How to Choose the Right Brand Architecture for Your Business

Brand architecture is the way a company organizes its brands. It is a critical component of any branding strategy, as it determines how customers perceive and interact with a company’s brands. There are three main types of brand architecture: house of brands, branded house, and hybrid. The right brand architecture for a company will depend on a number of factors, including the company’s size, industry, and target audience. By choosing the right brand architecture for your business, you can increase brand awareness, improve customer loyalty, enhance brand equity, and increase sales and profits.

The basic building blocks of brand architecture are:

• Brand families (or “lines”) – Are a group of brands that are related to each other in some way. For example, the Apple brand family includes the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook. Brand families can be helpful for creating a sense of identity and community around your brands. They can also make it easier for customers to remember and understand your different products and services.
• Brands within each line (or “sub-brands”) – Are the individual brands that make up a brand family. For example, the iPhone is a brand within the Apple brand family. Brands within each line can be helpful for differentiating your products and services from those of your competitors. They can also help you target specific customer segments.
• Geographic locations where you sell products or services under those brands – Are the different countries or regions where you sell your products or services under your brands. This can be important for understanding the different needs and wants of your customers in different parts of the world. It can also be helpful for complying with local regulations.

The Benefits of Brand Architecture

Brand architecture is a strategy that helps companies unify their customer experience, increase customer loyalty and create a competitive advantage. It does this by creating an integrated brand experience across all touch points–from online to offline–and across all channels of communication.

The benefits of brand architecture include:

Unifying customer experience – A unified brand architecture allows you to deliver consistent messages and experiences across all channels of communication, including digital media such as websites or social media platforms; physical locations such as retail stores or call centers; print materials like catalogs and brochures; promotional items like pens or T-shirts; etc. This ensures that each time someone interacts with your company (whether it’s through one channel or another), they get consistent messaging about what makes your company unique from other businesses in its industry space.

Types of Brand Architecture

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• House of brands: A house of brands is a collection of multiple brands that share a common corporate parent. The parent company may or may not own all the individual brands, but it has control over how they are marketed and positioned. For example, PepsiCo owns both Pepsi and Frito-Lay; while each brand has its own identity and marketing strategy, they’re still part of one larger entity.
• Branded house: In this type of architecture, all products belong to one parent company–but they don’t necessarily share any common traits beyond their ownership structure (like in the case above). Instead, each product line has its own distinct identity (and sometimes even competing ones). For example: Coca-Cola owns Sprite but not Diet Coke; Ford Motor Company makes cars as well as trucks and SUVs; General Electric makes everything from light bulbs to jet engines.* Endorser brand: An endorser brand is essentially an extension or sub-brand under another larger umbrella organization such as Microsoft Office 365 which uses its parent’s name recognition in order to establish itself within certain markets where consumers already trust them due to previous experiences with other products from those same companies.
• Hybrid Branding: Hybrid branding refers specifically toward when two different companies merge together into one entity while still maintaining separate identities within their respective industries – this could include mergers between competitors who are looking for ways expand their market share without having too much overlap between themselves
• Endorser brand architecture: is a type of brand architecture in which a parent brand (also known as an endorser brand) “endorses” or “sponsors” a number of smaller, independent brands. The endorser brand provides the smaller brands with resources, support, and credibility, while the smaller brands maintain their own unique identities and target audiences.

Developing a Brand Architecture Strategy

To develop a brand architecture strategy, you need to first define the target market. This is important because it will help you determine how many brands you need and what they should be called. You also need to understand the brand identity of each of your products or services before creating a map.

Once you’ve done this, it’s time for some research! Take some time out from work and go shopping around town–or online–and see how other companies have organized their brands into different groups based on shared characteristics or functions. Look at what kinds of names they use (e-commerce site vs brick-and-mortar store) and whether those names are related in any way (e.g., “Target” stores).

Implementing the Brand Architecture

Developing a brand portfolio

The first step in implementing brand architecture is to develop a brand portfolio. This involves identifying all of the brands that your company owns or uses. Once you have identified all of your brands, you need to assess their strengths and weaknesses. You also need to consider the relationships between your brands. For example, are your brands complementary or competitive?

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Creating a brand architecture framework

Once you have developed a brand portfolio, you need to create a brand architecture framework. This framework will help you to organize your brands and to manage their relationships with each other. There are three main types of brand architecture frameworks:

• House of brands: In a house of brands framework, each brand is independent and has its own unique identity. For example, the Procter & Gamble brand portfolio includes brands like Tide, Crest, and Pampers. Each of these brands has its own unique identity and target audience.
• Branded house: In a branded house framework, all of the brands are owned by the same company and share a common identity. For example, the Disney brand portfolio includes brands like Disney, Pixar, and Marvel. All of these brands share the Disney brand identity, which is based on family-friendly entertainment.
• Hybrid: A hybrid brand architecture framework is a combination of the house of brands and branded house frameworks. For example, the Unilever brand portfolio includes brands like Dove, Axe, and Hellman’s. Some of these brands, like Dove, are independent and have their own unique identity. Other brands, like Axe, are more closely aligned with the Unilever brand identity.

Managing the brand architecture

Once you have created a brand architecture framework, you need to manage it. This involves monitoring the performance of your brands and making changes to the framework as needed. For example, you may need to add new brands to your portfolio, remove underperforming brands, or change the relationships between your brands.

Brand architecture is an ongoing process. It is important to regularly review your brand architecture and make changes as needed. By doing so, you can ensure that your brand architecture is aligned with your business goals and that it helps you to achieve success.

Here are some additional tips for implementing brand architecture:

• Get buy-in from senior management: Brand architecture is a strategic decision that should be supported by senior management.
• Involve all stakeholders: When developing and implementing brand architecture, it is important to involve all stakeholders, including employees, customers, and partners.
• Be flexible: Brand architecture is not set in stone. It should be flexible enough to adapt to changes in the business environment.
• Measure the results: It is important to measure the results of your brand architecture to ensure that it is achieving your desired outcomes.

Measuring the Success of Brand Architecture

Analyzing customer feedback

One way to measure the success of brand architecture is to analyze customer feedback. This can be done through surveys, focus groups, or social media listening. By analyzing customer feedback, you can get a sense of how customers perceive your brands and whether your brand architecture is meeting their needs.

Tracking brand metrics

Another way to measure the success of brand architecture is to track brand metrics. This can include metrics such as brand awareness, brand preference, and brand loyalty. By tracking brand metrics, you can see how your brands are performing over time and whether your brand architecture is helping you to achieve your business goals.

Evaluating brand performance

Finally, you can evaluate brand performance by comparing it to your competitors. This can be done by looking at metrics such as market share, sales, and profitability. By evaluating brand performance, you can see how your brands are doing relative to the competition and whether your brand architecture is giving you a competitive advantage.

Here are some additional tips for measuring the success of brand architecture:

• Choose the right metrics: Not all metrics are created equal. When choosing metrics to track, it is important to choose metrics that are relevant to your business goals.
• Collect data over time: It is important to collect data over time to see how your brands are performing. This will help you to identify trends and to make adjustments to your brand architecture as needed.
• Compare your brands to the competition: By comparing your brands to the competition, you can see how your brands are doing relative to the market. This will help you to identify areas where your brands need to improve.

Navigating Challenges of Brand Architecture

Managing multiple brands

One of the biggest challenges of brand architecture is managing multiple brands. This can be difficult because each brand has its own unique identity and target audience. It is important to ensure that all of your brands are aligned with your overall business strategy and that they are not competing with each other.

Maintaining brand consistency

Another challenge of brand architecture is maintaining brand consistency. This means ensuring that all of your brands have a consistent look, feel, and message. It is important to have a clear brand identity that is communicated across all of your channels.

Responding to market changes

The market is constantly changing, and it is important for your brand architecture to be flexible enough to adapt to these changes. This means being able to add new brands to your portfolio, remove underperforming brands, or change the relationships between your brands.

Here are some additional tips for navigating the challenges of brand architecture:

• Have a clear brand strategy: A clear brand strategy will help you to guide your decisions about how to manage your brands.
• Involve all stakeholders: When making decisions about brand architecture, it is important to involve all stakeholders, including employees, customers, and partners.
• Be flexible: Brand architecture is not set in stone. It should be flexible enough to adapt to changes in the business environment.
• Measure the results: It is important to measure the results of your brand architecture to ensure that it is achieving your desired outcomes.

The Future of Brand Architecture

The future of brand architecture is a bright one. It will continue to evolve as we adapt to digital trends, leverage customer data and embrace innovation.

The next generation of brands will be able to deliver more relevant content that resonates with their customers in real time by leveraging AI technology like chatbots or voice assistants like Alexa or Siri. They will also use data from various sources such as social media platforms, websites and mobile apps to understand what their customers want from them at any given moment in time.

Conclusion

Brand architecture is a powerful tool that can help you achieve long-term success. It’s not just about creating a unified brand experience, but also about building your business around it.
In this guide, we’ve covered everything from the basics of brand architecture to its importance in creating successful brands. We hope that this guide has been helpful for you as you explore how to build your own brand architecture strategy!

If you need any help with your brand’s architecture strategy or are struggling to re-position an existing brand schedule a brand discovery call to talk to one of our experts – https://calendly.com/elementsbrandmanagement/discovery-consultation-call