The brand portfolio needs to support and reflect the business strategy. When you are building a brand, you must understand the business model in each product/service market in which it competes. Which leads to 2 basic questions:

• What is the business strategy?
• How are the firms and its strategic brands performing with respect to the strategy?

Take a moment to really think about this answer meanwhile learning what a brand strategy includes.

• The product market scope, meaning, where the business is going to compete. What products and markets will be emphasized and which will be deemphasized or avoided.
• The value proposition is what the customer offer is, why should the customer buy it? What is the basis of loyalty? What is the differentiation?
• Strategic Assets is including brand assets that create a sustainable competitive advantage, what assets will allow your brand to be successful over time in each product/service market.

Once building your brand strategy, let’s focus on the next part, business strategy. This is found in the center of the product-market profile. By profile, I mean the consumer base, competitor’s offerings, market share, product extensions (sub-branding), new market penetration, economic efficiencies, etc.

The value proposition is the value offering the brand brings to the consumer; it must be relevant and meaningful to the customer. Having to reflect onto the brand identity and positioning.

So far so good, now lets just add your brand equities and identities. The brand equity is the consumer’s belief in the brand. Brand identity influences brand equity. May sound confusing at first, but brand equity is what the consumer thinks about the brand and the brand identity is how you position the brand in the market. This then becomes the foundation for a portfolio strategy.

Some good elements for brand equity are the following:

• Awareness: Is the brand well known in the market?
• Reputation: Is the brand highly regarded in the market?
• Differentiation: Does the brand have a personality? Or emotional benefit?
• Energy: Does it have energy or is it just “old" school?
• Relevance: Do the consumers take the brand serious?
• Loyalty: Are the consumers loyal to the brand? Who are they, how many, why are they loyal to the brand?
• Extendibility: Can the product market be a platform for growth? Does it have the potential to extend to other products either as a master brand or endorser?

In conclusion, the brand portfolio should represent the business brand accurately to create growth and success.

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