New brand policies

In September 1999, Unilever announced its decision to eliminate 1000 of its 1400 brands over the following three years. Many other companies have decided to do likewise and are now completely revising their brand policy.

– Develop super brands that cover several products.
This approach improves market visibility, both for shareholders and consumers, and offers obvious opportunities to pool costs.

– Structure your brand portfolio around this super brand.
You must choose a brand in your portfolio that is powerful on its market and devote the majority of your communication efforts to that brand. You must then distribute roles to the various brands in your portfolio to ensure an awareness of how each brand is positioned relative to the super brand.

– Reinforce the super brand through brand extensions.
Despite long-standing criticism, brand extension can be a major source of growth and profitability, provided that you extend into relevant territory and invest sufficiently in extension efforts.

– Don't neglect local brands.
Rationalizing your brand portfolio doesn't necessarily mean systematically eliminating local brands, which may be quite profitable. Updating local brands can be quite beneficial in certain cases.

– Develop your brands while preserving their identity.
A limited number of attributes define brand identity. Understanding these attributes will help you develop and adapt each brand while preserving its unique identity.