Brand Portfolio Strategy - The Foundation

Today I'm going to start off by doing something way out of the norm. I'm going to offer a few definitions.

Master brand. The top billing and primary indicator of the offering. Ex - 3M in the brand 3M Accuribbon.
Endorser brand. Serves to provide credibility to the offering. Ex - General Mills endorses Cheerios.
Subbrand. Augments or modifies the masterbrand in a specific product-market context. Ex - Porsche Carrera.
Descriptors. Describe the offering in functional terms.
Product Brand. A product offering consisting of the master brand and the subbrand. Ex - Honda Civic.
Umbrella Brand. A grouping of product offerings under a common brand. Ex - Microsoft Office.
Driver Role. The degree to which a brand drives the consumer purchasing decision or defines the user experience. Ex - Honda plays more of the driver role than Civic but they both have influence.

Yes, definitions are boring but I felt these were critical to our dialog as we move forward. Today's post largely provides a foundation that we'll build upon.

Anyhow, to make definitions a little more fun, I thought we might apply the terms above. For instance, check out this example from the book:

Venus Shaving System from Gillette for Women, with aloe and the DCL Blade edge.

What do we have here? We have a master brand (Venue), a product brand (Venus Shaving System), and endorser (Gillette for Women), and two branded differentiators (aloe and DCL Blade edge).

Next, I wanted to discuss what exactly is Brand Portfolio Strategy? There's not a simple, easy definition here that I've found. But, my understanding at this point is that brand portfolio strategy largely attempts to address the structure of the brand portfolio and leverage "the scope, roles and interrelationships of the portfolio brands."

Moving on... I wanted to list the objectives of Brand Portfolio Strategy. They are 1) foster portfolio synergy, 2) leverage brand assets, 3) create and maintain relevance, 4) develop and enhance strong brands, 5) achieve clarity of product offerings.

Lastly, what can we expect in the coming blogs? Well, Aaker appears to have organized the book based upon his contention that the development of a brand portfolio strategy involves six dimensions: 1) the brand portfolio itself, 2) product defining roles, 3) portfolio roles, 4) brand scope, 5) portfolio structure, 6) portfolio graphics. I'm not going to go into any more depth about these dimensions because it looks like we'll be taking a closer look at each as we move along in the book.