Individual branding, also called individual product branding, flanker brands or multibranding, can be defined as "a branding strategy in which products are given brand names that are newly created and generally not connected to names of existing brands offered by the company." This way, within the same company, each brand has a unique name, identity and image. Individual branding is a type of branding strategy contrasting with family branding, corporate branding, and umbrella branding, where the firm markets all of its product together, using the same brand name and identity. All kind of branding strategies are highly related to economic and social factors, as well as to the nature of business and consumers' needs.
The point of branding is to distinguish products from their competitors. Therefore, a company must choose the branding strategy, which best develops an enduring assets for the company obtaining customers' loyalty. Because, building a strong brand name is a key to sustain growth, gain competitive advantage and dominance in the market.
Individual branding is the most effective when the company offers numerous unconnected commodities, and the products vary in quality and price targeting different market segments. Also, it is a good strategy when the new product is highly innovative with a great risk of failure, and the company does not want to affect the prosperity of existing brands. And, the potential sales of the new product must cover the high expenditures of its advertising.
The American-based Procter & Gamble is the world's biggest FMCG company.
The company has the portfolio of the following categories:
These brands(65 in total) offer a wide variety of products from Baby, Feminine & Family Care to Home Care and Health. All of them focusing on "making people's life a little easier".
In 2014, 21 brands had annual sales of $1 billion to about $10 billion, and 11 with sales of $500 million to $1billion. The global annual sales of the company was $83 billion in 2014.
The British-Dutch consumer goods company is operating in 190 countries worldwide.
The company has the portfolio of the following categories:
These brands touch people's lives in so many different ways that Unilever's brands are used by 2 billion humans every day.
Out of the company's 400 brands 14 have a yearly profit over €1 billion, whilst the global yearly turnover of the company was €48.4 billion in 2014.