Brand Architecture

Brand architecture is the structure of brands within an organizational entity. It is the way in which the brands within a company’s portfolio are related to, and differentiated from, one another. The architecture should define the different leagues of branding within the organization; how the corporate brand and sub-brands relate to and support each other; and how the sub-brands reflect or reinforce the core purpose of the corporate brand to which they belong. Often, decisions about Brand Architecture are concerned with how to manage a parent brand, and a family of sub-brands - Managing brand architecture to maximize shareholder value can often include using brand valuation model techniques.

Brand architecture may be defined as an integrated process of brand building through establishing brand relationships among branding options in the competitive environment. The brand architecture of an organization at any time is, in large measure, a legacy of past management decisions as well as the competitive realities it faces in the marketplace

Types of brand architecture
There are three key levels of branding:

• Corporate brand, umbrella brand, and family brand - Examples include Virgin Group and Heinz. These are consumer-facing brands used across all the firm's activities, and this name is how they are known to all their stakeholders – consumers, employees, shareholders, partners, suppliers and other parties. These brands may also be used in conjunction with product descriptions or sub-brands: for example Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup, or Virgin Trains.
• Endorsed brands, and sub-brands - For example, Nestle KitKat, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Sony PlayStation or Polo by Ralph Lauren. These brands include a parent brand - which may be a corporate brand, an umbrella brand, or a family brand - as an endorsement to a sub-brand or an individual, product brand. The endorsement should add credibility to the endorsed sub-brand in the eyes of consumers.
• Individual product brand - For example, Procter & Gamble’s Pampers or Unilever's Dove. The individual brands are presented to consumers, and the parent company name is given little or no prominence. Other stakeholders, like shareholders or partners, will know the producer by its company name.

Procter & Gamble is quoted by many authors as the antithesis of a Corporate Brand (Asberg and Uggla, Muzellec and Lambkin, Olins). "However, this situation changed in 2012. After more than 150 years of invisibility of the organization for consumer, the brand developed corporate brand promise during the 2012 Olympic games. Commercials are aired on television around a message thanking all the "moms". In addition, each of their products is associated with the brand "PG" in advertisements for products.

A recent example of brand architecture in action is the reorganization of the General Motors brand portfolio to reflect its new strategy. Prior to bankruptcy, the company pursued a corporate-endorsed hybrid brand architecture structure, where GM underpinned every brand. The practice of putting the "GM Mark of Excellence" on every car, no matter what the brand, was discontinued in August, 2009. In the run-up to the IPO, the company adopted a multiple brand corporate invisible brand architecture structure. The company's familiar square blue "badge" has been removed from the Web site and advertising, in favor of a new, subtle all-text logo treatment.

Types of Brands under Brand Architecture

• Ambassador Brands Those brand that reflect the image of the company are Ambassador Brands. Success or Failure of these brands affect the favorable or unfavorable opinion respectively, of the company. E.g.: Colgate toothpaste can be rightly called Ambassador brand.
• Piggyback Brands The nature of these brands is to live on other brands. They are not profit generators but build their image and gain mileage by riding on the back of these brands. E.g.: Colgate toothbrush is a piggyback brand which survives on the back of Colgate Toothpaste.
• Budget Brands These brands signify that are welcomed in every home. They do not lower the status of the upper-middle-class families as well as are affordable by the lower-class homes too. E.g.: Cibaca toothpaste can be described as budget brand.

Brand architecture is a strategic roadmap for present and future success.
Brand architecture defines the different levels within your brand and provides a hierarchy that explains the relationships between the different products, services, and components that make up your company’s portfolio of offerings. This architecture gives your existing brand structure so employees and customers understand the value of and relationship between its different parts. It also creates a roadmap that guides how your brand can scale in the future.
At MicroArts, our clients come to us with solid ideas and great vision—but what many lack is a clear structure to define how they are organized now and how they will handle future opportunity.

Why is brand architecture important?

• Clear brand architecture ensures your automobile company’s great idea for an electric hybrid home appliance line isn’t going out of bounds of the core brand’s mission.
• It guarantees that your long-established and recognized logo-mark doesn’t get bastardized when a newly hired product manager introduces a good idea for a line extension and prefers the color “red”.
• It empowers you to organize and introduce new product lines that fit seamlessly into different divisions of your brand so you leverage existing equity, retail relationships and consumer loyalty.

How to tell when it’s time to hire a branding agency with solid brand architecture experience
A disorganized (or nonexistent) brand architecture could cost you market share and put your brand value at risk. A good branding agency can mean the difference between successful long term growth and steady disintegration of your bottom line. It may be time for a brand architecture consultation if:
You have an existing brand that is planning a product line extension.
You’re launching a new brand that has big plans now, but bigger plans in the future.
You’re reading this post and realizing your current brand architecture is non-existent or varying depending on whom you ask in your company (i.e. wayward).

The purpose of brand architecture is to addresses each of the following:

• What the overarching branding approach is – master brand, brand/sub-brand, endorsed brand, stand alone brands, including  or some combination of these
• How many levels of branding should exist
• What types of brands exist at each level
• How brands at different levels relate to each other, if at all
• Decision rules for creating new brands
• Which brands’ identities are dominant and which ones are recessive
• What types of names the organization uses – coined, associative descriptive or generic descriptors – and in which circumstances (usually controlled by decision rules)
• Which brands are features in each and every media, vehicle, situation and circumstance (e.g. business cards, stationery, product catalogs, website, shipping boxes, vehicle signage, employee uniforms, building signage, etc.)

There are no absolute rules that apply in all brand architecture situations, however here are some simple rules of thumb:

• The simpler the system the better
• Ideally, there are no more than two levels of hierarchy
• The system should be flexible enough to address all current and anticipated branding situations
• The dominant brand should be the one you most intend to build over time
• Sub-brands should be created sparingly, however they can be built to make the main or parent brand more relevant to new customer segments
• When an existing brand can be used, new brands should not be created
• Careful thought should be put into at what level taglines are used
• Many organizations have evolved to brand/sub-brand systems with some provision for flexibility and variation
• More and more organizations are trying to build and leverage their corporate, parent or organization brands as a way to save money when marketing products and services
• Only brands that (a) are highly differentiated, (b) will be maintained for at least several years and (c) will be supported by significant marketing resources over time should have coined names
• Brand architecture should be designed with external audiences in mind. It should not be designed to reflect legal entities or internal organization structure.
• Sub-brands should be developed to meet the needs of different market segments. This requires a deep understanding of those segments.