The Agile Masterbrand

No longer content with incremental, year-over-year gains, ambitious leaders are taking advantage of the digital economy in a myriad of ways: from targeting new audiences, to broadening the ecosystem around their products, to creating entirely new revenue models.

Whether it’s Patagonia building out its Worn Wear offering, or Amazon introducing the next generation of Alexa, its AI-powered digital assistant, or Porsche introducing its Drive subscription car-ownership model, we’re seeing one thing in common: Companies with strong master brands are embracing a new approach to growth that we call an “agile masterbrand” strategy. 

An agile masterbrand approach provides the flexibility to pursue new audiences, launch new offerings, drive innovation in untapped areas, and more while also continuing to drive equity to the master brand. By design, an agile masterbrand approach also guards against brand proliferation, a not-uncommon occurrence that can undermine efforts to build a master brand. This new approach links brand creation to specific objectives in such a way that, once achieved, the agile masterbrand leads to brand consolidations and the sunsetting of obsolete brands.

• How to know if an agile masterbrand is right for you
• Our approach to new ventures versus signature offerings
• A how-to guide to dynamic brand management 
• Where to start