI will, Salvon, and Superia. Similarly, it operates several other brands to provide different products to their customers. But all of these brands have one thing common in them that is the name of the ITC brand and its values

 Examples of brand portfolio

Take the case of the Coca-cola company. The Coca Cola, or Coke, is one of the most popular soft drinks brands.

However, it has several popular brands such as Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero, Fanta, Sprite, Dasani, SmartWater, and many other brands.

The coca-cola is a brand umbrella for all other brands of this company.

 Another similar example of a brand portfolio is the example of PepsiCo.

PepsiCo is the umbrella brand for several different brands of beverages and food products.

The instance of brands owned by PepsiCo is Tropicana, Quaker, Frito Lay.

 Hindustan Unilever Company or HUL is also the brand portfolio name of several other brands owned by the company.

The Hindustan Unilever Company owns popular brands like Pears, Lux, Dove, Lifebuoy, Liril, Vaseline, Close Up, Lakme, Bru, Taj mahal, Kisan, Broke Bond, Lipton, Sunsilk, Comfort, Wheel, Pepsodent, Clinic Plus, and several other brands.

Each brand name is used for the sale of different products. For example, the Taj Mahal is the brand name for tea, whereas Closeup is a brand name for toothpaste.

  The brands in the Brand Portfolio play the following different roles

1. Flanker Brand

2. Cash Cow Brand

3. Low-End Entry Level Brand

4. High-End Prestige Brand

 Flanker Brand A Flanker Brand also known as a Fighter Brand is a new product launched in a market by the company in the same category wherein an established brand is already positioned. This is primarily done for the increased market share as well as to cater to the need of all the segments of customers.

A flanker brand is a brand a company releases in a product category in which it already has an existing brand.

The hope is that the new brand helps increase the company's market share within that product category and serves the needs of prospects the original brand might not cover.

A Flanker brand is known as the fighter brand of the company, which is newly launched in the market in the same category that already has a company’s brand.

The flanker brand is introduced to increase the market share of the company.

 For instance, alcoholic beverage company Molson Coors leverages a flanker brand strategy in its approach to the low-calorie beer market. The company has released multiple brands — including Miller Lite, Coors Light, and Keystone Light — that all occupy a similar niche.

 Cash Cow Brand A cash cow brand is that product in the brand portfolio that has reached the maturity level in the product life cycle but is able to bring in profits necessary for its survival.

These brands are not removed from the market because necessary cash is flowing in through its sale which is better than incurring heavy cost on the launch of a new product.

A cash cow brand is one that has reached a certain level of maturity with respect to its market presence and ability to make money.

These brands can generate enough profit to essentially sustain themselves — keeping themselves afloat after businesses recoup their initial investments from them.

It's much less expensive to sit back and let these brands continue to bring in cash than to launch any sort of new product to replace them.

As a result, they're rarely removed from the market.

The cash flow brand is the brand of the company, which has already reached a maturity level in the product’s life cycle but is still getting profits to maintain cash flow.

Such brands are not removed from the market, even though they don’t bring many benefits to the company, because of the trust of people on the brand.

 Low-End Entry Level Brand A low Entry Brand in a brand portfolio includes the product which is offered at less price. The low priced product is added to the portfolio to ensure the purchase at least once and bring the customer into the brand family. Once the customer becomes a part of the family, he is then persuaded for the purchase of the higher priced product in near future.

A low-end entry-level brand is one that's added to a brand portfolio to be offered at a lower price than the other products or services that portfolio covers.

The principle behind low-end entry-level brands has to do with hooking customers.

The idea is that consumers will buy the low-end entry-level brand initially — effectively introducing them to that brand's broader portfolio.

Once a customer has engaged with and been impressed by the company behind the low-end entry-level brand, they'll be inclined to explore the broader suite of products in its portfolio.

 High-End Prestige Brand A High-End Prestige Brand in the brand portfolio is the product offered at a high price with the intention of creating a sense of prestige in the minds of customers. Other brands in the portfolio also get the recognition because of the premium brand and its quality do have a halo effect on each product line

High-end prestige brands are ones designed to create the impression of premium quality and luxury.

The hope is that some of the esteem the brand creates will trickle down onto the other brands within the company's broader portfolio.

 

Models for Brand Portfolios

• Branded House

• House of Brands

• House Blend

 Branded House Branded House:

using a single master brand across multiple products and categories Company takes a single primary brand across the board Advantages:

•Creates focus on the brand

•Maximizes scale

 Disadvantages:

•May lose its power to differentiate (all new products and new brands must fit within the primary brand)

•Constrain innovation and growth

•Risky

  House of Brands House of Brands: house of brands contains independent, disconnected brands Classic and most powerful model for a brand portfolio Company owns a number of different brands, possibly several brands in the same category

 Advantages:

•Each brand can precisely target a group of customers with a distinct product offering and positioning

•Company can stretch the brand to cover another target market

•Easy to make global

•Creates a distinct corporate brand

•Minimize risk because of diversification

 Disadvantages:

•Hard to manage due to complexity

•Senior management cannot focus on each brand individually

•Company is forced to devote resources to marketing the corporate brand

 House Blend

The “House Blend” – This is an architecture based on the development of sub-brands with the added credibility of the the existing parent brand. Google, for example, started as a search engine then continued to establish the primary brand through offerings such as Gmail, Calendar, and Maps. Eventually, they began to acquire other, smaller tech companies such as Blogger, Picasa, and YouTube. These acquisitions maintained their existing brands but gained credibility through the primary brand of Google.

 The key to managing a successful Brand Portfolio

• Build and extend core brands

• Add brands to the portfolio to address major opportunities

• Proactively prune weak and redundant brands

• Keep things simple

• Involve senior management