Revitalizing Brands and Brand Portfolios: Essays on Brand and Brand Portfolio Management Strategies

How should consumer products manufacturers and retailers keep their portfolio of brand offerings relevant and energetic when large numbers of new brands are continuously launched into a world of increasingly nonloyal customers with evolving needs? The harsh reality is, at a time when the demise of old brands has accelerated and even established brands are vulnerable, it stands to be a great deal of challenge. Fortunately, a number of ‘revitalization’ strategies can add relevance and energy to brands and brand portfolios.

This dissertation comprises three essays each of which explores the outcomes of a commonly utilized revitalization strategy. In Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, strategies involving simplification of brand offerings are at the center of interest. Chapter 4 departs from these chapters in that it focuses on sponsorship, a widely utilized external brand energizer.

The essays included in this dissertation show that companies can revitalize their offerings to maintain growth even in proliferating environments. My findings collectively lay out the importance of pursuing a portfolio approach to achieve greater success in executing revitalization strategies. Firms should acquire a thorough understanding of how their revitalization efforts can be linked to the performance of each brand in their portfolio by carefully considering individual brands’ roles and their relationships with one another.