BUSS454

Product and Brand Management

Designing and Implementing Branding Strategies

(Chapter 12)

BUSS454 Spring 2021 Tony Garrett

The Course

• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Identifying and Establishing Brand Positioning and Values
• Part 3: Planning and Implementing Brand Marketing Programs
• Part 4: Measuring and Interpreting Brand Marketing and Programs
• Part 5: Growing and Sustaining Brand Equity
• Designing and Implementing Branding Strategies
• Introducing and Naming New Products and Brand Extensions
• Managing Brands over time
• Managing Brands over Geographic Boundaries and Market Segments
• Part 6: Conclusion

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Designing and Implementing Branding Strategies

BUSS454 Spring 2021 Tony Garrett

Learning Objectives

• Define the key components of brand architecture

• Outline the guidelines for developing a good brand portfolio
• Assemble a basic brand hierarchy for a brand
• Describe how a corporate brand is different from a product brand
• Explain the role of brand architecture in strengthening a brand’s
value and a firm’s performance
• Understand how sustainability initiatives, corporate social
responsibility and green marketing can enhance a brand

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Brand Architecture Strategy

• 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.
• To improve brand image

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Developing a Brand Architecture Strategy

• Step 1: Defining brand potential

• Step 2: Identifying brand extension opportunities
• Step 3: Branding new products and services

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Step 1: Defining Brand Potential

• Three important characteristics:

• The brand vision
• The brand boundaries
• The brand positioning

BUSS454 Spring 2021 Tony Garrett

Step 2: Identifying Brand Extension Opportunities

• Brand extension is a new product introduced under an existing brand name

• Line extensions: New product introductions within existing categories
• Category extensions: New product introductions outside existing categories
• Equity implications of each extension needs to be understood in terms of:
• Points-of-parity
• Points-of-difference

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Step 3: Branding New Products and Services

• New products and services must be branded in a way to maximize the

brand’s overall clarity
• Branded house and house of brands strategy
• Sub-brands: Brand extension in which the new product carries both the
parent brand name and a new name

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http://bloggingnicebrands.com/2013/02/27/branded-house-vs-house-of-brand-vs-hybrid/

BUSS454 Spring 2021 Tony Garrett

To Sum Up…

Marketers should use brand portfolio analysis for

Step 1, and brand hierarchy analysis for Steps 2
and 3

BUSS454 Spring 2021 Tony Garrett

Designing a Brand Portfolio

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

• Brand portfolio judged by its ability to maximize brand equity
• Any one brand in a portfolio should not harm or decrease the equity
of the others
• Ideally, each brand maximized equity in combination with all others
• Basic principles:
• 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

BUSS454 Spring 2021 Tony Garrett

Brand Portfolios

Reasons for introducing multiple brands in a category:

• Increase shelf presence and retailer dependence in the
store
• Attract consumers seeking variety who may otherwise
switch to another brand
• Increase internal competition within the firm
• Yield economies of scale in advertising, sales,
merchandising, and physical distribution

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Possible Special Roles of Brands in the Brand
Portfolio

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Brand Roles in the Portfolio

• Flankers
• Cash cows
• Low-end entry-level, Entry level, or High-end prestige brands

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Flankers

• 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

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Cash Cows

• 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

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Low-End, Entry-Level or High-End, Prestige
Brands

• Sub-brands leverage associations from other brands while

distinguishing themselves on price and quality
• Role of a relatively low-priced brand - To attract
customers to the brand franchise
• Role of a relatively high-priced brand - To add prestige
and credibility to the entire portfolio

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To Sum Up…

• To minimize overlap and get the most from the portfolio, each
brand-name product must have:
• Well-defined roles to fulfill for the firm
• Well-defined positioning, indicating the benefits it offers to consumers

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Brand Hierarchy

• A means of summarizing the branding strategy by displaying the

number and nature of common and distinctive brand elements
across the firm’s products, revealing the explicit ordering of brand
elements
• A useful means of graphically portraying a firm’s branding strategy

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 Brand Hierarchy Tree: Toyota

Toyota
Corporation

Toyota Toyota Toyota Toyota Lexus

(Trucks) (SUV/vans) (Cars) Financial
Services

Corolla MR2
Camry Avalon Celica ECHO Matrix Prius
Spyder
Platinum
CE Edition
SE
S XL SE
LE
LE XLS SLE
XLE

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Apple Brand Hierarchy

BUSS454 Spring 2021 Tony Garrett

Levels of a Brand Hierarchy
Company Brand Level (General Motors)

Family Brand Level (Chevrolet)

Individual Brand Level (Malibu)

Modifier Level (Premier)

Product Descriptor (… the uplevel sedan that

could easily be mistaken for a car in a much higher
price bracket.)

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Designing a Brand Hierarchy

1. Specific Products to Introduce

2. Number of Levels of the Brand Hierarchy
3. Desired awareness and image at each hierarchy level

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Designing a Brand Hierarchy

Specific products to introduce

• Principle of growth: Firms must make cost-benefit calculations for
investing resources in selling more of a brand’s existing products to
new customers versus. launching new products for the brand.
• Principle of survival: Brand extensions must achieve brand equity in
their categories.
• Principle of synergy: Brand extensions should also enhance the
equity of the parent brand.

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Brand Hierarchy Decisions

• The number of levels of the hierarchy to use in general

• How brand elements from different levels of the hierarchy are
combined, if at all, for any one particular product
• How any one brand element is linked, if at all, to multiple products
• Desired brand awareness and image at each level

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Number of Hierarchy Levels

• Principle of simplicity
• Employ as few levels as possible e.g. Philips light bulbs
• Principle of clarity
• Logic and relationship of all brand elements employed must be obvious
and transparent

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Levels of Awareness and Associations

• Principle of relevance
• Create global associations that are relevant across as many individual
items as possible
• Principle of differentiation
• Differentiate individual items and brands

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Linking Brands at Different Levels

• Principle of prominence
• The relative prominence of brand elements affects perceptions of
product distance and the type of image created for new products

• E.g. APPLE I-pad

I-Pad by Apple

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Linking Brands Across Products

• Principle of commonality
• The more common elements shared by products, the stronger the
linkages

• E.g. i- XXX
• McXXX
• CK
• XXXXman

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Branding Strategy Screen

BUSS454 Spring 2021 Tony Garrett

Corporate Branding

• Corporate brand equity: Differential response by consumers, customers,

employees, other firms, or any relevant constituency to the words, actions,
communications, products, or services provided by an identified corporate
brand entity.
• Powerful means for firms to express themselves in a way that isn’t tied to
their specific products or services.

1. Corporate Image Dimensions

2. Managing the Corporate Brand

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Corporate Image Dimensions
• Corporate product attributes, benefits or attitudes
• Quality
• Innovativeness
• People and relationships
• Customer orientation
• Values and programs
• Concern with the environment
• Social responsibility
• Corporate credibility
• Expertise
• Trustworthiness
• Likability
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Managing the Corporate Brand

• Corporate Social Responsibility

• Consumers are increasingly using their perceptions of a firm’s role in society in
their purchase decisions.
• Consumers want to know how a firm treats its employees, shareholders, local
neighbors.

• Corporate Image Campaigns

• Designed to create associations to the corporate brand as a whole.

• Ignore or downplay individual products or sub-brands.

• Corporate Name Changes

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Brand Architecture Guidelines

• Adopt a strong customer focus

• Avoid over-branding
• Establish rules and conventions and be disciplined
• Create broad, robust brand platforms
• Selectively employ sub-brands as means of complementing and
strengthening brands
• Selectively extend brands to establish new brand equity and enhance
existing brand equity

BUSS454 Spring 2021 Tony Garrett

To Sum Up…

• Key aspect of managing brand equity is adopting the proper branding

strategy
• Brand architecture strategy for a firm identifies which brand
elements a firm chooses to apply across the various products
• Brand-product matrix is a graphical representation of all the firm’s
brands and products
• A firm may offer multiple brands in a category to attract different
market segments

BUSS454 Spring 2021 Tony Garrett

To Sum Up…

• A brand hierarchy reveals an explicit ordering of all brand names by

displaying the number and nature of common and distinctive brand
name elements across the firm’s products
• Corporate or family brands can establish a number of valuable
associations to differentiate the brand
• Firms now employ cause-marketing programs designed to align their
brands with a cause of importance

BUSS454 Spring 2021 Tony Garrett