In this long-awaited book from the world's premier brand expert and author of the seminal work Building Strong Brands, David Aaker shows managers how to construct a brand portfolio strategy that will support a company's business strategy and create relevance, differentiation, energy, leverage, and clarity. Building on case studies of world-class brands such as Dell, Disney, Microsoft, Sony, Dove, Intel, CitiGroup, and PowerBar, Aaker demonstrates how powerful, cohesive brand strategies have enabled managers to revitalize brands, support business growth, and create discipline in confused, bloated portfolios of master brands, subbrands, endorser brands, co-brands, and brand extensions.
Aaker offers readers step-by-step advice on what to do when confronting scenarios such as the following:
• Brands are underleveraged
• The business strategy is at risk because of inadequate brand platforms
• The business faces a relevance threat caused by emerging subcategories
• The firm's brands are tired and bland
• Strategy is paralyzed by a lack of priority among the brands
• Brands are cluttered and confusing to both customers and employees
• The firm needs to move into the super-premium or value arenas to create margin or sales volume
• Margin pressures require points of differentiation
Renowned brand guru Aaker demonstrates that assuring that each brand in the portfolio has a clear role and actively reinforces and supports the other portfolio brands will profoundly affect the firm's profitability. Brand Portfolio Strategy is required reading not only for brand managers but for all managers with bottom-line responsibility to their shareholders.
Industry Reviews
Bernhard Eggli Managing Director, Head of Brand Management, UBS There's no authority on branding to equal David Aaker, and here he shows again his weight of experience and keenness of insight. This is a thoughtful exploration of how to structure, manage, and extend a brand portfolio for maximum value. The passages on how to energize and differentiate a brand are especially illuminating. Excellent.
