Counteracting Forces in Multi-branded Product Platform Development

Journal article, 2007

Multi-branded product platforms represent a concurrently promising and challenging strategy to companies striving to get beyond possible economies of scale and scope within a single organization and brand. The strategic aim of multi-branded platform development is to create financial synergies by combining assets across several brands and product programmes. This research is based on a longitudinal field study using a clinical research approach in a global multi-product, multi-branded industrial group. Findings from the study explore two opposite forces counteracting the purpose of multi-branded platforms: the development of common product architecture, and product differentiation. The major challenge is that these two forces possess opposite characteristics, but they need to be handled jointly and concurrently in order to realize intended synergies. © 2017 Wiley. All rights reserved.