BRAND
ARCHITECTURE
TOPICS -
• Design Brand Architecture
• Selecting right position in
brand relationship spectrum
• Brand Spectrum
INTRODUCTION
New challenges arise as an organization thinks about
entering an untapped market segment.
For example, should we create a separate brand?
If so, which role should each brand play?
How can we reduce confusion for consumers?
That’s the moment when the concept of
Brand architecture defines the role of each brand and acts as a guideline for the
interrelationship between the brands in your organization. comes into play.
WHAT IS BRAND ARCHITECTURE?
To understand this concept think of a brand as your house
Brand architecture defines the role of each brand and acts as a guideline for
the interrelationship between the brands in your organization.
When thinking about adding a new brand or product, it is crucial to understand
where
it will sit within your organization. In other words, you will have to define what type
of brand architecture you will choose for your portfolio of brands.
To simplify the concept, imagine that your organization is a house:
• Where will your brand be located within the architecture of that house?
• Which role will each brand play?
• What will be its relationship with other brands, if any?
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WHY BRAND ARCHITECTURE IS IMPORTANT
• Increased clarity in the market place
• Increased revenue through cross selling
• Increased Brand equity
• Well designed company culture
• Reduced overall Brand Damage
• More effective Change Management
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DIFFERENT TYPES OF BRAND
ARCHITECTURE
Brand architecture models refer to a strategy that organizes brands and their
offerings under a single, overarching brand.
These highest-level brands are also commonly called corporate, umbrella, family,
parent, or master brands. It is essentially a parent company managing multiple
brands that provide diverse product offerings to a vast range of consumers at
various price points.
Below, we explain the three primary brand architecture models with real-world
examples. All of them feature a parent/master brand with sub-brands.
1.The Brand House
2.The House of Brands
3.Hybrid brand Architecture
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1-The Branded House
The Branded House is the most common type of
brand architecture.
Within this type of architecture, the organization is
the master brand.
The master brand owns several sub-brands that
may feature the master brand name or logo,
together with variations that include the product
name or a service description.
It is an all-encompassing brand strategy, giving
brands room to grow and market themselves. Yet
they do not operate independently of one another
and abide by the corporate brand’s overall
guidelines and strategy.
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ADVATAGES & DISADVANTAGES OF THE BRANDED HOUSE
Advantages -
• The sub-brands boost the master brand through consistent visibility
• The corporate brand benefits from this widespread exposure as overall
brand equity increases
• The visual unification and clarity reduce the confusion for consumers
• Customers associate a sub-brand automatically with the qualities of the
overarching master brand.
• The Branded House is a very cost-effective and efficient brand architecture
model
Disadvantages -
• It might affect the brand reputation negatively of the master brand and
organization
• Its not nice idea if the firm is not well confident about sub brand.
NOTE - Discuss Negative reputation by flight incident.
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2-House of Brands
• In the House of Brands brand architecture
model, an organization owns a collection
of distinct brands under a parent brand
that people might or might not be aware
of.
• The brands manage and market
themselves individually with respective
brand names, logos, slogans, and
promotional tactics.
• In a Branded House model, customers are
aware of the parent company on every
touchpoint with any sub-brand, whereas
in a House of Brands framework, each
brand voices its own message and 6
ADVATAGES & DISADVANTAGES OF HOUSE OF BRANDS
Advantages -
• The The freedom to enter new markets without affecting
the other brands.
• Companies can take more risk as Key brand is not visibly
associated .
• The company’s reputation is kept secure
• Companies can target with a House of Brands
architecture
• very different audiences and play with different pricing strategies.
Disadvantages -
• House of brands is expensive because of its distinct marketing and branding
strategy
• Potential confusion among consumers as to what represents the company
• Without the firepower of a well-known Branded House, brands cannot rely on
the parent brand’s performance and reputation to boost their own brand
reputation
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3- Hybrid Brand Architecture
A Hybrid Brand Architecture mixes elements of both the Branded House and
House of Brands models to give each sub-brand maximum advantage, either
through endorsement or independence.
All sub-brands come with their brand promises but use elements from the
parent company as a discrete way to benefit from the parent brand’s
reputation.
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ADVATAGES & DISADVANTAGES OF HYBRID BRAND
ARCHITECTURE
Advantages -
• This model gets best from the both arena.
• Experimental offerings can be added to a company’s portfolio while
keeping the organization’s reputation secure.
• This model facilitate launching a new sub-brand in an untapped market
segment.
Disadvantages -
• Not well understood among customers.
• Inflexibility and reputation risk for the parent company
• It can be a challenge for the marketing team to keep the brand books
updated and not get lost when reviewing the brand identities of each
brand in the company’s portfolio
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Selecting right position in Brand
Relationship Spectrum
The discussed advantages and disadvantages of each brand architecture model
can guide you in deciding which framework to adopt for your organization.
However, regardless of each model’s pros and cons, it is essential to first analyze
and understand your own organization and the existing setup.
You should ask yourself as a Brand Manager:
• What is our product/services mix?
• What potential new opportunities and extensions are on the horizon?
• How about industry trends?
• How do we currently communicate?
• What is our market share?
• What is our ROI?
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• Any brand architecture should aim to add value to the existing products
and services while achieving synergies to better the entire portfolio of
(future) brands.
• It is essential to mention that brand architecture is not a static concept.
• Due to the ever-changing nature of business (e.g., mergers, acquisitions,
brand extensions, new product offerings), brand managers should
monitor and review the current architecture regularly and adjust it
whenever they see the need.
• Like this, they can ensure that the overall organization and all brands
fully benefit from the chosen architectural structure.
THANKS!
