POWER BRANDS

• Power branding referred to building multi-product, multi-category brands which had global reach.
• The idea behind this strategy was to build global brands which endorsed multiple products in various categories
• Power brands as a concept came into existence by seeing the retailer as an economic partner.
• Brands were rationalized to support the super retailer.
• Unilever began implementing the ‘Power Brands’ strategy in September 1999 as the company found itself under tremendous pressure to find a balance between size and growth.
• Unilever reduced the number of brands from 1600 to 400 to increase operation efficiency, making brand portfolio more flexible and easier to handle.
• Increasing the promotional activities for the ‘Power Brands’ to cover the loss due to the reduction of brands.
• Encourage customers to migrate from smaller brands to ‘Power Brands’ as Unilever faced threats from the increasing power of retailers, brand proliferation activities, and decreasing concentration on more profitable customers.
• For example ‘Lux’ a Power Brand began taking the place of other brands in the soap category.
• The company started making Power Brands the cult brands for every segment in that particular product category which had different brands for multiple segments earlier.
• The Power Brands were chosen on the basis of size, brand strength, uniqueness and growth potential.
• As a part of the Power Brands strategy, Unilever announced that it would concentrate on fewer but stronger brands over the coming years.
• Unilever’s Indian arm, too, adopted the same strategy. Hindustan Lever decided to spend on only 30 brands and 10 regional brands from its original basket of 110 brands.
• Other Indian companies, too, decided to follow the power brands strategy, including Godrej, Britannia, Dabur and Marico.