Brand Management and Product Marketing
This domain tests brand equity, positioning discipline and portfolio decisions - which brands to build, extend or retire, and why. Questions often ask you to choose between extension options or interpret a portfolio grid.
Brand equity
- Keller's CBBE ladder runs salience → performance and imagery → judgements and feelings → resonance.
- Aaker's components: awareness, associations, perceived quality, loyalty, proprietary assets.
- Brand identity is what you send; brand image is what customers perceive. The gap is the diagnosis.
- Distinctive assets (colour, logo, character, slogan) drive recognition in low-involvement buying, where deliberation is minimal.
Product and portfolio
- Product mix width = number of lines; depth = variants within a line.
- Line extension (same category), brand extension (new category), new brand. Extensions risk cannibalisation and dilution if fit is weak.
- BCG matrix uses relative market share (versus largest rival) and market growth: stars, cash cows, question marks, dogs.
- Ansoff: penetration, product development, market development, diversification.
- Positioning statement: for [target], [brand] is the [frame] that [benefit] because [reason to believe].
Worked example
A drinks portfolio: Brand X holds relative share 0.4 in a market growing 9% - a question mark needing investment or exit. Brand Y holds relative share 1.8 in a market growing 1% - a cash cow that funds X. Brand Z holds 0.3 in a flat market - a dog to harvest or divest. Reasoning: resources follow cash generation, not sentiment; the cash cow is protected, the question mark is funded selectively, the dog is not rescued.
Traps
- Using absolute share where relative share is required.
- Treating high awareness as preference; famous brands can still lose choice.
- Extending into categories with no functional or image fit.