Brand

Management

Ch 11. Designing and Implementing Brand Architecture

Strategies
Brand Architecture
Strategy

• Refers to the structure of brands within a firm

• Brand architecture strategy: Helps marketers determine which products and services to
introduce, and which brand names, logos, and symbols to apply to new and existing
products.
• Role: ✓ To clarify brand awareness : Improve consumer understanding and communicate
similarity and differences between individual products and services
✓ To improve brand image : Maximize transfer of equity between the brand and individual
products and services to improve trial and repeat purchase.

• 3 key steps: ✓ Step 1: Defining brand potential

✓ Step 2 : Identifying brand extension opportunities
✓ Step 3: Branding new products and services
Brand Architecture
Strategy

How important?

• The value of each brand can be increased by combining and operating each brand
properly
• Helps allocate a firm’s limited resources more properly
• Can discover new market opportunities
• Prevents possible mismanagements
Brand Portfolio

• Includes all brands sold by a company in a product category.

• Serves as a means to help companies have a more systematic view of the various
brands they have.
• Reasons for introducing multiple brands in a category:
•

✓ To increase shelf presence and retailer dependence in the store.

✓ To attract consumers seeking variety who may otherwise switch to another
brand.
✓ To increase internal competition within the firm.
✓ To yield economies of scale in advertising, sales, merchandising, and physical
distribution.
• Maximize market coverage - So that no potential customers are being ignored.
• Minimize brand overlap - So that brands aren’t competing among themselves to
gain the same customer’s approval.
Brand-product matrix

Shoe Bag Watch …

(product category 1) (product category 2) (product category 3)

Air Force
(Brand 1)
Brand extension
Cortez
(Brand 2) Strategy
(category
Lunar extension)
(Brand 3)

Brand portfolio
Strategy • related to breadth of the
matrix
• related to depth of the matrix • A firm’s decision-making
• A firm’s decision-making strategy strategy
: Brand portfolio strategy : Brand extension strategy
(line extension + newly developed
brands in
the same product category)
Brand Portfolio

Flanker brand

• Protective or fighter brands

•

• To create stronger points-of-parity with competitors’ brands

• Fighter brands must not be so attractive that they take sales away from their higher-
priced comparison brands
•

• If they are connected to other brands in the portfolio, they must not be designed so
cheaply that they reflect poorly on other brands
Cash-cow
brand
• Despite dwindling sales, some brands are retained
•

– Due to their sustainability without any kind of marketing

• Milked by capitalizing on their reservoir of existing brand equity
Brand Portfolio

Low-end brand

• Role of a relatively low-priced brand

- To attract customers to the brand franchise (traffic builder)

High-end brand

• Role of a relatively high-priced brand

- To add prestige and credibility to the entire portfolio (image builder)

Silver-bullet
brand
• A brand or sub-brand that positively influences the image of another brand in the
portfolio
Brand Hierarchy

• Graphically portraying a firm’s branding strategy by displaying the number and nature
of common and distinctive brand elements across the firm’s products, revealing their
explicit ordering.
• Levels of the hierarchy
✓

✓ Corporate or company brand

✓ Family brand
✓ Individual brand
✓ Modifier (designating item or model)
✓ Product description
Brand Hierarchy

Corporate (or company) brand

level
• Highest level of hierarchy
• Corporate image: The consumer associations to the
company or corporation making the product or
providing the service
•

• Relevant when the corporate or company brand

plays a prominent role in the branding strategy

Hongcho blueberry Curryqueen beef

Hongcho banana Curryqueen mango banana
Hongcho orange tropical Curryqueen seafood
Hongcho pomegranate Curryqueen tomato & chicken
and several more… and several more…
Brand Hierarchy

Family brand level

• Used in more than one product category but is not necessarily the name of the
company or corporation
•

• Also called a range brand or umbrella brand

• If the corporate brand is applied to a range of
products, then it functions as a family brand too
• If the products linked to the family brand are not
carefully considered, the associations to the
family brand may become weaker

Hongcho blueberry Curryqueen beef

Hongcho banana Curryqueen mango banana
Hongcho orange tropical Curryqueen seafood
Hongcho pomegranate Curryqueen tomato & chicken
and several more… and several more…
Brand Hierarchy

Individual brand level

• Restricted to essentially one product category, although multiple product types may
differ
• Customization of the brand and all its supporting marketing activity
• If the brand runs into difficulty or fails, the risk to
other brands and the company itself is minimal
• Disadvantages of difficulty, complexity, and
expense of developing separate marketing
programs

Individual brand

Sub-brand
• Distinct range of products introduced Hongcho blueberry Curryqueen beef
under its parent brand. Hongcho banana Curryqueen mango banana
Hongcho orange tropical Curryqueen seafood
•
Hongcho pomegranate Curryqueen tomato & chicken
and several more… and several more…
•
 Brand Hierarchy

Modifier level

• Brands should distinguish according to the different types of items or models

•

• Modifier: Designate a specific item or model type or a particular version or

configuration of the product
✓

✓ Function of modifiers is to show how one brand

variation relates to others in the same brand
family
✓ Help make products more understandable and
relevant to consumers

Hongcho blueberry Curryqueen beef

Hongcho banana Curryqueen mango banana
Hongcho orange tropical Curryqueen seafood
Hongcho pomegranate Curryqueen tomato & chicken
and several more… and several more…
Corporate
brand

family
brand

Line
brand
Brand Hierarchy

Product Descriptor

• Helps consumers understand what the product is and does

•

• Helps define the relevant competition in consumers’ minds

• In the case of a truly new product, introducing it with a familiar product name may
facilitate basic familiarity and comprehension

Product
descriptor
Brand Hierarchy

Corporate brand strategy

• Reduce costs
• All products benefit from a strong corporate brand
• The corporate brand may be affected negatively if one of the product fails

Individual brand
strategy
• The corporate brand is not affected if one of the individual brands fails
• Marketing and developing cost may be very high

Family brand strategy

• Relatively can reduce costs

• possible to prevent the spread of negative brand associations to some extent
 Group brand

Corporate
brand

Family brand

Individual brand

Brand modifier
Managing Brand Risks – types of response

Refutation
strategy
• A direct denial of the rumor
• Most commonly used strategy
• A risk of reinforcing recall for the rumor
•

Retrieval strategy

• Providing a retrieval cue, to direct thoughts away from the primary stimulus at the
time of information retrieval

Storage strategy

• Introduction of a second stimulus object at the time rumor information is stored so

that the rumor is more likely to be associated with the second stimulus object rather
that the primary stimulus object.
•

Tybout et al. (1981) Using Information Processing Theory to Design Marketing Strategies. Journal of Marketing R
 Refutation
strategy

Value for neat Sponsoring Japanese

comfortabl
money right-wing group
e

Retrieval strategy

Value for neat Sponsoring Japanese

comfortabl
money right-wing group
e

Storage strategy
?

Value for neat Sponsoring Japanese

comfortabl
money right-wing group
e
Managing Brand Risks – Previous literatures

• The retrieval and storage strategies based on information processing theory were
effective in comparison with the refutation strategy(Tybout et al. 1981)
• It is more effective to directly deny negative information than to weaken the association
between the brand and the negative information (Wegner & Wall, 1983)
• When the relationship between consumers and the corporation is positive, consumers
are more likely to refuse negative rumors and accept excuses provided by the company.
However, when the relationship is negative and messages are strong, consumers tend to
trust rumors when refutation style is weak (Lee et al, 2015)