Broadly, there are three brand architecture strategies that are employed. Determining the best architecture strategy is a critical input that we provide to our clients.
A| As A Branded House: If the brand’s primary role is to serve as an indicator of origin and provide overall reassurance, then we employ a Branded-House architecture, where the corporate or umbrella parent brand is the dominant driver of the brand identity. Works particularly well with the more general (functional and relational) brand themes; performance, reliability, trust and affection, for example.
B| As A Family of Brands: Different connected brand entities with own individual identities but linked to the parent or sibling brand identity in some way. The corporate or umbrella parent brand could be connected in varying degrees from very strong linkages to a mere endorsement. Works best when multiple brand themes are in use.
C| As A House of Brands: If the main function of the brand is to strongly indicate product differentiation or a very distinct personality it is useful to move along the spectrum towards a House-of-Brands architecture, where the product itself is the primary driver of the brand identity. The corporate brand is then weak or non-existent. Works best, for sensorial or symbolic brand concepts.
A| As A Branded House: If the brand’s primary role is to serve as an indicator of origin and provide overall reassurance, then we employ a Branded-House architecture, where the corporate or umbrella parent brand is the dominant driver of the brand identity. Works particularly well with the more general (functional and relational) brand themes; performance, reliability, trust and affection, for example.
- Monolithic Branding: Adopts a single uniform brand identity for all product categories and target groups.
B| As A Family of Brands: Different connected brand entities with own individual identities but linked to the parent or sibling brand identity in some way. The corporate or umbrella parent brand could be connected in varying degrees from very strong linkages to a mere endorsement. Works best when multiple brand themes are in use.
- Sub-Branding: Parent brand has superior or equal dominance.
- Brand Endorsement: Parent brand largely serves as an indicator of a known and recognized origin.
C| As A House of Brands: If the main function of the brand is to strongly indicate product differentiation or a very distinct personality it is useful to move along the spectrum towards a House-of-Brands architecture, where the product itself is the primary driver of the brand identity. The corporate brand is then weak or non-existent. Works best, for sensorial or symbolic brand concepts.- Product Driven Branding: Each product category of the company has its own brand identity. Works best for sensorial brand themes.
- Target Segment Driven Branding: The Company targets each target group with a separate brand identity. Works best for symbolic brand themes.
- Both Product & Target Segment Driven Branding: Not only is each product category given its own brand identity, but even within the product category if it’s targeting a different consumer segment, then again different offerings in the same product category is given a different brand name. Works best when both sensorial and symbolic brand themes are being used.