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

Establishing clarity in a brand portfolio for a large business can be a real challenge. The approach the Aaker uses, while it may be jargony, is excellent as a source to ensure that each brand sits at the appropriate place in the hierarchy and has a role that's clear.I keep on my desk as a constant reference. Yes, that's a little weird, but there you are.

Excellent discussion of brand building within a large corporate portfolio. All of David Aaker's books are worth reading if you are interested in marketing / branding.

Great for someone like me who has no exposure to marketing to understand the basics. I love the examples and case studies.

As brands assume roles equal to or more important than the actual products, keeping them dynamic and relevent becomes ever more crucial for business performance. Yet that challenge is becoming more complex as brands proliferate, cluttering brand porfolios and diluting brand equities.In this book, Aaker builds a framework for understanding the key issues in brand management based on analysis of common initiatives taken by leading companies. It takes a theoretical approach, but it is based in real world examples that make it easy to follow.I found the section on brand extensions very useful. For example, when considering a brand extensions, should the existing brand be leveraged, simply using a descriptor to define the offering; or should a new sub-brand created...if so, which will play the greater role in defining the offering and driving purchase -- the subbrand or the master?These are the sorts of issues brand managers and strategists face on a daily basis so Aaker's exporation of these issues is very useful."Brand Portfolio Strategy" is not in the category of "brand enlightenment" tales, like Scott Bedbury's "A new brand world". It takes time to get through, can be rather dry.... but overall I found it an excellent investment of time and money.

Really good book!

This book is obsessed with jargon and technicals and terms to a point it can not point out the big picture and exhausting you only with the small details.

The online availability and accessibility of products has commoditized almost every offering or service imaginable. This global phenomenon makes it increasingly necessary for companies to differentiate their products through branding. Although branding expert David A. Aaker wrote this classic book in 2004, its premises are still relevant. Aaker's treatment of the complexities of brand portfolio management, while somewhat dry, is easy to follow and assimilate. In his fourth guide to brand portfolio management, he deftly uses case studies by brand powerhouses such as Disney, General Electric and Toyota to underscore the crucial issues facing brand strategists. While most solid marketing or branding books offer kindred messages, getAbstract considers Aaker's work an essential read for anyone in marketing and brand management. Study it, and post his "Brand Portfolio Strategy" chart and "20 Takeaways" where you can refer to them often.

I am the Principal of Cohesion Inc, a marketing & business consulting organization, and also a part-time course director in the marketing faculty of the Schulich School of Business, York University in Toronto, Canada.I believe that this book, which builds on some of the concepts from Brand Leadership by the same author, makes a positive contribution to marketing and branding literature, especially with respect to topics such as brand extensions and brand architecture. When read together with The New Strategic Brand Management by Jean-Noel Kapferer, it provides a strong grounding in these areas for students and serious practitioners alike.

Awesome book, great stimulus articulated in a simple and easy to compute way.