{"id":735,"date":"2008-07-30T06:00:59","date_gmt":"2008-07-30T05:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/?p=735"},"modified":"2019-12-17T19:40:45","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T18:40:45","slug":"the-new-corporate-brand-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/the-new-corporate-brand-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Corporate Brand Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I read an article on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brandweek.com\/bw\/content_display\/news-and-features\/packaged-goods\/e3id41715bb599296b04121963686363b09\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brandweek<\/a> today about <a href=\"http:\/\/unilever.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Unilever&#8217;s<\/a> decision to sell its laundry care division in North America, which includes popular brands such as All, Snuggle, Wisk, Surf and Sunlight.\u00a0 According to Unilever&#8217;s spokesperson, Anita Larsen, the sale will allow Unilever to focus its efforts on growing its core brands.\u00a0 I can understand that\u00a0much,\u00a0but what concerned me as I read this article was the suggestion that Unilever&#8217;s decision is in line with a current trend of large corporations ditching brands that aren&#8217;t market leaders.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Apparently, the new strategy is this: if a brand leads the market, keep it.\u00a0 If a brand is second or lower in market share, get rid of it.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I certainly hope this is not a pervasive brand strategy that companies are following.\u00a0 Have marketers forgotten that the power of your brand comes not from being first in the market but from being first in consumers&#8217; minds?\u00a0 If all companies followed this new\u00a0brand strategy and flee markets that they aren&#8217;t currently dominating, then we&#8217;re in trouble.\u00a0 Just because your brand is not the leader, does that mean you should abandon your efforts and investments?\u00a0 Should you not pursue strategies and tactics to gain a stronger position in the realm of consumer perception?\u00a0 Should you not pursue creating a differentiator or an entirely new market where you <em>can<\/em> be number one?<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not saying that selling its North American laundry care division wasn&#8217;t a good move for Unilever.\u00a0 What I&#8217;m questioning is a growing trend among large companies to abandon brands that aren&#8217;t number one.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think about companies running away from tough markets to focus solely on their strengths?\u00a0 In terms of Unilever, how many versions of Dove soap can they possibly make?\u00a0 Know what I mean?<\/p>\n<p>Leave a comment and share your thoughts with Corporate Eye readers.<\/p>\n<p><em>Image: <\/em><em>Flickr<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I read an article on Brandweek today about Unilever&#8217;s decision to sell its laundry care division in North America, which includes popular brands such as All, Snuggle, Wisk, Surf and Sunlight.\u00a0 According to Unilever&#8217;s spokesperson, Anita Larsen, the sale will allow Unilever to focus its efforts on growing its core brands.\u00a0 I can understand that\u00a0much,\u00a0but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[100,392,156,393,391,139,390],"class_list":{"0":"post-735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-brand","7":"tag-brand-strategy","8":"tag-brandweek","9":"tag-market-follower","10":"tag-market-leader","11":"tag-market-share","12":"tag-marketing-strategy","13":"tag-unilever","14":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The New Corporate Brand Strategy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Market Leader - hold. Market Follower - fold.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/the-new-corporate-brand-strategy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The New Corporate Brand Strategy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Market Leader - hold. Market Follower - fold.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/the-new-corporate-brand-strategy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Corporate Eye\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/susangunelius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-07-30T05:00:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-12-17T18:40:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/blog\/images\/logo.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Susan Gunelius\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@susangunelius\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@lucynixon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Susan Gunelius\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/the-new-corporate-brand-strategy\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/the-new-corporate-brand-strategy\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Susan Gunelius\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/a46ee0d1e91b41488959551cef624759\"},\"headline\":\"The New Corporate Brand Strategy\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-07-30T05:00:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-12-17T18:40:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/the-new-corporate-brand-strategy\/\"},\"wordCount\":324,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"brand strategy\",\"Brandweek\",\"market follower\",\"market leader\",\"market share\",\"marketing strategy\",\"Unilever\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Brand\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/the-new-corporate-brand-strategy\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/the-new-corporate-brand-strategy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/the-new-corporate-brand-strategy\/\",\"name\":\"The New Corporate Brand Strategy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-07-30T05:00:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-12-17T18:40:45+00:00\",\"description\":\"Market Leader - hold. 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