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Volume 21, Number 48 • Copyright ©2006 Business Book Review, LLC • All Rights Reserved

Brand Portfolio
Strategy
Creating Relevance, Differentiation, Energy,
Leverage and Clarity

By David A. Aaker

©2004 by David A. Aaker

Adapted by permission of Free Press
ISBN-10: 0-7432-4938-0

Reviewed by Jennifer Cuthbertson

Introduction

Many firms create a brand portfolio strategy in order to inject structure and discipline into their business, but they
may end up creating confusion, because the portfolio they devise is disjointed. In Brand Portfolio Strategy, David A.
Aaker details how to design a coherent brand portfolio strategy that fosters organizational and market synergies, creating
relevant, differentiated, and energized brand assets. Managers will learn why brand portfolios are important, how to
leverage portfolio and brand assets to support and invigorate business strategies, and why understanding and managing
a brand portfolio can actually be the key to developing a winning business strategy.

Business Book Review™ Vol. 21, No. 48 • Copyright © 2006 Business Book Review, LLC • All Rights Reserved
Brand Portfolio Strategy
PART I: WHAT IS BRAND PORTFOLIO STRATEGY?
Intel has been willing and able to reinvent its product
line and to create complex new products. The company has a
strong branding program — “Intel Inside.” New brands and
products have allowed the company to address competitive
threats and to enter new markets. The Intel brand umbrella
provides synergy, and the portfolio structure reflects and
enables the firm’s business strategy.
For many companies, portfolio management is
inefficient at best. However, brand management can be
critical for a company’s success. Brand portfolio strategy
defines the structure of the brand portfolio, as well as
the scope, roles, and interrelationships of the brands.
The goals of the portfolio are to create synergy, leverage
brands, provide clarity, and ensure that brands are relevant,
differentiated, and energized.
Developing and managing a brand portfolio strategy
involves making decisions about adding, deleting, or
prioritizing brands; extending brands; developing brand
alliances and other important decisions that impact the
health and well-being of a brand. A brand portfolio
strategy should not reflect a company’s organizational
chart, because this structure may change frequently and
the customer-facing brands should be more stable. The
only concern of the brand portfolio strategy should be
making offerings clear and appealing from the customers’
perspective.
Developing brand portfolio strategy involves
managing six dimensions—brand portfolio, product-
defining roles, portfolio roles, brand scope, portfolio
structure, and portfolio graphics. These dimensions help
define the set of brands and specify the roles they will play
within the portfolio structure.
The brand portfolio includes all of the brands managed
by the company, including sponsorships and celebrity
endorsements. A basic issue is whether brands should ever
be added to an existing portfolio. Additions should be made
when they will have a well-defined role within the portfolio,
and the decision should be made by someone with a portfolio
perspective. The ultimate goal is to have the fewest relevant
brands necessary to meet business goals.
A brand set with product-defining roles provides a
view of the brands from the customers’ perspective. Some
of the defining roles include master brands, endorser brands,
Business Book Review™ Vol. 21, No. 48 • Copyright © 2006 Business Book Review, LLC • All Rights Reserved
David A. Aaker
Key Concepts
The six dimensions of developing a
Brand Portfolio Strategy are:
1. Brand Portfolio: Includes all of the brands
managed by the organization, including the
master brands, endorsers, subbrands, branded
differentiators, co-brands, branded energizers,
and corporate brands.
2. Product-Defining Roles: Reflects an external
view of the brand from the customer’s
perspective.
3. Portfolio Roles: Reflect an internal, managerial
perspective on the brand portfolio and serves
the function of creating more optimal allocation
of brand-building and brand management
resources.
4. Brand Scope: Contains the product categories
or subcategories for which each brand will
be relevant, both now and in the future, and the
relationships between brand contexts.
5. Brand Portfolio Structure: Shows the
relationship of the brands in the portfolio to
each other and can include brand groupings,
brand hierarchical trees, and brand network
models.
6. Portfolio Graphics: These are the patterns of
the visual representation across brands
and across brand contexts and includes logos,
packaging, symbols, product design, the layout
of print advertisements, and taglines.
* * *
Information about the author and subject:
www.prophet.com/insights/books/brand_portfolio_
strategy.html
Information about this book and other business titles:
www.simonsays.com
subbrands, descriptors, product brands, and umbrella
brands.
Portfolio roles provide the internal managerial
perspective on the brand portfolio. Each brand should not
be in a silo by itself, and brand managers should not be
considered an island. This will lead to a misallocation of
resources and a failure to create synergy across brands.
Page 2
Brand Portfolio Strategy
Portfolio roles can include strategic brands, branded
energizers, and a silver bullet brand.
The brand scope reflects the product categories and
subcategories for each brand and the relationship between
brands. The brand portfolio structure provides the logic
for the structuring of the brands and clarity to the customer.
Decisions that might be made include how to brand product
groupings and brand hierarchies. Portfolio graphics are
the final dimension and are the visual representation of
the brand, including the color scheme, logo, layout, and
typeface used.
The brand portfolio will help managers foster synergy
by creating brand visibility, reinforcing associations, and
creating cost efficiencies
“Strategic brand leadership requires that brand-team goals be optimized as
through more efficient
well as those of individual brand players.”
use of communications
departments. Portfolios are also a way to leverage brand
assets through the development of strong brand platforms
and to use these platforms to increase their impact in their
core market. Other benefits for the use of brand portfolios
are maintaining product relevance, enhancing strong
brands, and clarifying product offerings for consumers.
Establishing an effective brand portfolio that will
achieve its objectives requires a thorough understanding of
the basic product-defining building blocks. Those are:
• Master brand--also known as the parent brand,
such as Crest, which defines a line of dental
products for Proctor and Gamble.
About the Author
David A. Aaker is Vice Chairman of Prophet
and has published more than 100 articles and 12
books, including Managing Brand Equity, Building
Strong Brands, Developing Business Strategies,
Brand Leadership, and From Fargo to the World of
Brands. He has been awarded best article awards
by the Journal of Marketing and the California
Management Review. He is Professor Emeritus
at the Haas School of Business, University of
California, Berkeley, where he has been awarded
four career awards including the 1996 Paul D.
Converse Award for outstanding contributions to
the development of marketing.
Business Book Review™ Vol. 21, No. 48 • Copyright © 2006 Business Book Review, LLC • All Rights Reserved
David A. Aaker
• Endorser brands--give credibility and substance
to an offering. When IBM endorses Lotus, it
affirms that Lotus will deliver on its promise.
• Subbrands--modify the association of a master or
parent brand. Walkman is a subbrand of Sony.
• Driver roles--reflect the degree to which the brand
drives the purchase decision. Consumers may
purchase a Corolla because it is a Toyota
product.
When a new brand is developed or acquired,
determining which of these roles it will play is critical.
A company can create a house of brands, which is a new
brand altogether. It can also set up an endorsed brand or a
subbrand under an existing master brand. Another option
is to set up a branded house--an existing brand that carries
a descriptor, such as GE Appliances or GE Capital.
The benefits to a house of brands strategy is that
firms can position brands on their functional benefits
and dominate niche segments. Other reasons to use this
strategy are that it avoids a brand association that would be
incompatible with another product offering. This strategy
can also allow a company to target multiple and conflicting
product lines or segments, which is the strategy that Nestle
uses by having Purina be the brand name for its line of
pet food.
Intel has been willing and able to reinvent its product
line and to create complex new products. The company has a
strong branding program — “Intel Inside.” New brands and
products have allowed the company to address competitive
threats and to enter new markets. The Intel brand umbrella
provides synergy, and the portfolio structure reflects and
enables the firm’s business strategy.
Using a subbrand approach can allow a master brand
with too broad an appeal to access niche segments of the
market, while a branded house approach leverages an
established brand and minimizes the investment required
for the new offering. This approach also has the potential
for maximizing clarity, because the consumer will know
exactly what is being offered.
Managers will need to examine all of their options
carefully before choosing the strategy that suits them best.
The author offers some advice on making this decision,
Page 3
Brand Portfolio Strategy
“Because of its synergy, clarity, and leverage, the branded
house should be the default option in establishing a new
brand. Any strategy other than introducing a new sibling
under the roof of an existing brand requires compelling
reasons.”
With this said, there is no cookie-cutter approach to
brand portfolio management. However, there are four areas
that can act as a guide when defining and managing brand
“High-potential brands need similar attention and resources: all
brands and all brand roles are not created equal.”
portfolios. The first is market forces and dynamics. A
thorough analysis would include looking at the customer,
competitors, and market trends for each major product-
market that the brands are currently involved in or could
expand into in the future.
The goal of the analysis is to learn about potential
portfolio options and issues. By studying customers
portfolio managers can learn about the market segments
that their products appeal to, and reviewing the competitors and determining what customers want. This is where the
and market trends will help with decisions about market
expansion.
The second area that can help guide brand portfolio
decisions is the company’s business strategy. The brand
portfolio must support and reflect the business strategy,
There are two basic questions a manager should ask
regarding the business strategy. What is the business
strategy? How are the firm and its strategic brands
performing with respect to the strategy?
The third aspect that can help with brand portfolio
decisions are the brand equities and identities. Brand
equities influence the choice of portfolio strategies. As
an example, a weak brand will not be suited to a role as
a silver bullet. The brand equity should be determined by
examining things like consumers’ awareness of the brand,
its reputation, its relevance, and consumers’ loyalty to the
brand.
The brand portfolio audit is the fourth item that can
help guide brand portfolio management. This provides a
systematic way to examine the portfolio and determine
any problems or issues that need to be examined further.
The audit should focus on one brand at a time, rather than
the entire portfolio, and it usually begins with an appraisal
of the portfolio strategy objectives. The purpose is to
Business Book Review™ Vol. 21, No. 48 • Copyright © 2006 Business Book Review, LLC • All Rights Reserved
David A. Aaker
challenge the existing portfolio and to suggest issues and
options that merit further analysis.
PART II: CREATING RELEVANCE,
DIFFERENTIATION, AND ENERGY
Understanding brand relevance is critical to
successfully managing a brand portfolio. Brands may
have loyal customers who are satisfied and still see
their market slip. Often times,
this is because the relevance
of the category or subcategory
the brand is associated with
has lost relevance for consumers. As the author points
out, “If potential customers want SUVs, it simply does not
matter how good a minivan they think you have.”
Relevance is not just an issue for existing brands.
It is also one for brands seeking to open up a new
category, such as hybrid cars. The challenge then becomes
correctly defining the product category or subcategory
leveraging of existing brands and/or the development of
new brands becomes crucial.
Brand relevance occurs when:
• There is a perceived need or desire by a customer
for a product category or subcategory.
• The brand is among the set considered by a
customer to be relevant for that product category
or subcategory.
For consideration, the brand must have sufficient
visibility and performance credibility. An example is the
subcompact market for cars. For many years the Toyota
Corolla and the Chevrolet Prism were made to the same
design in the same factory. The Prism’s price was often
discounted and its sales were still less than one-fourth
that of the Corolla’s. Production of the Prism was finally
discontinued because there was a perception of a quality
gap between the two cars.
To measure relevance, start with a well-defined product
category or subcategory. It is helpful to have a category
label, such as energy bars. However, if there is not a label
available, then there should be a tight description, such
as shaving products for women. The basic measure of
relevance is unaided recall: what brands do you associate
with this product category?
Page 4
Brand Portfolio Strategy
At one time brand visibility and differentiation were all
a brand needed to be successful. Today, product categories
and subcategories emerge and recede continually, so
relevance becomes a larger issue. To cope with this,
managers need to understand what drives relevance. The
eight drivers for relevance are determining if:
• products or services can be augmented to include
a new subcategory;
• niches can be created within the product category
or subcategory;
• brands can be expanded from components to
systems, thereby creating a super-category;
• new applications can define relevant brand
options;
• product classes can be repositioned;
• customer trends can drive a new product
category;
• technology can guide the perception of a product
category; and
• new categories can be invented.
Firms vary in their ability to maintain relevance. Trend
neglectors are companies that are unaware of or actively
ignore market trends. Trend responders closely track trends
and category evolution and are proactive in order to ensure
that their brands stay current and relevant. Trend drivers
are ahead of the trends, because they are part of the driving
force that defines categories.
Part of the challenge to staying relevant is to
create or connect to an emerging subcategory with
a spin that creates a link and
“A key of portfolio management is to identify key facets of strong
provides a point of product
brands and leverage them through brand extensions and added role
differentiation. One way to do
responsibility.”
this is through the use of a
branded program or initiative.
An example is the Nike All Conditions Gear, which
provides the Nike spin on outdoor clothing. However, a
branded program alone is not enough. It must be supported
by substance.
To evaluate new categories, managers must ask
themselves some questions. Is the opportunity going to be
worthwhile in terms of size and competitive intensity? Is
the trend real, or is it a fad? Does the company have the
ability to develop the assets and skills needed to compete?
Does the firm have the brand assets needed?
Business Book Review™ Vol. 21, No. 48 • Copyright © 2006 Business Book Review, LLC • All Rights Reserved
David A. Aaker
Maintaining relevance and entering new categories
is part of today’s brutal competitive landscape. There are
vigorous price pressures and eroding margins. Worse,
to many customers, all the brands in a category are
essentially the same to them. In this case, differentiating
a brand offering might be the best strategy. A branded
differentiator is a branded feature, ingredient, service, or
program that creates dissimilarity for a branded offering. It
is meaningful to customers and merits a company’s active
management over an extended period of time.
A word of caution, a branded differentiator does not
occur simply because a name has been slapped on a feature.
The differentiation needs to be relevant and substantial
enough to matter when customers are purchasing or using
the product. One classic way to differentiate a brand in a
mature category is to add a service. Consider what Tide has
done with the Tide Stain Detective. A customer can access
the Tide website and get advice for removing most stains.
Energizing a brand is another strategy for making
relevant and differentiating a brand. A branded energizer is
branded product, promotion, sponsorship, symbol, program
other entity that enhances a target brand. Heinz EZ Squirt
ketchup is an example of an energizer. Kids use 55 percent
of all ketchup and they wanted an easy to use bottle with
fun colors, so EZ Squirt had colors like Funky Purple and
Blastin Green.
Both product differentiators and energizers need to be
linked to the target brand in order to have a relatively long
life. They may also need to have changes made to them in
order to stay relevant and vital.
Another ways to energize and to differentiate a brand
is through the use of brand alliances or co-master brands.
Co-branding can have an impact when two brands have
a real synergy and the associations are strong. To be
successful, an alliance needs to involve visible customer
benefits that represent a differentiation; to allow freedom
for stretching — the combination should go farther than
either brand can alone; to draw on existing brand equities so
that investments to support the alliance can be minimized;
and to be strategically defensive.
Page 5
Brand Portfolio Strategy
External brand differentiators are another option
and can include branded features, services, programs, or
ingredients. The most common are branded ingredients.
Think about Dreyer’s ice cream, which has an agreement
with Mars, Inc. to use Twix, M&M’s and Snickers as the
basis for ice cream flavors.
Brand alliances can be used in tactical brand building
when the task is creating relevance, differentiation, and
energy quickly in an effort that is expected to be short-lived.or product category. A brand extension might also serve as
Volkswagon once offered a Trek mountain bike and bike
rack with the sale of a Jetta. When alliances are used for
promotions, the cost is shared and each company brings
capabilities and customer bases that can then be shared.
“Discipline must be used in identifying and prioritizing strategic
brands based on future prospects.”
Effective brand alliances should offer compelling customer
propositions and should support the business strategy of
both companies.
PART III: LEVERAGING BRAND ASSETS
One way to succeed is to create, enhance, and leverage
assets. The strategic question in this case is how can a brand attractiveness with an eye on customer trends; the quality,
asset be leveraged to create larger and stronger business
entities? The answer is that the brand can be employed
on a new offering that is developed internally, acquired
from others, or developed by firms who would license the
brand.
The motivation to leverage an existing brand portfolio
into new product offerings is to grow the business by
finding areas of unmet customer need. Extending a brand
into a new product-market context can also accomplish
the following:
• Enhance a brand’s visibility and image.
• Create communications efficiencies.
• Change a brand image.
• Provide a way to maintain relevance.
• Inhibit a competitor from gaining a foothold.
• Provide an energizer for a brand.
Finding the most promising extension direction
involves determining where the brand can add value. It
is important to understand what brand associations can
be leveraged and to identify candidate product categories
Business Book Review™ Vol. 21, No. 48 • Copyright © 2006 Business Book Review, LLC • All Rights Reserved
David A. Aaker
where they fit. The extended offering must also have a brand
strategy. Will an existing master brand be leveraged with
a subbrand or will a new brand be created that is endorsed
by an existing brand?
There are risks with brand extensions and extensions
should not be undertaken without analysis and strategic
thought. A brand extension might be used to solve a
business model issue, such as the need to enter a new arena
a brand energizer.
Mainstream premium brands can face hostile markets
and may emphasize price promotions and sales events
rather than their product. This can lead to brand erosion,
because consumers will then focus
on features and price rather than
brand. In this instance, moving the
product offering up or down can be
an attractive alternative. The vertical extension of a brand
requires some strategizing as moving to a higher-end or
lower-end market is a big decision, which involves more
than just the brand strategy.
Managers must also consider market opportunity
by conducting a realistic appraisal of the market’s
vitality, and commitment of the competition; and the likely
margins that will emerge. Another consideration is the firm’s
ability to compete. Operating successfully in an upmarket
or a downmarket requires certain organizational culture,
systems, structure, and people. It must be determined if the
firm has these or if they can develop them.
The value market’s vitality is driven by value-seeking
customers, value retailers, and new technologies. Price-
sensitive customers are turning away from prestige in
search of lower-cost brands that deliver acceptable quality
and features. The value market is also driven by stores
that have a lower cost structure, use aggressive everyday
pricing, and freely use private-label goods. This would
include stores like Office Depot, Home Depot, Circuit City,
Target, and Wal-Mart. Another factor that can create an
opportunity for a value market offering is a technological
change that creates a new generation of a product that has
an inherently lower cost structure.
The forces that drive the value market represent a major
paradigm shift. Old assumptions no longer hold, and there
is tremendous pressure to participate at the lower end of
Page 6
Brand Portfolio Strategy David A. Aaker

the market. Moving down can also represent enormous risk
to other brand offerings as consumers’ perceptions about
a brand may shift. An upscale or mid-market brand that
decides to move into the value market will be more at risk
for this perception shift.
Another risk to moving into the value market from a
higher end one is that consumers will be drawn to the lower-
priced offering at the expense of the higher-end offerings.
Consumers may also experience an expectation problem,
if the value offering does not match the quality they expect
from the overall brand.
If a premium brand is a weak third or fourth player in its GE Profile line of products, which are sleek and modern and
market, a good use of its equity
may be to move it to the value “The challenge is to create not a single house, but a village where all
market. Also, if a premium the subbrands and brands fit in and are productive.”
brand suffers an image setback,
the value market may be the way to salvage the product.
Schlitz tried to cut production costs and compromised
the perception of its quality. It was never able to recover
its image as a premium beer, so it became a value brand
instead.
Growth at the other end of the market is driven by
increasing affluence. Top wealth holders have the luxury
of looking at the emotional and self-expressive benefits of
a product rather than just functional ones. The motivation
to move to the value market is to obtain volume, but the
motivation to move up is to access higher margins, provide
vitality to the brand, and enhance the brand by associating
it with a higher-quality, more prestigious offering.
The risk to the core brand when moving up is still
present, although it is less than the risk in moving down. One a brand is struggling, it needs to return to the heritage that
risk to moving up is whether the firm is actually capable of
delivering a high-end experience. The company could lack
the necessary assets and supporting organizational culture.
The core brand can also look very ordinary by comparison
to the upscale offering.
Holiday Inn tried unsuccessfully to move into the
upscale market with Crowne Plaza, but couldn’t overcome
the strong image of Holiday Inn as a comfortable and
unpretentious hotel. The company finally had to drop the
alliance with the Holiday Inn brand and allow Crowne Plaza
to be an entry on its own.
To move a brand upscale a company must:
• Position the brand to work vertically;
• Position the brand as a super-premium one with
different products or in different markets;
• Rebrand the lower end offerings;
• Use a subbrand; or
• Develop a new brand.
A brand may be leveraged more easily into the super-
premium market if a different product class or market is
used. In this instance the brand movement is not so obvious.
The use of a subbrand can actually help the original brand
by associating with an upscale sister-brand. Think about the
marketed at the high end. The entire GE line of appliances
benefits from the association.
PART IV: BRINGING FOCUS AND CLARITY TO THE
BRAND PORTFOLIO
Developing a brand portfolio strategy is important, but
the strategy must also focus and clarify the portfolio. The
leveraging of a few brands can help to do this. The overall
corporate brand can act as a master brand. It can also be
an endorser for other brand offerings, or it can represent
a holding company to the financial community and be
the corporate entity behind other companies. In any case,
the corporate brand must be developed, enhanced, and
leveraged, if it is to reach its potential.
Corporate brands reflect a heritage and, sometimes, if
made it profitable and successful in the first place. L.L. Bean
has a New England hunting and fishing background that
has evolved into an outdoor/casual living lifestyle brand.
Stories about its roots and about the Bean family lend to
its authenticity.
A corporate brand can bring differentiation to the
organization’s associations. Products and services may
differ very little, but organizations’ style, personality and
skills can be very different. Customers may actually identify
with these factors rather than differentiating between the
products and service. Corporate brands can also draw on
organizational programs such as sponsorships to be branded
energizers.

Business Book Review™ Vol. 21, No. 48 • Copyright © 2006 Business Book Review, LLC • All Rights Reserved Page 7
Brand Portfolio Strategy David A. Aaker

Leveraging the corporate brand across products
and markets makes brand management easier and more
effective. The translation of a corporate brand is also easier programs to ensure that the brand delivers on innovation,
internally, because the brand identity is supported by the
mission, goals, values, and culture of the organization. All
of this makes it easier to communicate with key stakeholders
such as retailers and customers.
While an overall corporate brand is a powerful option,
there are challenges to managing it. The heritage of a
corporation is a powerful point of leverage, but it can also
be an obstacle to relevance. Both Xerox and Kodak have
had difficulties moving into the broader world of digital
imaging systems, because of their association with copiers
and cameras.
Business strategy also plays a role in relevance. If
the strategy evolves or changes, then the corporate brand
has to change as well. UPS expanded from a small-
package ground delivery company to a global provider of
distribution, logistics, and financial service. New services
and programs using the UPS corporate identity served to
provide substance and branded differentiation.
Companies must also create value propositions, and
a strong corporate brand can help provide value that will
differentiate products and support customer relationships.
Dell’s brand creates value by allowing customers access to
the latest technology and providing the option to customize
their computer. Nordstrom’s concern for its customers
provides value by ensuring customers will have a good
experience.
“Portfolio synergy involves allocating resources over the portfolio to
support the overall business strategy.”
Leveraging a corporate brand does carry the risk that
the brand equity and the businesses on which it rests will be at retaining or acquiring an existing brand, managers
vulnerable to visible negatives. When the corporate brand
is highly leveraged, then the whole organization needs to
be sensitive to this risk. When there is controversy that
endangers the brand, the accepted best practice is to own
up to it, or to admit that there is a problem and then provide portfolio there are four criteria that must be considered.
a visible fix.
The identity and the position of the corporate brand
needs to be actively managed with a corporate brand
manager who has the resources needed to build a brand.
That manager will also need the authority to create
consistency across the firm and to capture synergy. For a
corporate brand to succeed there must be commitment and
customer concern, and any other priorities set out by the
corporation.
Some corporate brands are not well suited for
leveraging. A corporation must realistically appraise its
brand in respect to its ability to cope with challenge. Some
examples of those challenges are when the brand:
• is too confining because of its product category
associations;
• has negative associations; and
• lacks a relevant value proposition, and its only
equity is being large and well-established.
When creating or evaluating a brand portfolio strategy,
many companies may discover that they have too many
brands in it. The consequence of this can range from
inefficiency and confusion to paralysis in managing that
portfolio, resulting in strategic brands losing equity and
market position.
The process for setting up and managing a brand
portfolio strategy is usually the culprit behind over-
branding. There must be discipline in the branding process.
Usually that means including a group with the authority
to approve introductions of new or acquired brands and
subbrands.
Their decisions about a new brand should be based on
whether the business associated with it will be substantial
enough and have a long enough life to justify the creation
and maintenance of the brand
and on whether the new brand
could harm or detract from an
existing brand. When looking
must also look at the business associated with it and its life
expectancy, as well as determining whether the brand could
be transferred to another brand within the portfolio.
When considering the possibility of consolidating a
Those are:
• brand equity;
• business strength;
• strategic fit; and
• branding options.

Business Book Review™ Vol. 21, No. 48 • Copyright © 2006 Business Book Review, LLC • All Rights Reserved Page 8
Brand Portfolio Strategy
Adding brands is the natural bias for most companies,
but part of managing a brand portfolio is making tough
decisions about consolidating or eliminating brands. New
brands, subbrands, and line extensions should be added
only when truly justified, and all brands in the portfolio
should be reviewed periodically to evaluate their roles and
their performance. Brands that are weak or that no longer
fit the strategy should be candidates for removal from the
portfolio. The end result just may be a more focused and
healthier brand portfolio.
* * *
A chapter-by-chapter summary and a bibliography
are provided.
Remarks
Brand Portfolio Strategy, by David A. Aaker details
how to create brand relevance, differentiation, and energy.
He leads managers through the steps necessary to leverage
brands and to develop clear, focused portfolios that support
a firm’s business strategy.
The author provides many exceptional details, so this
book can easily be used as a step-by-step guide. Each chapter
ends with questions for discussion that act as a guide through
the portfolio decision-making process. Examples, charts,
and diagrams illustrate the authors ideas and serve to clarify
what a brand portfolio strategy is and how to use it.
The book does not end with the creation of the portfolio,
but provides information on how to manage the portfolio and
how to evaluate it at different points in the brand cycle. This
is a book that can be used periodically as a reference tool.
Reading Suggestions
Reading Time 8-10 hours, 348 Pages in Book
Because of the amount of information and detail, it is
not the ideal candidate for a quick skimming. For someone
who truly wants or needs to learn about brand portfolio
Business Book Review™ Vol. 21, No. 48 • Copyright © 2006 Business Book Review, LLC • All Rights Reserved
David A. Aaker
strategies from the ground up, it is best read cover to cover.
However, it is well-organized, so anyone who has questions
about or needs to brush up on a specific aspect of portfolio
management can locate their topic easily. Managers who
wants to gain an understanding of what they will learn from
the book can read the epilogue, which gives 20 takeaway
lessons.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
PART ONE: What is Brand Portfolio Strategy?
Chapter 1: Brand Portfolio Strategy
Chapter 2: The Brand Relationship Spectrum
Chapter 3: Inputs to Brand Portfolio Decisions
PART TWO: Creating Relevance, Differentiation,
and Energy
Chapter 4: Brand Relevance
Chapter 5: Energizing and Differentiating the Brand
Chapter 6: Accessing Strategic Assets: Brand Alliances
PART THREE: Leveraging Brand Assets
Chapter 7: Leveraging the Brand into New Product
Markets
Chapter 8: Participating in Upscale and Value Markets
PART FOUR: Bringing Focus and Clarity to the
Brand Portfolio
Chapter 9: Leveraging the Corporate Brand
Chapter 10: Toward Focus and Clarity
Epilogue: Brand Portfolio Strategy—20 Takeaways
Page 9
Brand Portfolio Strategy David A. Aaker

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