The Infinite Asset: Managing Brands to Build New Value [Hardcover]

Sam Hill (Author), Chris Lederer (Author), Kevin Lane Keller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2001

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.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Sam Hill and Chris Lederer say brand-dominated business strategies will be the true road to commercial success for at least 10 more years. But when they say it, they aren't talking about today's prevailing approach, in which brands owned by a single company are combined in the manner of the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printer. That's old news, contend Hill and Lederer, marketing veterans and partners at Helios Consulting. The next level, they say, is "brand portfolios"--actively managed collections of every brand, regardless of ownership, that intersects with another. Developing and running such systems (like those that connect Intel, Microsoft, and Dell, for example) is the subject of The Infinite Asset, a sharp and practical guide to adopting their well-considered suggestions on handling brand portfolios in the same way that financial portfolios are managed. The authors look at case studies of 3M and Miller Beer, among others, which help readers visualize the relationships that tie their brands to each other and to the outside world. They also put together an eight-part "toolkit" that covers brand extensions and repositioning, as well as an organizational design for implementing brand-portfolio management. --Howard Rothman

From Publishers Weekly

In this intriguing book, which will strike most readers as a glib theoretical exercise, the authors contend, "the greatest brand value is now being created in the intersections between individual brands. Kmart and Martha Stewart are worth more together than they are apart." The authors, partners at Helios Consulting, lay out a formula for capitalizing on this idea: chart every interaction a brand has from where it's advertised to who its partners are and determine how to get the most out of every relationship, and they explain this formula in three simple chapters (understanding, optimizing and implementing).

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 238 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press; 1st edition (September 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578512492
• ISBN-13: 978-1578512492
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #464,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An alternative look at branding, November 6, 2001

By 

Ib Olsen "olsenii" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Infinite Asset: Managing Brands to Build New Value (Hardcover)

Hill and Lederer in this book give us a very convincing argument why branding must be treated as an asset on line with products and intellectual properties. They introduce us to the "brand portfolio molecule" [BPM], which comes across as a very powerful tool to understand the relationship between not only the different brands in a company's portfolio but also to other brands outside the direct control of the company as perceived by the customer. With this information the authors move on to show how active brand portfolio management can be used to identify new growth opportunities both within the portfolio and as natural extensions.
The book is full of actual examples of good and bad practice, and it covers both established companies that turns to active brand portfolio management and newcomers, that incorporate it from the beginning.
The message in this book is not only for marketing people but also very much for the business leader, who wants to understand the power of brands and how he or she can use it to grow the company.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful ... written by a consultant ..., January 20, 2002

By 

"nmccutcheon" (Indianapolis, IN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Infinite Asset: Managing Brands to Build New Value (Hardcover)

This book does provide a valuable summary of others works in branding. Helps to explain and clarify how many different items have a link to your brand and shape the percpetion of it in customers minds. Not a new thought, but again a good succint summary that reminded me to think through how such relationships add value or take away from the organization and brands I work for. What this book does add is a way to depcit these relationships on a 3 dimensional model. Interesting ... but I would question the value of the time and effort spent to create such a diagram. I don't think the authors would disagree with me when I say it is the thought process that makes the difference .. not the fancy depiction.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars infinite asset, October 22, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Infinite Asset: Managing Brands to Build New Value (Hardcover)

The true challenge for any business book is to be both interesting and relevant. The Infinite Asset was worth the time for me, and I think it will be for a wide range of audiences. Those managing large portfolios (and of course the consultants aspiring to help them) will like the "big idea" first section. Those managing individual brands, people trying to break into brand mgmt, and new MBAs will appreciate the second section.

Yes, it is organized more as two books in one, and often the best statement of the concept is at the end, rather than the beginning of the chapter. But it is well written (has great quotations) a fast read for the complexity of thought and experience it contains. Worth the time.