MARKSTRAT BRAND MANAGER REPORT
Part 6: Brand Portfolio Analysis (optional exercise)
Industry: Sonites
Firm: Racoon
Brand Manager Name: Anna Coyle
Analyze your firm’s current brand portfolio by answering the following questions:
1. Present your firm’s BCG matrix after making the necessary adjustments to
the one provided by the Markstrat program.
2. Provide comments on the overall size and balance of your firm’s brand
portfolio. What are the specific strengths and weaknesses?
Our company's brand portfolio includes Rock and Roll which is a diverse strategy that
targets different market segments. Rock has established a strong market presence as a star
in the BCG matrix, showing a high market share and significant growth potential. Rock is
positioned as an inexpensive and simple product. Its ability to successfully capture the
savers market highlights our brand portfolio’s strength. On the other hand, Roll, targeting
high earners and professionals, presents a mixed scenario. For high earners, it is a
question mark, implying room for growth but uncertainty; for professionals, it is in the
dog quadrant, implying little market share in a declining market. Our portfolio's
weakness can be seen through Roll's failure to properly reach the professional market.
Another weakness is not only our limited amount of brands but specifically, our lack of
cash cow brands.
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3. Identify the strategic role of each brand according to the BCG matrix.
The brand portfolio of our company emphasizes a well-balanced strategy, targeting a
wide range of consumer market segments with tailored brand identities. With a focus on
cost and simplicity, our brand Rock, positioned as a star in the BCG matrix, caters to the
savers market. As a result of this, Rock has a high market growth rate and a significant
relative market share. This means we must continue to invest in Rock to maintain its
growth. Our brand Roll, which focuses on offering premium features at a higher price,
targets high earners and professionals. Roll (HI) needs careful evaluation to determine its
future potential as it is characterized as a question mark. Although it faces competition,
its location in a high-growth market offers growth potential. On the other hand, Roll (PR)
faces challenges, as it is in the dog quadrant, due to its poor market growth rate and low
relative market share.
4. Propose a strategy to improve your brand portfolio for the next three
periods.
To improve our brand portfolio going forward my team will have to make some
adjustments. For starters, we have been, and plan on continuing, to invest in Rock. Our
R&D department has been working on a new Sonite product. We will launch this new
and improved product as an updated version of Rock as it is redesigned to better fit the
needs of the savers segment. We will use the branded house strategy and continue to use
the brand name Rock. Additionally, my company needs to consider a new strategy for
Roll to improve our portfolio. There are a couple options to consider. One includes
narrowing our focus on just the high earners segment and investing more resources to
increase brand awareness and attractiveness We need to strengthen our positioning in the
consumers’ minds and close the perception gap. Additionally, it is essential we build a
product and brand that is positioned as a cash cow. Cash cow brands represent products
or services with a high market share in a mature and stable market. Having a cash cow
brand would provide my company the financial stability to overcome challenges, invest
in research and development, and explore new market opportunities to ensure long-term
sustainability and profitability. Looking at the forecast for consumer segment growth, the
savers and shoppers market look the most promising. Since we already have a Sonite
product for savers, it would be beneficial for our company to consider divesting Roll and
use those resources to develop a new Vodite product for the saver’s segment using our
branded house strategy. Since Rock is positioned as a star in the Sonite industry, we will
use the advantage of our existing brand awareness, reputation, and credibility to increase
our sales and profits with our new product.
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