The Infinite Asset

A new set of tools for innovative brand management

Remember when brand management was as straightforward as promoting a single product or service? Today, brands mingle so much — McDonald's and Disney partner on promotional giveaways, Subaru markets an L. L. Bean edition of the Outback, Toys R Us and Amazon.com jointly launch an online toy store — a whole system of brands can make or break a product and a career. Once content to "mind their own brands"m marketers need a radically different game plan to succeed in this complex marketplace.

In The Infinite Asset, Sam Hill and Chris Lederer unveil an ingenious strategy — the Brand Portfolio Approach — that exponentially increases the value of brands by exploding them beyond the boundaries of their division or even their parent company. The authors argue that a company's brand profile must reflect how the target customer actually views the brand — whether the company owns it or not — that affects the buying decision.

Based on thirty years of consulting experience and extensive research across industries, the authors introduce a breakthrough 3-D mapping tool — the brand portfolio molecule — that lets managers visualize all elements of a brand and how they interact to create new value. Compelling case studies apply the model to the brand strategies of companies including 3M, Cadillac, Miller Beer, and Yahoo!. In addition, a comprehensive set of implementation tools guide marketers in using the model to:

• identify the "lead brand" in the eyes of the customer
• find and fill holes
• decide whether to extend, prune, or reposition a brand
• Arrive at the right number of brands
• determine how and when to use a corporate brand as an umbrella
• allocate marketing funds most effectively
• trace brand value using informative metrics
• convert brand equity into shareholder value and more

The first to provide a holistic model for brand value creation and management, this book is the must-have guide to leveraging every company's infinite asset for lasting competitive advantage.

• Part 1: Understanding the Brand Portfolio
1. Brands, New Value Creation, and Competitive Advantage
2. Elements of the New Model
3. The Molecule in Detail
4. Portfolio Dynamics
5. How Brand Portfolios Differ
• Part 2: Optimizing the Brand Portfolio
6. Measuring Success
7. Toolkit: Extension
8. Toolkit: Repositioning
9. Toolkit: Pruning
10. Toolkit: Over-Branding
11. Toolkit: Co-Branding
12. Toolkit: Amalgamation
13. Toolkit: Partitioning
14. Toolkit: Scaling
15. Using the Tools
• Part 3: Implementing Brand Portfolio Management
16. Brand Portfolio Management — the 3M Case
17. Overcoming Organizational Resistance
18. Lessons Learned in the Trenches
19. The Implications of Infinity
• Afterword: About the Research

A pretty basic book about brands and branding. The only unique aspect of it is its insistence on looking at the world through American eyes (even exporting is only from the US). Not bad, but not something to queue for either.