PIM: the ultimate solution in a multi-brand environment

75. That’s the number of brands in the LVMH group – quite a feat, if ever there was one! Whilst not all companies have 75 different brands, many operate in a multi-brand environment within the same group. Whatever the history behind this situation – whether it be a long-standing marketing strategy or a series of acquisitions and investments – it often results in teams using disparate methodologies and tools working side by side.

But to accelerate the distribution of products from brands within the same group and improve internal efficiency, standardising product information is an essential and beneficial prerequisite. And this also requires standardising methodologies and tools. What steps need to be taken to properly anticipate these changes? How can the PIM support companies in managing multi-brand products and teams?

Collecting and centralising multi-brand product data

Suppliers generally vary depending on the brand and product. This is particularly true following a takeover, as the companies involved are unlikely to share common processes. Each supplier usually sends flat files such as Excel spreadsheets, which are then integrated by the brands, each of which has its own ERP and IT system. The task of streamlining these processes can therefore seem insurmountable: changing an entire information system is a considerable investment that proves too burdensome for many companies. The solution is instead to invest in a single product content management platform – Product Information Management (PIM) – to which each team can feed its information. The data will then be collected and centralised in a single, reliable tool. The role of the PIM will be to integrate this data and ensure it complies with standards, thereby unifying the processes and supplier information used across the group, regardless of the brand.

Organising the teams’ work

Once the collection of supplier information has been automated, it is time to consider how to enrich that information and organise the work between the various marketing, product and e-commerce teams. However, a multi-brand environment generally means teams are split by brand, or even by product, sometimes overseen at group level by departments that are themselves multi-brand. The advantage of PIM here is that it allows user rights to be managed according to the needs of each entity: for example, an employee may be granted editing rights to enrich only their own brand’s products, but will be able to view all other product listings for inspiration. The administrator, meanwhile, will have the authority to approve all content across the brands they manage. In this way, each brand can retain its own specific processes and organisation, whilst ensuring the overall consistency of content produced at group level.

Create a dashboard tailored to multi-brand operations

With content integrated and each team assigned its respective tasks, it’s time to move on to monitoring! To track the status and progress of your product content editing at a group-wide level, a comprehensive and clear dashboard is key. Thanks to the PIM, you can customise your own dashboard, for example with a ‘core set’ of metrics shared by all brands, whilst retaining specific metrics tailored to each brand’s needs (which is practical, if not essential, when sectors or end customers differ).

Monitoring the quality of product data, anticipating deadlines and organising the day-to-day work of teams becomes simpler. Reports can be viewed by brand, country, distribution channel and even using cross-criteria (e.g. by country and by brand). At a glance, you and your staff know exactly where you stand!

A tailored omnichannel sales strategy for every brand

Does your sales and marketing strategy vary by brand, or even by country? This is no problem for the PIM, which allows you to connect different online and offline sales channels in a way that is tailored to each brand. Once a channel is connected, you can choose to open it up to another brand whenever you wish: if you sell your sofas on the La Redoute marketplace, it’ll take just a few clicks to supply the retailer with products from your bedding brand. The PIM becomes a distribution hub for all your products and all your brands. All you have to do is manage it!

Conclusion

Long-established umbrella brands, start-up acquisitions, opportunities for diversification: there are many paths that lead a company to manage a multi-brand portfolio. Unifying the management of product information related to this portfolio is a step that must be managed intelligently to optimise business processes whilst maintaining staff engagement. PIM is the ideal tool for bringing data and teams together around a single objective: high-quality content distributed across the right channels. Managers and staff find their day-to-day work simplified through unified processes. Each brand and each product can express its own identity whilst remaining fully aligned with the group’s overall strategy. Managing a multi-brand portfolio has never been easier!