Building a Branded Ecosystem for Milton’s extensive Product Portfolio
CONSUMER RESEARCH
STRATEGIC BRAND PLANNING
Hamilton Houseware with its flagship brand Milton has been a leader in the Indian homeware market with a range of products spanning houseware, cookware, glassware, and cleaning products. Each of the categories has its own brand with a subtle endorsement of Milton (the most known brand) in the portfolio.
The challenge for the brand was to understand how consumers perceive its various product categories and sub-brands like ProCook, Treo, Spotzero, particularly how its flagship brand Milton is associated with different products. Our goal was to determine whether the brand name could be extended to new product lines and how best to structure the overall brand architecture to maintain its market leadership.
The Consumer Insight
The research revealed that consumers have a deep-rooted trust in the brand Milton, particularly associating it with thermal products like tiffins and water bottles. They showed lower awareness and association of the brand with newer product categories like glassware and cleaning products. While Milton is not the primary brand that comes to mind for the products due to the presence of established competitors, the brand's reputation for innovation creates an openness to embrace new products introduced under the Milton name.
The Strategic Solve
We suggested a hybrid and flexible brand architecture strategy that enabled Milton to leverage its core equity of trust, allowing it to seamlessly extend into new categories beyond tiffins. This approach enabled Milton to maintain its brand's strength while creating room for sub-brands or product lines further from its core, allowing them to develop distinct identities and resonate with broader audiences.