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Electrolux to consolidate under single brand

Bhanu Pande

Electrolux has decided to consolidate its entire white goods portfolio under one umbrella brand, Electrolux-Kelvinator.

In a complete about turn from its initial multi-brand strategy, the Swedish white goods giant has now decided to focus its energy on the hybrid brand.

Thus, the existing brands in its portfolio - Maxclean, White Westinghouse and Allwyn - will be gradually phased out.

The company is expected to make announcements to this effect shortly. In fact, the company wanted the announcement to coincide with the IIFA Awards scheduled to be held in Malayasia on April 5, but this may not happen.

The move is significant considering it comes a year after Electrolux unveiled its much talked about multi-brand strategy.

Under the strategy, each brand was targeted at a different consumer segment.

While Electrolux was positioned as a top-end brand for all white goods, Kelvinator was to be the specialist refrigerator brand, Maxclean was supposed to be a cleaning specialist brand playing in the mid-price segment and Allwyn, which sought to address the low-end consumer segment, was positioned as a total food care brand.

Around the same time, the company added another brand White Westinghouse, when it launched air-conditioners.

According to company sources, the multi-brand gambit doesn't seem to have paid.

"Dealers were simply focussing on the fast-moving Kelvinator without any focus on other brands," the sources said.

At the same time, it led to some confusion among consumers. To top it, sustaining advertising for all the brands was turning out to be costly for the company.

Barring Kelvinator, dealers complained of inventory pile-ups for the other brands in the portfolio.

The latest move is aimed at doing away with all these problems and at giving a strong focus and support to the umbrella brand, Electrolux-Kelvinator, which all the products in the portfolio will leverage.

Allwyn, the brand acquired by the company a few years ago from Voltas, would be retained for the rural and smaller markets without any advertising support, said the source.

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