Individual branding

Individual branding, also called individual product branding, flanker brands or multibranding, can be defined as "a branding strategy in which products are given brand names that are newly created and generally not connected to names of existing brands offered by the company." ^[1] This way, within the same company, each brand has a unique name, identity and image. Individual branding is a type of branding strategy contrasting with family branding, corporate branding, and umbrella branding, where the firm markets all of its product together, using the same brand name and identity. All kind of branding strategies are highly related to economic and social factors, as well as to the nature of business and consumers' needs.^[2][3]

The point of branding is to distinguish products from their competitors. Therefore, a company must choose the branding strategy, which best develops an enduring assets for the company obtaining customers' loyalty. Because, building a strong brand name is a key to sustain growth, gain competitive advantage and dominance in the market.^[4][5][6]

When does individual branding work the best?

Individual branding is the most effective when the company offers numerous unconnected commodities, and the products vary in quality and price targeting different market segments. Also, it is a good strategy when the new product is highly innovative with a great risk of failure, and the company does not want to affect the prosperity of existing brands. And, the potential sales of the new product must cover the high expenditures of its advertising.

Advantages of individual branding

• less corporate identity →the firm can position its brands differentlly
• each brand can choose the marketing strategy best suiting them
• it allows a wide variety of products of different quality→ lower quality products will not weaken the image of high quality products
• each brand can serve customers in a different way ^[7]
• the company's global reputation is not tied to the product, meaning if one product fails it will not hurt the company's global reputation ^[8]

Disadvantages of individual branding

• instability within your company may occur
• can divide the market and split the efforts
• risk of market cannibalization → the company's newly launched product takes the sales and demand away of a company's older product ^[9][10]
• high costs for brand creation→ loads of money need to be invested into advertising and sales promotion ^[11]
• there is a higher risk launching new products→ the new brand needs to find recognition, because when entering the market it lacks acknowledgement and customer loyalty ^[12]

Pioneers of individual branding

Procter& Gamble

The American-based Procter & Gamble is the world's biggest FMCG company.

The company has the portfolio of the following categories:

• Beauty & Grooming : Always, Gilette, Head & Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Lacoste fragrances, Max Factor, Old Spice, Oral-B, Pantene, Tampax
• Household Care : Ace, Ambi Pur, Ariel, Duracell, Lenor, Fairy Liquid, Pampers

These brands(65 in total) offer a wide variety of products from Baby, Feminine & Family Care to Home Care and Health. All of them focusing on "making people's life a little easier".^[13]

In 2014, 21 brands had annual sales of $1 billion to about $10 billion, and 11 with sales of $500 million to $1billion. The global annual sales of the company was $83 billion in 2014.

Unilever

The British-Dutch consumer goods company is operating in 190 countries worldwide.

The company has the portfolio of the following categories:

• Food and drink : Flora, Algida, Hellmann's, Knorr, Lipton, Magnum, Ben&Jerry's, Carte D'or, Cornetto, Cremissimo, I can't believe it's not Butter, Rama, Bertolli
• Home Care : Domestos , Surf, Cajoline, Cif, Persil, Comfort
• Personal Care : Axe, Dove , Lux, Rexona, Signal,
• Water Purifier : Pureit

These brands touch people's lives in so many different ways that Unilever's brands are used by 2 billion humans every day.

Out of the company's 400 brands 14 have a yearly profit over €1 billion, whilst the global yearly turnover of the company was €48.4 billion in 2014.^[14][15]

See also

• Umbrella brand
• Family branding
• Corporate branding
• Brand architecture
• Marketing
• Brand
• Brand management

References

1. "Individual Product Branding - Marketing Terms and Definitions - KnowThis.com". www.knowthis.com. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
2. Pritchard, Elana (2012-03-15). "Performance Marketing Today: Brand Awareness: Family Branding vs. Individual Branding". Performance Marketing Today. Retrieved 2015-10-30.
3. "Company Brand vs. Individual Brand: Which Way to Go?". www.businessknowhow.com. Retrieved 2015-10-30.
4. "Define the concept of branding, its advantages /disadvantages, brand strategy decisions and finally sustainable competitive advantage.". The WritePass Journal. Retrieved 2015-10-30.
5. Kotler, Armstrong, Wong, Saunders, Philip, Gary, Veronica, John (1996). Principles of Marketing, 5th edition. Essex, England: Pearson Education Limited.
6. Baker, Michael J. (1996). Marketing an introductory text, 6th edition. London: Macmillan Business. p. 99.
7. Mercer, David (1996). Marketing. Massachusetts: Blackwell Business. p. 158.
8. "Single n umbrella branding". 2013-05-17.
9. "Market Cannibalization Definition | Investopedia". Investopedia. Retrieved 2015-10-30.
10. Mercer, David (1996). Marketing. Massachusetts: Blackwell Business. p. 158.
11. Baker, Michael J (1996). Marketing an introductory text, 6th edition. London: Macmillan Business. p. 99.
12. "Umbrella Branding". 2012-11-07.
13. "Our Brands | P&G". us.pg.com. Retrieved 2015-10-31.
14. "Universal charm - Unilever brand profile - Marketing Magazine". Marketing Magazine. Retrieved 2015-10-31.
15. "About Unilever". Unilever global company website. Retrieved 2015-10-31.