Summary
Some brands, such as Apple and L'Oreal, have very successful brand portfolios, while others get it wrong with a brand architecture that is a confusing mess of sub-brands. This article advises how to make brand portfolios interesting, while still being able to speak to the target consumer audience. Suggested strategy includes to build from the commercial priorities of the business, demonstrate a unique point of view, assign clear roles for growth, establish a simple hierarchy, employ imaginative visual and verbal signposts and encourage play and creativity.

Summary
Every year around 30,000 new consumer products are launched and, in a typical day, the average person sees 1,009 ads. So it is no surprise that there is a massive failure rate at every step of the marketing process. Such failures range from existing brands that fail to sustain their engagement to the 75-90% of new product launches that fail to survive their first year, to the 88% of people who fast-forward through the ads on their PVR. Existing engagement models don't work for all brands in all categories, so Creston came up with a new model to measure brand enrichment.

Summary
All brands are local at heart, with the potential to be global. The history of globalisation can give a hint of where brands are headed in a global market where uncertainty has become a key to shaping consumer decision-making. As the BRIC countries continue to expand and more affluent nations are trapped in the debt overhang of the economic crisis, BRIC-based companies are likely to add brands to their portfolios. Another trend will see iconic brands decline as, in the future, there will be too many brands chasing too few possibilities. Uncertainty will redefine global brands from the bottom up.

Summary
This article argues that a solid brand architecture plan can improve the chances of success of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) that involve a range of different brands. It says that the challenges of building value from acquired brands depend on the brand architecture already in place. It discusses the advantages and challenges of brand acquisitions for different types of brand architecture, such as "house of brands" companies (e.g. Procter & Gamble) and "branded houses" companies (e.g. Accenture). The article also provides tips for M&A success, including valuing brands based on the worth to your business and having a transition plan ready to implement as soon as the deal closes.

Summary
The ideal brand architecture can be structured by using Leading Indicator Metrics for the brand and its category. A well-designed brand architecture should provide strategic and marketing clarity for internal constituencies and, ideally, should also provide clearer and more differentiated product offerings to external customers. But saying, doing it, doing it profitably and doing it predictively are four entirely different things. The difficulty with the traditional brand architectures, from a metrics perspective, is that they are generally built on lagging measurements of what has happened previously. If you want to predict brand success, your brand architecture needs, at the very least, something that provides a predictive foundation for brand planning.

Summary
Generation Y (aged 15-30) is the most marketing savvy generation ever, much larger than the previous generation X, and with an impact on society that will soon surpass that of the extensively documented Babyboomers. This paper explores what drives this fickle, youthful generation and how global brands can connect with it. The paper highlights the key dimensions behind cool brands - which it formulates into a brandCRUSH model - derived from a research community connecting urban youth in 15 different cities around the globe. It concludes that to stay hot and follow the current evolutions among this youth generation, cool brands need to connect on a deep and individual emotional level.

Summary
With consumers becoming less trusting of corporate businesses, Alex Do from Landor Associates argues that brands need to become more open and adopt an open-source mindset. He argues that in order to facilitate a "community" which consumers enjoy, brands must encourage users to be more actively involved in their business activities. Approaches and brands cited as being effective include soliciting feedback about products and services (Starbucks), providing tools for personalisation and customisation (Nike) and being transparent with business plans and operations (American Apparel). Do also recommends that in order to get started, brands should use appropriate technology and communication channels, align strategies and objectives with their business model and foster an ongoing dialogue with the target community.

Summary
The era of perpetual marketing requires brands and their agencies to listen, respond and change in real-time. Conventional marketers still spend too much time in focus groups, ethnographic studies, brainstorming, and R&D labs, which are all largely artificial learning environments that have little to do with the context of the real world in which decisions are made. To accommodate the multi-faceted, fast-changing and responsive nature of brands now, isn’t it time to evolve how we articulate and define our brands? In the digital age, a brand needs to be thought of as a set of inter-operable elements that work together to achieve a particular mission or goal.

Summary
Perpetual marketing must take into account everything from product performance and brand presence to the ongoing management of conversations and brand spread. Consumers can converse with each other around the clock and in real-time. But is perpetual marketing greater than a continuous digital dialogue? What if marketers considered every brand action and interaction as part of what is truly ‘perpetual marketing’? Perpetual marketing is definitely a big idea. Every marketing function, from the product’s physical presence in our lives, to the careful and continuous management of meaningful brand conversations, must be taken into account. If we reframe the argument that perpetual marketing is the result of direct and continuous consumer involvement with the brand, then five key tenets of perpetual marketing emerge.

Summary
Technology has accelerated the need for spontaneity in marketing communications and consumers have expectations of ‘live access’ to the brand. According to data recently published, the unprecedented acceleration in technological change means the number of years that separate a generation has been reduced to four. Live is about doing things for real – and living with the consequences of the judgement you made. It’s scary because, in this business, we are almost all control freaks. So why is the world pushing toward live? And how will marketing cope? We must think about weighing complete clarity and consistency of meaning in a brand with the breathtaking spontaneity that has the potential to lead that meaning in different directions.