Brand Architecture

Compare the brand strategies and architectures of different companies. How and why are they different? 

The brand relationship spectrum: The key to the brand architecture challenge

Aaker, David A Joachimsthaler, Erich. California Management Review; Berkeley Vol. 42, Iss. 4,  (Summer 2000): 8-23.

Brand architecture is an organising structure of the brand portfolio that specifies brand roles and the nature of relationship between brands.

“The house of brands strategy involves an independent set of stand-alone brands, each maximizing the impact on a market. Procter & Gamble is a house of brands that operates over 80 major brands, largely with little link to P&G or to each other. In doing so, P&G sacrifices the economies of scale and synergies that come with leveraging a brand across multiple businesses. In addition, those brands that cannot support investment themselves (especially the third or fourth P&G entry in a category) risk stagnation and decline, and P&G sacrifices brand leverage in that the individual brands tend to have a narrow range.

The house of brands strategy however, allows firms to clearly position brands on functional benefits and to dominate niche segments. Compromises do not have to be made in the positioning of a given brand to accommodate its use in other product-market contexts; instead, the brand connects directly to the niche customer with a targeted value proposition.

P&G's brand strategy in the hair care category illustrates the house of brands strategy. Head and Shoulders dominates the dandruff control shampoo category. Pert Plus targets the market for a combined conditioner and shampoo product. Pantene ("for hair so healthy it shines"), a brand with a technological heritage, focuses on the segment concerned with enhancing hair vitality. The total impact of these three brands would be lessened if-instead of three distinct brands-they were restricted to the brand "P&G shampoo" or even were branded as P&G Dandruff Control, P&G Combo, and P&G Healthy Hair. P&G detergents are similarly well positioned to serve niche markets: Tide (tough cleaning jobs), Cheer (all-temperature), Bold (with fabric softener), and Dash (concentrated powder) provide sets of focused value propositions that could not be achieved by a single P&G detergent brand”

A shadow endorser brand is not connected visibly to the endorsed brand, but many consumers know about the link. This subcategory in the house of brands strategy provides some of the advantages of having a known organization backing the brand, while minimizing any association contamination. The fact that the brands are not visibly linked makes a statement about each brand, even when the link is discovered: It communicates that the organization realizes that the shadow-endorsed brand represents a totally different product and market segment.

Endorsed brands (such as Simply Home from Campbell's, or Polo Jeans by Ralph Lauren) are still independent, but they are also endorsed by another brand, usually an organizational brand. An endorsement by an established brand provides credibility and substance to the offering and usually plays only a minor driver role. The Marriott endorsement of Courtyard means that the Marriott organization affirms that Courtyard will deliver on its brand promise (which is very different from that of Marriott hotels).

Making the endorser brands strategy work involves understanding the distinction between an organizational brand and a product brand. Marriott is a product brand for Marriott Hotels and Suites. However, it is the Marriott organizational brand that is endorsing Courtyard and Fairfield Inn. The emotional and self-expressive benefits of the Marriott product brand are maintained, because the product brand is distinct from the organizational brand. One implication is that the Marriott organizational brand is now an important part of the brand architecture and needs to be actively managed.

Subbrands are brands connected to a master or parent brand and augment or modify the associations of that master brand. Themaster brand is the primary frame of reference, which is stretched by subbrands that add attribute associations (e.g., Black & Decker Sweet Hearts Wafflebaker), application associations (e.g., Microsoft Office), a signal of breakthrough newness (e.g., Sony Walkman), a brand personality (e.g., Audi TT), and even energy (e.g., Nike Force). One common role of a subbrand is to extend a master brand into a meaningful new segment-as, for example, Ocean Spray Craisins stretches Ocean Spray from juice to snack foods.

The link between subbrands and their master brand is closer than the like between endorsers and the endorsed brands. Because of this closeness, a subbrand has considerable potential to affect the associations of the master brand, which in turn can be both a risk and an opportunity

A Branded House

“In a branded house strategy, a master brand moves from being a primary driver to a dominant driver role across a multiple offerings. The sub-brand goes from having a modest driver role to being a descriptor with little or no driver role. Virgin uses a branded house strategy because the master brand provides an umbrella under which many of its business operations operate. Thus, there are Virgin Airlines, Virgin Express, Virgin Radio, Virgin Rail, Virgin Cola, Virgin Jeans, and Virgin Music and many others. Other branded houses include many (but not all) of the offerings of Healthy Choice, Kraft, Honda, Sony, Adidas, and Disney.

The branded house option, of course, puts a lot of eggs in one basket. The experience of brands like Levi's, Nike, and Kodak illustrate the risk. Each has struggled with a brand that has been an umbrella for a wide product line. Each has found it difficult to maintain a cool image or a quality position with a large market share. Also, a branded house can limit the firm's ability to target specific groups; compromises must be made. However, the branded house enhances clarity, synergy, and leverage and thus should be the default brand architecture option. Any other strategy requires compelling reasons.

The branded house architecture, such as Virgin's, often maximizes clarity because the customer knows exactly what is being offered. Virgin stands for service quality, innovation, fun/entertainment, value, and being the underdog; it also has a heritage of being fun and outrageous. The descriptors meanwhile indicate the specific business: Virgin Rail, for example, is a railroad run by the Virgin organization. It could not be simpler from a branding perspective. A single brand communicated across products and over time is much easier to understand and recall than a dozen individual brands each with its own associations. Employees and communication partners also benefit from greater clarity and focus with a single dominant brand. There should be little question of brand priorities or the importance of protecting the brand when a branded house is involved.

In addition, a branded house usually maximizes synergy, as participation in one product market creates associations and visibility that can help in another. At Virgin, the product and service innovations in one business enhance the brand in other businesses. Further, every exposure of the brand in one context provides visibility that enhances brand awareness in all contexts”.

    What brand architecture models do companies you know use?

Uniliver, P&G – House of brands

Marriot hotel – Branded house

    Which brand architectures are good for different products and services?
Keller Strategic Brand Management

 Companies which sell B2B usually employ a 'branded house' strategy. E.g. Siemens, Oracle.

 Companies which work B2C  usually employ a 'house of brands' trategy. E.g. P&G, Uniliver. 


    Analyse the brand strategy and architecture of a chosen company. Uniliver

http://adage.com/article/news/unilever-s-goal-power-brands/59888/

In the late 1990s, fast-moving consumer goods company, Unilever with 1600 brands, found itself under tremendous pressure to find a balance between size and growth. Over the years, the company had grown significantly in size and it had begun to face a marketing attack from small, more agile companies.

In September 1999, the then co-chairman of the Unilever Group, Sir Niall FitzGerald (FitzGerald), initiated a five-year growth plan called the 'Path to Growth' strategy. An important part of that growth plan was the 'Power Brands' strategy...

As part of this strategy, the huge arsenal of 1600 brands of the Unilever was brought down to comparatively more manageable number of 400, which were power brands - more profitable and had good familiarity among consumers. This strategy was launched to increase operational efficiency, to concentrate on the promotional activities on the profitable brands only and to encourage consumers to migrate from smaller brands to the power brands. But because of this strategy, some strong regional brands were also cut off, which led to fall in sales revenue and profit margins of Unilever, especially in emerging markets.

 Keith Weed on 5Cs of Uniliver 25th September 2017.

Consumers

Its critical for marketers and brands at Unilever to keep the consumer as their "true north". The role of Unilever's brands is to help make life simpler by cutting through the chaos, anticipating the needs of the empowered consumer and providing assistance. 

Connect

While advertising isn't dying, it has to evolve. Today, it's about connecting in real time, in the context and with relevance. The digital ecosystem needs to be cleaned up or consumers will continue to get a poor experience online.

"Today’s ad experience is not in line with the empowered consumer's expectation of faster, better, more relevant content," Weed is due to say. 

Content

Empowered consumers have better filters than ever, and will not tolerate inauthenticity. Trust is at an all-time low across media, business, government and NGOs. The empowered consumer is looking for purposeful brands, brands that have meaning, brands that matter. And is quicker than ever to reject brands that do not fit with his or her values.

"People don’t hate advertising. They hate bad advertising. As an industry we have a responsibility to put out good creative. We balance our assets across traditional interruption advertising and seek out content, which specifically appeals to people’s needs or passions. This is a huge shift in the way we tell stories and build our advertising," Weed will say. 

Community

For Weed, this is about "harnessing the creative power of the 7 billion people on the planet".

Unilever plans to listen and engage with its community of consumers in real time, using data to co-create, build deeper relationships, and spot trends before they appear.

Commerce

Commerce is no longer about buying. It's also about browsing, convenience, utility, experience and even entertainment. 

"We are experimenting with new business models, new ways to directly reach the empowered consumer," Weed will explain. 

https://www.campaignlive.com/article/unilever-marketing-boss-weed-reveals-5c-brand-strategy/1445575#wETQATAXgcwM3sqW.99