Brand Management

CHAPTER 11: DESIGNING AND

IMPLEMENTING BRANDING ARCHITECTURE
STRATEGIES
Narmin Tartila Banu
Lecturer, Department of Marketing and INB
SBE, NSU
Developing brand
architecture strategy
 The firm’s brand architecture strategy helps
marketers determine which products and services to
introduce, and which brand names, logos, symbols, and
so forth to apply to new and existing products
 Branding strategy is critical because it is the means by
which the firm can help consumers understand its
products and services and organize them in their minds
 The role of brand architecture is twofold:
 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

11.2
Brand-product matrix

11.3
Brand-product matrix
 Brand line
Line extension:

Brand extension:

(brand portfolio)
A brand line consists of all products—original as well as line and category extensions—
sold under a particular brand

11.4
Brand-product matrix

11.5
Brand-product matrix
Shampoo category:
 Product line

The columns of the matrix

represent product–brand
relationships. They capture the
brand portfolio strategy in
terms of the number and nature
of brands
11.6
to be marketed in
each category .
 Brand-product matrix
 Product line
 A group of products within a product category that are closely
related because they function in a similar fashion. A product
line may include different brands, or a single family brand or
individual brand that has been line extended

Products Products
Hot/Thai/Chicken Shampoo
soup
Sunsilk
Campbell
Brand Dove
Brand

Tresemme
Brand-product matrix

 Product mix (product assortment)

 The set of all product lines and items that a
particular seller makes available to buyers

Products
Sham-
poo Soap
Sunsilk LB
Brand

Dove Lux
TresemmeLv2k
11.8
Brand-product matrix

 Brand Portfolio
 The brand portfolio is the set of all brands that a particular
firm offers for sale to buyers in a particular category

11.9
Brand-product matrix

 Brand mix (brand assortment)

 The set of all brand lines that a
particular seller makes available to
buyers

Products

Dettol Soap HW Sanitizer

Brand

Mortein Coil Aeosol Vap

11.10
Depth and breadth

 A brand architecture strategy is deep if the firm has a

large number of brands
 A brand architecture strategy is broad if it has brands
that have extended into various product categories

11.11
Which architecture is deeper?

Products
Fabric care
Ariel
Brand

Bounty
Dawn

Febreze

Products
Fabric care
Wheel
Brand

Surf Excel

Rin
 Which architecture is
broader?
Products

Pran Cookies
Juice Chanachur Pastries
Brand

Products

Shezan Juice Cookies Cakes

Brand
Developing brand
architecture strategy
 Developing a brand architecture strategy requires three
key steps:
 defining the potential of a brand in terms of its “market
footprint”
 identifying the product and service extensions that will
allow the brand to achieve that potential
 specifying the brand elements and positioning associated
with the specific products and services for the brand

11.14
Defining the brand potential

 Consider three important characteristics

 the brand vision
 the brand boundaries
 the brand positioning
Identifying Brand Extension
Opportunities
 A brand extension is a new product introduced under an
existing brand name.

11.16
Branding New Products and
Services
 One way we can distinguish brand architecture
strategies is by looking at whether a firm is using
‘branded house’ or ‘house of brands’ structure
 “Branded house” is a umbrella corporate or family
brand for all its products. For example, many business-
to-business industrial firms, such as Siemens, Oracle,
and Goldman Sachs
 “House of brands” is a collection of individual brands all
with different names. For example, consumer product
companies like P&G, Unilever

11.17
Branding New Products and
Services
 Sub-brands are an extremely popular form of brand
extension in which the new product carries both the
parent brand name and a new name (Apple iPad, Ford
Fusion, and American Express Blue card)
 A good sub-branding strategy can tap associations and
attitudes about the company or family brand as a
whole, while also allowing for the creation of new brand
beliefs to position the extension in the new category.

11.18
Tools

Brand portfolios
Brand hierarchies

11.19
Brand portfolio

 A brand portfolio includes all brands sold by a company in

a product category
 Multiple brands allow a firm to pursue different:
 Price segments
 Channels of distribution
 Geographic boundaries
 Other reasons:
 Increase shelf presence and retailer dependence
 Attract consumers who seek variety
 Increase internal competition
 Gain economies of scale
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Brand portfolio

 Each brand should have a distinct target market and

positioning
 The basic principle in designing a brand portfolio is to
maximize market coverage so that no potential
customers are being ignored, but minimize brand
overlap so that brands aren’t competing among
themselves to gain the same customer’s approval.

11.21
Brand types

 Flankers: create stronger POP with competitors’ brands

so that the more important (and more profitable)
flagship brands can retain their desired positioning

11.23
Brand types

 Cash cows: Some brands may be kept around despite

dwindling sales because they still manage to hold on to
a sufficient number of customers and maintain their
profitability with virtually no marketing support.

11.24
Brand types

 Low-end, entry-level: Many brands introduce line

extensions or brand variants in a certain product
category that vary in price and quality
 The role of a relatively low-priced brand in the brand
portfolio often may be to attract customers to the
brand franchise and eventually hopefully move them up
to higher-priced models

11.25
Brand types

 High-end, prestige brands: The role of a relatively

high-priced brand in the brand family is often to add
prestige and credibility to the entire portfolio

11.26
Brand hierarchies

 A brand hierarchy is a useful means of 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
 1. Corporate or company brand (General Motors)
 2. Family brand (Buick)
 3. Individual brand (Regal)
 4. Modifier (designating item or model) (GS)
 5. Product description (midsize luxury sport sedan
automobile)

11.27
Corporate brand or company
brand level
 The highest level of the hierarchy technically
always consists of one brand—the corporate or
company brand
 A corporate brand is distinct from a product brand
because it can encompass a whole new set of
associations
 It’s a powerful means to express the company
philosophy in a way that is not tied to the product
or the service

11.28
Corporate Branding
Corporate Image Dimensions

 Product Related
 High Quality
 Innovative
 People and Relationships
 Customer Orientation
 Values & Programs
 Socially responsible
 Environmentally concerned
Quality
Innovativeness
Customer Orientation
Cause Related Marketing

 “Process of formulating and implementing marketing

programs that are characterized by an offer from the
firm to contribute a specified amount to a designated
cause when customers engage in revenue-providing
exchanges that satisfy both organizational and
individual objectives.”
Examples

As always, every
cent of VIVA GLAM
VI goes to the M·A·C
AIDS Fund to
support people
living with HIV/AIDS.
Longest Running Example

 Product Red is a brand licensed to partner companies

such as American Express, Apple Inc., Starbucks,
Converse, Motorola, Gap, Emporio Armani, Hallmark,
Microsoft, and Dell. It is an initiative begun by U2
frontman Bono and Bobby Shriver of DATA to raise
money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria
Green Marketing

 Specialcase of cause
marketing
Green Marketing

 Specialcase of cause
marketing
Family brand level
 At the next-lower level, a family brand, also called a range brand
or umbrella brand, is used in more than one product category but is
not necessarily the name of the company or corporation
 Distinct family brands creates a special set of associations across a
group of related products
 Cost of introducing a related new product is lower
 Acceptance of new products is higher
 However, failure of one can effect others

11.40
 Family brand level
 Marketing activities need to be closely coordinated
 If the corporate brand is applied to a range of products, then it functions
as a family brand too
 Reasons for using family brands:
 As products become more dissimilar, it may be harder for the corporate
brand to effectively link the disparate products. Distinct family brands can
evoke a specific set of associations across a group of related products
 The failure of one product may hurt other products sold under the same
brand

11.41
Family Brand Level
Individual brand level
 Individual brands are restricted to essentially one product category, although
multiple product types may differ on the basis of model, package size, flavor,
and so forth
 For example, in the “salty snack” product class, Frito-Lay offers Fritos corn
chips, Doritos tortilla chips, Lays and Ruffles potato chips, and Rold Gold
pretzels
 Advantage:
 Customize the brand and all its supporting marketing activity to meet the needs of a
specific customer group
 If the brand runs into difficulty or fails, the risk to other brands and the company
itself is minimal
 Disadvantage:
 Difficulty, complexity, and expense of developing separate marketing programs to
build sufficient levels of brand equity

11.43
Individual brand level

Fritos corn chips Fritos Doritos Fritos Ruffles

tortilla chips potato chips
Modifier level
 A modifier is a means to designate a specific item or
model type or a particular version or configuration of the
product
Adding a modifier often can
signal refinements or
differences between brands
related to
factors such as quality levels
(Johnnie Walker Red Label,
Black Label), attributes
(Wrigley’s Spearmint,
Doublemint, Juicy Fruit),
function (Dockers Relaxed Fit,
Classic Fit, Straight Fit)
Product descriptor

 The product descriptor helps consumers understand what the

product is and does and also helps define the relevant
competition in consumers’ minds.

11.46