Westpac managing director Gail Kelly yesterday mentioned a couple of offshore banks that provide inspiration for management of the portfolio of retail bank brands that is now the hallmark of the company's strategy.Speaking at a Trans-Tasman Business Circle lunch in Sydney yesterday Kelly noted that her benchmark for best practice in banking is the American bank Wells Fargo, which was formerly home to Westpac CEO in the 1990s, Bob Joss. She said her goal is to emulate the Wells Fargo success in cross-selling products. The US bank has a target of selling at least eight financial products to each customer. Kelly says Westpac's multi-brand approach was breaking new ground in Australia by offering different brands by target market and by channel. She said there were very few examples of this strategic approach around the world except in Spain. A recent visit to some of the banks in Spain pursuing this strategy had taught Kelly that the biggest risk was the erosion of brand values. In other words, don't allow the economic rationalism of a head office structure to undermine the personality and style and flavour of individual brands under the one umbrella.Westpac had a multi-brand strategy in the mid 1990s following the takeovers of Bank of Melbourne and Challenger bank (in what came to be known at the time as a "super regional" strategy) but Westpac abandoned those brands after a few years.Thanks to the takeover of St George Bank, Westpac now also controls that brand as well as that of Bank of South Australia. The bank also owns the Rams Home Loans brand.Business Spectator