Diversification can make sense for behemoth and boutique brands alike – provided they don’t lose sight of their core values.

This article was originally created for a partner content campaign with the Commercial Department of the Financial Times.

In 2022, it can be hard to determine what the world’s most successful brands actually do. Amazon delivers parcels, offers on-demand cloud computing and runs its own streaming platform; Google provides a search engine, a translation service and office software, among much else. For these companies, pushing into new markets has paid huge dividends. Every platform added to Apple’s portfolio in recent years – whether that’s Apple Music, Apple News, or even gaming platform Apple Arcade – has grown in value. Today, it is on track to become the world’s first trillion-dollar brand.