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Firms make several decisions in brand portfolio management such as create or acquire brands, modify brands and leverage brands. However, one of their most challenging areas is deciding between whether to retain or discard a weak brand from their brand portfolios. Drawing on the strategic decision-making literature, the purpose of this article is to present a conceptual framework explicating the factors influencing a firm's decision to retain or discard weak brands from their brand portfolios. Though we believe that firms rationally decide to discontinue weak brands because of poor financial performance, under certain interesting situations, firms also decide to retain weak brands based on several strategic non-financial factors. Understanding this is important because making a decision for one brand often impacts other brands in the portfolio and invariably the firm's financial performance. The article contributes in the context of discovery through the conception of new relationships among established constructs in the strategic decision making and brand management literature, and the synthesis of existing constructs by tying them in one detailed conceptual framework. The article also attempts to enrich research in the field of brand portfolio management by drawing on cross-functional and inter-disciplinary research.

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Purpose It is difficult to ascertain the success factors and outcomes of deleting a brand, since these factors and outcomes differ by type of industries, firms, and brands, and vary based on contextual and organizational situations. Brand managers would benefit by having a guide explaining various factors that contribute to a successful brand deletion and providing measures of brand deletion success. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to present a list of success factors and outcomes of brand deletion, which brand managers can adapt to their specific brand deletion context and which academic researchers can use to further investigate the systemic aspects of brand deletion. Design/methodology/approach This article adopts a conceptual viewpoint methodology. Findings If brand deletion leads to improvements in business performance represented by better customer relationship management, superior competitive position, and boosts in financial performance without degrading stakeholder relationships, it can be called a success. Various factors contribute to this success such as a proactive approach to brand deletion with the involvement of top management and cross-functional teams, timely implementation of the decision, considering the strategic role and importance of the brand to be deleted in the overall brand portfolio, and managing interests of all key stakeholders affected by and influencing brand deletion. Originality/value Marketing practitioners can use the guidelines provided in this article and adapt it to their individual idiosyncratic contexts during brand deletion decision-making and implementation. Researchers are encouraged to further investigate the phenomenon of brand deletion strategy and focus more research attention on developing strong empirical knowledge in this important yet under-researched field.