Brand portfolio optimization is a process that aligns a retailer's product offerings to support its corporate positioning and create a unique identity in the marketplace. It involves analyzing a retailer's brand portfolio, eliminating redundancies, and ensuring consistency across corporate, store, and product branding. The goal is to develop fewer, smarter, more profitable brands that leverage a retailer's strengths and changing consumer preferences. Schawk is a company that helps retailers optimize their brand portfolios through strategic consulting and management of branding activities.
This was a webinar conducted for ISBM members to help them understand the key components that comprise a brand portfolio strategy, and how these components relate to and inform brand architecture decision-making. This requires developing a thoughtful brand portfolio strategy; one that defines the optimal number, scope and strategic role for each brand within the portfolio. The webinar leverages best practices, guiding principles, and real-world examples.
Best Practices in Brand Portfolio StrategyFullSurge
A tutorial workshop on the best practices in brand portfolio strategy prepared for and facilitated on behalf of The Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM).
This was a webinar conducted for ISBM members to help them understand the key components that comprise a brand portfolio strategy, and how these components relate to and inform brand architecture decision-making. This requires developing a thoughtful brand portfolio strategy; one that defines the optimal number, scope and strategic role for each brand within the portfolio. The webinar leverages best practices, guiding principles, and real-world examples.
Best Practices in Brand Portfolio StrategyFullSurge
A tutorial workshop on the best practices in brand portfolio strategy prepared for and facilitated on behalf of The Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM).
Brand Architecture is your Brand Strategy. Get your strategy in place and build around it. Good examples with the auto industry compliments of Six Degrees | Sensory Branding and Interactive Marketing Company.
Lean Branding: Positioning your early-stage company for success - MaRS Best P...MaRS Discovery District
Mary Jane Braide will highlight branding essentials for start-ups and social enterprises in the early stages of development. It’s never too soon to establish a clear value proposition and your positioning—even if it feels like everything is in a state of flux!
Assessing Your Brand Architecture August 2015Carol Phillips
THIS PRESENTATION IS OLD. SEE UPDATED VERSION 2019.
Learn more about how to optimize Brand Architecture to provide a clear and leverage able ‘face’ for your business strategy.
Brand architecture is the structure of brands within an organizational entity. ... Often, decisions about brand architecture are concerned with how to manage a parent brand, and a family of sub-brands – managing brand architecture to maximize shareholder value can often include using brand valuation model techniques.
Naming Architecture: A Blueprint for Portfolio SimplicitySiegel+Gale
Jeff Lapatine (strategy director, brand development) delves into naming and nomenclature architecture, and how by deploying simple, easy to codify concepts, you can unlock the potential of your portfolio through the power of simplicity.
At Straightline, we are dedicated to creating brands that transform businesses. That's why we've compiled the most compelling research on the impact brand architecture can have on business strategy.
What is an authentic brand? Aspects of brand authenticity play a minor role in academic research so far, although there is no doubt concerning the relevance of the concept for strategic brand manage-ment. Especially growing brand parity and market transparency caused by new internet-based communication devices will place more importance on the authenticity of brands for their future success. This presentation is about the concept of brand authenticity, grounding on the identity based brand management approach. Brand authenticitiy is de-fined as the degree to which brand identity is causally linked to brand behaviour. Brand authenticity is perceived, when a brand fulfils its brand promise in a unique, consistent and continuous way. A positive outcome of brand authenticity is brand trust.
Brand architecture considerations for managing a portfolio of brands and relationships between a corporate brand or parent brand with child brands and sibling brands with one another. Includes an analysis of basic brand relationship approaches and pros and cons for brand architecture choices.
After working on dozens of brand portfolio optimization projects across the world; we've taken what we believe are the best practices of each and developed a proprietary brand portfolio planning process
Brand Architecture is your Brand Strategy. Get your strategy in place and build around it. Good examples with the auto industry compliments of Six Degrees | Sensory Branding and Interactive Marketing Company.
Lean Branding: Positioning your early-stage company for success - MaRS Best P...MaRS Discovery District
Mary Jane Braide will highlight branding essentials for start-ups and social enterprises in the early stages of development. It’s never too soon to establish a clear value proposition and your positioning—even if it feels like everything is in a state of flux!
Assessing Your Brand Architecture August 2015Carol Phillips
THIS PRESENTATION IS OLD. SEE UPDATED VERSION 2019.
Learn more about how to optimize Brand Architecture to provide a clear and leverage able ‘face’ for your business strategy.
Brand architecture is the structure of brands within an organizational entity. ... Often, decisions about brand architecture are concerned with how to manage a parent brand, and a family of sub-brands – managing brand architecture to maximize shareholder value can often include using brand valuation model techniques.
Naming Architecture: A Blueprint for Portfolio SimplicitySiegel+Gale
Jeff Lapatine (strategy director, brand development) delves into naming and nomenclature architecture, and how by deploying simple, easy to codify concepts, you can unlock the potential of your portfolio through the power of simplicity.
At Straightline, we are dedicated to creating brands that transform businesses. That's why we've compiled the most compelling research on the impact brand architecture can have on business strategy.
What is an authentic brand? Aspects of brand authenticity play a minor role in academic research so far, although there is no doubt concerning the relevance of the concept for strategic brand manage-ment. Especially growing brand parity and market transparency caused by new internet-based communication devices will place more importance on the authenticity of brands for their future success. This presentation is about the concept of brand authenticity, grounding on the identity based brand management approach. Brand authenticitiy is de-fined as the degree to which brand identity is causally linked to brand behaviour. Brand authenticity is perceived, when a brand fulfils its brand promise in a unique, consistent and continuous way. A positive outcome of brand authenticity is brand trust.
Brand architecture considerations for managing a portfolio of brands and relationships between a corporate brand or parent brand with child brands and sibling brands with one another. Includes an analysis of basic brand relationship approaches and pros and cons for brand architecture choices.
After working on dozens of brand portfolio optimization projects across the world; we've taken what we believe are the best practices of each and developed a proprietary brand portfolio planning process
A well-built brand identity will effectively communicate a company’s personality and its product value to potential customers, helping build brand recognition, association and loyalty.
Brand management is the analysis and planning on how that brand is perceived in the market. Developing a good relationship with the target market is essential for brand management. Tangible elements of brand management include the product itself; look, price, the packaging, etc. The intangible elements are the experience that the consumer has had with the brand, and also the relationship that they have with that brand.Brand management is a function of marketing that uses special techniques in order to increase the perceived value of a product
Brand architecture is the structure of brands within an organizational entity and a brand portfolio is used to encompass all these entities under one umbrella. Under this topic,
An overview of the types of brand architecture. A brand architecture needs to align to the corporate's overall brand strategy. It needs to be robust and have the ability to grow and adapt.
More and more, brands are realizing the power of integrating tactics like events and digital campaigns into a larger effort to build the long-term relationships with their customers that help them reach their overall marketing goals.
However, budget, influenced by emotion, is all too often the primary factor in deciding how and when to employ these valuable marketing assets.
Enter portfolio planning: a strategic approach that allows companies to make informed decisions on the right number, type, frequency, and cadence of tactics needed to generate an optimal experiential marketing mix. In essence, “brand experience media planning”.
In the latest Jack POV, learn the 6 principles of portfolio planning and how you can incorporate a strategic approach to better engage your customers.
As always, let me know if you’d like to learn more about how brand experience media planning can help your business.
Find out more at jackmorton.com.
Brands are made for and by humans. Their greatest wish is to connect with humans. So why do they find it so difficult? From jarringly chirpy digital, social & mobile experiences to misguided content marketing efforts, brands’ (and, let’s face it, agencies’) attempts to ‘be more human' often make us cringe.
And now, algorithms and big data means brands know more about us than ever before, and with this their opportunities to ‘act human’ have multiplied exponentially. But in many cases, their brand building efforts are failing: either to be convincing or in adopting the right aspects of humanity. And in so doing they become clingy, nosey or just plain creepy.
So brands face a paradox: the more they try to be human, the more they risk alienating the humans they so want to connect with. So can brands be ‘more human’? Or more importantly…should brands be more human?
This presentation is an extract from a brand management text book and is useful for lectures as well as for students. please down load it and use it for personal development.
Bo4.5 ECR Europe Forum '08. Breakthroughs in understanding in-store behavio...ECR Community
Breakthroughs in understanding in-store behaviour
As in-store marketing grows in importance, the need to plan and evaluate becomes ever greater. This session introduces advances in the measurement of behaviour using observational techniques, loyalty cards and survey data. These collaborative initiatives allow in-store to be understood and optimised as an integral component of the marketing mix.
Speakers: Sandy Livingstone, BMRB ; Joan Francolini, Donna McCabe, Kraft Foods; Koos Berkhout, LMG; George Wishart, Nielsen.
Facilitated by Kantar.
IBDF's first ‘Annual Report Card’ of the most valuable retail brands in the United States, plus the top 5 in Canada and Mexico. It’s an assessment of the companies that are most successful at managing their brand, as well as a look at those that didn’t make the cut.
Branding Small & Medium Size Chemical
Enterprises through Advertising
A Case Study for the Fine Chemical Industry
MY LAST ARTICLE FOR CHEMICAL INDUSTRY DIGEST / JANUARY 2012
White paper - Reinventing the customer lifecyclePaul Kennedy
This paper by Paul Kennedy at Callcredit explores how adopting a defined programme of ongoing customer communications - rather than taking a product-led, campaign-by-campaign approach - can drive better customer engagement, improve retention rates and increase revenue flows
Brand Point Management: Creating Compelling and Consistent Brand ExperiencesSchawk, Inc.
Brand point management is a category that helps businesses produce consistent brand experiences providing a compelling motivator for the consumer to purchase a brand. Brand point management touches all phases of a product’s life – from ideation to design to market implementation – ensuring that whenever a consumer interacts with a brand, the experience remains consistent throughout.
Creating compelling and consistent brand experiencesBrandSquare
Brand point management synthesizes multiple stages of a brand’s lifecycle for agility, efficiency and compelling and consistent brand experiences. It’s Schawk’s specialty. We explain it here.
From product brands to concept brands the evolution of brand managementDrthomasbrand Limited
The idea of concept brands is a useful one to evaluate the extent to which a brand can stretch and create exponential brand and business growth and value. It can help a brand extend into new products, services, markets and segments. It can assist a brand to increase its growth and its value.
In this presentation, we explore what the concept is, how it works and why it matters. We investigate examples of brands that have done it right and brand that are struggling to do it right. We look at what factors make it succeed or fail.
We then review the process and questions as to how to make it work for your brand.
Digital vs. Traditional Marketing The Debate that Shouldn’t E.docxlynettearnold46882
Digital vs. Traditional Marketing: The Debate that Shouldn’t Exist
June 6, 2014 Jessie Gould
Content Marketing & Content Strategy, Mobile Marketing & Strategy
Really, it’s getting old.
It’s true that in the early days digital marketing was the wild child in the marketing world,
always experimenting with bizarre banner ads and keyword-stuffed webpages. In recent years,
however, the cards have flipped. It’s now popular to laud the accomplishments of digital
marketing and condemn traditional avenues as ineffective. In reality, neither perception is
correct. Here’s why.
Traditional marketing is still effective
Take a moment and imagine a billboard ad you’ve seen recently. Anything specific come to
mind? If so, you can rest assured that billboard advertising is alive and well. Now think of a
commercial, a magazine ad.
Contrary to what some marketers are shouting from the rooftops, traditional marketing is not
dying. In fact, it’s not going anywhere until paper, television, and commutes are no longer a part
of daily life. That’s assuredly a long time from now.
The marketing playing field is evening out. As digital rises in popularity, traditional is of course
taking a hit. That’s not to say that traditional will become irrelevant. Each medium has its unique
functions, able to reach different people in different ways.
Time to break down the walls
While traditional marketing isn’t dying, it is changing.
The division between digital and traditional is blurry at best, and arbitrary and unhelpful at
worst. Take an ad inside an ebook, for example. Is this traditional or digital? What about a
commercial that plays both on TV and before a YouTube clip?
It’s time to change the way we think about traditional and digital channels. One isn’t better or
more effective than the other; each has a role to play. Your goal as marketer is to determine what
roles those are and how to use them effectively.
The bottom line
If you’re trying to determine your budget for digital vs. traditional marketing, start with your
target audience. Where are they spending their time? Half of the battle is the message; the other
half is actually getting your message to your customers. Once you have found your audience, let
their preferred channels guide your budget decisions.
Stop thinking digital and traditional. Think customer service, and think results.
LaneTerralever is the agency of the future. A full-service agency is like a good mechanic, able to
utilize the right digital and traditional tools in any situation. See what we can do to get your
message to your audience and drive your bottom line.
HBR.ORG DECEMBER 2013
REPRINT R1312G
When Marketing
Is Strategy
Why you must shift your strategy downstream,
from products to customers by Niraj Dawar
This document is authorized for use only in Faculty's From Marketing Strategy to Execution - WMBA 6667/MRKT 6900-NEW course at Laureate Education - Baltimore, from Aug.
The Agency’s Role in Partnering With In-House TeamsBrandSquare
When bringing your marketing strategy and creative in-house, learn which areas are best balanced with external expertise.
In this webinar, you’ll learn:
• Why in-house agencies need a partner to help manage complexity and growth
• How the reality-checks and alternative viewpoints of a traditional agency can strengthen your brand
• Common challenges shared by our listeners in the Q&A portion
Watch the entire webinar here: http://videos.brandsquare.com/watch/ta56xjQJURUah3jjib73zU
Product Digitization for Consumer BrandsBrandSquare
Learn how to create direct-to-consumer experiences that build affinity and drive sales—from the leading IoT SaaS platform for consumer products.
In this webinar, you’ll learn:
How digitized products enable context-driven, dynamic, “always on” consumer experiences
How digitization brings intelligence, connectivity, protection and programmability to your brand
Examples of how top brands are using different types of consumer engagement programs to collect data
Watch the entire webinar here: http://videos.brandsquare.com/watch/FpGTZhP2nT8gWSShSB2Cx7
SmartLabel is more than a program to opt into for providing transparency and regulatory disclosure. It’s an opportunity for innovation. Learn why you should invest in connected pack technology and consumer experience.
In this webinar, you’ll learn:
• Results and use cases for the SmartLabel program
• How packaging becomes an unlikely ally in a digital world
• Why agile marketing demands connected packaging
Watch the entire webinar here: http://videos.brandsquare.com/watch/fh7X44Do1dG3tm99qwW3d8
The Hidden ROIs of the Connected PackageBrandSquare
Connected packaging is the new frontier. See examples demonstrating the benefits of always-on, network-connected packaging.
In this webinar, you’ll learn:
- How design and technology come together to improve consumer experiences and store operations
- How Signal Rich™ art gives package creators greater control of code aesthetics
- How leading retailers and brands gain operational efficiencies, cost savings and opportunities for greater brand affinity
Watch the entire webinar here: http://videos.brandsquare.com/watch/SitGhuKc4iGZSmWTuDeuwz
Key Strategies to Drive the Omnichannel ExperienceBrandSquare
Brand management is dead. Long live brand experience! Get 5 actions for delivering transformative customer experiences.
In this webinar, you’ll learn:
How to orchestrate delivery despite overwhelming content demands and consistency challenges
The blueprint for aligning key stakeholders across departments, agencies and channels
Tangible benefits you can expect for your organization
Watch the entire webinar here: http://videos.brandsquare.com/watch/Af89bvwCDnHgwdgXZZ3tyw
Transparency and Choice: Winning With Today's ConsumersBrandSquare
Mintel's 2018 Global Food & Drink Trends are the result of collaboration between 60 of Mintel’s expert analysts in more than a dozen countries around the world. In this webinar, we’ll look at two of the five consumer-led trends that are influencing food and drink product development in 2018, and are predicted to have a big impact going forward.
In this webinar you’ll learn:
How the Full Disclosure trend is satisfying consumer demands for total transparency
How the Self-Fulfilling Practices trend is encouraging more consumers to adopt truly flexible, balanced diets
How these trends empower consumers with trust in a post-truth reality and self-care in a world that’s becoming more hectic and stressful
It’s hard to do both execution and innovation. See how “big idea” creative and production work together in a way that’s never been done before.
In this webinar, you’ll learn:
• How Nike and Kellogg’s have adopted creative-led content production at scale
• How to create content that delivers the right strategic message in a creatively compelling way
• How to manage consistent photography, copy, quality and more, across all channels
Watch the full webinar here: http://videos.brandsquare.com/watch/LHMyrkL8inuXbqpiMjTdnN
Learn how Soapbox grew business up to 3X at some retailers — with the right combination of powerful design, excellent products and a mission worth everyone’s attention.
Watch the entire webinar here: http://videos.brandsquare.com/watch/1kmf2U4auKJU6n72fknobu
In this webinar, you’ll learn:
How to connect with your consumers emotionally in a competitive market
How to use design to answer your core consumers’ questions in a powerful and beautiful way
How to make your product proudly displayable on store shelves, in the home and online
About the Presenters: John-Paul Doyle brings 15 years’ experience developing consumer and private brand packaging systems and integrated marketing campaigns, in categories ranging from beauty to beverage, hard goods to prestige. His experience working with companies and brands includes CVS, Safeway, Ahold USA, Diageo, Unilever, Kraft, Godiva, Burt’s Bees, Johnnie Walker and Evian.
Soapbox was founded in 2010 by David Simnick and Dan Doll with a simple mission: to empower people to change the world through everyday, quality purchases. Simnick made the first batch of soap in his college apartment while still at American University. Eight years later its products are in retailers across the nation and nearly three million donations have been made!
The Age of Collaboration: Mastering the Modern Retail ExperienceBrandSquare
Engaging today’s retail consumers and influencing purchases has changed from a simple funnel to a dynamic journey. Gone are the days of closing your studio door, shutting out the world and working on deliverables until 3am the day they are due.
Creatives are now challenged to work with financial and data partners, programmers, technology experts, other creatives and a whole slew of additional team members to get the job done. Collaboration is the key to success in a continuously changing retail marketplace.
Learn how to connect creatives with technology experts to build dynamic journeys for your consumers.
In this webinar, you’ll learn:
- 3 ways to collaborate in today's retail marketplace
- How to use technology as the key to success
- How GoPro & Red Bull and Supreme & Louis Vuitton combined forces
Watch the entire webinar here: http://videos.brandsquare.com/watch/8vVh2zPwjzppYez4HqQBEq
In Today's Content Environment: "Hidden Factories" Undermine SuccessBrandSquare
Consumers want more. More content, more interaction and engagement, more brand access across more channels. That means creative teams need to produce a whole lot more — and chances are they don’t have much more time and budget to do it. Waste and error are the enemies.
In this webinar, you’ll learn how to:
- Start identifying and addressing your hidden factories
- Enhance your creative operations and content supply chain
- Create excellent consumer experiences quickly and at scale
Watch the entire webinar here: http://videos.brandsquare.com/watch/YRzpawjyH5RhfEdCYZ9e4V
We’ll show you how to identify and eliminate the “hidden factories” that are an unwanted legacy of old processes. So you can instill new efficiency and quality into your content-creation and delivery processes.
Mintel’s 2018 Consumer Trends for North AmericaBrandSquare
To ring in each new year, the world’s leading marketing intelligence agency identifies the key consumer trends that are most likely to influence businesses in markets around the world. For 2018, Mintel is highlighting two intriguing trends that will have a big impact in the U.S. and Canada. Join us to learn about “Trust Funding” and “Health Yourself” — and what these trends mean for advancing your brand in the year ahead.
Watch the entire webinar here: http://videos.brandsquare.com/watch/7EE4T3qSjzGxgV8k453Ash
Key Strategies for Winning at the Digital ShelfBrandSquare
“By 2022, eCommerce will claim an average 10 percent of all CPG sales,” according to the data analytics firm IRI. “CPG companies can seize this growth opportunity, but the industry will need to evolve in order to excel.” Ensure that your brand is optimized for the digital shelf in order to capture a bigger slice of this growing eCommerce pie.
In this webinar you’ll learn:
- How to improve your search ranking on retailer sites in order to drive discovery and engagement for your products
- How to convert shoppers with rich, high-quality content
- How to gain competitive advantage using customer ratings and reviews
Watch the full webinar here: http://videos.brandsquare.com/watch/wUyS3SrSQGQ3oiGqEUv852
Why Brand Engagement Isn’t All About Your BrandBrandSquare
Go beyond your brand’s core messaging to surprise and delight. The most engaging brands break through the statistics to reach a deeper awareness.
Watch the entire webinar here: http://videos.brandsquare.com/watch/ANqwpYvGx7ekaP7Un5RD6x
How to Successfully Implement SmartLabel™BrandSquare
All brands will be affected by SmartLabel™ — the largest connected pack initiative. Learn how to leverage the technology to enhance brand loyalty, increase purchases and more.
Watch the full webinar here: http://videos.brandsquare.com/watch/QDTmYUr79yhP6cca8zNnVb
About Michael Fox: Michael Fox, director of client solutions at SGK, brings 8+ years of experience effecting organizational change with Theory of Constraints and Lean/Six Sigma methodologies. He has a broad-based technical background in system and industrial engineering and product lifecycle management. His projects with SGK include finding workflow efficiencies that benefit world-class brands such as Procter & Gamble, ConAgra, Nike and Heinz.
Why Empathy-Driven Marketing Works in a Changing Healthcare MarketplaceBrandSquare
How can you win empowered healthcare customers? Learn how to tap into emotional motivators to create meaningful connections between products & services and consumers.
Watch the entire webinar here: http://videos.brandsquare.com/watch/Vfe7pkL3wnCkxkWdCFVQse
SmartLabel Technology for Shopper Empowerment and TrustBrandSquare
Today’s consumers are demanding more information about the food, beverage, personal care and household products they buy. Now you can give them all the information they want where and when they need it — in the aisles of any store, anytime.
Learn about how the new SmartLabel™ initiative provides complete information about ingredients, nutrition, allergens, social and environmental compliance programs, usage instructions and more from Jim Flannery of the Grocery Manufacturers Association.
Copy + Paste this link into your browser to watch the entire webinar: http://videos.brandsquare.com/watch/DFjCPnntCd4pPFBUKoogM4
Best If Used By: Labeling for Informed Choice, Less WasteBrandSquare
“When in doubt, throw it out?” The problem is, consumers in doubt throw out 30 to 40 percent of the food they buy, often because the 15 or more variations on product date codes create more confusion than clarity. The Grocery Manufacturers Association wants to change that. Their joint product code dating initiative clearly differentiates true perishables from foods that can be safely eaten beyond the date of optimal freshness.
Watch the entire webinar here: http://videos.brandsquare.com/watch/sFp1VYMgdrvC6cgazeZomN
The popularity of on-demand food delivery sites, like Seamless and Blue Apron, signal a shift in the way consumers approach meals. But these sites can deliver convenience at the expense of nutrition. Anthem Worldwide worked with Chicago start-up Eat Pak’d, to design a modular packaging format that would get kids excited to eat a variety of fresh and nutritious foods.
Join Tim James, Senior Director of Structural Packaging and Innovation at Anthem, for a glimpse into how real world insights inspired his approach to functionality and optimized design.
Redefining Customer Expectations: 5 Trends for 2017BrandSquare
Five big trends are redefining customer expectations in 2017 and point the way to what your customers will want next. Brands that understand these trends can stay ahead of accelerating expectations and discover opportunities to innovate.
Maxwell Luthy, Director of Trends and Insights at TrendWatching, covers tomorrow’s consumer landscape.
Watch the entire webinar here: http://videos.brandsquare.com/watch/F3nXUFF7VQFTMdCaBfAwie
Larry Logan Live Webinar: Winning Customer Loyalty Through Digitally Empowere...BrandSquare
Packaging real estate must not only be devoted to capturing the emotions of the consumer in the aisle, but also address new and competing demands. ‘Mobilizers,’ particularly millennials, demand that any and all information on products be immediately available through their devices. Yet, packaging is getting smaller to meet those same consumers’ demands for convenience.
Against this backdrop are the new drivers and demand for information, such as provenance, sustainability, and health and safety. How will brands accommodate these industry initiatives and regulatory requirements, while presenting salient and enduring touch points for consumers?
Watch this compelling webinar featuring Larry Logan, chief marketing officer at Digimarc to learn how.
Watch the entire webinar here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87gFIA1h93k&feature=youtu.be
Larry Logan Live Webinar: Winning Customer Loyalty Through Digitally Empowere...
Brand portfolio optimization for fewer, smarter, more profitable brands
1. Brand Portfolio oPtimization:
for fewer, Smarter, more ProfitaBle BrandS
ExEcutivE Summary
for retailers and CPGs, the marketplace is changing brand architecture, product mix and brand management
dramatically. no longer exclusively following CPG trends in from the top down, including corporate, store and product
product offerings, retailers are creating their own brands marketing. in short, they are challenged like never before to
to leverage their advantages in agility and speed to market generate compelling and consistent brand offerings. this
and to reinforce – and benefit from – their increased requires brand portfolio optimization. a former dmB&B vice
understanding of consumer needs and the increasingly chairman has termed it “the value-producing marketing
positive image of their own store banners. approach of the next decade.” Schawk describes it as:
But with increased authority and ambition within their the alignment of a retailer’s branded product offerings
own stores, retailers are discovering that they must to support the corporate positioning and create an
become as competent as CPGs in the crucial areas of ownable point of difference in the marketplace.
2. thE OppOrtunity tOday: thE rEtailEr pErSpEctivE CPGs must provide products increasingly to the retailer’s
promotional specifications, and with fewer PoP and PoS
in the past few decades, the process that determines opportunities, they also must make sure that on-the-shelf
the product mix at a retail store has changed drastically. packaging is optimized for effectiveness. after many years
as recently as ten years ago, it was driven by CPGs, who of price cutting to stay competitive against other CPGs and
innovated products and determined categories and offerings private label – and now in a tough economy – CPGs must make
for retailers, and even influenced store layout. retailers’ role complex portfolio choices, to meet consumer demand nimbly and
in product selection was usually as a “follower,” offering at an advantageous price point. in addition to these challenges,
relatively unsophisticated private label or store brands as CPGs are not favored with the means or in-store leverage to roll
a value alternative when it was opportunistic. for retailers, out the breadth of category-crossing brands that a retailer can.
retailers now this was enough, as it gave them some margin benefits and and their confirmed role as product innovators always creates
helped position the national brands as more innovative and cost pressures that weigh against lowering prices.
create brands that of higher quality, justifying their price.
match distinct the result for retailers
consumer wants, But the strategy is maturing. retailers now create brands the door is open for retailers to build ever stronger private
that match distinct consumer wants, often more quickly label and store brands that compete not only on price and
often more quickly than CPGs, more nimbly and with equal insight into the benefit but on brand image and loyalty, as well. the door is
than cpGs, more consumer. retailers have been compiling club card data also open to broader distribution. as private label products
nimbly and with for many years, and have tracked the trends of consumers increasingly look like national brands and perform like
equal insight into shifting to store brands and private label. Combining this them, there are fewer barriers to where they can be sold.
behavioral data with attitudinal data from primary research
the consumer. uncovers unmet shopper needs. Why now?
there is a “perfect storm” today for private label and store
at the same time, retailers have learned how to polish their brands. with the overall image of the private label concept
own store images, as trader Joe’s, target, Safeway and improving – thanks also to higher product quality – a
others now boast enough brand equity to position their deep recession has made shoppers even more willing to try
store brand products as high-quality value alternatives to private label and store brand offerings. Private label in the
national brands, and their private label products as superior. U.S. grew roughly six percent in the three years leading up
Consumers increasingly agree with these propositions. to the start of the recession in 2007. But it grew nearly 10
2 percent in less than two years after that, according to the
retailers leverage this through other advantages, too. Brands
nielsen Company. and there is a widespread feeling that if
from retailers like target, trader Joe’s and wal-mart have
these brands are generating trial today and are embraced
Brand Portfolio oPtimization: for fewer, Smarter, more ProfitaBle BrandS
come to embody broad lifestyle aspirations of various kinds,
for their value proposition and a polished brand image, they
and they can leverage this across more categories than most
can leverage trust and familiarity to up-sell consumers to
CPGs can. few CPG companies have the means of production
premium products as the economy recovers.
and the in-store real estate to present lifestyle brands that
cross traditional category bounds. But retailers can. another
Private label share grows as the U.S. economy struggles
point of leverage for retailers is that their sophisticated data
and agile production allow them to track CPG purchase trends 18.0%
and come out with competitive new products before CPGs can 17.5%
recoup development costs on theirs. 17.0%
16.5%
for all these reasons, retailers have arguably their best
16.0%
opportunity for significant marketshare in half a century.
in strategy, production and consumer perceptions, they 15.5%
are poised to control the shelves – and aisles – for the 15.0%
long term. and if they can cement this control in a tough 14.5%
2/04 2/05 2/06 2/07 2/08 2/09
economy, the benefits could be even greater when the
Source: The Nielson Company
economy improves and consumers are ready to accept more
higher-end offerings from trusted private label brands. thE EnvirOnmEnt tOday: thE challEnGES
retailers are also making moves now to sell their private
label goods in other retail outlets – a testament to how when a retail chain’s brand portfolio is optimal, everything is
much their brands now look and behave like national in sync. the chain’s corporate message is expressed at the store
brands. this represents a great opportunity. level and at the product level, consistently. at the product level,
there is appropriate message consistency within brands and
the cpG competition across categories, and there is a product mix that reflects good
in these ways, retailers are taking greater control of their own opportunities to strategically complement, compete with or
store space, and this puts additional pressure on CPGs. today, “fill in the blanks” around national brands.
3. But this goes against traditional retail expertise, wherein
corporate imaging is not always tied to traditional the Brand portfolio Optimization: the process
retailer merchandising strategies. Until recently, retailer
merchandising teams were tasked with creating private the process comprises several steps:
label brands to tactically compete against the CPG offering
within their categories. while this approach generated corporate positioning analysis. what is the
opportunistic revenues, the result was a proliferation retailer’s desired image in the marketplace? what
of brands that had little or no value beyond one or two is its competitive point of difference against other
categories. this “siloed label creation” is at odds with the retailers? what combination of value and aspiration
integrated, holistic approach that’s necessary for brand does it desire? is it achieving it now?
Brand portfolio portfolio optimization. pillar definition. Pillars are brief, key concepts –
optimization usually three to five for a portfolio of brands – that
Brand pOrtfOliO OptimizatiOn: thE SOlutiOn
positions retailers define corporate expectations and the consumer
retailers today need to make highly informed decisions expectations and perceptions the portfolio must
to leverage their
on brand architecture and product mix. they must ensure deliver against. for example, there will always be
increasing strengths a “value” or “staple” pillar but the more strategic
that the growing consumer respect for the store banner is
in a changing leveraged by individual product lines and brands through pillars push the consumer relationship further
marketplace and experiences that are both compelling and consistent with (e.g., “holistic health” or “discovery”).
a challenging the corporate message. and this requires a newfound
Brand portfolio analysis and optimization. this
synthesis among the marketers who oversee the corporate
economy. involves an inventory of the retailer’s offerings and
image, those who oversee retail advertising, and the
an analysis of how well it aligns with the corporate
purchasing departments, who have traditionally focused
positioning and desired consumer interpretation. where
on stocking the shelves on an item-by-item basis, without
are redundancies? weak offerings? “white space”
regard to brand consistency.
opportunities? what is the point of entry and where should
Brand portfolio optimization achieves all of these. it allows we compete (value, national-brand-equivalent, premium)?
retailers to achieve logic and consistency at all levels of
deployment. this involves many things:
marketing and inventory. it determines the right mix of
3 private label and national brands, and eliminates illogical • Sourcing and setting criteria for new products.
redundancies and unproductive competition. it fosters How does a product extend and grow the brand?
consistency in overall brand message across corporate, does it fit in with approved categories, such
Brand Portfolio oPtimization: for fewer, Smarter, more ProfitaBle BrandS
individual store and individual brand underneath the as dietary trends or shopping patterns? is the
banner. and above all, it positions retailers to leverage opportunity significant? at what price points? at
their increasing strengths in a changing marketplace and this stage, a thorough process for approving new
a challenging economy. products is developed.
most of the time, brand portfolio optimization is the process • Merchandising. How will the brand be promoted
of formulating fewer, smarter, more profitable brands under and developed post-introduction? How to keep the
one corporate banner, for logic, agility, consistency and shelf brand relevant in consumer terms?
impact. occasionally it involves expanding opportunistically
• The vendor community. making it clear to
within a specific category. But in every case, it’s the process
vendors what types of products fit with the
of aligning the broader corporate objectives at all levels
portfolio, to receive better input from them.
of marketing and making sure that the product portfolio
expresses those objectives through its mix and timing. and • The merchant. developing communications processes
brand portfolio optimization involves developing a rigorous that prepare merchants for products, to ensure
internal discipline to keep corporate marketing, retail appropriate slotting and merchandising activities.
marketing and sourcing on the same track. • Marketing, advertising, P.R. Strict
communications tools and guidelines are
developed to ensure awareness across the
spectrum of retailer audiences – end consumers,
store associates and financial markets.
communicaton. this is the strict discipline needed
to make sure that the portfolio remains optimized as
marketplace realities change, and to make sure that
all levels of the corporation work to generate and
promote the portfolio.