Brand foundations and frameworks

Brand architecture is often discussed but
little understood. Although it is one of
the most important areas of business
strategy and management, it rarely gets
the focus or recognition it deserves.
The generally accepted definition of
brand architecture is that it is an organising
structure for how a company manages
its brands. It specifies certain brand
roles and the nature of relationships
between brands.
For many companies, the first stage of
creating brand architecture is simply to
compose a document setting out a brand
charter that provides relevant guidelines
to the marketing managers. But true
architecture needs to go much deeper to
have a real impact on the bottom line.
Models of brand architecture
There are certain key types of brand
architecture now used in firms across
the world.
A house of brands: this involves a set
of stand-alone brands and sub-brands,
each maximising the parent firm’s
impact on a market. It clearly positions
brands with functional benefits and
attempts to dominate niche segments.
Within the house of brands, there are
a number of subcategories:
Mother brand: The mother brand is
the primary name and image for a company.
It can then be stretched by subbrands
but remains the organisation’s
overall reference for all other brands or
products.
Shadow endorsers: A shadow
endorser brand is not connected visibly
to the main or endorsed brand, but many
consumers know about the link. This
subcategory provides some of the advantages
of having a known organisation
backing the brand, while minimising any
association contamination. The relationship
between confectionery companyCadbury and its organic brand Green &
Black’s is a good example.
Even when the brands are not visibly
linked, the relationship makes a statement
about each brand, especially when
the link is discovered. It makes clear that
the parent organisation realises that the
shadow-endorsed brand represents a
totally different product and market segment.
Token endorser brands:This is a portfolio
of brands pulled together by the
endorsement of a common organisation
or body. The role of the token endorser is
to provide some reassurance and credibility.
An example is a logo such as the
GE light bulb or The Soil Association
mark on organic goods.
Linked brand names: This is where a
name with common elements creates an
implicit or implied endorser. For example,
McDonald’s prefaces its products
with ‘Mc’, such as McNugget or
McPotato. A linked name provides the
benefits of a separate brand name without
having to establish a second name
from scratch and link it to a master
brand.
brand strategy october 2006
Brand architecture ResearchBut as well as the house of brands
style of architecture, there is also
another type of overarching strategy:
A house brand: A house brand uses
one single master brand to span a set of
product offerings and sub-brands. Any
sub-brands do not have their own specific
brands but merely have descriptive
names to explain their function.
International expansion and consumer
needs for reassurance about product
quality and reliability are resulting
in a shift toward this type of corporate
endorsement of product brands. It helps
to forge a global corporate identity for
the firm and gathers its products under
a worldwide umbrella – generating potential
cost savings through promotion of
the corporate brand rather than multiple
independent product names.
Corporate endorsement of productlevel
brands is increasingly used as a
mechanism to integrate brand structure
across country markets. For example,
Cadbury uses the Cadbury name on all its
confectionery products alongside product
brands such as Dairy Milk. Equally,
a house brand is sometimes used on a
product business worldwide. For example,
Akzo Nobel places the Sikkens name
on all its paint products.
Increasingly, new products and
variants are launched under existing
brand names to take advantage of
their strength and consumer awareness.
Mars, for example, has launched an icecream
line as well as a soft drink under
the Mars brand name. Cadbury’s Milk
Tray has been extended to desserts,
leveraging the brand’s association with
‘creaminess’.