Infinite Asset : Managing Brands to Build New Value

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," 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 portfolio must reflect how the target customer actually views the brand; it must encompass every 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 product 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; and 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.Sam Hill was Chief Marketing Officer at Booz, Allen & Hamilton; he is now a partner at Helios Consulting and co-author of Radical Marketing.

Chris Lederer, once a brand manager at Lever Brothers and a Senior Associate at Booz, Allen, is also a partner at Helios.