Chapter 6

Prioritize Brands in the Portfolio

If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.

—Will Rogers

Nobody has ever bet enough on a winning horse.

—Richard Sasuly, author

MOST CMOS LOOKING AT their organization see too many brands with too few priorities and too little leverage—a context that makes it difficult to create strong brands and effective marketing. It is not uncommon to see hundreds, sometimes many hundreds, of brands fighting for resources and the minds of customers. Adobe, for example, has 90 brands, and Unilever at one point had 1,600 brands covering 100 countries. This overbranding can lead to confusion and diffusion of resources and even to paralysis in branding new offerings.

An overbranded portfolio ...

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