Put Your Stray Brands in a Think Tank. Estée Lauder Does

NEW YORK – The news that Coach (NYSE: COH) and Estée Lauder (NYSE: EL) decided to market a new fragrance for the department store market revealed a brand strategy, the brand think tank. Estee Lauder calls it their brand think tank called Beauty Bank.

BeautyBank is the entrepreneurial think tank division of The Estée Lauder Companies. Led by Veronique Gabai-Pinsky (who is officially global brand president, Aramis & Designer Fragrances) BeautyBank and IdeaBank, the section’s mission is to “identify opportunities across product development, channel diversification and regional expansion and bring these concepts and brands to market.”

That would be an excellent model for other companies who have a large stable of brands, and are not sure what to do with them. Put these brands in a stable, and experiment. Have one person accountable. Give them a mix of underperforming brands and new concepts, so that no one gets stale. This would be the perfect solution for companies like GM, with old brands like Oldsmobile and Pontiac, and Macy’s, with a large stable of house brands and defunct department store brands that could be house brands.

Most large companies have Intellectual Property departments that sort of look after licensing and such, but Lauder concept is much more evolved and prominent, as it has been singled out in a press release. And while there needs to be a legal trigger when trademark issues arise, and trademarks need to be renewed, the thinking behind the trademark needs to come from somewhere else other than just the lawyer.

Estee Lauder products are sold in over 140 countries and territories under the following brand names: Estée Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, Prescriptives, Lab Series, Origins, M•A•C, Bobbi Brown, Tommy Hilfiger, Kiton, La Mer, Donna Karan, Aveda, Jo Malone, Bumble and bumble, Darphin, Michael Kors, American Beauty, Flirt!, Good Skin™, Grassroots Research Labs, Sean John, Missoni, Daisy Fuentes, Tom Ford, Coach and Ojon.

Author

  • Garland Pollard

    J. Garland Pollard IV is editor/publisher of BrandlandUSA. Since 2006, the website BrandlandUSA.com has chronicled the history and business of America’s great brands.

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